A Few More Pictures from the Trip

(Picture 1: Sara and Kyle pose at the Florida state line. Picture 2. Breakfast at the Marriott in New Orleans. It was a buffet-style breakfast that we had paid for in advance with the cost of our room. Had we not paid in advance, this simple breakfast would have cost us $54. Yes, $54 for eggs, cereal, and waffles. Picture 3: Sara and Kyle getting ready to go swimming. Picture 4: The swimming pool at our hotel in Orlando. This was very nice, and with a little waterslide too. Picture 5: The green swimming pool at a "Days Inn" motel that we stopped at along the way. We had a very, very bad experience with Days Inn. The water coming out of the faucets was brown and dirty, the bedsheets were not clean, there was exposed wiring on the walls, so we had to leave the hotel. I have since wrote an email to their customer service department about their shoddy motel. Supposedly, the general manager is going to call me before June 18 to resolve my complaint. What is he going to do? Offer me another night at his terrible motel?)

Disney World, Florida

I think that Disneyland and Disney World are great places to take the kids. Just watching their faces fill with wonder on each ride is something every parent should see. To them, it's a dream world come true.

For parents, though, it's a lesson in shock and awe about capitalism. There are four major theme parks in Disney World: 1. The Magic Kingdom, which is essentially Disneyland. 2. Epcot. 3. Hollywood Studios, and 4. Animal Kingdom. Each parks costs $79 (plus tax) for adults, and $69 for kids 3 to 10 years old. We managed to pass Kyle off as being two years old this time, but that won't work again the next time we decide to go. If we decided to see all 4 parks the next time we visit Orlando, it would cost us around $1264. Yes, over a grand just for some Disney magic. Then you have the $14 for parking, and the overpriced restaurants ($2.50 for a small bottle of water).

This year, we were able to see two parks (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios) for only $330. We were able to get a big discount attending one of those horrendous "timeshare" seminars. Holiday Inn was promoting time share condos in Orlando, and we spent about 2 hours being pressured by salesmen trying to get us to buy property. They wanted to sell us a 35 thousand dollar timeshare, with $6,000 down, and payments of $600 a month, with 16% interest. Ha! Like we would ever do that. Basically, we just suffered through it to get the discounted Disney tickets, like most everyone else there (and there were a lot of families there).

So this is what we have to resort to now to take our families to see Mickey Mouse without having to take out a second mortgage on our house.

The Magic Kingdom park was the most fun. It has the most rides and the kids loved it the most. It's the only park that can (kind of) justify its high price. Disney's Hollywood Studios was not nearly as good, or as big. If Magic Kingdom is $79, this one should be about $49 in my opinion. It has mostly shows, and only a few rides, including a very disappointing "backlot tram tour" that paled in comparison to Universal Studios.

We may go back again in the future. I wouldn't mind seeing the Animal Kingdom park, and maybe we'll also see Universal Orlando (we skipped it this time out). But, unless we go to another time share seminar, we're going to need a big tax refund again.

New Orleans

We just got back from our vacation to New Orleans and Orlando, Florida. We made the decision to go to New Orleans before the big oil spill, and everything in the city seemed to be business as usual. We only had a day to spend there, so we wanted to try to see as much as possible. Everything started out great, and it wasn't until near the end of the day that things started to go a little sour.

We walked along Decatur and Borboun Street, located in the French Quarter, and marvelled at the architecture of the buildings. Austin is considered the "Live Music Capital of the World", but just walking down Borboun Street in New Orleans, that seemed like a title that should go to them, as pretty much every corner was bustling with live music. There were also many "adult" clubs on the street, and both Christy and I wished we had a babysitter so we could fully enjoy our time there.

By dinner time, though, I began to become suddenly and unexpectedly ill. The city had a smell to it that reminded me of Taiwan. The odors began to get to me. Once we got to "Bubba Gump's" seafood restaurant, I was in the bathroom violently throwing up, and I couldn't eat a thing for the rest of the night. By morning, I was fine. Christy thought I might of had sun stroke, which was possible, since we spent most of the day walking in the intense heat. Whatever it was, it came and went, and once we left New Orleans, I felt fine for the remainder of the trip.

(Pictures: 1. A typical New Orleans building 2. A bar offering "huge ass beers". 3. Sara taking a water break. 4. A horse walks along a picturesque street (horse rides were $75 for a 30 minute ride, btw). 5. A riverboat that will take you out to the Oil Expedition)