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 »
Without Teeth
Turns out I'm not the only one in this household in need of medical attention. I took my cat to the vet for an eye infection, wound up getting her a $500 physical since she's overdue, and the doctor wants to pull her teeth in a few weeks for another $400. He says her teeth and gums are impossibly infected and there's nothing else that can be done now. Go »Thus Spoke Jeffy
This has been around for a while I'm sure, but it's new to me and I love it: The Nietzsche Family Circus. Go »Party Time, Excellent
I rarely enjoy going to parties and I never drink, so it has come as a surprise to me that I have lately developed a love of hosting parties where friends drink. Kelly and I have thrown three parties in three months, each with around 20-25 guests: A Labor Day cookout with swimming in the pool, a Halloween party with costumes and horror games, and a Christmas party with a gift swap. I think we're done for a little while, just to give ourselves a break, because it takes a lot of cleaning and shopping and preparing to throw parties like this. Go »Illinois 2013
Ten highlights of my just-concluded road trip to northern Illinois with Kelly, in chronological order: - Seeing lots of friends and family at our engagement party in St. Charles, our old hometown. I was glad to be able to talk to everyone there, and also glad that I now recognize almost everyone in Kelly's large family on sight. Go »No News is Good News
Yesterday I spent eight hours in a hospital waiting room in Tampa while my mother underwent surgery for a torn rotator cuff. She's recovering well, but the harm inflicted on me by eight hours of cable news has yet to wear off. It happened to be Fox News Channel, but that's irrelevant; all news is boring when you're in the hospital and are stuck watching it at length, because the newscasters only repeat over and over the breathless update that they have nothing more to report and here are the things they don't know yet. 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.