July 2 - We went to pick up my parents from the airport. Up until this point the trip was wonderful. That sounds funny, but I don't mean that against my parents in any way. We had not hit any toll roads or excessive traffic, so it was awesome! As soon as we picked up my parents we hit so many tolls that I swear we financed their next road project. We immediately went over to Celebration, Florida, which, as I understand it, was formerly owned by Disney. In any event, it was beautiful there! We ate lunch at one of the lakeside shops in the village and walked around from shop to shop. We found a dog bakery and bought some 4th of July treats for Sammie and then found a shop that was selling $5 4th of July shirts with Celebration, Florida on them. We each chose a different design. Our goal was to come back to Celebration for the fireworks display on Monday so we walked around to see where the best area was to see the fireworks.
After some time, we drove down to the church that was near Celebration and went to Mass. It was a nice church, which seemed to be brand new. After this, we went to a local Italian restaurant back in Kissimee to celebrate our anniversary. It was an ok establishment, but not great. The food was fine, but it was more of a greasy spoon, than an elegant restaurant. Personally, I'm glad that I forgot the name because I won't be going there again. We went to Publix then and got a cake to celebrate and went back to our condo to have cake and coffee and open presents. Jill got a computer for her anniversary gift, Dad got a 40th anniversary Buffalo Sabres photo book, Mom got a Keurig K-Cup storage drawer, some K-cups, and a gift card to a massage parlor. Mom and Dad were having birthdays, so that is why they were getting gifts. I had gotten my gift before we left, so that is why I did not get a gift that day.
July 3 - This day, we planned to drive to see Jill's mom. She lives just south of Tampa, so all in all we were traversing the whole state. We got on Interstate 4 and (some would say predictably) there was a furniture truck about 1/4 of a mile in front of us that caught on fire. The whole highway shut down as police cars and fire engines zoomed by us. Everyone shut off their cars and began walking around to see what was going on, including Jill. There was a car next to us with a long-haired dark skinned man, who we referred to as Lenny Kravitz, and then another guy who seemed to be following him around giving directions, who we referred to as "The Manager". Lenny and The Manager popped the trunk of their car and began to set up for a picnic, including bottles of pop and snacks. We turned off the car for a period of time, and then realizing how foolish this was in the Florida heat and humidity turned it back on so that we could run the A/C. After a couple of hours, we finally were able to get moving, just as The Manager finished his Mountain Dew. We made it to see Jill's mom around 4:00 and then had dinner with her mom and grandfather, who lives next door to Jill's mom. We talked for awhile and had a nice dessert, then got back in the car and drove back to our resort without incident. It's funny, but when you go to see relatives, it almost always involves a meal and talking. There isn't any going out, or big event. It's always something lazy.
July 4 - This was our most active day on the trip, and also one of the more frustrating. After breakfast we drove down to Disney Marketplace and walked through the communities surrounding it, as well as all of the shops. We took the small tourist boat to get from one end to the other and I couldn't help thinking when we were in the middle of the lake that the bars/clubs around this area must gain a lot of attention after hours. My parents bought my newphews some Mickey Mouse bobbleheads and we took a shuttle bus, then a skytram around to visit all of the theme parks. We didn't go in any of them. We were just checking everything out.After our experience with the traffic yesterday, we decided that traveling to Celebration to see the Fireworks would not be a good idea. There was one main access road to let people in and out of the area and the section of Celebration where the Fireworks were going off was deep into the community, so we probably would be sitting in traffic for quite some time. We decided to go to get some pizza from Pizza Hut and bring it back to our condo and watch the Fireworks from our screened in porch. What a great decision that was! We had a tremedous view of the area as well as 3-4 sets of fireworks. The only thing we missed out on was music, but it was a great night. We had some more anniversay/birthday cake and all-in-all called it a great night. One of the big things that we were trying to figure out is where I could find a whimsical themed picture frame that read "Orlando". There were several that were "Disney World" themed, but I didn't want one of those because we weren't going to Disney and I preferred to have a themed frame from the area instead of a theme park. This would prove to be very challenging.
July 5 - We started off the day by going to have breakfast at Bob Evans. This is one of my Mom's favorite places to have breakfast. We started off the day by going to the various Flea Market/Premium Outlet Malls that were in the area. We walked around those for some time, with the majority of the experience being to distract my dad from buying overpriced junk. We continued to look for the elusive frame, without luck. Other than a free key chain that Jill got, neither her nor I made a purchase. My dad bought a pair of aviator sunglasses "Pull 'er over" and some socks. Apparently they don't sell those in New York. I actually think the real reason was that he forgot to pack any and was looking for a store and figured he could get a better deal at this Flea Market, but the booth owners seemed to be doing some shady math. After walking the Premium Outlets, we went back to the condo and decided to hit the pool. Amazingly, we had been in Orlando for over 4 days and this was the first time we were in the water. There was a blow up ball and the 4 of us played a game of how many times we could hit the ball before it hit the ground. Our record was 66. After some time, we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. That night, we went to eat at Don Pablo's Mexican Restaurant. It was so good! Jill got 2 gigantic Margaritas that must have put into orbit. Both of us had bottomless tacos. That night, we went back home and immediately hit the treadmill, before relaxing on the screened in porch.
July 6 - We woke up and decided to make this a longer pool day. My dad scouted out the pool and noticed that there was a section of chairs that was almost entirely shaded by trees. We staked out these chairs and literally spent hours there. Jill and I resumed our blow up ball hitting contest and set a 2 person record of 76. That night we went to have dinner at The Melting Pot. This is one of our favorite restaurants. My parents especially love the chocolate fondue at the end. My only complaint is that I wish there was a bottomless plate of stuff to dunk in the chocolate. This was our first encounter with awful traffic. We literally sat in traffic for about an hour. That put a damper on the whole evening. Once we got to The Melting Pot, it was great, but the traffic would be the story for the next 3 days. After eating there, which is more of an experience rather than a meal, we returned to our condo and went for a walk before unwinding with the Yankee game.
July 7 - We started off with breakfast at Perkins. This is one of my favorite restaurants. One time, when I was at St. Bonaventure, I walked to Perkins with my friends and while in was in the Perkins, the temperature dropped some 20-30 degrees and it began snowing. The cup of pop that I stole from there was completely frozen solid by the time that I walked home, as was I with my shorts on. After Perkins we drove to Historic Kissimmee and walked around the downtown area. There was an interesting Farmer's Market set up where a guy was playing musical instruments in ungodly heat. The antique shops must have thought that air conditioning was too modern for them because they were all using fans. I could do all of those people a favor by taking a well lit match to that place. After walking around there, we went back to the pool and promptly got rained on. It was so refreshing though that we stayed in the water. It was not lightning, so there was no risk. That night we went to dinner at Bonefish Grill. At this point, the rain was torential and traffic was absurd. I was struggling to think of 2 days in my life where I had encountered traffic this bad. After a great meal at Bonefish, we went back to the condo and had dessert and coffee before going for a walk.
July 8 - We were fighting the clock with a lot of food in our condo as this was our last full day and we still had a lot of food to eat, so we had a gigantic breakfast at home, then my parents went to the pool, while I stayed behind to watch the shuttle launch. I took stock of this momentus occasion by taking a picture of the television screen with my cell phone as the shuttle was taking off. After this, I walked down to the pool. We were all pretty baked at this point, so dad was physically moving around as many umbrellas as possible to block the sun from us. We noticed just about everyone at this resort was of English decent so our running joke was that we were sitting next to "Cheerio" or "these lads were walking by us". It was pretty funny because my dad would not whisper these phrases. After a few hours at the pool, we went to the Florida Mall and walked around. Dinner was low-key at Ruby Tuesdays and of course traffic was again an issue. They really need to figure that out, especially with as many roads as they have, you would think there would be a way to thin things out, but I guess not. We stopped off for some ice cream/Slurpees, and then went home and began to pack.
July 9 - This was a sad day, because our trip was over. We were going to drive home in one day, so we had to check out, have breakfast/brunch and then leave. We dropped my parents off at the airport around 11, and then met up with Jill's mom and grandfather around 2 to drive back home. It was very stormy that day as we drove by the coast of Florida and into Georgia. By the time we got home, it was around 9:30 and I was very glad because Jill and her grandfather were in the car in front of me and I was driving by myself with nothing but Pearl Jam to keep me company. Once we dropped off Jill's grandfather, we had to drive another 30 minutes to pick up Sammie. I was completely exhausted by that point, probably looking like death warmed over. By the time we got into our neighborhood, I was never more happy to see our house.
