Day 14: M-I-C-K-E-Y or S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G?
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2006
1
18
29
Trip End
Aug 13, 2006
Orlando,
Florida,
United States
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Mom and dad were back by 3:00 and they played a game of California Rummy with Michael. I wasn't in the mood for playing. Instead I sat in the living room and went online for a little while. Dad wanted me to find something to do that day since it was supposed to be another scorcher and every news anchor was recommending to just stay inside. I looked for something indoors to do, but there wasn't anything new or exciting so I just gave up. I watched more of the "I Love the 80's" marathon on VH1 in my room before we decided to go for an early dinner at 4:30. We wanted to go to some stores afterwards and to be back by 9:00 to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" so no one minded eating early. We drove over to the Perkin's that was only fifteen minutes from the house. It was the nearest restaurant and was right on the corner of Orange Blossom Trail and 192, but the long drive down Orange Blossom trail from Crescent Lakes to 192 made it seem like it was miles away.
We went inside and were seated within five minutes. We just stood around for a while before someone finally came to seat us. The restaurant wasn't at all crowded, but there was a good mix of people in there for us to know that it wouldn't be a bad restaurant. Everything was very bright and clean so we weren't too worried. We ordered our food and drinks, and our waitress told us how this job was a lot better than her other job at "Steak and Shake." We don't have any Steak and Shake's near us in Brooklyn but we had heard of it and wanted to try it. She told us that the manager was just getting back from surgery, though, and that everything was a mess so we decided to skip it. Our food came out ten minutes later and it was pretty good. Mom and Mike split a steak wrap and a turkey wrap, and dad and I both got the Heartland omelet with consisted of bacon, ham, sausages and peppers and came with three pancakes. The food was all really good, but only my pancakes came out since the waitress had forgotten to put dad's order in. She brought them out within ten minutes, though, so it wasn't too bad. The food was good and when we were done eating I was really, really full. The bill came to $50 which wasn't bad for dinner.
On our way out we stopped in the bathroom quick. Then we saw that there were sticker machines with Spongebob and Disney princess stickers. Mom got a Spongebob sticker for my little cousin Zach and a Tinker Bell sticker for my cousin Alison, even though she probably would have liked a Spongebob sticker better. I wanted a Disney princess sticker so mom got me a Cinderella one. I then got out a dollar in quarters and got two more, this time getting Ariel and a different Tinker Bell sticker. I only wanted the Ariel one so I put the other two away for Alison with her original Tinker Bell sticker. After leaving Perkin's we drove over to a big flea market with 400 booths that mom and dad had been to a few days before. Mike and I didn't really want to walk around but we didn't want to go back to the house yet either so we just sucked it up. It actually wound up being pretty nice! As soon as we walked in we passed a booth with a guy selling DVD's for $17, or two for $30, and he had almost every Disney movie that I had just bought at the "Once Upon a Toy" store at Downtown Disney for $25 each. Damn! I was so mad that I had opened the DVD's because I could have returned them. This guy's DVD's weren't wrapped though, so who knew if they were even new or authentic. I'm still happy with mine.
We continued walking around and at the end of the first building there was a guy selling dogs and birds. Mom had told us about it the day she and dad had originally gone to the flea market and it was definitely weird. One of the dogs was way too big for its crate and it made me so sad! Mom was also bothered by it so she asked one of the flea market coordinators what is done with the dogs when the flea market is closed, and she was told that the man takes them with him so they don't have to sleep in the cages. They better not. We then went into another building and they didn't have much so we walked right through. The next building had a lot of nice bags and jewelry. I found a stand with fake designer bags and I had to take a look since they had so much stuff! Mom and I both liked a "Coach" bag they had and dad bought them for us. Mom got an all black one and I got it in black and grey. We then spent the next ten minutes joking around about how much we loved our new Coch Bags! Haha!
We continued walking around for a little while longer before we had finished looking through the third building. There were a lot of toy stores in there and one of them had a few big and small Chucky dolls! They were great and it made my day to get to show them to Michael! We were done looking around by 6:00 and we headed out and down towards the Waldenbooks a few miles away. I had been wanting to go to Waldenbooks for a while. I had only brought four books with me - two psychology ones, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King. I had already finished "The Great Gatsby" and I didn't want to read a scary book. I was enjoying my psychology books but I wanted to read something with an actual story so I had been asking to go pick a few up. The books that I wanted to get were books that I had been wanting for a while so it was worth it. We drove down to the shopping center with the Waldenbooks and first parked on the other end of where the book store was and went into a dollar store. It was very small and musty, though, and they didn't have anything that mom had wanted (like cups, spoons and other common items) so we left. We then walked over to the Pet supermarket and it smelled like absolute crap in there! They were selling small animals as well as items and supplies for pets. We were going to get Oreo a new harness but it was $10 more than the same one cost in Walmart so we left.
Dad went to drive over to Waldenbooks while mom, Mike and I walked. On the way we passed a cheap shoe store and mom wanted to go in to look. Mike wasn't at all interested so he kept walking while mom and I went in. They had nothing but crap in there. The place was packed and smelled horrible, and all of the shoes looked disheveled and dirty. We were out of there within two minutes and we met dad and Mike in Waldenbooks. I love book stores! I've always loved to read ever since I learned how to, and I love looking around for new stories to become a part of. I first looking in the Fiction section to see if they had the books I wanted but I only saw newer books such as "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Da Vinci Code." I wasn't interested in anything I saw so I looked in the Social Sciences section. There were absolutely no psychology books, though; there were only a lot of self-help books and biographies. It was weird since the Social Sciences are revolved around psychology.
I was about to go back to the Fiction section to just pick out something that looked interesting when I found the Literature section and they had the types of books I had wanted. I really like the classics and I want to read as many of them as possible. They had a ton of Charles Dickens books but they didn't have "Great Expectations" which is what I had really wanted. I asked the girl at the counter if they had it and she went into the back to look. While she was gone dad and Mike told me that we were leaving and mom said that I better hurry up. Are you kidding me? We had just spent two hours walking around a Flea Market and a Pet Supermarket, and now after having spent less than ten minutes in the store we actually wanted to go to we were leaving? The girl came out from the back and had one edition of "Great Expectations" left. I was so excited; I had loved the movie and really wanted to read the book. I also picked out "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens and "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had heard of that book but I knew that it wasn't very popular so I thought it would be hard to find. With "The Great Gatsby" being my absolute favorite book of all time I wanted to try out some of F. Scott Fitzgerald's other novels so I got it. I then went to the counter to pay, and mom bought me all three of the books for $30. Thanks mom!
As we were leaving I saw "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston on a shelf right by the entrance. I don't know how I had missed it, but along with "Great Expectations" it was one of the books that I had come to Waldenbooks for. It was $13 and I had $16 left so I ran back up to the counter to buy it. It came to $15, leaving me with $1 left for the next week and a half. Oops. Mom gave me $20 to keep in my wallet, though, for just in case. Not in case I saw any good souvenirs, but in case we got separated... and I needed to take a cab back. Or something.
When I got back in the car I asked why everyone was rushing me out of the store after only five minutes, and it was because Mike wasn't feeling well. What else was new? That kid had a stomachache every three hours the entire trip! We headed back to the house and were home by 8:00. Dad, Mike and I watched "The Wedding Singer" on VH1 until 9:00, when we watched the voting results episode of "So You Think You Can Dance." We were sad to see Natalie go since we all think she's better than Donyelle, but it was definitely time for Ivan to go. I'm way too addicted to that show! When it was over mom, Mike and I played a game of California Rummy which Michael again won. He was always dealt amazing cards; I don't know how he did it! We were done playing by 11:30 when I went into my room and read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" for about an hour, before falling asleep at 12:30.
