Vaca 2020 - Day 9 - Orlando Area (post 1)

I believe this was day 9 but I could be off a day by now...  no matter, it was our first morning in Orlando and the surrounding area.  This is where the family split 2 & 2; Rob and Mama going to Harry Potter World at Universal, me and Caleb doing whatever the heck we wanted.

One of the fun things that I found to do was a mile long go-kart track where you get 11 laps.  Caleb was SOOO excited about this for a month before we left.  We also wanted to go hiking somewhere, but since it's tough to find a mountain or anything similar to it around Orlando, we found a wilderness area that was relatively close to the go-kart track.  Well, when I say, "we found", I mean that while we were eating breakfast at an IHOP and we found it on a map! The directions did NOT lead us there tho and we ended up walking around a housing development with the same name in close to 1000 degree weather. 

It was still cool tho and Caleb got to see differences in houses in Florida from those in Iowa, so a cool little bit learning for the lad.

This was on the drive to what we thought was the nature preserve with hiking.  It's the Gatorade plant and it's HUGE!!!  You can see the G logo on one of the tanks towards the middle-left of the picture.

The housing area where we had a good walk.

This is at Kissimmee Go-Karts, where they have a croc-pond outside of the ticket/arcade building.

An aerial shot permanently borrowed from the Googles.  This is the mile long track, with the gator pond in the very middle of the pic on the bottom.  SUPER FUN!!!

Caleb's in the white car that's coming from under the bridge.  His car was a bit faster than mine, possibly due to the excessive girth holding my car back.  He had some dang fine passes of another family that was racing us.

Happy boy when it was all over and done with.  He was ready to go again, but since Dear ol' Dad almost needed to be helped out of his kart, that wasn't happening!

At this point, I have no idea what is happening as I (Ted) was with Caleb and Rob and Mama were together.  So, Mom takes over here.

Harry Potter world was amazing.  The details that have been built into this place are unfathomable.  One thing that everyone who visits HP world needs to get is some butterbeer.  They sell it frozen, which is a bit like a slushie, and regular.  Very tasty but quite sweet.  

A cute picture of Robby in Diagon Alley with the dragon on top of Gringotts in the background.  Diagon Alley is in Universal Studio and Hogsmeade is in Islands of Adventure.  

A picture of Hogwarts.  Again amazing.  The castle was detailed inside as well.  It was my very favorite ride.  Ever.

Sneaking in pictures of Robby where I could.  Looks like we are waiting to get on the Hogswart Express.  We rode the train 4 times.  It was a good time, a place to cool off, and due to Covid-19 each group got a car to themselves so it was nice to have some space.  

Luggage and Hedwig the owl.

The train engine. 

Another picture of Hogswart with the street of Hogsmeade in the foreground.  

I think this is a picture of Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.  An excellent and surprising roller coaster. 

Another picture of the roller coaster.

The sorting hat in the castle. 

Robby and I in the Hogwarts express car.

Robby and his butterbeer.

We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron (of course we did!).  Here is a picture of the leaky cauldron.  We had a good time at HP world and we both like HP, however we aren't huge amusement park fans.  It was hot and we stayed until early to mid afternoon each day, arriving early because we stayed at Cabana Bay which is a Universal resort.  We did ride a few Jurassic Park rides including a water ride which scared Robby due to a 75 foot drop and got me soaked.  A pretty fun time.  

So another adventure is in the books!   These were good times!