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amanda_loddenYesterday's blisters and stiffness resulted in a change of plans for today. John was least interested in the Universal Studios trip (for Harry Potter, which the kids specifically asked for), and also so stiff that he was limping. We decided to make today the Universal Studios day, and let John stay home. I popped my blisters, stuck a bandage over them, wrapped my ankle up because I noticed that I still rolled my foot over to the side to avoid walking on the blistered area, and off we went. Once again, Team Enthusiasm blazed the trail, with Nick and I following much later. So late, in fact, that we had lunch with John before heading out.
Yesterday's thunderstorm did not reduce the temperature today, so we were back to 98 degree heat with 9000% humidity. Even just going to lunch made us wilt, and Nick and I discussed the possibility of skipping it entirely and staying home. Alas, he had called his mother that morning, who told him to take pictures at the Harry Potter exhibit at Universal. This would prove to be our undoing.
We got to the park, and headed for the Universal Studios side. I grabbed a map, and folded it in half so that I was only looking at the side with Harry Potter, and Nick and I set off, plotting a course towards Hogwart's. We passed Shrek, and decided to give it a try, and I mentally complained about the accuracy of the map, because it didn't show several of the side roads, and I couldn't find Shrek on it. I also tried to call Shane so that we could meet up. I got his voicemail, which has been pretty standard for this trip, but he always calls me back when he's out of the ride or line or whatever, so I was not worried.
Still in line for Shrek, I checked the time on my phone and realized that I had a missed call from Shane.
We ended up doing that all day-- I'd text him with information, and he'd leave me voicemail. I use Google Voice for voicemail, which transcribes the messages so that I don't have to call in the check them (and in fact, CAN'T call in to check them). On the emails, I can play the mp3 of the voicemail. On my phone, I just get the transcribed bit as a text. Unfortunately, GV can't handle the astonishing amount of background noise and overloaded-cell-network static, so what I got was the world's most frustrating game of Telephone ever. Later, Shane reported that he got my texts out of order, so it was pretty frustrating for him too.
Eventually, the horridness of the map coupled with garbled texts from Shane saying we were in the "long park" led me to realize that I'd screwed up and taken Nick to the wrong park-- Harry Potter is in Islands of Adventure. I apologized to Nick and told him that since I had made the mistake, I would pay for a ticket upgrade to let us hop between the parks so that he could still see HP. We made our way over to Guest Services, where I explained that I'd brought us to the wrong park. The woman behind the desk sighed at me, and I hastily added that I realized it was MY mistake and I was willing to pay for the upgrade to fix it. She scanned the ticket, saw our entry time, looked at the clock, and commented that we had been there for about an hour. I nodded and explained that we went on Shrek, and that was my clue that we were in the wrong place because I couldn't find Shrek on the map. She took the old tickets, gave us new ones without charging us, and walked us to the exit gate.
Still unable to get a hold of Shane, Nick and I went into Islands of Adventures and started making our way towards the Harry Potter area. None of the rides on the way held any appeal, so we didn't go on any of them, but we went into a LOT of gift shops-- it was the only place we could find with any air conditioning. So we hopped from gift shop to gift shop, trying to keep ourselves cool. Once we got to Harry Potter, we looked around and realized that the place was packed, all the rides were either outside or had three-hour-long lines, and we were tired and hot and sick of the idea of walking around in the heat. We took a few pictures for Lisa, wandered around Honeydukes where Nick got some Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and Nick decided that he wanted the pool more than he wanted anything to do with the park and the heat and the walking. Were it not for the pictures he promised to Lisa, he probably wouldn't have gone at all, so I would just like to say: Lisa, you better enjoy those damned pictures. I can live with the waste of ticket costs (since we had pre-purchased them they were going to cost me the same amount whether we went or not), but for your pictures I had to walk around in the heat again, and I have blisters on my blisters now.
Dinner tonight was pizza because it meant we didn't have to go outside. John spent the day doing laundry and badgering the condo rental people til they sent someone out to fix the Internet connection, so the 'net connection is better now.
Yesterday's thunderstorm did not reduce the temperature today, so we were back to 98 degree heat with 9000% humidity. Even just going to lunch made us wilt, and Nick and I discussed the possibility of skipping it entirely and staying home. Alas, he had called his mother that morning, who told him to take pictures at the Harry Potter exhibit at Universal. This would prove to be our undoing.
We got to the park, and headed for the Universal Studios side. I grabbed a map, and folded it in half so that I was only looking at the side with Harry Potter, and Nick and I set off, plotting a course towards Hogwart's. We passed Shrek, and decided to give it a try, and I mentally complained about the accuracy of the map, because it didn't show several of the side roads, and I couldn't find Shrek on it. I also tried to call Shane so that we could meet up. I got his voicemail, which has been pretty standard for this trip, but he always calls me back when he's out of the ride or line or whatever, so I was not worried.
Still in line for Shrek, I checked the time on my phone and realized that I had a missed call from Shane.
We ended up doing that all day-- I'd text him with information, and he'd leave me voicemail. I use Google Voice for voicemail, which transcribes the messages so that I don't have to call in the check them (and in fact, CAN'T call in to check them). On the emails, I can play the mp3 of the voicemail. On my phone, I just get the transcribed bit as a text. Unfortunately, GV can't handle the astonishing amount of background noise and overloaded-cell-network static, so what I got was the world's most frustrating game of Telephone ever. Later, Shane reported that he got my texts out of order, so it was pretty frustrating for him too.
Eventually, the horridness of the map coupled with garbled texts from Shane saying we were in the "long park" led me to realize that I'd screwed up and taken Nick to the wrong park-- Harry Potter is in Islands of Adventure. I apologized to Nick and told him that since I had made the mistake, I would pay for a ticket upgrade to let us hop between the parks so that he could still see HP. We made our way over to Guest Services, where I explained that I'd brought us to the wrong park. The woman behind the desk sighed at me, and I hastily added that I realized it was MY mistake and I was willing to pay for the upgrade to fix it. She scanned the ticket, saw our entry time, looked at the clock, and commented that we had been there for about an hour. I nodded and explained that we went on Shrek, and that was my clue that we were in the wrong place because I couldn't find Shrek on the map. She took the old tickets, gave us new ones without charging us, and walked us to the exit gate.
Still unable to get a hold of Shane, Nick and I went into Islands of Adventures and started making our way towards the Harry Potter area. None of the rides on the way held any appeal, so we didn't go on any of them, but we went into a LOT of gift shops-- it was the only place we could find with any air conditioning. So we hopped from gift shop to gift shop, trying to keep ourselves cool. Once we got to Harry Potter, we looked around and realized that the place was packed, all the rides were either outside or had three-hour-long lines, and we were tired and hot and sick of the idea of walking around in the heat. We took a few pictures for Lisa, wandered around Honeydukes where Nick got some Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and Nick decided that he wanted the pool more than he wanted anything to do with the park and the heat and the walking. Were it not for the pictures he promised to Lisa, he probably wouldn't have gone at all, so I would just like to say: Lisa, you better enjoy those damned pictures. I can live with the waste of ticket costs (since we had pre-purchased them they were going to cost me the same amount whether we went or not), but for your pictures I had to walk around in the heat again, and I have blisters on my blisters now.
Dinner tonight was pizza because it meant we didn't have to go outside. John spent the day doing laundry and badgering the condo rental people til they sent someone out to fix the Internet connection, so the 'net connection is better now.
