Travel log:

Arrival day

I'm having a great time here. So far, we have visited several parts of the (awesome) hotel we are staying, which is also part-zoo. They have several species of snakes (red, corn, etc.), as well as a few species of turtles and some baby gators. I'm going to visit the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow, but i won't tell you about the rest of the week that has been planned yet. I'll reveal those parts as we go along. I also have some very nice pictures of the landscape and the attractions, which i'll upload thursday or friday. See you all tomorrow!

Day one

We went to the Kennedy Space Center today...what can I say, it was awesome! First, we saw an Imax movie about the exploits of the original astronauts and what it's really like up on the moon. Then, we rode a motion simulator that showed what it really felt like taking off. After that, we came back to the hotel, and went to downtown Disneyworld, where we toured the many shops & restaurants that were there. Following that, we left again for a new destination: Chevy's mexican restaurant, which had some truly authentic food. We came back to the hotel and went to bed after that, which explains why i'm posting this the morning after.

P.S. Still sunny! It has only rained at night, so the days here have been, shall I say, glorious? Also, the hotel we are staying at (which I had forgotten to mention) is Gaylord Palms. Not quite what I would name my dream hotel, but it is quite luxurious nonetheless.

Day two

We began the day by going to a very nice breakfast buffet named The Ponderosa. After a hearty meal of bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, and fresh tropical fruit, we set off for our next destination: Wonder Works. It was an incredible time, but i'll have to describe the building to you before I can say anything else about it. Imagine the Library of Congress. Now, imagine Godzilla coming in and flipping it upside down on top of another building, and you have Wonder Works, which is precisely that. After getting a 2-hour ticket, we entered the anti-gravity hallway, in which there are spinning dots on the walls surrounding the metal grate, which make it appear (and feel!) as if you are actually falling one way or another. I'm just glad I didn't eat immediately before doing this part!

After that, we emerged on the first floor, where there were several games and attractions to try out. First up: the Titanic water challenge. Essentially, it explained a little of the history of the plight of the Titanic survivors that you won't read in your history book: Most people on it died not because of the sinking ship and conspicious absence of enough life rafts, but because of the water they fell in. The water was 22 degrees farenheit, or -2 degrees celsius for you science fans. I could only submerge my hand in the water for 30 seconds before I had to pull out of it. The exhibit explained it as this: Being that cold, the water is simply chilling your body faster than it can reheat itself, meaning that you are steadily losing body temperature. This is what causes hypothermia, causing your hand (or whatever part of you was in it) to turn black and require decapitation.

When we ascended to the second floor, what hit me was this: three seperate rooms, each with something amazing in each. As described below:

First room:

Two attractions really stood out here: the Wonder Wall, and the Bed of Nails. On the Wonder Wall, what you do is simply press yourself against the "wall", which is really thousands of seperate blunt needles, creating an impression of your body on the opposite side. I got a great impression of myself, along with my hat! As for the Bed of Nails, let's just say, I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to lying on beds with screwdriver heads protruding out of them. My mom wasn't, however. She apparently thought it seemed like a good idea at the time, but she was complaining afterwards about the, well, spikiness!

Second room:

Simply said, bubble mania. There were 8 different (huge) vats of bubble soap, and you could take the incredibly large bubble wands and place them over your own head, creating your very own bubble helmet! I loved doing that part.

Third room: Flight simulator time, hoo-yah! They don't call them "realistic" for nothing! This machine actually flipped you upside-down, diagonally, and did barrel rolls, all while you had to shoot down virtual enemy fighters in the cockpit!

At last, we entered the final hallway, we had several M.C. Escher prints and other visual abnormalities adorning the walls, we came upon the thid floor, which was a huge arcade! We did the final activity of the day here: a laser tag game! The place wasn't very crowded, however. In fact, my mom and I were the only two playing! After several matrix-style combat sequences, we finally exited the room, which, at my surprise, my mom had won! We finally took three flights of stairs down the building and exited...

Only to find another surprise for us waiting outside: Pouring rain! We took refuge in a nearby bookstore, where I picked up a few novels to read on the plane trip back home on Friday. Eventually, we left, grabbed a quick coffee at a cafe that was closeby, and began the trek up three stories to the car parked in the parking garage.

On the way back to the hotel, we went by a costume shop, where I got a viking helmet. Don't ask why, because I sure as heck don't know. After that, we went to a Wal-Mart and got some extra snacks and suppplies for the last two days of our trip. I wore the viking helmet inside the store. I estimate that I got about 14 stares and 3 laughs-behind-my-back.

We returned to the hotel, where my dad was just finishing up his engineering class. Afterwards, we left for his company's corporate dinner, which was at an incredibly authentic brazilian restaurant called the Texas de Brazil. It was an all-you-can-eat salad bar buffet, so I got a huge fill. After eating from the salad bar, I went back to the table, where they have a very interesting way of getting you all of your non-vegetable food. There are these little pads next to each person's plate, which you would flip over to the other side to signal the waiters to bring you meat. They would then bring in these extremely large steak forks, which had several pieces of pork, steak or lamb speared on them. Simply designate how much you want, and they would just carve some off with a very large knife and plop it on your plate. This was also my first time ever trying lamb. It was the most delicious type of meat I have ever tried.

All in all, my entire palate looked like this:

-two glasses of coke
-1/4 a salmon
-several slices of bruschetta ham
-three artichokes
-a lobster roll
-a whole crab
-about two bowls of shrimp
-a leg of lamb
-half a pound of cheese (mozzerela, goat, and something that started with a 'p' that i couldn't pronounce)
-About a quarter of a pig (not kidding!)
-four pieces of bread with butter
-About a bucketfull of salad, including seasoned cauliflower, olives and tomato slices.
-about half a steak
-half a bowl of pasta salad
-and a huge slice of chocolate mousse cake.

...You know that old expression, "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse"? Well, I ate the equivalent of about three horses tonight. No joke. I'm full right now, and I won't be eating again at least until breakfast tomorrow...

[This message has been edited by Shraze (edited 09-10-2008 @ 09:25 PM).]