Cari's Adventures

This week I was in Orlando for a drinking water convention. I arrived Monday and departed on Saturday night. And let me say, it was a long week. I now know why the obesity rate is so high! I don’t think I had a healthy meal all week. I really splurged and had corned beef hash this morning. I remember when I was little, my mom used to make it until I refused to eat it after looking at the nutrition facts on the can.

In the mornings we’d leave about 9:00 AM which seemed like prime time for families getting ready to go to Disney World. I’m sure it changes when the kids are yours, but I was NOT happy to be surrounded by screaming kids in Peter Pan outfits when I was still trying to wake up. Note to self, if I ever bring my kids here someday, do NOT wear costumes and Mickey ears. Just because you are in Disney World and have kids does not give you the freedom to look like an idiot. I also promise NEVER to let my kids wear costumes to the airport. They are made poorly and they drop glitter everywhere (glitter tiaras especially like fleece jackets - still not happy about that…)

I did get today off and didn’t have to catch my flight until 4:00. I decided that since I was here, I had better go do something fun. So, I spend the morning at SeaWorld. I bought my ticket online for a $10 discount then googled SeaWorld Orlando coupon codes and got another discount. I do this for all online purchases – the website www.retailmenot.com is wonderful. Don’t buy ANYTHING online before checking if there are coupon codes. Sometimes I get free shipping or $10 of etc, but, I digress.

So SeaWorld opens at 9:00. I was in through the parking lot and by the gates when the parks opened. I knew that they just opened a new roller coaster, Manta, so I headed there first. I ran through the line shoving slow kids out of my way and immediately got on. This was the BEST roller coaster that I’ve ever been on. Instead of trying to explain it, I’ll just embed a video I found on YouTube of it below my pictures. Maybe because I’m older and realize all the parts of the roller coaster that can break and cause me to fall to my death, but I have to admit, I was scared! My dad and I used to run through the lines and do roller coasters over and over again, but one ride this time was more than enough for me.

After doing the roller coaster, I went to a dolphin show. It was pretty neat with about a dozen bottle nose dolphins doing tricks and people riding the dolphins etc. After that, I hightailed over to the Shamu Stadium to see the Killer Whale show. It was pretty sad; they did a little tribute video to the trainer that died a few weeks ago. The show was really cool though. They had a few big whales and then 4 baby whales who participated in the show. As I was sitting in the crowd watching the two shows, I was amazed by how smart the dolphin and whales were. I don’t think you could even train people to do some of the things they did. It was really neat. I had flashbacks to 4th grade where I wanted to be a marine biologist. I drew them on all my binders and in art class!

Now I’m waiting to takeoff and bored out of my mind. You know, air travel wouldn’t be so bad if they had an efficiency consultant re-do the whole process. Since I’m an efficiency freak, my blood pressure really gets high when I’m at the airport. So much useless waiting and long lines…grr… Guess I’m boarding. I think the most important thing I learned this week was the travel is a lot more fun when you are able to share it with someone you care about!