***My Almost Completely Fabulous Weekend***
Short Version
• Flew to Orlando on Friday night and got to stay with two of my best friends.
• Another friend got us free passes to Universal Studios on Saturday, so we spent the day there. It was great!
• Celebrated the one friend's birthday yesterday playing xbox on the big projector screen.
• Got into a minor accident on the way to pick up my suitcase so we could go back to the airport. May have a touch of whiplash, but I think I'll get over it once I can turn my neck again.
Long Version
My flight was delayed, which ended up being fine. I got to Orlando at 11:45 Friday night. Happy reunions with Jack & Manda.
Saturday the three of us plus our friend Brandon (who Jack & I toured with) and his wife and their friend Erik went to Universal Studios. Brandon works there and got us free passes... plus we were able to use his 45% employee discount for anything we had to purchase. Woohoo. I had never been there before, and I was so amazed. It felt like the happiest place on Earth -- yes, I know that is Disney's line, but even this article suggests that this place outdoes Disney. (And what I love most about themeparks like that is the feeling of walking down the middle of the street and not having to worry about getting hit by cars. Call me crazy, but I think that is great.)
The first thing we went to was the new Men in Black Alien Attack ride. It's actually a ride/laser tag game. You get to shoot the aliens and get points and compete against the other car and stuff. Thanks to Brandon's employee pass, we rode it three times in a row. Fun fun fun!
I got them to go on the Jaws ride... even though we feared getting wet so early in the day. We watched The Blues Brothers perform their Christmas carols. (And they had the coolest little machines that spit out suds that made it look like it was snowing.) We had lunch at Louie's. And we went to the Twister attraction... which was okay, but a little bit of a let down after the wait.
Before we left, we went to the Earthquake special effects demonstration thingy. At the beginning the guy said he needed volunteers to show how the special effects work and that needed a strong person for the first volunteer. We were close to the front, so we all stepped aside and left Erik in full view. (He does weight training and is pretty buff.) So he got picked. Then he said he needed three more volunteers. Everybody in our group pointed at me... so I got chosen. And he said to get even with them, he would make Jack & Manda be volunteers too. We got to be on top of this submarine thing in front of a blue screen to show how they made U-571... Brandon said that I got the acting award for believability. It was fun.
Brandon & Heather left at that point. The rest of us headed to Islands of Adventure.
The first thing we went on was the new Spiderman ride. We had 3-D glasses, and it really felt like these bad guys were hopping on our car and at other times we were falling to our death only to be saved in the nick of time by Spidey. It was great!
We waited and waited to be in the first row for The Dueling Dragons. We rode Ice. I love those hanging rollercoasters, and this one was really intense because it felt like we were going to run right into the other "dragon" coming right at us. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.
We had express passes for The Incredible Hulk coaster, so we barely had to wait in line. We were in the very last row for that one. I have to say that this was the smoothest and quietest rollercoaster I have ever been on. No whipping around. No jostling. It was perfect... and it was over way too soon.
Manda and I made the boys go through Seuss Landing and ride the Caro-Seuss-El.
That night we just laid low. When Jack got home after his Christmas party, we watched Blade II. (We promised each other that we weren't going to see it until the other person was with us, so this was our first chance. Yay!)
After church yesterday, we went out for lunch with Erik & Brandon for Jack's birthday. Then in the afternoon, Jack, Brandon and I hooked the xbox up to the projector at the church and played on the big screen. There was much Tony Hawk and Ghost Recon played by all.
Then for the grand finale of the afternoon... Manda and I were headed back to the house to get my suitcase so I would get to the airport in time. It's a bit of a blur, but the cars in front of us slammed on their brakes, we slammed on our brakes (though her brakes have been causing problems lately), and then we slammed into the car in front of us who then slammed into the car in front of them... which happened to be a Jaguar, incidentally. Manda freaked. Jack came. I comforted. We still made it to the airport in time. My neck is sore, and I'm sure I must have a diagonal bruise across my front where the seatbelt was... I just can't tip my head down far enough to see. :)
Song for the Day:
Whiplash - Beanbag
Ouchie.
Short Version
• Flew to Orlando on Friday night and got to stay with two of my best friends.
• Another friend got us free passes to Universal Studios on Saturday, so we spent the day there. It was great!
• Celebrated the one friend's birthday yesterday playing xbox on the big projector screen.
• Got into a minor accident on the way to pick up my suitcase so we could go back to the airport. May have a touch of whiplash, but I think I'll get over it once I can turn my neck again.
Long Version
My flight was delayed, which ended up being fine. I got to Orlando at 11:45 Friday night. Happy reunions with Jack & Manda.
Saturday the three of us plus our friend Brandon (who Jack & I toured with) and his wife and their friend Erik went to Universal Studios. Brandon works there and got us free passes... plus we were able to use his 45% employee discount for anything we had to purchase. Woohoo. I had never been there before, and I was so amazed. It felt like the happiest place on Earth -- yes, I know that is Disney's line, but even this article suggests that this place outdoes Disney. (And what I love most about themeparks like that is the feeling of walking down the middle of the street and not having to worry about getting hit by cars. Call me crazy, but I think that is great.)
The first thing we went to was the new Men in Black Alien Attack ride. It's actually a ride/laser tag game. You get to shoot the aliens and get points and compete against the other car and stuff. Thanks to Brandon's employee pass, we rode it three times in a row. Fun fun fun!
I got them to go on the Jaws ride... even though we feared getting wet so early in the day. We watched The Blues Brothers perform their Christmas carols. (And they had the coolest little machines that spit out suds that made it look like it was snowing.) We had lunch at Louie's. And we went to the Twister attraction... which was okay, but a little bit of a let down after the wait.
Before we left, we went to the Earthquake special effects demonstration thingy. At the beginning the guy said he needed volunteers to show how the special effects work and that needed a strong person for the first volunteer. We were close to the front, so we all stepped aside and left Erik in full view. (He does weight training and is pretty buff.) So he got picked. Then he said he needed three more volunteers. Everybody in our group pointed at me... so I got chosen. And he said to get even with them, he would make Jack & Manda be volunteers too. We got to be on top of this submarine thing in front of a blue screen to show how they made U-571... Brandon said that I got the acting award for believability. It was fun.
Brandon & Heather left at that point. The rest of us headed to Islands of Adventure.
The first thing we went on was the new Spiderman ride. We had 3-D glasses, and it really felt like these bad guys were hopping on our car and at other times we were falling to our death only to be saved in the nick of time by Spidey. It was great!
We waited and waited to be in the first row for The Dueling Dragons. We rode Ice. I love those hanging rollercoasters, and this one was really intense because it felt like we were going to run right into the other "dragon" coming right at us. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.
We had express passes for The Incredible Hulk coaster, so we barely had to wait in line. We were in the very last row for that one. I have to say that this was the smoothest and quietest rollercoaster I have ever been on. No whipping around. No jostling. It was perfect... and it was over way too soon.
Manda and I made the boys go through Seuss Landing and ride the Caro-Seuss-El.
That night we just laid low. When Jack got home after his Christmas party, we watched Blade II. (We promised each other that we weren't going to see it until the other person was with us, so this was our first chance. Yay!)
After church yesterday, we went out for lunch with Erik & Brandon for Jack's birthday. Then in the afternoon, Jack, Brandon and I hooked the xbox up to the projector at the church and played on the big screen. There was much Tony Hawk and Ghost Recon played by all.
Then for the grand finale of the afternoon... Manda and I were headed back to the house to get my suitcase so I would get to the airport in time. It's a bit of a blur, but the cars in front of us slammed on their brakes, we slammed on our brakes (though her brakes have been causing problems lately), and then we slammed into the car in front of us who then slammed into the car in front of them... which happened to be a Jaguar, incidentally. Manda freaked. Jack came. I comforted. We still made it to the airport in time. My neck is sore, and I'm sure I must have a diagonal bruise across my front where the seatbelt was... I just can't tip my head down far enough to see. :)
Song for the Day:
Whiplash - Beanbag
Ouchie.
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