la-de-dah day

George took Rebecca to church this morning and then she had some errands to do as well.  Nathan was busy doing homework.  He has 2 papers to write by Monday and 1 by Wednesday.  I relaxed.  Nathan took several breaks.  We went on a walk behind our condo.  There is a nice lake.  We took a lot of pictures of the family of cranes.

What's left of a alligator snack.

another break to check out the condo pool

working hard or hardly working. 

Ahhhh

Nathan and I had left-over Olive Garden food for lunch.  George and Rebecca finally got home a little after 3 pm.  We left about 4 pm to drive to Ocala, Florida to meet 2 of my high school classmates for dinner at Amrit Palace.  Delicious Indian food. It was about 1 1/2 hour drive away.

You can't tell very well but a waiter decided to get into the picture at the head of the table.  But we have Amanda,& Shanta, Cheryl & Gary and George & me.  

me, Cheryl and Shanta

the sun was setting on our drive home.  

Nathan got most of 2 of his papers done, Rebecca got most of her errands done and George and I relaxed.  Nice day.

.

20,000 steps today

Whew what a day!  We went to Universal Studios,  We got there just in time for it to open.  So it was not very crowded.  We headed right away to the Harry Potter section.

Before exploring the Diagon Alley we waited in line for an hour for our first ride.  We did not get in a line after that unless it was less than a 1/2 hour line .  They have a lot to look at while you are moving in the line.  After that we explored the area and went on several more rides. 

Nathan and Rebecca went on the loop-de-loup ride.  Not me.

Then we went to the King Cross station to take the Hogwarts Express to the other close theme park.

By then it was time for lunch

I had the ribs, corn and potatoes with Hogs Brew.  Nathan had a bunch of side dishes with the Butter Beer (like a cream soda) and Rebecca had the pumpkin juice with her fish and chips and George had soup and salad. We explored the Harry Potter stuff in this section.  It had a different style.  It was decorated like winter.  Hard to believe since it was 90 degrees out.

One more ride.  Jet lag hit Rebecca plus this ride hurt her eyes.  So we went to watch a silly Sinbad Action show.  After that she wanted to take a break.  The rest of of left Harry Potter and wandered through this park to get over to the water rides.  The most fun one of the day was the Popeye River Raft one.  We were totally drenched and cooled off nicely.  

Then on to Jurassic Park

Then back to the Hogwarts Express to go back to the first area.  Rebecca met us at the station.  We went for an ice cream break.

This sort of shows the snow covered roofs of Hogwarts next to the tropical rain forest of Jurassic Park.  The music changed from "world to world".

When we bought our tickets to go into the park we had to do a finger print.  We had to use our finger print at other times during the day, like to put our stuff in a locker before different rides.  

We left the park about 6:30 pm.  After we got home and changed clothes (my clothes were still wet) we went to Olive Garden for dinner.

I don't think I actually did 20,000 steps, though it felt like it.  I think the jostling of some of the rides made the count go off.  

Friday, April 29

We were up at 3 am to go to the airport.  That is way too early in my book.  No problems with any of our flights.  We changed planes in Denver, where it was snowing.  Landed in Orlando, where it was 90 degrees.  Quite the contrast.  Rebecca had arrived first, then Nathan. We arrived about 3:30 pm.  By the time we got our luggage, our rental car and driven the 12 miles to the condo it was 6:30 pm.  We did not count on driving through rush hour.  It took us over an hour to drive the 12 miles.  Once we checked in and got a little organized we walked down the street to a TGI Fridays.  This is a very nice condo.  Townhouse style, with the bedrooms and 1 bath upstairs and the living room, dining room, kitchen and one bath downstairs.  We have not had a chance to explore the whole resort yet.  We are so lucky to have this place.All thanks to my great friend Trudy.  It is a time-share place that they are letting us use.

our car and condo

right in front of our resort

oreo cookie, ice cream sandwich

Rebecca was in heaven.  She has a week to get her fill of American food. 

After dinner we walked to the Publix Grocery Store to buy a few things for the week.  It seemed like a lot longer walk home than it had been getting to the grocery store.  

home safe and sound

Today was a relaxing day but it started early. Nathan had to be up by 6 am to get ready to leave.  He looked like quite the professional.  He was helping to organize a Duke employment networking event for students to meet with possible employment groups.  It worked out well because it was in DC.  He will go back to Duke with other students on Tues night.

It was quite chilly out this morning.  We waited for the frost to melt and then we went on a nice neighborhood walk.  Pam you did not tell us that there was a nice bike/walking trail right close to the hotel.

Even a Big Foot sighting

We had late check out at the hotel.  We ate some left-overs for lunch.  Then it was time to check out of the hotel and go to the metro station to head off to the airport.

It took us a little bit to figure out the metro system.  I guess you buy a $2 pass and then add to it.  It is nice if you are going to use it more than once.  But it is somewhat of an expense if you are only using it once.  We finally figured it out.  It was funny because just after we figured it out then about 3 people came in to use the system and they did not know what to do. We could help them like we were natives.  :-)

We made it to the airport with about 15 minutes to spare.  Southwest is at the furthest gate possible.  Quite a walk.  We had C seating so we did not have a lot of choice.  We each had a middle seat. Then we had a 3 hour layover in Kansas City.  We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant.  Not a lot of choice here for places to eat.

I had a margarita and a burrito.  George had the tacos.  None of it was very good but it was filling and it did help to pass the time.

a gorgeous sunset.

The flight to Portland was not crowded so we could stretch out.That was nice. We had left our car at the long term parking.  We were home by 10:45 pm.  The cats were all fine.  I like going on trips but I definitely like to get home and sleep in my own bed again.  I need to get back with eating my usual meals.

trails, mazes caves and dinner

We picked up Linda about 9:30 am.  It was chilly so we all bundled up.  We had heard that it might snow.  We drove to Shenandoah National Park a little over an hour away. But once we got there we found that the park was closed because they had had a dusting of snow last night.  So we went on to the Shenandoah River State Park and walked a trail beside the river.

overlook view point

at the visitor's center

family photo by the river

Then we drove into Luray for lunch

Odd mix of American food plus Tandoori vegetables in the vegetarian section.  I had a Virgin Reuben (no meat).  It was good.

We drove to the Luray Caverns.  We walked the Garden Maze first.  That was fun.

Then we went to the caverns which were very impressive.

reflections in the water

lit from behind

one room had an organ that plays off of some of the stalactites = very cool

We then went to Susan (George's cousin) and Rob's home for dinner.  That was very nice.  

gas lamp in front of their home.

Susan and Rob and I was trying to include their dog which moved right when I was taking the picture. 

cute miniature daffodil 

It is hard to believe that soon we will be heading home.  Nathan has a 2 day employment networking event that he helped to organize for Duke students.  So he will head off bright and early in the morning.  We will be able to be more leisurely.