24 Hours in Orlando
by Scott Hardie on August 10, 2014
Recent conversation with Brenda:
me: "It's nice to meet you!"
Brenda: "It's nice to meet you too!"
As Steve mentioned, Kelly and I drove up to Orlando on Friday night to have dinner with the vacationing West family. We ate at Gary's Oyster Bar and Seafood House, the same rustic seafood shack where Denise and Matthew ate with us four years ago as part of GooCon: Champions Gate. It was great to meet Brenda and Lauren and Olivia and hear about the fun week they'd had. Funeratic didn't even come up in conversation, except once when we joked about how it hadn't. :-) Steve, I'm so glad that you made time for us during your trip, and that you had a great time visiting Florida.
Since we were in Orlando anyway, Kelly and I decided to stay overnight and make a Saturday getaway out of it.
First we went to Hollywood Drive-In Golf. Most people pass right by this little appendage on the end of CityWalk on their long hike into Universal Studios, but we made a special trip there just for this, and it was worth it. We play a lot of mini-golf because it's one of Kelly's favorite activities, and this might be the best we've ever played: Well-designed holes, funny theming, lots of little hidden jokes if you're paying attention, and a scavenger hunt for specific details with coupons as prizes. We were very pleased with this. We stayed for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. where the food was so-so, and the waiter played a lengthy game of movie trivia with us, to my delight and Kelly's quiet annoyance.
Next stop: WonderWorks, one of the better-known local attractions around Orlando, a three-story entertainment complex with lots of fun science exhibits and weird things to play with. This is the kind of business that I'd love to design and operate someday as a dream job, and it's what I've already done in a virtual way with Funeratic. We skipped probably half of the activities there because I was over the weight limit and Kelly dislikes violent motion-simulator rides, but we liked what we did play with. My inability to resist buying Mr. Bacon's Big Adventure when I spotted it in the clearance bin at the gift shop was another sign that I have a problem with board games.
After a quick ride around the Disney World monorail that Kelly has always wanted to check out, we concluded the day at Disney's Spirit of Aloha dinner show, something that I treasured as a kid and wanted to share with Kelly. We had a fantastic tropical feast of bbq pulled pork and pineapple-caramel bread pudding (so much for discipline on my diet), and saw a great show with fire dancing and Hawaiian music. The only thing that might have improved the show was seeing it after dark when it's lit with colorful stage lights, but it was pretty damn impressive even in the sunshine. We were both elated, and determined to have more weekend getaways like this in the future.
Kelly shared her photos of the day on Facebook.
One Reply to 24 Hours in Orlando
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Deg-Deg, Sims... Deg-Deg Forever
I really want to enjoy playing The Sims 2. I've logged thousands of hours on the first Sims and hundreds on the sequel. The problem is that I can't even play it in the first place in order to enjoy playing it. Go »De-Gifting
I'd like to think I'm getting better at white elephant games since I play them every December, but evidence proves otherwise: After losing out on a crock pot, a board game, a video game, a sushi kit, a yoga mat, and a nightrobe, I finally took home a Z-grade zombie movie on DVD, and a Ben Franklin t-shirt. Woo! On the other hand, I scored a quesadilla maker at another party that has been pretty good so far. Go »World Trade, Like, Something
I love it when two teenagers ring up and bag my groceries. "Did you ever see that Nicolas Cage movie about 9/11? I watched that last night, and, like, it got me thinking about how bad that was." Go »Pico de Greedo
On Friday, my company threw a part Mexican, part Star Wars party in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and Star Wars Day ("May the 4th be with you"). It was a weird combination but it worked, with games like a lightsaber piñata bash. Kelly made "lightsabers" (pretzel rods frosted with blue and red frosting), but she really got interested when I mentioned that the salsa contest offered three prizes and only had three teams on the signup sheet. Go »Bogus
You know what I bet would sell really well to people who want to be hipsters and don't get it? A "Wyld Stallyns" t-shirt. Go »
Steve West | August 11, 2014
Brenda laughed out loud to your reference of "Recent conversation with Brenda". She moved you above me on the comedy meter. I'm pretty convinced I'm not as funny as I think I am but I still crack myself up. Brenda has me rated just above Howie Mandel and Carrot Top but not as funny as Gallagher. So feel free to move yourself up a notch on the comedy meter. Congratulations.