Our road trip to Florida was fun, and very hot. I don’t think I’d be very happy living in Florida for most of the year. I was so glad we had air conditioning everywhere we went. Here are some pictures from our road trip:
The oldest school in the USA is in St. Augustine. That and Luli’s Cupcakes were the highlights of our 2 nights here. We didn’t end up visiting the Fountain of Youth – the hotel said it was a big rip-off and that the water tasted nasty anyway.
We spent one day at EPCOT and one day at both of the Universal Parks. My favorite thing at EPCOT was probably a tie between Soarin’ and Test Track. I loved the beginning of Test Track where you got to “build” a car, then, you drove it on the track. Our car was pathetic, but, it looked really cool. We ate lunch in the England pavilion and couldn’t pass up Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.
I also liked this weird gargoyle guy in the France pavilion.
This time, I liked Universal better. We went to both of the parks to see all of the Harry Potter stuff. I was in heaven! I got to try Pumpkin Juice and Butter Beer (regular and frozen). We went in to Gringott’s bank and talked to the goblin. He answers questions if you ask him one! We also looked around the Weasley’s fun store. They had a lot of gross sounding candy.
We saw the Knight Bus, and rode the fantastic rides. We almost didn’t get to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. When we finally got through the 45 minute line and SAT in the ride, the ride broke. We were trapped in the start area for about 20 minutes. Then, the ride finally started. Half way through, it stopped again and we were stuck up in the air, facing a giant, hairy spider. I was glad they turned the lights on at that point, because, in the dark, with all of the special effects, it is SCARY! When we finally got off the ride, they gave us Express Passes to the front of the line so we could ride it again the whole way through. It broke down again for about 15 minutes, but, then it wa okay. I loved the whole ride. It was worth the wait(s). I liked the Escape from Gringott’s ride too!
After Orlando, we drove down the West Coast to check out the beaches. Anna Maria Island had beautiful beaches. My favorite place was Siesta Key. Part of the appeal was the perfect, white sand beach. Another part was that there is a Roy’s restaurant only 10 minutes from the beach. Also, there was an interesting Circus Museum. They had a lot of old posters from circuses past. They also had a 4000 square foot scale model of an old-time circus! It was incredible. It had thousands of people, animals, train cars and tents – all hand painted and custom made to fit the scale of the model.
We also visited the Ringling Mansion. It was huge and very ornate. I guess they made a lot of money from the circus.
Overall, I would go back to Siesta Key in a heartbeat. There were great restaurants and a beautiful beach with warm, clear water and the finest sand ever. And, lots of air conditioning to beat the heat.
We visited Naples and Sanibel too. They were both pretty, but, I think I got spoiled at Siesta Key.