Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 10

Water park day!  Pretty self explanatory.  I mean, almost every water park is exactly the same.  Lazy river, fast current river, wave pool, water slides, fake beach, ect.  The only thing that stood out there was when I met this small family while waiting in line who were all from Moscow, Russia.  And do you know what the father's name was?  Igor. XD  I mean how much more stereotypical can you get?!  Igor from Moscow Russia.  It was all I could do not to crack a soviet Russia joke. *wide grin*  Then I was asking the girl of the family what she thought about America.  Here are nearly her exact words. *said in thick Russian accent* "It is beautiful at time, but has lot of calories.  In Russia there lot of skinny people."  I just about died.  It was amazing. XD
When we got back, I was ready to die.  It truly showed how out of shape I'm in, so I'm determined to come back to Alaska with some muscles. *nods firmly*  However, dying was not on the agenda because Zion and Mom were selected to go on a small hotel show called "Double Dare" where they got asked Nickelodeon quiz questions and were slimed upon.  That makes two of our family who have experienced the Nick slime. :)  Then it was back to the room where the rest of the day was spent in bliss on the internet. ;)

Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 9

First activity of the day was to pack up camp.  It's really quite astonishing how much stuff can accumulate in just nine days. It's like they're multiplying. *scratches head*  After we stuffed all we could into the car, we were off to the Kennedy Space Center!  I love space by the way.  Though I've never wanted to actually become an astronaut; just learning about zero gravity and light years and the Hubble telescope is amazing. :D  On the way out I saw a few take your own picture and send it to your email and I couldn't resist. ;)


(just chilling in space)



(yes. creepy, I know)



(look! an alien!  right over there!)

After all that jazz, we drove to our new place of residence.  A Nickelodeon hotel!  How cool is that! :D  I'll have to take a picture of the pool and rooms.  They're pretty epic looking. ;)  And last thing of the day...catching up on all of the internet stuff I was deprived of for two days. O.o *deprived look*

Super Amazing Vaction of Awesomeness: Day 8

Sunday truly is a day of rest.  For all we did until 3:00 in the afternoon was wake up and head to church.  Afterwards; a very refreshing swim at the Disney pool, then off to watch Cinderella on a big screen outside.  But that's when things began to get interesting.  Do you know that they have giant lightning storms out here in Florida? O.o  Well apparently they do, and that's the reason Cinderella was canceled.  It's kind of hard to concentrate on the movie when bright lightning is flashing all around overhead. ::)  Since mom is cautious and didn't want us walking outside back to our camp, we took shelter under the pool house and fraternized with another family campers.  Apparently I look like someone the father of the family knows.  You have no idea how many people I have heard that from!  Countless times I have heard that I look like a friend (or more frequently) cousin of a recently met stranger. >.>  I guess guys like me have pretty unmistakable faces. ;)

Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 7

 Well I knew today was going to be different than the others because I woke up on my own at 10:00am. Usually I'm shaken awake at 7 to prepare for the day's activities.  But today the activities didn't start until later! *fistpump*  It was our last day at the resort Landon won, so I spent the morning re-packing and reading by the poolside (you can never read Elantris too many times).  Then around the afternoon it was time to head to Universal Studios.  There it wasn't so much as "see how much fun you can cram into a short amount of time!" but rather, we actually took our time and saw the sights.  It was nice. :)  Probably the best attraction was the "Rock It" roller coaster where you could choose your own soundtrack as you rode the attraction.  And my personal song was "Can't Touch This."  I felt pretty epic. ;)

Then after buying a shirt that imitates a suit, my brothers and I competed at shooting aliens in the Men In Black ride until the park closed. *smug look*

 Afterwards we came to our new place of residence, the Disney campgrounds.  And can you guess what we found there? (or rather a lack of?)  That's right, no Wi-Fi.  So unfortunately this post will have to wait till later.  All you people actually reading this will have to wait a few days. ;)

Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 6

Today we visited Sea World.  Not much really to say about it!  We saw a penguin exhibit that was not nearly as cool as the hour of waiting claimed, but still... They were penguins. ;)

(That's right. We're cool)

Anyhoo, all we did afterwards was see an awesome dolphin show, then an orca show after sharing some amazing food at a restaurant where we had a giant shark tank next to us while we were eating.  Okay, so maybe it was a little more cool than I first let on.  But today most of us kids were really tired.  I suppose it has a lot to do with constant fun without any days devoid of anything planned.  This is the reason I'm ready for tomorrow morning, where hopefully we'll get a little more time to relax. *sigh*

Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 5

*lyrics hummed to "Hakuna Matata"*
"Discovery cove... What a wonderful phrase.
Discovery cove... ain't no passing place.
    It means no worries, for the rest of your day.
    It's the problem free, philosophy!
    Discovery cove!"

And no joke!  This place was like a paradise on Earth.  It's the place I think heaven is going to be a lot like.  It's the place where after you've paid to get it; everything else is free.  This includes all the food.... :D I don't think I've ever had that many ice-cream sandwiches in my life!  Speaking of eating, during breakfast we saw a few cannibalistic birds snacking on someone's leftovers. ;) (yes, that is a bird with eggs in its beak)
But back to paradise, here is the place where humans and animals alike could frolic with each other.  The three main places to go were the aviary, the dolphin swim, and the reef.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the reef.  That's primarily because it was all underwater and we were able to go snorkeling with all the fish and stingrays.  Don't worry!  I wasn't in any danger, as they had removed the stingers from the stingrays.  You can breathe easy now. ;)  However, some of those stingrays got HUGE!  And they would brush right next to you!  Pretty darn cool. :D  But also cool was when I saw a big group of silver fish that moved in perfect coordination.  Such as the fish in Finding Nemo that point out the way. ;)

The Aviary was way cool.  The moment you stepped inside, you were surrounded by all sorts of different birds, eagerly awaiting the bird food you were freely given.  The first bought of contact was when I was feeding a snipe looking creature and I suddenly felt something crash into me and talons dig into my shoulder.  Next thing I knew, this little guy was right next to my head begging for food!  Small and brightly colored, I was sure this species of bird was the friendliest there, until I walked into the adjacent aviary and found a bird called Captain Jack.  This old 10 year old grandma of a bird spends her days sleeping in people's hands.  There's a reason this lazy bird is fifteen grams heavier than any other bird of her species there. ;)  She was adorable though.  Easily the most precious bird there, we could have stayed for an indefinite amount of time holding her.  But the dolphins were waiting. :D

(adorable, no?)





The dolphins were cool.  Underwater intelligent marine mammals; how else could I describe them?  We were able to stand next to, pet, kiss, hug, and shortly ride the dolphin we were being introduced to.  Yes, we got to know that dolphin quite well. ;)









All in all?  A very fun, relaxing day. :D And a perfect break from all of those theme parks! ;)

Super Amazing Vacation of Awesomeness: Day 4

 

Well today was Roller Coaster Day.  We drove on over to Bush Garden's park where, much to Daphne, Tait, and my surprise, we were allowed to go off on our own and enjoy the park!  Probably just because it was smaller than out previous parks and not a lot of people were there (in comparison), but it was still pretty awesome. :)
First of all we went to the Wallaby and Kangaroo areas.  There I saw these strange creatures for the first time in my life!  They were so incredibly calm and well behaved, you could go right up to the fence and pet them on the head, back, neck, and snout.  Actually, during our visit, a wallaby squeezed through the gaps in the fence to go out and explore!  I tagged along and basically treated it like our family dog. ;)

Then was the death defying stunts.  First we went on a roller coaster called Sheikra.  Here's a few pictures of what it looks like.

Sheikra

Yes.  That is a sheer drop.  A SHEER DROP.  And that last picture?  The second guy from the left on the second row in the turquoise shorts?  Yep.  That's me.  Screaming for my life.  Screaming actually really does help during roller coasters.  When you're bellowing like a wounded boar, it really does bring out the man in you. ;)
And to leave this post off, all we did for the rest of the day was ride on all the roller coasters we found in the park.  Here most of them are!

Cheetah Hunt

(This one actually went on for about 3/4ths of a mile)

 

Kumba

(A ton of loop-de-loops)

 

Gwazi

(THIS one was terrifying.  I was SURE it was going to fall to pieces as we rode it.  I mean it was made out of wood.  WOOD PEOPLE!)

 

Scorpion

(Okay, so this one was pretty basic as roller coasters go.  You climb up, you drop, you do a loop, then a lot of G-force to impress you)

 

Montu

(This is probably the winner.  Here you go on the loops upside down with feet dangling in the air.  SO. MUCH. FUN.)