Florida Vacation!

This October Jon and I finally got to go on vacation together!  We left the kids with Jon's parents in MN and flew to Orlando, FL to spend the week together!  It was long past due and so much fun!  We're already looking forward to the next time we can go somewhere together!

We quickly discovered that the travelling part is the worst part of travelling.  It seems like half of your vacation time is taken up by the travel!  However, it was nice to just spend time alone together and have some quiet time to read and relax.  

Day 1: Traveled to Florida from Minneapolis Airport.  Checked into hotel-- nice two-bedroom Marriot Jon earned for free from points while travelling for work!  Discovered that Orlando is chuck full of toll-roads- totally ridiculous and unavoidable.  Grocery shopped for the week.

Day 2: Spent the morning at Cocoa Beach.  Drove past Cape Canaveral- got super jealous seeing all the huge cruise ships docked for loading.  Ahhh....some day.  Cocoa Beach- beautiful view, long walk on the beach (loved it!), reading and relaxing on the beach, picnic in the sun,  swimming in the ocean.  Discovered waves crash a lot harder and the water is a lot saltier than I imagined!  Still, lots of fun to play in the waves!  Back to hotel and clean up for dinner at Macaroni Grill (yum!) & movie at the Theater!  Totally loved the never-ending date night!

My model shot...

My dorky jumping skills

I title this picture, "But the sun is just so bright!"

Day 3:  Got a late start- drove to Universal- stood in long lines- got stressed that we weren't even getting into the park until lunch time- bailed and went to Seaworld instead!  Seaworld was a lot more fun than we thought it would be.  We LOVED the dolphin show, it was amazing!  Wish we could have seen it multiple times.  The Shamu show was decent but not near as good as the dolphins.  There were a few fun roller coasters and it was cool to see all of the animals.  I think I waited in line for 2 hours to see the penguins because the ride kept breaking.  Finally, they decided to just let us walk in a few at a time to see them instead of riding the ride.  the penguins were cool and I'm glad I got to see them- just wished they would have let us walk in 2 hours earlier!  We found a good deal for all the food and drinks we could eat while we were there so we enjoyed taking advantage of that!  

Finished off the day at the World of Chocolate Museum.  Honestly, it was a little overpriced but it was cool to see, and I took full advantage of the taste testing at the end!  

Yes, this is a chocolate castle...every girl's dream :)

Jon by the American chocolate counterpart of Russian architecture!

Day 4:  Got an earlier start and went to Universal/Islands of Adventure and stayed!  Islands of Adventure was by far our favorite.  Lots of fun roller coasters and themes.  Our favorites were Jurassic Park, Harry Potter World, Spider Man, and the fun log-type water ride in Toon Town.  The automated dinosaurs in Jurassic park were pretty cool and realistic!  Harry Potter world was awesome- yes, we are total nerds but we loved it!  The castle was totally amazing and the ride inside the castle....INCREDIBLE!  I've seriously never experienced anything like it- it was the coolest 4-D experience ever!  It took us on this broomstick adventure with Harry, Ron, & Hermione and it actually felt& looked like we were flying with them!  It was unlike anything I've ever experienced- so cool!  We also got ourselves some butterbeer and rode the Hogwarts express- which was pretty fun, but we were a little disappointed with the other half of Harry Potter World in Universal- all we could see was a London Street made after Harry Potter likeness and a park area with the Knight Bus and a couple other Harry Potter sculpture type things.  As it turns out, we later discovered we had somehow missed most of it, and it was probably about as cool as the Islands of Adventure half.  We are very frustrated about that to this day...   We weren't incredibly impressed with Universal (probably cause we missed the coolest part) but that's likely because I think it's geared more towards kids.  I did get a picture with Curious George for my kids- they weren't too impressed either.  We finished off the day back at Islands of Adventures and loved it.  Big discovery??  Apparently, I'm not too good with roller coasters and Jon is a lot better with them than he remembers.  I was loaded up on dramamine and could still only handle the high G-Force rides once before I started feeling sick.  I felt about 80 years old as I sat at the bottom while Jon rode them 2nd and 3rd times.  Oh well, it was still fun :) 

Welcome...to Jurassic Park!

The T-Rex bent down trying to eat us, right when we went down the waterfall, so fun!

Harry Potter World!

Hogwarts Castle!

Me & George- friends since I've seen all episodes about 50 times :)

Day 5:  Second Beach Day!  We drove back to Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach and stopped at a souveneir shop for some shopping.  Got some fun clothes (which, of course, most of which would later shrink), and a cheap floaty body board to play with.  Lots more fun playing and relaxing.  Walk on the beach-- this time full of beached JELLY FISH!  YIKES!  There were seriously tons!  Made us kinda nervous about going back in the water :/  We staked out a spot on the beach and watched a rocket launch from nearby Kennedy Space Center.  It was pretty cool!  We were further away than we thought we would be but it was still cool and interesting to watch as it just got smaller and smaller and then disappeared...into space!  Space is so hard for me to realistically imagine, but it's out there people!  Went out to dinner that night at a nice Steak House.  Jon got the hugest steak I've ever seen.  

Nasty Jelly Fish!

The Giant Steak

Day 6:  Woke up early and headed to airport.  Shopped in airport shops for more souvenirs.  Spent the day travelling and winding up back in freezing cold MN!  The kids were happy to see us and loved their Seaworld stuffed shark and whale!  Grandparents said they were great- success!!