Last full day

Our trip is coming to an end and we have a very long trip looming ahead of us.  Today, I was tired.  I'm ready for home.  I miss healthy food, my dog, my Mum, my own bed and QUIET!  There has been constant background noise for 2 weeks and I just long for stillness. 

We headed back to Disney World today and I was determined to use public transport so we had to take 2 busses.  It was lovely to get back onto Disney property - such friendly staff and happy guests.  The weather was quite chilly and rain was forecast, so there weren't many people at Typhoon Lagoon and we could do the waterslides without waiting too long.  They were lots of fun but not as scary as other water parks.  There was a really great ride which had 3 routes that you took on a double tube and it was like a rollercoaster because it went down AND up.  They also have the largest pool in the world there and it is a wave pool - making an enormous, powerful 6ft wave every 2 minutes.  It was great.  We stayed for about 2 hours and did all the slides and then I was cold.  So we all had tattoos done and then headed off.

I wanted to go back to Hollywood Studios so that the kids could see the Little Mermaid show.  We had to get another 2 busses to get there and then we had to queue for over an hour.  I got irritable and grumpy.  We were the last people to get in the theatre and couldn't find 3 seats together so went right to the back and I sat on a vacant wheelchair.  Luke refused to sit on "somebody else's" wheelchair so he sat on the floor where he couldn't possible see the stage.  I got furious with him and instructed him to sit on the damn wheelchair.  Then later when he asked for a gobstopper, I refused to get it for him because he hadn't said "please".  I'm just tired and ready to go home and I'm afraid that I got a bit grumpy.

Then it started to rain.  We got ANOTHER 2 busses down to Downtown Disney because we wanted to go to Disney Quest.  Our fairy must have been cross with me for shouting at Luke because our tickets had expired and DQ was full anyway.  So then we went to wait for ANOTHER bus to take us to SeaWorld and we waited for nearly an hour. 

Eventually I gave up and we hailed a cab and travelled back to SeaWorld quickly and in style. 

SeaWorld was great and we all perked up.  We saw 3 great shows.  The first one was "Pets Ahoy" which was about 30 mins of dogs, cats, rats, birds and pigs doing some amazing stuff that the SeaWorld trainers had taught them to do.  It was especially great because all the animals had been saved from animal shelters.  The kids loved it.

We also went on the Journey to Atlantis simulated helicopter trip to the Arctic Circle.  And we walked through this amazing pipe of sharks.

Then we went to a comedy show with some sea lions where they mocked the rest of the shows at SeaWorld.  It was really funny.

And then finally, we went to another Shamu show (the killer whale).

Luke and I got to ride on the Manta one final time - it really was like flying.  Ali looked after the bags.  And then the kids went down the wet ride twice and got absolutely soaked through. 

So it all ended up fine, but it hasn't been the best day.  To airport tomorrow.  Really looking forward to getting home.

Too much of a good thing

With the idea of "saving the best 'til last", I had planned 2 big days today and tomorrow - the best Orlando attractions - Sea World and Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure.  We got to SeaWorld this morning before it opened so we could do the roller coaster rides without a queue and then spend the rest of the day at the numerous shows.  The first ride, Kraken, was tame compared to Busch Gardens - quite smooth, upside down about 4 times, enjoyable.  Then we went on Manta and it was amazing.  I couldn't take my camera, but here is a pic from the net:

When we got on the roller coaster, it was a normal kind of seat but our feet were also clamped into position.  Before the ride started, the seat was tilted 90 degrees forwards so that we were facing the floor and kneeling and that's the position that we stayed in for the duration of the ride (only a couple of minutes or so I guess).  So, when we went down the inside of the biggest loop, we were going head first and the g-force pushed us right back into the seat.  It was great. 

When we finished the ride, we noticed that there was a 'single rider' queue - ie: we could jump to the front of the queue and fill up any single gaps when the roller coaster was being loaded.  We decided this was a quick way to get back on the ride so we did it.  We all got on the same ride and did it again and it was just as fun - only it seemed quicker. 

But... when we got off the ride, Ali was in tears.  Oh dear!!!  She felt nauseous on the ride and was hot and clammy.  So we went outside and she lay down for 30 mins or so and she didn't feel any better.  I went to the first aid room to find out if they had any beds for her to rest and, when I went back to pick her up, she had vomited and was really unhappy.  We took her to the first aid bed and she rinsed out her mouth and had a sleep.  The sheet and pillowcase on the first aid bed were disposable!

After a couple of hours, she was feeling better, but wanted to go back to the hotel.  I managed to persuade her to go to the killer whale show because it's the high point of the park and, if we didn't go back again, she'd be sad to miss out on that.  So we did a slow walk to the Shamu Stadium and watched the show.  It really was incredible but the kids didn't really enjoy it to its full.

What a pity!  We're here only for another day and they have run out of steam. 

After the show, Ali wanted to go back to the hotel so we did.  Oh - what a waste of a precious day here!  I wish there was something I could do to give these kids just one final little bit of energy.  Ali just wants to rest and Luke is reading a good book.  They love the hotel room and just haven't got the energy anymore for one final push!  There is so much to see and do at SeaWorld and we've only just had a little glance at it.  What a waste!!!

As a big final day treat, I had purchased tickets for Universal Studios and I'd also purchased express tickets so that we could jump the queues and ensure that we'd get through the whole park in a day.  Even with express tickets, it was going to be a long day.  But Ali just hasn't got the energy and it's a huge waste of money if they're going to konk out before lunch.  So, with dragged feet, I got a refund for my tickets (lucky that they agreed).  I gave Luke and Ali a choice of about a dozen things to do tomorrow and they've both chosen to go back to Disney World to go to Typhoon Lagoon - the water park that we missed out on.  I'm holding thumbs that they have a tiny bit of energy left at the end of the day to go back to Hollywood Studios to see the Little Mermaid show and the fireworks.  Oh I really hope they do.  It will be sad to end the holiday when the kids are just too pooped to enjoy the very last day.

When Ali was comfy in bed in the hotel, Luke and I went out for lunch.  We had a yummy Greek lunch, but I struggled to talk to Luke.  He just wanted to get back to his book.  When I asked him if he'd learnt a lot on his holiday, he said, "No, not really."  So I feel a bit deflated now.  This really has been an amazing holiday and I guess that, when the kids read this blog in a couple of years, they will remember the great time that we've had and hopefully will reflect on all the things that they did learn about different cultures, health, the size of our planet, efficiencies, safety, currencies, how privileged we are to live in Africa so close to real wild life, what it feels like to walk the streets without constantly being reminded of the inequality gap in SA etc etc.  It's been a very varied and interesting trip and I guess that we're just too close to it right now for the kids to really be able to reflect on the holiday and appreciate it. 

Got back to the hotel and Al's feeling much better.  We had a game of cards together and I think she understands it now... or nearly... she did ask, "What if we've both got the Heart Ace?" 

Maybe I should leave the kids in the hotel for the evening and go back to SeaWorld ...  I've still got heaps of energy and really don't want to waste our last 40 hours here!  Ho Hum. 

...

Later... I did go back to SeaWorld for 2 hours or so.  Kids happy in the hotel room with a movie.  I saw a dolphin show which was really brilliant.

I'm sure tomorrow will be a good day.  The kids have had a good recharge this afternoon.  I definitely overestimated how much energy they had - I thought I'd be the one struggling to keep up with them!

Fun in the sun

Every morning when we wake up, I've got to nag Luke to get up and get ready and, most mornings, when Ali and I are ready, Luke hasn't put on his shoes, or sunscreen or or or.  So this morning I made a checklist (with little tokkies for him to tick) and a time that all must be done by.  It worked a treat.  He was ready before me this morning.  Yay!

So we had a wet day in the sun today.  We went to Aquatica - a water slide park.  We got there before 9am and did a few slides before the crowds built up and boy, did they build up!!!  It got super busy.

The slides were really good.  The first one, we had to sit on a single tube and the turns turned us around so that we couldn't help going backwards.  It was great.  Then we went on a double tube down a slide in the dark and when we shooted down into the pool, Luke was catapulted right out of the tube!  There was another slide that had a section of the tube that was see-through and went through a tank with dolphins swimming around.  Another slide shot us into a type of spiral bowl that we circulated about 3 times before continuing down the chute.  Then there were toboggan races which were really fast (and the wait wasn't very long). 

One of the best rides of the day was on a large tube that we could all sit in and we zooted really fast down a straight slide with bumpy plateaus.  Unfortunately, this slide also had the longest wait and I got frustrated because they could have run the slide much more efficiently.  Happily though, I really haven't had any reason to get frustrated with inefficiency on this holiday - what a pleasure!

There was also a wave pool which the sun beds overlooked (just like a real beach). 

There was a really fun circular current pool that pushed us along in a whirly current - it was terrific. 

We loved the double tube ride and the wait wasn't too long so we did it quite a few times.

So, it was all just really fun and good.  But 5 hours was enough and then the sun and chlorine got the best of all of us.  Here are some wrinkly fingers especially for you, Flops.

And here's a picture of how hectic the queues got:

I had to have a giggle at some of the people at the park.  The coast is really not that far away, but some people chose to come and sit at Aquatica all day and I'm pretty sure that this couple didn't get wet:

These parks all have the same overpriced food so we opted for the healthier option...  McDonalds.  How scary is that - for me to consider McDonalds more healthy than theme park food.  Ali got into one of her uncontrollable giggly moods afterwards and talked about McEverything.  The funniest was the McWrap on the menu which sounds rude if you say it quickly. 

By the end of this holiday, I think I would have had enough of theme parks to last me the rest of my life.  Once you've paid the entrance fee, the park is hell-bent on getting more money out of you:
- they have photographers all over the place issuing out numbers on armbands of pictures that they took of us that we could purchase for a cool $20 each.
- if you want a locker, you've got to pay again each time you open the thing.
- bagels, ice-creams, candy floss, popcorn are all on sale for exorbitant prices.
- you can rent a towel for the day.
- today we saw another money-making racket... here's a family dryer for $3!!!

We stopped off at Walgreens afterwards.  How's this for a choice of chewing gum:

And you can buy a baby alligator head if that's your thing:

We're having a relaxing afternoon.  Seaworld tomorrow and they're open from 9am - 10pm.  I intend to get there before it opens and there's enough to see and do there to keep us busy until closing.  So a bit of a rest this afternoon is probably a good idea.

I've just done a naughty at the hotel 'business centre'.  I ordered some Dermalogica because it's cheaper here than in SA.  The postage cost $10 and then the hotel wanted to charge me an additional $10 handling charge.  And, to make it worse, Drugstore.com packaged my order in 2 boxes, so the hotel wanted $20.  Argh!  I got out of paying the first $10 by promising to pay the second.  But they have really been useless.  I've been down there 5 times to pick up the package and haven't managed - they don't even bring it to the room.  I told the lady behind the desk that I'm going to write a bad review on TripAdvisor, so she went to call her manager.  She came back with the package (which she hid behind a screen), but no manager.  After waiting for nearly 10 minutes, I just reached over the screen, took the package and walked out.  Everybody wants their piece of the tourist wallet!!!

Then we played shaya tuffel but it was a bit like playing against myself twice.  I must have said, "Ali, your go", "Luke your go", "You must follow suit", "a 2 of trumps beats any other suit" a gazillion times.  We didn't finish the game and ended up with a massive pillow fight.

ADRENALIN!!!

Today has been a long day but utterly fantastic. We got a bus down to Busch Gardens which got us there some time after 10am. As I said, I was really concerned that we'd spend the entire day in long queues, but it wasn't that bad. There were 2 rides that we had to wait for an hour or so, but I think we got lucky for the rest. We were on the go non-stop from 10 to 7 and then flopped into the bus. The rides were fabulous – like Ratanga on steroids.  I’m sure that this is many of your worst nightmares, but we enjoyed it. Sorry - not many photographs because my camera spent most of the day in a locker, but there are a few.

We stared off with Montu in Egypt. A great smooth, long ride with our feet dangling Cobra-style.  The queue was only 5 minutes or so and the ride set the tone for the rest of the day.  It was awesome!  We went upside down about 4 times on the ride and it was really fast.

Then we went to ShieKra in Sanleyville.  The vote is unanimous – in terms of thrill, this ride is at the top of the top for all of us.  We went up a very steep up and then a plateau at the top.  The ride nudged us to the edge of the plateau and then… stopped… and hung there with our feed dangling… down a VERTICAL cliff!!  Then, after about 4 seconds, it just dropped us down the cliff.  It was terrifying and exhilarating.  There was another cliff further down the track but no precarious hanging before that one.  The funniest thing was the pictures at the end of the ride.  I didn’t want to spend $20 on the print, so I sneakily tried to take a picture of the picture.  It’s not a great pic, but… check Luke’s face!!! He was terrified!  
 

Afterwards, Luke said, “ShieKra has changed me for life.”  He actually lost his nerve a little after the ride.

I tried to take some pictures of the ride to give you an idea, but when I was standing there waiting for the big drop to happen, it didn’t because they were experiencing technical difficulties – so we were lucky to get on the ride twice.

 

After ShieKra, we went to Kumba in Congo.  Kumba was also having technical difficulties.  We decided that we’d just join the queue anyway in the hope that the ride would start up again soon.  And… just our luck.  As we joined the queue, the ride opened again.  So we only had a 5 minute wait.  Kumba was also great.  Similar to Montu, but our feet weren’t dangling.  It was also smooth and went upside down.

Then we went to Gwazi in Morocco.  Gwazi is “The Southeast’s largest and fastest double wooden roller coaster”.  We waited in the queue for over an hour.  It’s a very old roller coaster so there are only 2 cars taking 24 people each, so the turnaround time is quite long.  I didn’t hold out much hope for this ride because it seemed so old fashioned.  But I was wrong… it was awesome.  The thing that made is scary was that it was so bumpy and rickety, but really fast and long.  I was terrified that it would fall of the tracks! 

The bumps got to Ali who had a bit of a headache to start the day.  At the end of the ride, she went really quiet – her head was throbbing.  I took her to the first aid room and she took a Panado and was back to her normal smiley self about 15 mins later.  Gotta love those little white pills! 

On the topic of headaches - giving up coffee has cured mine for sure!

These theme parks really rip you off when it comes to food, so I had decided that we going to eat outside of the park… at McDonald’s.  We had not yet had a McD since being in the US and it’s such a part of their culture.  I thought we had to have at least one.  The walk was long and hot because we had to walk right out the parking area (bordered by a wall) and then back along the main road.  We sat at quite a funky table:

 
The food was actually quite satisfying.  As usual, this is out tray of rubbish to throw away after the meal:

There is nothing light about my ecological footprint after this holiday. 

We went back to the park and queued for another hour to do the Cheetah Run.  One part of the queue was along a wall that was rough and bumpy and covered with squished pieces of chewed chewing gum…  yuck!  Then, further along the queue, somebody had puked… ewwwgh.   When we (finally) got on the ride, the attendants kept on giving the thumbs down because their equipment told them that things were not A OK.  Eventually, they had to ask Mr Fat Guy to please get off the ride!  This also happened at SheiKra!  It that was me, I would have been so embarrassed, but they didn’t seem to mind.  The ride was superfast and long and a real thrill.

Then we saw a ballroom dancing show which was glitzy and fantastic – not your traditional ballroom.
 

Then we went to the Phoenix which is like the Congo Queen but it goes all the way over.  The kids didn’t like the Congo Queen at Ratanga and they didn’t want to do the ride.  I have had a bet with the kids and they are not allowed to chicken out of any of the rides.  This one beat them, so I headed out on my own.  It was scary and dangling upside down for a couple of seconds really turned my tummy.  I gloated when I got back and then we went on the ShieKra again.  But the Phoenix ate Ali up and we had to go back to give her another chance.  Luke chickened out – can you believe it!!! So Ali went all on her own. 

Here she is returning triumphant!

 

She persuaded Luke it wasn’t that bad and then we all went on it together.  So nobody has completely chickened out of anything… yet.

And that was that… 7pm and time for the bus back to Orlando.  Take away pizza and now time for a good sleep.

Our fairy is still very much with us. Turns out that the Florida schools went back today (no Easter Monday public holiday in the US).  So the queues were much worse over the weekend.  Also, I was beginning to think that we should have done Disney at the end of our trip, but it's turned out really well with the way that we've done it. The Busch Gardens roller coasters were a much bigger thrill than the Disney rides so the kids would have been disappointed if we'd done Disney last. Disney was awesome with its creativity and the build-up to the rides in the queue. Busch Gardens queues were just boring queues, but the thrill factor was bigger than Disney for sure.

I’ve deliberately missed out the fact that Busch Gardens is centred in a big zoo.  My worst thing.  I just closed my eyes to all of those sad animals.

Another funny thing that happened.  On TV last night, in preparation for April Fools Day, there was a demo on how to apple pie a bed.  When we were on the bus on the way home, Ali whispered to me, “When Luke is in the shower, can we do that thing to the sheets in the bed?”  I just laughed and said, “You do realise that you have to sleep in that bed with him?!”

Dolphins, fish and food, food, food

Easter Sunday!  Americans are not really into Easter eggs.  When we went to the supermarket, I forgot to get some Easter Eggs and then, when I went shopping yesterday, I couldn't find any.  So I bought the kids some American candy - Skittles, M&Ms, bubble gum, giant suckers and Now and Laters.  When the alarm went off this morning, I jumped out of bed and hid the candy around the hotel room.  Ali woke up properly while I was putting some M&Ms in the microwave and she thought that I was going to melt them (for breakfast??!!)  Then the penny dropped and Luke, who normally takes about 15 mins to poke his head out from under the duvet, was out of bed and fully awake!  So we had a little Easter American candy hunt to start the day off with a real sugar burst!

 

Today was our Discovery Cove day.  I had been to the hotel reception to find out the best way to get there and they said we should order a cab which will cost over $50!   It's only about 7 miles down the road so that seemed excessive.  Darling Google helped me out and we caught the #8 Lynx bus which took us right to the DC entrance for a tenth of the price of a cab.  We'll be using Lynx a lot.  While we were waiting at the bus stop, this guy walked passed us and we all had a good laugh because when we said "good morning", it was clearly evident that he wasn't all that excited about the day of work ahead of him.

 

 

I've got very convenient amnesia when it comes to how much things cost.  I booked our DC day months ago and I don't have a clue how much it cost but I'm pretty sure it was worth every penny!  We had a really great day.  It started out with a monster breakfast (all food - breakfast, lunch and snacks, were included in the package).  We had ham and eggs, yoghurt and fruit, croissants, danishes, milk and fruit juice - the works (in addition to all the candy we'd consumed en route!)  The food felt as if it was for free (due to my amnesia), so we really took full advantage of it.  The snack cabanas had crisps, pretzels, ice cream sandwiches, strawberry ice lollies, slush puppy, sodas, chewy bars - we ate all of it.  Ali and Luke had 4 ice creams each (I had 3 - they were good!)  For the rest of the holiday, we've been sharing snacks to keep to our budget but today there was none of that.  And we had a proper lunch complete with rice and chicken, fries, caesar salad (I loved the caesar salads here - I think I've ordered one every day), fruit salad, chocolate brownies.  And I put 3 oranges and 3 snack bars in my bag for tomorrow.  Yes - we were PIGS!!!  Back to Ensure and frugality tomorrow.

 

OK - enough about the food.  I don't even want to know how much weight I've put on but I'm sure it will drop off when I get back into my normal routine of eating basic healthy food.   And don't worry, Lis - the food has been difficult but I really have made a huge effort to try and get some nutrients into Luke and Ali and I haven't allowed them to overdose on sugar (except for today, but it's Easter!)

 

So, first we got kitted out in our wetsuits.

 

And we put on sun cream which was supplied by DC because it's not harmful to the sea life.  It was like gluing on a layer of plastic.  Luke did not enjoy it.

 

Then we got into their coral reef pool.  Oh my goodness - it was like swimming in a fish tank!  We had goggles and snorkels and as soon as we got into the water, there were about 3 rays swimming right under us.  It was amazing.  I was so intrigued by all the beautiful fishes - their glorious colours and peaceful manner.  We swam into the deeper water and it was feeding time, so we were completely surrounded by fish.  After about 20 mins or so, I realised that Ali wasn't with Luke and I.  I looked around and couldn't see her.  Eventually I got out of the water and found her with our stuff near the sun beds.  She was scared of the rays and had missed the whole thing!!!  I felt terrible that I hadn't taken her by the hand and made sure that she was there with us.  We had to get the lady at the snack bar to persuade her that these sting rays couldn't sting - only then would she go back in the water.  Funny girl - did she really think that they'd let about 100 people swim in a tank full of stinging sting rays!!!  Anyway - she did get in and absolutely loved it and, by the end of the day, she even reached down to touch a ray. 

 

My camera isn't waterproof so there are no pictures I'm afraid.  And nor are they pictures of the next adventure - certainly one of the big highlights of the trip so far. 

 

I had booked a swim with a dolphin as a special Easter treat.  I knew that Luke would love the roller coasters and I was concerned that Ali wouldn't but I know how much she loves animals so the dolphin swim was her thing.  I didn't realise that she would turn out into such an adrenalin junkie and love the roller coasters just as much as Luke.  And Luke loved today just as much as Ali.  So it's all just a whole lot of great.

 

Anyway - back to the dolphin swim.  Our 'slot' was 10:30 and off we headed to the sea horse cabana to be guided to the dolphin swim area.  After a briefing and a video, we waded to a section of the pool where our guide met us and then introduced us to Rose - our dolphin.  Rose was AMAZING!  She came right up close so that we could all stroke her on her back behind her blowhole.  Her skin was silky and spongy.  On our hand signals, she showed us a flipper, showed us her tail, rolled over onto her back, made a farting noise, clapped her fins, waved goodbye etc etc.  All rewarded by sardines obviously.  Then we took it in turns to swim out into the deeper water and Rose came out and stopped next to us. Then we held on to her with one hand on the dorsal fin and the other hand on the pectoral fin and she swam about 10 meters pulling us along.  It was really incredible.  What training!  It takes about 4 years to train each dolphin and there are over 30 dolphins at DC.

 

Mum, I'm sure you're appalled and I don't want to Google Discovery Cove because I'm sure I'll find all sorts of negativity about how commercial it is and there will be animal rights activists out there that are trying to shut the place down I'm sure.  But Luke and Ali absolutely loved it and Rose seemed quite happy.  It was an amazing experience. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our encounter with Rose.  There were photographers around, but the pictures were super expensive.  There was a guy sitting on a rock taking some pictures on his iPad because his family was in our group.  So I asked him to take some pictures of us too and he said he'd email them to me.  I haven't received anything from him yet, but if I do, I'll post some pics.  We did, however, get a picture of another bunch of people during their dolphin encounter through a glass window they had.  Not a great picture, but you can see the dolphin in front of them.

 

 

After the dolphin swim, we went in their fresh water stream where we glided along in the current for an hour or so.  There were no fish and the water was chlorinated so it was really just a big swimming pool, but it was fun.

 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the coral reef pool watching the fish. 

 

I also have to mention the bathroom facilities.  There was a wall of shelves filled with fresh towels that didn't ever get empty.  Dad would have loved it.  We didn't have to use soggy towels at all.  The showers were hot and had Crabtree and Evelyn shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion.  I got cold after a while in the coral reef pool, so I went and had a warm shower, dried off with a fluffy warm towel and then put on a new dry wetsuit - what luxury!  Sandy VH, you'll have a fit to know that each of us must have used about 4 towels during the day!

 

 

 

We left at about 5 or so and got the bus back to the hotel and now the kids are reading and we'll go to sleep soon.

 

Tomorrow, we're going to get a bus to the west coast of Florida to go to Busch gardens.  Back to more roller coasters and, I fear, very long queues.  I have a sneaky suspicion that tomorrow's going to be the worst day for queues, so I'm just going to have to take lots of deep breaths.

Schloomph day

We all got a really long sleep last night but eventually I had to drag Luke away from his book because we had decided to go out for breakfast.  We've all been drinking supplement shakes for breakfast since we arrived so we were really excited to eat a breakfast that we have to chew.  I picked the right place because we went to Denny's which had a menu dedicated completely to bacon - Ali's favourite.  Check this out... a maple bacon sundae!

 

We had the works - complete with hash browns and pancakes.

Then I left the kids at the hotel and they had a relaxing day watching TV, reading books and swimming in the pool. 

I went to see if I could find a new pair of jeans and finish off my shopping at Gap.

This evening, we went out for a pizza and then ate an entire tub of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk on the bed in front of a flick.

NASA

Today we got stuck in a tourist trap.  I'm sure you've been to the cable way when a big tourist bus has arrived carrying 50 or so tourists with their backpacks and happy snappy cameras?  That was us today.

The bus stopped at about 4 other hotels to pick up other tourists before finally setting off, so it took us 2 hours to get there.  I'm really interested in the whole space race, the technology behind sending a rocket up into space and the courage of those astronauts to sit in a little capsule on top of a massive rocket.  Luke and Ali were definitely not as interested in the whole day as I was.  I guess it's a really foreign thing to them.  I don't think that Ali understood the concept of the ISS - that there is a bunch of people up there right now orbiting the earth.  Also, I think that the line between actual artefacts and mock ups was difficult to understand because the replicas of the rockets were life size and looked so real. 

We've been really spoilt by Disney World's attractions bringing everything to life in such creative ways.  So walking through a museum hall was a bit boring for the kids I think.  And there was a lot of waiting in long queues.

Sorry - I'm sounding a bit negative.  I guess I was a bit disappointed, but all in all, we did have a good day and I'm sure the kids learnt loads.  It was quite ra ra America and I don't think that they gave the Russians quite enough credit for the success of their space program.

There also wasn't much mention of the Mir space station which I have read about and it's really fascinating. 

Anyway, we started off in the rocket garden.

I was interested in the big explosive bolts that they attach the rocket to on the launch pad that only release when there is enough pressure built up to adequately propel the rocket.  The Americans only realised that this was necessary after crashing quite a few rockets but retrospectively, it seems quite obvious.  In the rocket garden, they also had the original bridge that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins walked across to board their rocket. 

After the rocket garden, we saw an amazing 3D Imax movie of the ISS which was the highlight of the day for me.  It was wonderfully real.  I love the footage of the astronauts moving between the modules and doing simple things like brushing their teeth.  Also, it's interesting to see what is up there in the ISS and all the little compartments and cupboards - everything that is up there has been transported up in a very expensive rocket.  I thought about Mark a lot today - about him being intrigued by space travel as a kid and then making a dream come true.  In some of the exhibits they said, "Maybe one day you too will go to space".  I guess that most people laugh this off as far-fetched.  I feel very privileged to know somebody who has actually been up there and my interest in visiting the Kennedy Space Centre was definitely thanks to Mark and his trip to space.  So thanks Mark!

The KSC has just opened a new Angry Birds experience at the centre.  It is a kids play centre where they have set up an interactive angry birds game.  Luke and Ali came alive here.

I guess it was good to have something there that they enjoyed doing.  But I felt that it was a bit out of place and took up some valuable time.  I would have liked to go to the astronauts Hall of Fame (which would have bored the kids speechless!) but we didn't have time to go.

Then we went on the Shuttle Launch Experience which was pretty cool and Luke's favourite part of the day.  We sat on a chair and strapped ourselves in and then they simulated a shuttle launch.  The whole room tilted up 80 degrees or so and then they shook the room about as if the rockets were boosting behind us.  I think it was quite realistic - but without the fear that those astronauts must feel.

After that, we got on a bus to go and have a look around the launch areas.  The first stop was a bit of a waste of time.  The kids had a hot dog while I went up to the viewing platform.

One thing that was really intriguing was the 'crawler' which carts the rocket from the assembly building (ENORMOUS) to the rocket launch site.  In this picture below, you can see a dual carriage way on the far right (not a great pic).

 

There is a massive tractor type thing called a "crawler" and one set of "wheels" is on one side of the dual carriage way and the  other set of wheels is on the other side.  Have a look at the crawler under the launch platform in this picture compared to the size of the people and the bus.

 

And this picture below shows 2 life size crawler cleats: 

That was fascinating to me.  The other thing that I didn't know was that there were over 160 shuttle missions between 1981 to 2011 - 2 of which ended up in fatal explosions.  I had no idea that there were so many of them.

I think we were all happy to relax in the bus on the way home.  When we got off the bus, we nearly crashed into a guy on a bicycle carrying a whole lot of parrots.  This was Ali's favourite part of the day.

The hotel has a very tacky and overpriced eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet and we had dinner there.  Luke was delighted.  The best meal that we've had in Florida in his opinion.  I've been trying to find some healthy gourmet food and all the kids want is spaghetti, canned peaches and soft serve.  Ali came to the table with a whole plate of canned peaches and was very disappointed when Luke and I pointed out that they were full of sugar and therefor no good for a main meal.  So she went back to the buffet and served herself a massive plat of rice and, the best thing that she could find to put on top of the rice, was the minestrone!  She wolfed that down, chased by the peaches.  Luke was delighted to be able to make his own cookie and icecream sandwich for desert and we all shared an American waffle (shaped like Mickey) with maple syrup and soft serve.

We're taking the day off tomorrow.  We all need a break.  So we'll schloomph around the pool, read books and maybe watch a movie.   It will be good to recharge.