2013 Orlando - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was probably my least favorite area of Disney.  It definitely seemed aimed at younger kids.  And it didn't help that it poured for quite a while in the middle of our visit.  My niece and nephew really enjoyed the Everest roller coaster, and the woman next to me on the ride screamed like a mad woman, so it really was toned down.  Eryn perused the ride list looking for anything marked "over x inches" so she could be assured of non-kid rides.  She did enjoy Everest, however and went through the single rider line several times.

I watched a Netflix video about behind the scenes at the park when I got home in order to see what the attraction was that I didn't understand.  It's an amazingly large park when you watch the video, rather than miss half of it due to rain.

Eryn and Mom posing at the tree of life.  We went to A Bug's Life near the end of the day and didn't even realize it was sort of built into the base of the tree.  I'll admit, that was neat, both as a ride/presentation and realizing it was built into the tree (I learned that from the Netflix video).


From the dinosaur area.  Animal Kingdom did have the best food deals out of any of the parks.  Our food was much more edible than elsewhere and came with an endless supply of soda while we sat in the cafeteria.  Definitely a change from all the other parks and a refreshing perk on a very hot and humid day.  Eryn and I went on the single car roller coaster near here that purports to take you back in time to see the dinosaurs (it's a time machine) in a silly way.  As we rolled up the first hill, there's a spinning disk that indicates you're time traveling. The kid in the car with us yelled Hypnotoad! Hypnotoad!  Which would have been funny if he hadn't been non-stop talk for the prior three minutes.  When no one responded he kept yelling Hypnotoad! until he gave up and said, "I'm sure I'm the only one who understands that reference."  Poor dork.  Denied on the roller coaster.  He's like a modern geek Jesus back from the dead.  Before you feel too bad for him, he talked non-stop the entire ride.  He was even annoying Eryn, and her geek tolerance is amazingly high.


The safari ride was open, thankfully, so we got to see all the animals separated by the hidden barriers so they look like they're co-mingling.  I have a limited selection of pictures because while Eryn was in charge and took many photos, there was a family on the ride with us who kept sticking their fingers in all her pictures while pointing at the animals.  More annoying than the pointing was that every time they saw a new animal the dad would say, "Oh, , snap!"  It was funny.  Then annoying.  Then funny.  Then hilarious when we rode through a puddle near the end and he exclaimed, "Oh, water, snap!"  I told my brother in law the story later and he realized they'd met the exact same people during the downpour.  It was the wife in that family who also announced at the start of the ride, when we saw the Okapi, "Look at the cock-ee, look at the cock-pee!"  Probably close enough.

Eryn's picture of a rhino butt.


A giraffe attempting to hide.


Elephants doing something elephant-y.


At the end of the day, trying to stretch everything out because our shuttle wasn't due until 2 hours after the park closed, we went to the Lion King acrobat, circque-de-soleil (I don't care to look up the spelling; hope I'm close), circus, Heart-of-the-Beast type thing.  It reminded me I hate those things on so many levels, including because it's Lion King.  That may be right up there for me comparable to Ming's dislike of Avatar.  Quite a coincidence given the big tree featured at the park and in the movie (Avatar).  Maybe we have a mutual dislike of anything revolving around enormous trees.  It was impressively choreographed, but I was brutally bored.  Give me Our Town over pageantry when it comes to plays any day.  But as I've ended several of these posts, Eryn loved it, and that made me happy.

Orlando 2013 - Universal Studios (The Islands of Adventures Side)

Aha! Only two days of vacation left, and then I can get around to the State Fair.  If my pace keeps up, soon I will have a blog dedicated to things I did last quarter.  Very timely.

As we were at Islands of Adventure only two years ago, most of my photos are less happy family vacation photos and more how-do-I-amuse-myself photos.  Here's an exception.  The spires of the Harry Potter area.  The Hogwart's ride still made me somewhat ill, but overall I fared much better on the roller coasters than last time.  Which was good, because the lines weren't particularly longer.  A minute or two extra wait, but it was a quick trip to anywhere but the front of the dragon coasters.  And whatever old guy inner ear issue most of us develop at this stage of our lives that I was partially getting last time is gone.  A consistent application of roller coasters seems to be a viable cure, at least in my case.

My wife is in this photo.  I'm not sure it's possible to get a good photo on the bridge given the number of tourists that like to pose there.  I always want to just get off the bridge right away.  I'm not afraid it will fail under the weight.  I just don't like that crush of people.  Maybe it triggers my anti-zombie situation reflexes.  You don't want to be stuck in a group that large if one person goes undead.


We didn't make Eryn ride the Seuss Carousel (Seussousel?) this time because she's so cranky about being made to ride it last time.  But on the way out I did pose with one of the locals.


A second picture where I'm riding sidecar instead of behind him.  I can't keep him dry in the sidecar.


I'll confess, I'm not really spitting water.  It just looks like it.


At the Jurassic Park area.  The bronto is trying to eat what little hair I have left.  He's a hairosaurus, as opposed to a meatosaurus or a plantosaurus.  Eryn liked reliving her memories from last time at the dinosaur center.  There are times it's very obvious she wants to feel like she did during a particular event in her life, and checking out the eggs at the dinosaur center is a good example.  She was also keen to relieve the squirting of riders at the cartoon/water area that was next, but due to rain, many of the rides were closed down or not being ridden, and when we were on Popeye's boat, they shooed us off.  It looked suspiciously like a search for a reported package.  Lots of security.


I find the dichotomy of Spidey being Mommy's Angel amusing.  He's really more of an Aunty's Angel.


And this one is just labeled wrong.  That's not Jesus!


Just a nice picture.  No humor to be seen here.  Move along.


Also not humorous, but my panorama function captured a great picture of Hogwart's and Hagrid's roller coaster.  I wish someone had been going overhead on the tracks as I'd rotated that direction.
[Panoramic view]
 

Mommy's Angel riding his motorcycle.  This isn't exciting unless you're really into superheroes, but it reminds me of the Hulk roller coaster and Doctor Doom's drop nearby that Eryn and I rode while my wife hid from all the rain in the shops.  Doctor Doom's drop was pretty wild.  I think the Valleyfair Tower of Power has more variety, but Doom's Tower certainly threw you way up there.  A big smile on Eryn as we shot to the top of the park.

Orlando 2013 - Universal Studios (Not the Islands of Adventures Side)

We spent two days at Universal.  One at Islands of Adventure.  One on the studio side.  Grandpa and Grandma went with us and rode the roller coasters, the Simpson's ride, the Men in Black ride, the Transformers ride, the movie-making Disaster ride, the Shrek Ride, and more.

They updated the Simpson's area since the last time we'd been there to make it much more like Springfield.  I wonder if they have tap a computer screen and spend digital donuts to expand the place.  Here's my wife with Lard Lad.  I should have bought her a big donut to complete the picture.  There was an oversized Lard Lad mug I was going to get and then passed on, thinking I'd find it at the exit shop.  But apparently it was the only piece of merchandise not sold and resold and resold at all the various stores.  I talked to a guy on the way out about his giant Lard Lad donut and told him about Kyle's nephew's birthday donuts.



Eryn and my wife with Chief Wiggum.  I saw lots of folks pretending to eat his donut and drink his coffee.  I didnt' see anyone pretending to pee on his hydrant.


My wife was a good sport about posing next to Jebediah.


Mmm....Krusty Burger.  I don't know who that guy is or why he's point to the sky.


From the Simpson's ride.  My wife's favorite.  Grandpa and Grandma seemed very amused.  Enough so that Grandma went on the ride again.


In the line for the Simpson's.  Note, yet another Doctor Who related shirt.  A Disney themed one she didn't wear to Disneyworld.


At Moe's.  Barney is in the bar.  A Flaming Moe looks like Kool Aid with dry ice.  One of the workers tried to boot me from our table.  I told his boss on him.  Entirely appropriate as she put us at the table.


The Jaws ride was shut down while they're redoing that area of the park.  But Jaws himself is still hanging from the hook.  I suppose that would be not-Jaws.  The shark they thought was Jaws until people kept getting et.
Panorama


The other side of the park.
Panorama


You can't see it as well in the panorama, but the new ride was the Transformers ride.  It took forever to get through the line, partially because there was a temporary hold up, and partially because there were two spasmodic children running around for over an hour.  It was pretty cool as far as rides go, transitioning between video and mechanical.  Pretty convincing when things slam on the hood of your car and you bounce around.  The Mummy ride is similar, but not as cool.  Last time that one scared Eryn, but this time she was willing to go twice.

And she finally got to ride the Rocket!  That was the roller coaster she missed last time because we went to the Terminator presentation, which was incredibly lame, and the park closed an hour early for a corporate event.  This time she went three or four times.  I was on two of them.  The loud music does a nice job of distracting you from the fact that you're going straight up at the start.


Hipster shot!  I think it was an accident.  Reminds me it was incredibly hot.  I ate my Minion bar - chocolate and banana bits - very quickly to avoid getting chocolate everywhere.  It was pretty tasty for something named a Minion Bar that was based on Despicable Me.  That was probably the only ride we didn't go on that would have been fun, the Despicable Me ride.  The lines never went below 90 minutes. I suspect it's new enough that it gets an extra share of the locals.  Or maybe it gets more kids because of the older kid nature of many of the other rides.

Orlando - Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom.  We spent most of our time at Tomorrowland as Eryn enjoyed Space Mountain and the cars, but we managed to check out the other areas as well, including the Haunted Mansion and the animatronic presidents and the roller coaster out in Adventureland.  I remember enjoying Disneyland as a kid, but that was It's a Small World (which shocked Eryn a bit) and Peter Pan and the endless cartoons theater.  Eryn was scoping the list of rides to see which had a height requirement so she could be assured they were interesting.  It was HOT.  We had to take a number of stops just to hide in the shade.

Me pretending to be Perry the Platypus. Grrllllrrrlrlrlrlrlrlr....


Eryn at Tomorrowland on the car ride.


This picture gives you an idea of whether she was enjoying it.  For me it was a relaxing series of rides where I didn't have to do anything for three minutes except for when she was banging off the metal ridge that kept the car on the track.  There was no sleeping through that.


In case you want a POV of the full three minutes, here you go.  It comes with commentary although I'm pretty sure it's safe for work.  My wife is up on the peoplemover somewhere.



On the backside of the park, when it was getting hot, we checked out Tom Sawyer's Island.  It reminded me of the restaurant in Colorado with the tunnels in it and the diving.  My wife appreciated it as a nice place to hang out near the water while Eryn and I went to stand in the 40 minute line for the roller coaster.


The standard picture in front of the castle and Disney and Mickey, wearing a Daleks shirt.  I think you could get a pretty amusing stop motion/time lapse movie if you sat here for a few hours.  The people were most interesting than anything else.


Aww....when I took this I found myself wondering if a lot of people rub her nose for some reason.  Good luck maybe?  Or perhaps just because kids like to touch in which case I wouldn't get any closer without a handwipe.


We finished the day with the electrical parade.  It was a bit of a trick finding a good spot close to the exit so we could make sure we wouldn't miss our shuttle which was two monorail rides away.  We did a great job of getting there in time only to be faced with a shuttle that hadn't counted outgoing rides appropriately.  We ended up waiting for a secondary taxi whose driver lectured us about getting the return slip from the first driver despite having asked for said slip only to be assured we didn't need it because they had called in the extra car.  Good system.  Maybe you automate a few things for communication purposes.


We ended up on these steps.  Early on a woman stepped in front of Eryn and I had to shoo her out of the way.  Then another woman stepped in front of the little boy in front of me who had been in the second family on the steps after us.  His father asked her to move and she didn't replying, "I did not mean to be."  As in "I did not mean to be in his way."  SO FREAKING MOVE.  Dad looked a bit disappointed, so I did the big no-no if you don't want to end up being in a headline, "Stabbed in Disneyworld", put a hand on her shoulder, pushed gently and got more firm as she refused to move and told her, "You can't be in the way of the kid and he was here first."  She looked indignant, tried to hold her ground, and told me, "I did not mean to."  I replied, "That doesn't matter, you can't stay in his way" and just kept the hand on her shoulder until she slid over.  I think perhaps she was non-English speaking and someone may have taught her "I didn't mean to" was a polite way to say "I don't speak English" and make everything go away, but it doesn't excuse looking at the kid and deciding to stay in his way so you can film the parade.

That's  my crowds story.  I dislike crowds and I dislike shopping, so the whole amusement park thing can wear a little thin by the end of a long day.  But I like seeing Eryn having so much fun. Here's Pete's Dragon which I thought was one of the cooler floats in the parade.


The live version because you can't appreciate it without playing the music over and over:


And another live version:


The castle at night from near Tomorrowland.  We rode the carousel at Tomorrowland which shows you the history of tech and the future from the perspective of one family.  It must have been cool back in its day.  To me, it really pointed out how fast tech is moving, because they could capture snapshots of generational tech in the past and now it changes so fast you can't pinpoint it for even a year.  The current day display seemed to be the one most out of date.


Eryn in front of the castle with a big smile.

Orlando 2013 - Part I, Things That Don't Fit

My in-laws were super nice and put us and my sister-in-law's family up in Hilton resort in Orlando using their Hilton points.  I say super nice because they didn't have us share a set of rooms.  It was a nice place and came with a stove, a fold out couch for Eryn, a huge whirlpool in additional to the shower, and a washer and dryer.

Eryn's favorite features: the multiple swimming pools she stayed in until 11:00 p.m. most nights and the ducks she fed bread and Cheerios to each morning, although the ducks were usually chased a way after a few minutes by very large leathery turtles.  My favorite feature: the onsite coffee shop where I could have an Americano, a waffle with bacon if I wanted, and hang out for the 2-3 hours before my family woke up reading my book, doing email, and reading the paper.  I got a lot read.

I don't know what my wife's favorite part was.  Probably the whirlpool and the fact that she got the bed to herself for several hours when I went to the coffee shop.

Unlike last time we went to Orlando, where I optimized for a trip to Universal Studios and some traveling to Blue Springs and Cape Canaveral, making sure we had a shuttle and easy access to a rental car on a day-by-day basis, this time we were between Disney and Universal, so we did both.  Oof.  Five days of parks is a little bit too much parking for me.  And the shuttle service wasn't very good.  One day they were servicing the first guy in line so long everyone else missed the shuttle (a nice driver found as an alternative), one day they overbooked and didn't have space for us on the return shuttle so we had to wait for a replacement vehicle, and another day the guy at the front of the van was plenty cool, so he turned off the a/c.  Maybe a rental car would have been better, but we try to avoid the trouble (and cost) of parking when we can.

The one day we weren't parking we went to Cocoa beach where I learned that "just an hour" isn't really something you can say about the safety of your pale white farmer tan skin in the Atlantic Ocean.  I started peeling last night for the first time in over ten years.  For a while, I was worried my burn was pretty deep.  I can still feel it deeper in my skin after a week.

These are the various pictures that didn't happen in an amusement park.

Hip Hop Ming.  This guy who was on our flight looked a lot like Ming, except he  had tats, long shorts, and that You Only Got Video Game shirt.


There was a woman at the airport who had Japanese Kit Kats.  I remarked on them and at the baggage pick up she gave Jen one of them (two Kit Kat sticks each!).  They were delicious.  Green Tea Kit Kats are better than regular Kit Kats.


The guys who couldn't manage their shuttle service were trying to convince my wife that we should attend a sales pitch to buy a time share so we could go to this fabulous Medieval Times-type show.  Even Eryn was unswayed by the promise of experiencing their magical unicorn.


Where we stayed.  We were way down there on the end.  Where the lightning hit during the storm.  The big pool, coffee shop, and grocery store are towards where I'm standing in this picture.


What it looked like in my dreams when I went all Inception.  I was surprised to see this in my photos.  I think it was a panoramic shot gone wrong.


Speaking of which...panorama.  You can see a lot of clouds in the photo.  It rained every day we were there I think.  Never for long.  But at least three separate days I ended up taking a hair dryer to the inside of my shoes so I wasn't sloshing around the next morning.  The weather in Florida, when you looked at the radar, always showed dozens of little storms traipsing across the state.


The coffee shop, where they knew I was Mr. Americano by the end of the week.  Eryn would hang out with me there after feeding the ducks because she was generally assured some sort of blended iced coffee drink to get her good and ready to face the amusement parks.  That's her Kaiju Hunter shirt from Pacific Rim.  She received many compliments from park staff on her extensive collection of Doctor Who t-shirts.  She definitely has the in-the-know geek girl vibe.

Orlando - Jebediah Springfield

I'm still uploading and naming photos and videos.  I thought there would be almost nothing because we were at Orlando two years ago, so I should have photographed everything worth photographing.  And I should have had a reasonable amount of work to catch up on because I was mostly caught up on my laptop and phone.  Never seems to work that way.  We did a day at Universal Islands of Adventure, a day at Universal Studios, a day at Magic Kingdom, a day at Epcot, a day at Disney Animal Kingdom, and a day at Cocoa Beach and in the pool and engaging in karaoke (Eryn, not me).

I'll get some details out here starting in the next day, but in the meantime, something to keep my thread alive.  At Universal Studios, they've expanded the Simpsons area.  Here's my favorite picture of my wife and I at the park hanging out with Jebediah Springfield.

Favorite Moments of 2011

I have three favorite moments from 2011, and they're in order, despite that my family isn't first.  I suspect they'll understand, given that the first one is a.) bicycling and b.) with Ming.

1.) Bike the Border with Ming.
2.) Ride from Colorado to Montana with Grandma and Eryn
3.) Orlando with Jen and Eryn

This is not to say I like vacations with my wife the least, it simply points out that bicycling trumps all.

The Other Univeral

Between the days at Islands of Adventure, we went to Universal Studios.  The area with Shrek, Jaws, Terminator 2, the Simpsons, and the sorts of rides I remember from being a kid at Universal in California.  I think Eryn was originally dubious about why we'd want to spend time there when we could be going back to Harry Potter, but she ended up having a great time.  Particularly on the interactive rides like the "make a movie" ride with Christopher Walken (nice orange sneakers!) where they film members of the audience and make them part of action-adventure movie/train ride.  Or the MIB ride where you shoot at aliens with a laser gun.  She's all about laser tag.  My favorite was the Simpons' ride, where you don't really go anywhere, but the roller coaster car you're in shakes and rattles as the walls move around it, and giant screens make you feel like you're on a hell of a roller coaster ride that includes being chewed on by a giant Maggie.

Pooteewheet and Eryn not too long after the Jaws ride.


I got in trouble for spray painting on a wall.


Who's a dingus?  Eryn's a dingus!!!


After a day of rides, we went to Hard Rock for dinner.  Not my usual choice of faire, but Eryn wanted wings, and I was pretty sure that was the closest place with good wings.  This picture is for Kyle.  It's Alanis Morissette's harmonica, next to a picture of her playing a guitar.  And it says she used it for a hand in my pocket, but if you're playing harmonica, then your hands can't be in your pockets.  It's all very ironic.


Eryn wanted a picture next to Pete Townshend's guitar.  Or what was left of his '73 Gibson Les Paul.  I quote the Hard Rock Orlando description that it is, "a testament to the raw energy and aggression of The Who's brilliant guitarist and songwriter, Pete Townshend.  A landmark instrument, it was immortalized in the famous print ad for the film The Kids Are Alright.  The ad featured Mr. Townshend (at the Newcastle Odeon) with the guitar over his head moments before it was reduced to it's current condition.  The caption read, "This Guitar Has Seconds To Live."

That said, this isn't that guitar.  The waitress led us astray.  But it is pieces of a Stratocaster Townshend smashed in 2002 during a concert in which he played The Kids Are Alright.  Tomato/tomato.


The usual Universal Globe picture you have to take when you visit.  The stuffed animal is "Patch."  Eryn won it playing head to head whackamole against Pooteewheet.  No one else would play and they guy felt bad for her because she'd been there for ten minutes without a challenger.

Islands of Adventure - Rain or Shine

These are the pictures from Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  When we went on vacation to Orlando, Eryn's goal was to go to Harry Potter World.  So in the interest of single threading our vacation (who was a developer?), I requested that we forgo Disneyworld during this trip and just focus on enjoying one theme park location.  I bought the family a three day "base pass" which meant we could go to either Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios, although not both in one day.  My assumption that Eryn would want two days at Islands of Adventure was correct.  In retrospect, two days seemed like a long time to spend at one park.  But the rain chewed up part of both days.  And we didn't get to the roller coasters until Eryn had a chance to work up the nerve on the second day.  And we discovered some things we'd missed by the second day.  And we had the luxury of no lines whatsoever.  If the lines had been 60-90 minutes long, two days might not have seemed like enough.

Doesn't it look like a great vacation?  Umbrellas on Halloween!  Guess who's dressed as Hermione for October 31st once again?  This was an interesting picture because Eryn was being super cute, and only twenty feet away there was a couple having a serious argument about going to the amusement park while it was raining and about how vacation was ruined and whose fault it was, and who understood better how miserable the kids (4 and 6?) were, despite that the kids looked to be happy as clams until they realized mom and dad were fighting and asked them to stop. I can't picture dropping $200 on tickets to Islands of Adventure and then fighting over who was more miserable.  At that point, the divorce is already a reality, even if the paperwork hasn't been signed.

But enough.  This is a damn cute picture.  We went and had coffee and muffins and waited out part of the rain while trying on ponchos only moments later, but it made for a great picture.


It also makes for a cute video, although the video displays a bit of the disapproval of going to an amusement park in the rain that the picture doesn't convey.  You can't just hop on that bike and ride it, by the way.  It's bolted to the stones.  Not that I tried.


We're going to go about this in a rather haphazard fashion.  This isn't the day it rained.  But it's Eryn's first time seeing Harry Potter World...or the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (tm)...something like that.  It's impressive when you first see it with the snow on the roofs, the wand shop, the castle, the sweet shop, the joke shop, the butter beer (ugh...sickly sweet...not my cup of tea), the neap cart (which a British tourist told us was a turnip), and the animatronic doodads in many of the windows.  This obviously isn't very crowded and it's at least twice as crowded as the second day we went.


Back to the rainy day.  The Forbidden Journey ride is in the school.  You sit in a chair and it turns and twists and flips past animatronic trees and dementors, and almost seamlessly switches to video quidditch and a video dragon chase.  Out of all the rides in both parks at Universal, this ride was the only one I couldn't go on more than once in quick succession.  I had to have a 10-15 minute wait between rides or I'd have gotten ill.  And it didn't matter that we did it several times.  I was just as queasy the last time as the first time.


Another angle on Hogwarts.  They did a great job using perspective to make it look enormous.  It is enormous - you walk for a long time to get from the entrance to the ride.  But it's not as enormous as this makes it look.


I front loaded some of my favorite pictures.  I really like this one, because it turned out exactly as I wanted it to.  This is at the kids' playground.  The longest wait we had in the whole park was for the pteradon ride at the kids area because each flyer only seated two people at a time.  Fortunately, we'd mistakenly gone on the Jurassic Park water ride (damn is that a serious drop into a big puddle of water after you're faced with the T-Rex) just prior to the play area, so it was a good chance for me to dry out for 90 minutes while Pooteewheet and Eryn were in line for the ride.


Here's the ever-so-long Pteradon ride.  Looks like a great time, but you have to have a kid with you under a certain height to ride it.  That is Pooteewheet and Eryn on the ride. You can tell by my wife's red hair.  I watched a lot of riders go by before I finally caught them on film.


Crabby bird.  The Lost Continent area was the first area after the little kids Seuss Landing that we encountered.  It looked cheesy, but was very fun.  Posideon's Fury was a mixture of acting and ride, and sort of an Indian Jones finds a trident adventure.  The best part was that they led you into a small room and then flashed a strobe in pitch blackness.  In the second your eyes were adjusting, the walls of the room lifted away to the ceiling and when you could see again it had suddenly turned from a small room into a huge area full of water, enormous screens to show Posideon fighting an evil sorcerer, and a water and fire display.  Impressive.  What was more amusing than impressive was that in the staging area where they did the preliminary story setup, one of the archaeology books was a book by my company.


There was also a sarcastic statue at Lost Continent.  We talked to him on two separate days, and the second day he wasn't half as amusing as this day.  Listen carefully and you'll hear "Bob" talking to Eryn.  He sounds exactly like Louie Anderson.



This is for Kyle.  He needs to go to the Harry Potter area and he could find himself a date.  These women  look well balanced.  They have a hobby.  They can afford over-priced outfits.  And they have friends.  I bet they're a catch.


But if you're not into black-hatted witches, there are also women who dress up like Luna Lovegood.  The good news is they can find you if you're accidentally invisible, like I was.


Or even better, Pooteewheet and I conferred and felt you might like a crotch shot of Cathy.  Sexy!



A sunny picture of Hogwarts.


These photos are from Toon Lagoon, yet another area of Islands of Adventure.  Apparently neither Eryn nor I were smart enough to figure out how to appropriately use the Marmaduke picture kiosk.  You're not supposed to stand on the cloud, but on the ground, so it looks like you're being pulled through the air by Marmaduke.




It is true that I'm heavier than Eryn.  In that case, perhaps my picture is more appropriate.  Damn Marmaduke.


In the Marvel Super Hero Island area, we went on the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, which was great, and then took a relative rest by riding the Storm Force Accelatron.  According to the cartoons around the ride, our energy was used to defeat evil super villains.  Yes!


Here's some video...the accelatron was actually sort of nauseating.


At the end of the day, we only had a few minutes before we had to get to the hotel shuttle, but Pooteewheet and I didn't want to sit in the parking lot, so we made Eryn go on the Seuss go round.  As you can see from both the video and the picture, she was not impressed at being made to ride the "baby rides".  That just made it more fun for Pooteewheet and me.


Here.  You can ride it with us and put on your own crabby face.


The train into Hogsmeade!  Across the street is Honeydukes.  Eryn bought a chocolate frog.  It's still up in her closest.  We brought back half a suitcase full of candy and stuffed animals.  Eryn's is dressed as Hermione, so you know what her first stuffed animal was don't you?  That's right, Crookshanks.



The Frog Choir played here when it wasn't raining.  It was Glee with realistic giant frog familiar puppets humming the Harry Potter music.  It was also the one place you could get a good picture with all of the flags from Hogwarts.
 

While trying to avoid the rain on the second day, we discovered that the Jurassic Park area had a dinosaur exploratory area.  You were encouraged to identify various dino eggs, and every half hour or so they had actors dressed as scientists show a hatching egg.  Eryn got to name a dino "Emily" and was extremely happy.  She'd wanted to be the person selected to talk to the wand seller (Ollivander), but only one kid out of a roomful is selected for that each time.


Another picture from the dino exploration area.  I always try to show me inappropriately touching an animal statue.  This time I show my wife inappropriately touching a brontosaurus.  I think she's milking it.


Toon Lagoon had too many water rides.  I say too many because it was pretty cool with all the rain, so no one was riding them during 2/3 of our visit.  But the few times people were on the rides, Eryn learned from a local that you could feed a quarter into a machine that allowed you to squirt unsuspecting riders as they finished their ride.  There was no escaping being wet.  And on Popeye's boat, you could use one of the guns to squirt people on the barges for free.  That may have been one of Eryn's favorite parts.  On this day, probably 30 rafts went by with no one on them.  I snuck down and got on one so she'd have someone to squirt at.  I figured I'd get a little wet, but the barge ride was nothing like the one at Valleyfair or the State Fair.  I was soaked top to bottom.  When we went past Eryn I looked up, and she yelled "Dad!" and missed me, squirting the guy next to me.


Get 'em Eryn!


Evil wizards were afoot.


The flight of the hippogriff ride.  This was the starter ride for anyone who wanted to work up to a big roller coaster.


A great time.  We had no ideas what to expect for most of the rides, and it was a treat to be on things so different than what I was on over 20 years ago.