Travel Log Some More

We'd never been to Islands of Adventure before, but what a great surprise this place was. It's like six theme parks rolled into one. Most of my photos are from Seuss Landing, but the most fun I had was in Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has a particular ride that made me think I might just get eaten by a real-live dinosaur. eeek! It also has some wicked water cannons that my children (my children!) had to tear me away from. Too much fun! I could barely stand it.


Liam and Patrick on the "Carou-Seussal". For what it's worth--this has got to be the shortest carousel ride in the world. Fun though.


Sean and Laurel had an all-out water war. All in good fun. Note to self--put bathing suits on the kids before bringing them to "If I Ran the Zoo".


Thankfully, we at least had a swim diaper for the little boy. He sat down in this shallow stream and splashed away. Rides? What rides?


In the "Toon Lagoon" our favorite ride was the "Rip-Saw Falls" water coaster. Holly was hesitant to try it at first because of its "big dip", but after trying it once she was hooked. This ride features our hero, Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounties. We're all fans of the Rocky and Bullwinkle DVDs, and this ride brought us right into one of the stories. Fun!

It was at Islands of Adventure too, that Sean got to meet and speak to the Spider Man. He didn't want to do it; said he wasn't going to do it, and then started walking the other way. I said, "OK well, Liam is going to meet him. Just wait for us." Suddenly, he found his courage. Spider Man talked to him about being a good big brother and about the importance of eating his vegetables. What mom could ask for anything more?

I know next-to-nothing about Spider Man, but whoever this guy is, he's OK by me.

We visited "Shrek 4D". Sean was quite afraid of this ride too, until he discovered that it was the same story as our "bonus DVD" from our purchase of "Shrek 2". The pre-show was as good or better than the show itself.

When we got out of the theater, photo opportunities abounded. An animated Donkey was waiting to have his picture taken with us. This guy caught Liam's attention right away. Donkey was talking mainly to Laurel, asking her who everybody was, complimenting her on her hair, etc. Then Donkey turned toward the baby and said, "Liam, how's it going man?" Liam's eyes got wide and he did a baby-double-take and tried to claw his way through me to get away. He was not expecting that thing to say his name. He didn't cry, but he was obviously startled. Poor baby!

Patrick and I rode a couple of great coasters--Hulk, and Dueling Dragons. One attraction we wish we had skipped was Neptune's Fury. This one had no pre-show, so it left us waiting for 40 minutes in a dark, cramped cavern with nothing but blank walls and strangers to look at. The show itself lasted 20 minutes, and aside from an impressive swirling water tunnel there is nothing remarkable to comment about.

Universal Studios was our next stop. This park had little to offer people of Sean's age. Holly and Laurel both enjoyed "Disaster" a lot. This attraction turns audience members into cast members who star in a mini-movie that is displayed for the ride-goers as they experience the ride. Laurel and Holly each got roles (during separate visits to the ride) and thoroughly enjoyed their time in front of the cameras.

By far though, the best ride in the park is The Simpsons Ride. If you're a fan of the Simpons, especially, you will love this ride. If you've ever ridden the Back to the Future ride, you'll recognize the building and the motion-simulators, which have been repurposed. Holly and Laurel rode this one four times! Even the wait in line isn't so bad because they have TV monitors up all over the place broadcasting hilarious bits from The Simpsons.

Enjoying theme parks all day led to many a good night's sleep. He looks so tiny in this gigantic bed.

Good-bye, Florida. We'll miss you.

Travel Log

It had been five years since we had last visited the Sunshine state. We didn't intend to wait five years to go back, but Liam's arrival forced a postponement. Barring any other "arrivals", we hope to return again in another two or three years.

We rented a 3br/3bath house in Kissimmee in the Windsor Palms development. We arrived at 6:00pm on a sweltering hot Florida evening to find waiting for us a huge "welcome" basket filled with assorted goodies, but in a house with no air conditioning. Rats! Thankfully, enclosed within the basket was a card with the property-owner's phone number.

"All I can do is offer you another property", he said. "It has six bedrooms and a pool. Make yourself at home until I can get the A/C repaired." The new house was located in the same complex, just a couple of streets away.

It felt like a palace to us. The girls took many, many photos of the house but I will spare you the pictures of the toaster, the tree frog visitor on the (outside of the) window, and the wall hangings. Here is a shot Patrick took from the main level looking toward the upstairs hallway where the kids' bedrooms were located.

After a good night's sleep, Sea World was the first park we visited.

We pet some rays.

We rode "Journey to Atlantis" (front row--woo!), and caught the Clyde and Seymor show (which btw, was the same script as it was five years ago). We saw the dolphins, but didn't feed them. This attraction was much less appealing now than it had been before. Non-feeders had virtually no chance of touching a dolphin, since the visitors with dolphin-food were led to a gated area from which they were to dispense their food. Dolphins aren't stupid--they stayed where the food was, which was where we weren't. We might have purchased a tray of dead fish but then, there was a very long line for that.

...off to Shamu's Happy Harbor where the middle two climbed and splashed to their hearts' content. While Liam snoozed, the remaining three of us enjoyed frozen soft drinks.


Aquatica is a Sea World-owned water park. Our Flex pass allowed us admission to it, and so the next day, that's where we went. This park opened in March, 2008 and we had a lot of fun there. I have no photos of it (did I mention it's a water park?) but this park is a blast. Attendance was pretty low (due to hurricane Gustav's rain) so as fast as a person could hustle themselves up the stairs, they were ready to slide back down and repeat the cycle.

New day, next park. Busch Gardens is a long-time favorite of ours. A lifetime ago when we lived in Orlando, we were season pass holders nearly every year. Busch Gardens has a great combination of live shows, great food, animals, coasters and other rides. If we could only visit one park, this would be it.

This is Holly's favorite ride: Congo River Rapids. They're heading toward a big splash.

Another favorite is the Tidal Wave. This ride has the added bonus that you don't even have to be a rider in order to get wet. As Patrick (in yellow) demonstrates above, you can get very, very wet just by standing on the bridge when the coaster docks.

Sean's mission throughout our Florida stay was to capture a gecko and bring it home.

He got close to one, but never did realize his goal. They were just too quick for him!
Next Post: Islands of Adventure!

Beach Baby

Back from a Florida vacation, but not organized enough to blog about it just yet. Here's a Liam photo to fill the gap. Patrick snapped this in our rented house on our last day in Florida.

Sixteen months is:
walking well
climbing more
singing!
cutting those pointy canines (seems to bother mommy more than baby--ouch)
squealing with delight when Daddy comes home
bestowing the most rare, sought after, begged for kisses...and only to Mommy (just two so far)

A Trip to the Keweenaw

Last weekend we attended a wedding in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (congratulations Tony and Sara!). Neither Pat nor I had been to the U.P. since our graduation almost 20 years prior, so we decided that since we were "so close" we would take the opportunity to show our kids the old alma mater.

Here is the Houghton-Hancock bridge. This is the coolest bridge! The center section in the position shown allows cars to cross, but it can be lowered to allow trains to pass, or raised to allow tall ships to pass under it.

We had lunch at The Library. We were told that the original building had burned down some years ago. Pat and I used to come here only on rare occasions, and usually not with each other. It was pretty expensive back then (and still is).

Next, the moment I had been waiting for! A visit to the campus. Most of my college classes were held here, the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics (MEEM) building. Unfortunately, we were not able to go inside. I was hoping we'd be able to ride the super-fast elevator with the kids. But, no.


I took a picture of CoEd Hall, in case my old roomie is reading (hey Becky!). When we attended MTU, the ratio of female-to-male students was 1:4. I think it's closer to 1:1 these days.



We left Houghton and headed further north as far as the highway would take us, to Copper Harbor. This trip took us on tree-canopied, winding roads all the way to the tippy top of the peninsula.


On the return-trip we took some shots on Brockway Mountain.


See the thing that looks like a shrub at the bottom of the frame? That's the top-view of a tree! The kids were afraid we would tumble to our death, but the view was spectacular and we were in no danger. It was ironic to hear, "Get away from the edge, you'll kill yourself!" from the children.



At the end of the day Holly snapped this shot of the sun setting over Lake Superior.

Next morning had us packed and out of the hotel and driving ten long hours home. So long, Keweenaw. Hope to see you again in less than 20 years.

Look--an Escarpment!

Those words were uttered numerous times last weekend as we drove past the same escarpment again and again, traveling back and forth across a small section of Ontario. Whenever I heard someone else say the word, I had to repeat it once or twice myself just because it is such a fun word. It is my new favorite word, especially when the "ess" sound is exaggerated: essssscarpment.

Patrick had work stuff to do in Oakville, and the rest of us were allowed to tag along. Any excuse to stay in a hotel works for the kids. Here's Liam ordering room service:


On Sunday we attended Mass at the cathedral, which was just down the road from our hotel. I took this shot from the car as we made our way home on Monday. On Sunday, the weather wasn't nearly that nice.

No, on Sunday the weather was dreadful. That was the day we visited Niagara Falls. Here's a shot of the last of the happy, white, puffy clouds being shoved out of the way to make room for the angry, heavy, storm clouds.


They get angrier:


We bought tickets to go "Behind the Falls". On this close-up encounter with nature, we were provided with bright yellow rain ponchos and encouraged to explore. We were led to a tunnel and were told to watch for various viewing points along the way. The tunnel branched off and opened up to the Falls in several spots. The first two viewing areas we stopped at were lame. Really lame! Nothing at all but mist was visible through the opening. I had trudged through the long, dingy passageway shoulder-to-shoulder with dozens of strangers; my four babies in tow for this?! I was unimpressed. Until the third branch.

At the third branch there was a balcony. And steps. And The Falls up close! It was storming. The wind was whipping and water was flying everywhere. Very cool. The kids got a couple of shots of this part:



I'm glad the baby was sleeping, I think he would've been scared of this part. How is it that babies can sleep through stuff like this? (No, I didn't take him onto the balcony.)