Vacation!!!

Well vacation was great. It started off poorly; Friday night I was bad sick with stomach issues. We got up early on Saturday and started off for Orlando. We stopped along the way for lunch (V ate) and then stopped at Krystal for dinner. It was GREAT!!! We pulled up to our hotel pretty late and it's a good thing, the hotel was shady. We got up early Sunday and drove to the hotel, where we were notified that there was only one shuttle to Universal. No fear, though, we found a city shuttle that got us close and we walked there. Universal was pretty good, but both of us didn't feel good, so we didn't enjoy it as much as hoped. I had the two park/ two day pass so after we rode everything at Universal, we went to Islands of Adventure. We rode one ride and then waited on the shuttle...it never came. Actually it came, but it had no markings and so it left without us. We walked to the city bus. Ugh...

Monday came and we rode the hotel shuttle to EPCOT and then to Animal Kingdom. AK was AWESOME!!! We got a fast pass for Expedition Everest and then went to some other rides. It was a great time and the fast pass saved us some real time. I was still feeling queasy at this point, so I didn't enjoy it as much as hoped. We spent a lot of time just admiring the tree of life. It is so cool because it has all these animals carved into the trunk and roots. While burning some time waiting on the Lion King, we got our pictures with Goofy and Pocahontas. After we finished there, we rode to Hollywood studios and watched the Indiana Jones stunt show, road Star Tours (which caused V to almost hurl), waited FOREVER for Rockit Rollercoaster and then jumped on Tower of Terror, just as the sun was setting. Riding that at night was sooooo sweet. We had this cute little British girl on our ride and she had so much fun. After the ride, we hustled to the shuttle so we could catch the last bus home to our hotel.

Tuesday we got up early and rode the city bus to Universal. We hit the main rides (including the Hulk, which we rode up front and it ROCKED!!!) It was a good thing we got there when we did, because after we got in line, the line tripled in length. We rode Jurassic Park and a few other little rides and then checked out Harry Potter world. It isn't open yet, but it looks really cool. V was salivating most of the time we were looking it over. We skipped out of Islands of Adventure in time to grab lunch at Bubba Gumps and then we headed to the hotel for an early night. Good times. We grabbed dinner with Jon at the Rainforest Cafe and then grabbed some ice cream at a Guiradelli's (sp?) chocolate place.

Wednesday we slept in and went to Magic Kingdom at noon. We rode a few things (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Philharmagic) and left on the first bus out at 6pm. We had dinner with Joe at Bahama Breeze that night. Dinner wasn't good, but the company made up for it. I miss Joe.

Thursday was a long day. We got up early, drove to Downtown Disney and caught a bus to a Disney resort. We started the day at EPCOT, rode the few rides there (Mission Space (which was EXTREME), Test Track) and then met up with Jon. After riding the rides but before meeting Jon, we had to go back to Downtown Disney to get the camera which we left in the car. I hated to burn the time, but the break was nice. We went to the global area of the park and had some drinks and way too much food. It was neat and I got bitten by the travel bug. We rode Spaceship Earth and Mission Space with Jon and then departed ways. V and I went to Magic Kingdom and waited on the parade. The parade came and it was really great. She seemed happy to see it. We then ran over to the princess tent and since the line was long, we resorted to seeing Mickey and Minnie. That really seemed to make V's day. She was beaming from ear to ear and I knew I made a good decision booking the trip. We stayed around for some of the fireworks while slowly working out way back out of the park.

Friday was our final day and our biggest. We went to Magic Kingdom all day. We got our fast pass for Space Mtn and went to the Runaway Mine Train (or whatever it was called). I cut in line and my ethical gf grabbed me and made me wait behind everyone. Those ethical gfs...I swear. =) That ride was kinda lame. We then went to get in line for the princesses. That was neat to see Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. V, of course, was VERY happy after this. I got about a million hugs after her pictures with them. We rode the Sleeping Beauty ride and then headed to the space area. We rode Stitch escapes and then used our fast passes for the Buzz Lightyear ride. That ride was actually pretty cool. Then we met up with Jon to ride Space Mtn. We saved the best for last. That ride was so much better than when I rode in 2004. We had fun and then parted ways with Jon. V and I did some shopping at Downtown Disney (I got legos from the lego store!!!) and headed out. We drove for about five hours and stayed at a neat little place in Marianna, FL. It was a microtel and I highly recommend.

We slept in late and headed out Saturday morning. On the way home, we stopped at the only Red Robin in all of Alabama. It was sooooo good. Then when we went through Memphis, we stopped at Krystal for one last hurrah. Of course, I was lucky enough that all along the way V let me hit some geocaches. In the parks, the caches were virtual (there was no real cache). So I had to find some real deals.

Anywho, that was the vacation. I am out some big chizzang, but it was worth it. We used my $500 gift card for most food and stuff, so that was nice. Today work was really slow and I found out I didn't get an offer for a TA position in Fayetteville. I am going to make some phone calls to figure out why, since I was told I was a shoe-in. Not getting that position really puts a kink in my plans. A big kink. Time to do some more praying...