Florida 2010 – Days 2-4

 

OK, I'm really behind here; constant blogging on vacation is definitely a task! So let's sum up Friday through Sunday, shall we? (Magic Kingdom really deserves its own post.)

FRIDAY (3/5/10)

Today we headed out to the Tampa Zoo. It's a weird phenomenon when you're in Orlando; it seems like everything should be close and yet it seems to take time to get anywhere you want to go (besides Orlando). Some weird shift in the time-space continuum, I suppose.

The Tampa Zoo (or Lowry Zoo, if you prefer) was really fun. Yeah, I know, animal activists, zoos are evil, but reading all of the information blurbs about the animals sadly reveals that many of them are endangered, and most of the time NOT by us ugly Americans. I'm sure some zoos have some questionable tactics, but this one seemed to really care about the well-being of the animals.

My personal favorite was of course the rhinos. I don't know what it is; I always like seeing these guys. They also had a white tiger that was quite nifty to look at. And the monkeys, of course. I love me some monkeys. The orangutans were quite funny, using pieces of paper to shield themselves from the paparazzi (us). I was not able to ask any of them if they ever had the opportunity to star with Clint Eastwood in a feature film.

Back to the ranch and time for family fellowship again. The heater seems not to be working on our attached in-ground pool, so it's still a bit cold to swim in. I know, commoners… the things we faux riche have to deal with!

SATURDAY (3/6/10)

We headed out to Disney's Wilderness Campground today. Little trick – if you go to the Magic Kingdom gate and tell them you are going back to check out the Wilderness, you can avoid the parking fee. (If anybody from Disney is reading this blog, and why wouldn't they be, please ignore the previous sentence.) The Wilderness is quite nifty – lots of outdoorsy things to do, and they have a campground sing-along and S'mores fest every night with Chip and Dale. We took a boat ride from the campground over to a couple of the hotels attached to the Magic Kingdom and wandered around.

To say that the Disney folks are marketing geniuses would merely take up unnecessary space in these entries. The psychologically intriguing thing is how they get their parishioners to pony up for the experience. Breakfast with Mickey? $25 for children, $35 for adults. Want your daughter to look like a Disney princess? Starting price $250. Whether the recession is truly over or not, I don't know, but there were a lot of miniature Disney princesses wandering around these first few days, so obviously the marketing technique seems to be working.

We headed back to the Wilderness at night for the aforementioned sing-along. Eventually some cowboy came out and led the crowd in familiar old-timey tunes. He looked like Dave Coulier from Full House, so I spent most of the time wondering if (a) it really was Dave Coulier and (b) if so, is he that desperate for gigs? Anyway, Chip and Dale eventually come out and make their way around the crowd, hugging kids and posing for pictures. Again, the Disney experience works its magic, because my 4-year-old niece definitely had her first highlight of the 10 days being able to hug somebody in a big furry suit.

SUNDAY (3/7/10)

Time for Sunday Mass, and we visited the Mary, Queen of the Universe shrine in order to partake. (Nifty name for a shrine – probably attracts Catholics and Sci Fi fans alike.) The shrine is huge and impressive. The priest was warm and funny, though he did good-naturedly mention the fact that they had two offerings in order to maintain themselves. Since the Shrine is not attached to a parish, and they largely draw on tourist attendance, I suppose they need to make sure they can stay in existence, but judging from the size of the crowd and the trappings around us, things are going OK. We checked out the gift shop and museum attached to the worship space, and then headed back out.

Traffic around this area really makes me appreciate my (relatively) small-town life. I really don't complain as much about Grand Rapids traffic as I used to after visiting places like Atlanta, Los Angeles, and California. It's just another realm.

Today was just kind of a "chill-out" day, otherwise, since we will be hitting the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. My sister-in-law Carla came up with the rather ingenious strategy of having "chill-out" days in between the major event days. For the younger kids with us, I think it really helps, and it doesn't hurt for us older kids either.