Reunited and it Feels So Good!

Stevie is back with his girlfriend, the space heater...

 

Oh boy,  I fear he know's that I'm talking about him!

The Little Chinaman Who Could

 

Caleb helping me cut the branches back on the two trees that hang over the field and cause the farmer grief at planting and harvest.

Vaca 2020 - Day 10 - Orlando Area (post 2)

Day 2 of the Schmitz's dividing and uh... conquering? Nothing from the Mama/Robby side of the world in this post as they went back to the same place, Harry Potter World,  as they had attended in the last post. Caleb and I, however, branched out did some other things.

More spots in Florida, more gators...   It seems about 1 out of every 5 places has a gator pond and since we were mini-golfing next to a real, good sized pond,  don't think that I ever let my guard down watching for a sneaky critter or three!

I probably won't add a ton of captions to these as there's not really much to say, other than, it was fun and it was HOT!!!

Holy smokes!  This was deep into our second game (there were two full courses interwoven) and the sweat spots are starting to show.  We had the entire first game to ourselves and another family showed up while we were having a water guzzling break trying to decide whether to play the other course, which we obviously did.

Dad wins!!

Caleb performed a bit of surgery on our score card where I got the only hole-in-1 for the day.  Dad wins again!!! 

 

Ripleys in Orlando.  Apparently the building, upon construction, started to sink on one corner so they stopped the sinkage, but left it alone.  Then continued building the building normally from that point.

Lesley wouldn't go into this, I tried a few times but had to back out for fear of passing out.  Caleb?  He spent a bunch of time going back & forth, dancing and whatever else in there.  Those lights are spinning around the tube at different speeds making you think the plank you're walking is tipping.  Nope.

The fifth commandment written on a postage stamp.

Caleb with a big'ol LiteBrite!

Caleb as a fat man!  LOL!!

This is closer to reality!!!

I didn't take a bigger picture of what this alphabet soup created, but I think it was Bob Marley.  Very cool.

Torture devices.

The guy who did these next things was a fella who created art in the eye's of needles, betwixt razor blades or other crazy small places.

The razor blade...

The close-up of the razor blade art.

This room made me tip over...  and gave me a bit of a headache.   Pool balls roll left on that table...  it's not right.

After leaving Ripley's, we saw a crab-mobile!  You can also see the sign of the IHOP where Caleb and I had breakfast the previous morning.

I believe that's it for Orlando!  Caleb wanted to get ice cream after playing mini-golf, but the small place right in the parking lot was closed.  We drove down the road a bit, but not too far.  We found a little place owned by some older ethnic folks.  I asked them how their business was holding up while he was mixing our malt.  He got real serious, spoke some serious words with a painful concern obvious on his face.  We ended up saying a quick prayer together and we left there with him in a much happier place!  If I lived there, I would go get a malt or two every day.

Orlando was a bit of a worry heading into it, but it treated us well and we treated it as well as we could.

OOOH!  Wait!!  A few photos of our hotel.

The pool that our family's best swimmer, Rob, would never be in for more than about 5 minutes due to storms and him dragging his feet.

Cool retro looking cafeteria.

I'm not sure what or who the terrorist was who moved the friggin' flush handle to the right side of the toilet, but I nearly plummeted to my death the first time I used the thing and there was nothing there for me to lean on...  terrorism.

Wove... Twu Wove. (Know the reference?)

These two have a bond that is pretty incredible! When Caleb stays overnight at a friends house (which is often!), Steve is crazy happy when he returns home and follows him around for hours. 

Steve will also do nearly whatever Caleb asks him to do, which would have made Caleb EXTREMELY VALUEABLE in the goat pen at my sisters farm when the fuzzy lad got crazy swirlies in his eyedrums and chased the goats like his life depended on it.  The goats lives possibly depended on him coming to grips with himself, but he was in no danger!

We exchanged Stevie's crate for one that is a better fit for his size!  Got a new bed for it too, but Steve was NOT about to be the first to try it out.  So, in went Caleb.  He coaxed Steve in with him and they snuggled some.  Steve loves his new house and sometimes just goes in there to lie down while I work from home.

Football on the tv, dog loving in the living room!

 

MMMMmmmm... Bacon Wrapped Shrimp!

 

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!