Yesterday, I headed back to Florida for the first time since March for a week long trip to Universal Studios in celebration of Danny’s graduation. As you may recall, my last trip to Universal lasted all of 2 hours, so hopefully things turn out differently this time. The whole family is coming with this time, so a good time should be had.
Category / Travel
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 4
When we left off last time, day one at the theme parks had gone horribly awry.
Wednesday
After another late night, I was the only one who got up early on Wednesday. I decided to throw caution to the wind and check out the imposition that was the free breakfast, where I ran into Tom and Meredith, along with their respective families. After breakfast, it was back to the room and preparations for a day at Universal Studios for exciting Harry Potter action.
Jeff, Val, and I headed out to the car for the under-12 mile drive to Universal. As you can probably guess, we never made it. We were less than 3 miles away when we were forced to stop at a 7-11, where we stayed for the next 2 hours. Eventually, we decided to call an audible and drove across the street to the Whole Foods, where Val stocked up on some homeopathic remedies in the hopes they would calm her down. From there, it was back to the hotel, where we left Val in the room and Jeff and I went back to the ESPN Club for lunch.
Seeing as we spent a combined $900 for the Universal tickets, Val convinced Jeff to go back without her, so the two of us again ventured out to see all the wonders of Harry Potter and his ilk.
We arrived late in the afternoon, around 4:00, and made our way inside. We started at Islands of Adventure, heading straight back to Hogsmeade, the original piece of Harry Potter land. We took a quick look around and then jumped on the Hogwarts Express, which travels between the two parks. After the train pulled in to the other park, we looked around there quickly, spending most of our time waiting for the dragon atop the Gringotts Bank to spit fire. With that done, it was time to bid farewell to Universal. That $900 provided nearly 2 hours worth of entertainment. 3 if you include the drive there and back.
When we got back to the hotel, Val was asleep, so, rather than join Tom and Meredith down at the final planned event of the week and enjoying free food and drinks, Jeff and I returned to the hotel bar. Eventually, as the night wore on, we were joined by others for another night of drinking and what passes for debauchery at Disney World. The night ended back in the hotel room when a drunken Jeff fought against gravity and lost, falling over between the air mattress and our luggage.
Thursday
Our initial plans for the final day at Disney were to go to the Magic Kingdom before heading out on another road trip up the coast. As with all of our other plans for the trip, they fell apart and were quickly changed. I again partook in the free breakfast and nearly got Jeff to join me, but he was unwilling to use his conference badge to gain entrance to the breakfast. After breakfast, it was decided that Jeff would drive back solo and Val and I would fly home that afternoon. We booked a surprisingly affordable last-minute flight and then the three of us went back to Hollywood Studios for a shopping excursion.
Following a final meal at the ESPN Club, we loaded up the truck and headed to the airport. Jeff dropped Val and I off and then headed off, taking our luggage, and, unfortunately, our coats, with him. Val and I went in, checked in for the flight, and everything was good to go, until we found out that, to get to our gate, there would be a short tram ride. She took it like a champ, and we settled in at the gate, waiting for the hopefully uneventful flight home.
As luck would have it, our flight was delayed waiting for the plane to arrive. Once we got on the plane, we were delayed again on the tarmac as the first storms of the week arrived. This did not go over well with Val, who broke the seatbelt light edict multiple times to run to the bathroom. Before takeoff, Val endeared herself to the lady sitting on the other side of her by asking for her vomit bag, just in case. Once we got in the air, there were no incidents, but I could tell that she was uncomfortable the whole time.
When we landed, she darted off the plane and we headed out into the cold, snowy night without our coats. We hugged goodbye and went our separate ways, finding our rides home and ending this exciting and eventful trip.
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 3
When we left off last time, we had arrived late at Disney World and Jeff and I had just shown up at the Reach For The Stars gala event.
Monday
The appetizer course had already been served when Jeff and I arrived at the gala dinner, along with Tom and his wife.
After dinner and the awards ceremony had concluded, they opened up the event to all guests, and brought in different groups of characters for photo opportunities. This was our chance to sneak Val in, who we never registered as an official guest due to the insane cost for very little benefit. Meredith had to go gather her kids from wherever they were during the gala, so we used her conference badge to get Val in. With drinks in hand, we lined up for pictures with the Beast and Belle, the one character Val was looking forward to meet. Tom jumped in and the four of us got snapped.
After that, I got a text that Meredith was on her way back and would need her badge. I headed out to meet her, where I ran into Jacqueline and her husband, who you would think I would have been introduced to but you’d be wrong, for the first time. After I found Meredith and her family, we headed back in to the party for more drinks and more photo opportunities.
Once the gala kind of wrapped up, Jeff, Val, Tom, and I headed out in front of the hotel, where a heated discussion broke out on the topic of the free breakfast and whether or not it was a huge imposition placed upon us by the evil that is Suren. Things must have gotten a little loud, as Jacqueline made her second (and final) appearance of the night, questioning why we were arguing about breakfast. Once things calmed down, we retreated back inside, where we found the hotel bar.
The night of drinking continued, until we all headed out for a smoke break. Tom finished his drink and casually tossed his empty glass over his shoulder into the shrubbery, before leaving to use the facilities. As Jeff and Val enjoyed their numerous cigarettes, it became increasingly clear that Tom was not returning from the bathroom, and we decided to call it a night.
Tuesday
The next day was supposed to start with the officer forum, but Jeff had declared he had no intentions of attending the last remaining mandatory event. Tom, who was a few doors down from us, apparently did not get that memo, as he came and knocked on the door while everyone was still in bed/asleep. He returned after the officer forum, to much the same response. Eventually, everyone got up and got ready to attack the day.
But first, we had to sit in the hotel room some more to try and get Lollapalooza tickets, which, due to the time change, went on sale at 11 am. Once the tickets were acquired, we finally made our way to one of the parks, walking over to Hollywood Studios. With Fast Passes for later in the day, we headed over to the new Star Wars Launch Bay, where movie memorabilia and shopping was available, along with picture opportunities with Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. The half hour wait time for photos was much too long, so we looked around at the movie stuff before checking out the gift shop. After finishing there, we headed toward the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, at which point Jeff had enough of Hollywood Studios. So, after a whole hour at the park, we headed back to the hotel.
We hit the boardwalk, where we found a crappy little food stand that offered pizza and chips for lunch. Jeff was anxious to get his drink on, but was unwilling to go to the margarita stand due to its name. He was willing, however, to partake in said margarita if someone else were to purchase it and deliver it to him.
After killing an hour or so on the Boardwalk, we called an audible and went over to Epcot, where Jeff could imbibe at will. We walked around the World Showcase, where Jeff kept looking for opportunities to buy beer, but he passed by them all. After spending some time in the butterfly enclosure, we managed to go on our first ride of the trip, the Finding Nemo ride. Sadly, despite being possibly the slowest-moving ride at Disney World, the ride did not agree with Val, so we called it a day and went back to the boardwalk for dinner at the ESPN Club.
Digressing a bit, at the bar on Monday night, Jeff was complaining that, for a free trip, there were a lot of expenses that the company was not picking up. As if on cue, a $150 gift card arrived in the room on Tuesday, to help offset some of those costs. Of course, Jeff saw this as in insult and refused to use it. Val and I had to work at convincing him to use it for dinner, where he wanted to just leave the whole thing for the waiter, which would have included a tip of more than 100%.
After dinner, it was back to the bar, where we were eventually joined by Tom. Drinking ensued, until the place shut down and we were forced to call it a night. We returned to the room, where Jeff got an email from iTunes. You may recall drunk Jeff purchasing some songs during the ride down the previous Friday. Well, the arrival of the receipt threw him for a loop, as he had no recollection of the songs involved, let alone having made the purchases. After this, we called it a night and hoped for better results on Wednesday, which seems like a good time to wrap things up for this week.
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 2
When we left off last time, we were two days into the road trip and had finally made it to Virginia. We pick up the tale the following morning.
Sunday
Things got off to an early start, for me at least, as I found Saturday night’s dinner not agreeing with me very well. After taking care of that particular problem, I found that the guest bathroom in Jeff’s apartment was missing one very important item: toilet paper. Nothing on the roll, nothing under the sink, and nothing in the little closet. Thankfully, there was some Kleenex on the back of the toilet, so I was forced to kill that off in order to go about my night.
When I woke up for real on Sunday morning, Jeff had been out to the market and had returned with bagels and other items and fresh coffee being brewed. After some initial difficulties using the toaster (turns out you need to push the handle all the way down for it to work), I was good to go. Eventually, Val woke up and the three of us spent the morning eating breakfast and watching the Sunday morning news shows.
At some point, either while waiting for Val to wake up or while she was in the shower (I forget the exact order), Jeff pulled out some of his art books for me to look through, most of which focused on the fantasy realm. While I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, my years of comics reading means I can appreciate good art, so, aesthetically, I could appreciate it. Later, he pulled out his old portfolio and showed Val and me some of his work from college, when he was an art major. Seeing as I can hardly draw a stick figure, I was impressed by his talent.
After taking in a 5th episode of the new season of Daredevil, we decided to head out on the second leg of the trip, with Disney World our next destination. Our first stop was at the Wendy’s in Ridgeway, Virginia, about an hour into the trip. While certain people tried to once again get their bearings, I went in and bought lunch for both Jeff and myself. Val expressed interest in some curly fries, perhaps intrigued by the previous day’s stop at Arby’s, but the Hardy’s across the street did not offer them and there was no Arby’s in sight. Over Val’s objections, Jeff vowed to stop at the next Arby’s we found to get her those curly fries, but we oddly did not see one for the rest of the day.
While traveling through the Carolinas, we kept passing signs for a restaurant called Zaxby’s. Those of us from Chicago have never encountered such a restaurant, to the point that the website won’t even tell me the closest location to my house. Anyway, Val asked what type of restaurant it was and Jeff explained that it was a department store, similar to Nordstrom. Because in the deep south, there is no difference between Zaxby’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Around 300 miles into the 750 mile journey, we decided to stop for the night. We found a Hampton Inn in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and, thankfully, this one met with Jeff’s approval. Once again, got 3 hotel rooms and, since everyone was feeling relatively good and it was still pretty early, we decided to order in some dinner. Our first attempt failed when the BBQ joint did not have a dinner-time vegetarian option, so we ordered Papa John’s.
When dinner showed up, we found the smash hit Pitch Perfect II on the television, which apparently every one had seen except me. Once the movie ended, we decided to call it a night a retreat to our separate rooms for the night. Continue reading →
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip
A few weeks back, I headed out on a road trip to Florida and Disney World by way of Virginia. To say things did not go as planned would be an understatement. This is the story of that trip.
Friday
The plan was to leave work around noon, thanks to a meeting I had with the fine folks in AF. Our first stop was across the street at Mariano’s, to get lunch, snacks for the trip, and a opaque container that would allow Jeff to drink during the drive outside the view of law enforcement. An hour later, we were on the road, with Val behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Jeff and a case of Blue Moon in the back. Our destination, Roanoke, Virginia, lay 700 miles away, with an estimated arrival time of 11:30 PM. Jeff, thinking this road trip was taking place in the early 2000s, had brought along a collection of CDs for us to listen to, which lasted through much of the Illinois portion of the trip. Eventually, though, we switched to the playlist I had put together, which led to the first amusing tale of the trip.
When Lily Allen’s hit song Fuck You came up on the playlist in Indianapolis, a not-so-slightly inebriated Jeff instantly took to its charms, seeing it as an anthem against his perceived work antagonists. As the song played, he dialed it up in the iTunes store on his phone, passed it up front to make sure it was the right one, and then purchased it. More on this later.
Speaking of drunk Jeff, his plan on drinking throughout the drive had an unintended consequence: our estimated arrival time. He made the cardinal sin of breaking the seal, after which we needed to stop for him to use the bathroom practically ever hour. Once you added in his smoking time, we spent approximately 20 minutes of every hour standing still, which pushed our expected arrival in Virginia well past midnight. During one of these stops, in the lovely town of New Castle, Indiana, we even had to find a WalMart in order to replenish the supply of Blue Moon. Eventually, we made it out of Indiana and into Ohio with Val still behind the wheel. However, around 7 PM, things started to go wrong.
We were starting to go through some mountainous terrain when Val suddenly started to feel sick. She pulled off at the next exit, found a driveway next to what appeared to be a trailer park, and stopped to walk around and catch her breath. Meanwhile, Jeff, claiming he was now sober (but lying through his teeth) decided he would drive once we got back on the road. I tried to stop him, but he had the keys, it was his car, and Val was in no position to back either one of us, so he won out. Eventually, we tried to get going again, but had to pull off again at a gas station before we made any real progress.
While Jeff and Val came in and out of the gas station, I started looking for local hotels. It was obvious at this point that we would not be making it to Virginia, so this was as good a spot as any to stop for the night. The closest Hampton Inn was about 10 miles back in the other direction, so, after purchasing some Pepto-Bismal, we slowly reversed our course and found the hotel, where Jeff decided he and he alone could help Val, leaving me to babysit the car which he had left in front of the door. Unfortunately for us, the hotel did not have any double rooms, so, after a bit of finagling, we ended up with 3 rooms for the night in Chillicothe, Ohio, a mere 300 miles short of our intended destination.
Saturday
Waking up in beautiful Chillicothe, I showered and headed down for the free breakfast in the hotel lobby, where I ran into a now sober Jeff. The day was off to a great start, as he had thoughts about this Hampton Inn and how it did not live up to his expectations for the chain. I had a bed to sleep in and was able to make my own Belgian waffle, so I was content. Neither one of us had heard from Val since the night before, so we were both anxious to see how she was holding up, hoping, of course, for the best.
Return To The House Of The Mouse
Later this afternoon, I’ll be heading out for a week long road trip, with stops in Virginia, Florida, and many stops in between. The plan is to head to Roanoke tonight, spend the weekend there taking in the sights, and then head down to Florida and Disney World on Monday. After spending Tuesday at Hollywood Studios, we’ll be heading to Universal on Wednesday for all things Harry Potter, before returning to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot on Thursday. After that, it will time to take the long ride home, with a few interesting stops along the way.
Vacation Recap – Toronto
Two weeks ago, I headed out early on a Friday morning for the long drive northeast to the Canadian city of Toronto. I arrived in the early evening, with my allergies inflamed after an afternoon of driving through the wilds of Michigan. After a quick trip to find a pharmacy, we settled in at the sports bar just around the corner from our condo for dinner before calling it an early night to recover from a day of travelling.
Saturday morning was spent walking around the lakefront, enjoying the views and trying to get a little lay of the land. The afternoon was spent at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays easily handled the Orioles to keep their hold on first place in the AL East. Eventually we ended up at the fancy Italian restaurant across the street for dinner and drinks.
Sunday was another day of exploring. After a late breakfast, we ended up on a bus tour, which, due to street closures, was not following its normal path. It managed to drop us off a few blocks away from the Royal Ontario Museum, where we headed to enjoy some culture, including a special exhibit on Pompeii. Thankfully, the tour was back on its normal path afterwards, so we grabbed a ride back to the condo before heading out to the Molson Canadian Ampitheatre for the Oddball Comedy Fest, which I went into much detail here. After the show, we eventually managed to catch a cab back to the condo.
Monday was time to bid a temporary farewell to Toronto, as we headed south to Niagara Falls, where we spent the afternoon. Continue reading →
Oh Canada
If everything goes according to plan, I will be leaving this morning for a road trip to Toronto, where I will meet up with my good friend Hayley. We will spend about a week enjoying everything our neighbors to the north have to offer. Not to mention a planned side trip back to the states to take in the offerings of Cooperstown, New York.
I’ll have a full detailing when I get back, but our current plans include the Blue Jays, the CN Tower, an AC/DC concert, the Oddball comedy fest, and a comedy club featuring Cameron Esposito. Plus whatever comes up along the way.
Vacation Recap: Tupelo
When we left off last time, our group of intrepid travelers had arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi on a Sunday night after having spent the day in Memphis taking in the Elvis sights, including Graceland and Sun Studios.
Monday morning started with a trip to Tupelo Hardware Store, a present day Ace Hardware where a 11 year old Elvis, in 1946, purchased his first guitar. From there, we headed to the 2 room house where Elvis was born and lived until his family moved to Memphis in search of a better life in 1948. Also on the site are the Assembly of God church, where the Presley’s worshipped while living in Tupelo.
After leaving Mississippi, we headed north towards home, but decided to make a detour towards Metropolis, IL, which has made itself the symbolic home of Superman and, at least according to the travel guide, home to the world’s largest Dippin’ Dots store. Sadly, the Dippin’ Dots store had closed and was replaced by a gift shop filled with DC merchandise and a cooler in the corner that did supply said Dippin’ Dots. In the center of town is a giant Superman statue and a museum, which we decided against going through.
After that, it was time to head home. After a few stops for dinner and gas, we arrived home around 10 PM. Overall, we visited 5 states, 3 of which were new for Michael. Now I’m looking forward to my next trip, which, sadly, hasn’t been planned yet.
Vacation Recap: Memphis
This past January, as my mom’s birthday was rolling around, I thought about taking her to Graceland so she could see the former home of her favorite performer, Elvis Presley. I ended up going in a different direction (literally), but my sister came up with the same idea for Mother’s Day. So, as May was drawing to a close, (nearly) the whole family loaded into the minivan and headed down to Tennessee and Mississippi to see the Elvis-related sights.
Things got off to an early start on Saturday morning as we left around 5 AM and headed south. After a brief stop in Missouri for lunch at Lambert’s Cafe, where they throw dinner rolls at you, and so Michael could cross another state off his list, we rolled into Memphis around 2:00. Our first stop was the Memphis Zoo, where we ran into some pandas and other animals. After the zoo, we headed to our hotel for some relaxing in the pool, followed by dinner at a charming BBQ joint known as Corky’s, winners of multiple best BBQ awards. After a long day, it was time to call it a night.
Sunday morning got off to an early, if wet, start at Graceland, home, and eternal resting place, of Elvis Presley. Aside from the mansion, which is strangely small for what would be considered a mansion, there were a few other attractions to see, including a car museum and his 2 planes.
After lunch at Graceland (a fried peanut butter/banana sandwich, natch), it was time to visit Sun Studios, where Elvis made his first recordings. While waiting for our tour, we made a quick trip over to the Peabody Hotel, where they have trained ducks hanging out in the lobby, which is supposedly a thing. Back to Sun for the tour, which included the actual recording studio space, which is still in use at night.
Following the tour, we headed across the border to Arkansas for dinner, and another chance for Michael to add a state to his tally. After dinner, it was on to Tupelo, Mississippi, where we would spend the night before finishing off the Elvis tour on Monday. But more about that next time.