Acuff/Guthrie Florida Vacation

Why leave the lovely weather of northern California for the 95+ (both degrees F and relative humidity) conditions of Florida in July? The original intent was to help send off Kalpana Chawla on STS-107. Space Shuttle Columbia had been scheduled to launch on July 19. When cracks in some fuel line liners were found, scrubbing the launch, we were already commited to airline tickets and Amy's time away from the office, so we decided to make an adventure of it.

As of the day before leaving, we had very little idea what we'd be doing. We knew we wanted beach time, wildlife time, and some theme park time. So here's what we did.

Day 1: July 17, Travel

We got to the day before leaving without knowing how we were getting to the airport. Hey, there were lots of other things to take care of! Our hero, Lynda, volunteered to crawl out of her bed at 4am and take us to our 6am flight on Delta out of San Jose. 7 hours later in Orlando we walked out into the solid wall of steam that they use for air. We picked up our rental car at Payless. It was supposed to be a "Lincoln Town Car or equivalent". It was a battered Mercury Marquis with 37,000 hard miles in its past. The trunk was big though, and the A/C worked, so we piled in and fired up what turned out to be one of two real champions of the trip, the Garmin Street Pilot III GPS system. This thing rocks! We told it we wanted to go to Disney's Coronado Springs and off we went.

What the weather lacked in charm it made up for in predictability. The afternoon thunderstorms that graced almost every day of our stay started, but fortunately didn't really catch us. We got settled in to the huge Coronado Springs (only one of a dozen or so Disney hotels, too) and headed to the "feature pool" that had caught Amy's eye in the first place (while she frantically searched for a place to stay a couple of days ago :-). It sports a small but fun water slide and a large pyramid with a waterfall. All in all, very nicely done, and boy did that water feel good! And we even managed to grab a couple of pizzas from the restaurant court just before closing time.

Day 2: July 18, Lazy Downtown Disney

With the time change we didn't get out and about until late morning. We wanted some relaxed time before heading to the big attractions, so Amy suggested we hit Downtown Disney first. First stop was House of Blues for brunch. We expected resort fare--OK but not fabulous. We were very pleasantly surprised. All our food was great, right down to David's grilled cheese, but the Catfish Bites were outstanding, as were the turnip greens (seasoned with just the right amount of ham).

We took a walk around the shops (including a quick snooze with a lego guy :-), until we couldn't stand the heat any longer. Then it was into Disney Quest, an unassuming looking building on the outside filled with pretty good fun, most of it involving some sort of electronic flavor. Our favorite was Pirate's of the Caribbean - Buccaneer's Gold where we got to man a pirate ship and battle ghost galleons for treasure in a 3-d video game. The virtual sword fight with evil cartoon characters, and the rescue mission driving the giant walker were also fun. An arcade with several classic video games (PacMan, Space Invaders, TRON, etc.) with no need for quarters was nice too. We dashed past the dressed up La Nouba attendees (too expensive for us) in the rain and headed back to the hotel for dinner at the Pepper Mill and more pool time.

Day 3: July 19, Epcot

We got out early to catch the bus and almost melted just waiting for it. Fortunately for us, many Epcot attractions are air-conditioned. We meandered from one to the other, and it's so huge we ended up meandering through things until into the evening and then stayed for the fireworks. Best surprises: Cranium Command (very funny; it will pump you up!), and the Exxon Energy show. I figured it would be a boring set of walk through displays, but it was in fact a wonderful multi-media show with Ellen Degneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy (among others). Very nice package.
And the fireworks display was fantastic.

I guess that says it about the Disney experience. The elements really fit well together, and even attractions that had long waits (like the Test Track ride) had things to look at and entertain while waiting. The FastPass system helped cut down on line time, the bathrooms were clean an plentiful, and the food and drink were easy to come by, and, for a park, not that crazy in price. And they even had some veggie selections!

Day 4: July 20, Fantasy of Flight

We'd booked for 3 days originally, but extended a day since the hotel was working pretty well for us, then called up Kermit Week's Fantasy of Flight on the GPS and headed to Polk City. Though still much smaller than it eventually is planned to be, it was a fun and engaging experience, with the opportunity to see and understand several corners of aviation I hadn't crossed before. We headed back to House of Blues for dinner (Jambalya and Cajun Meatloaf; yum!), then hit the pool for the last time. The big one was closed, but Coronado Springs has several other smaller pools so we used one of them to practice snorkeling with David.

Day 5: July 21, Typhoon Lagoon

We were drawn to Typhoon Lagoon by the Shark Reef attraction but found the whole park to be wonderfully done. Many of the features (slides, tube rides, wave pool, "endless" river, etc.) are similar to other water parks, but here they were very nicely integrated with the theme (Gilligan's Island-like). Perhaps the most welcome feature was plenty of shade. Unfortunately we were chased out of the wave pool around 4:30 by a big thunder storm, and after eating and waiting a while, we had to leave. David really liked snorkeling with the sharks.

Next stop was Daytona (actually, Port Orange) to visit with Amy's father. With more help from the GPS we found some food for the road, swapped the Marquis for a much nicer Chrysler LHS (only the cupholders didn't work instead of the brakes, steering, and trunk release...) and headed east. We drove over in nearly constant rain (and toll booths), but got the house opened up and had a Manny's special spinach pizza to wrap up the night.

Day 6: July 22, Daytona Beach

Surf, sand, and Crabby Joe's fried oysters. Amy's idea of the good life. There was much relaxing, even during the obligatory afternoon storm. Then a nice big shrimp boil for dinner.

Day 7: July 23, More Daytona Beach

Amy's father headed back north with a load of furniture he was swapping for some he'd driven down from Ohio, and we headed back to the beach. We'd planned to stay another day, but after coming back to the house during the storm :-) we realized we were actually booked to arrive at the Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn that night (thanks to Scott Stauter for hooking us up with a low rate through HotelKingdom.com). So we decided "what the heck" and packed up, closed up, fired up the GPS, and headed South. But not before stopping at what Amy calls the "Junk Store" to buy T-shirts and "plastic crap".

Unfortunately the room we got at first had a number of problems, chief among them an airconditioner that mostly didn't. However, the "Kid Suite" setup, with a partitioned off room for David, complete with bunk beds and other kid features was good stuff.

Day 8: July 24, Cocoa Beach

I got out early for a little tennis practice on the courts outside our room (yes!) and then we scored a prime spot under the umbrella at the pool. We'd thought we'd head to the beach, but with that prime spot and all we ended up spending most of the day hanging at the pool. In the heat of the afternoon, after swapping to a room with a working air conditioner (after too much screwing around about a "maintenance man" who never came), we just drove around a bit before heading over the the beach to enjoy the sunset.

Day 9: July 25, Cocoa Beach and Merrit Island

More pool and beach time in the morning, then a cool shower and off to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It turned out to be further away than we'd thought, but it was very worth it. Despite the heat the wildlife watching was wonderful. The skeeters weren't, though!
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We stopped at the tour book's recommended Fat Boy BBQ on the way home. The food was only just OK, but David went to town, putting away 3 ears of corn (once we let him put hot sauce on it...), plus just about everything else in sight.

Day 10: July 26, SeaDoo!

While Amy hung out reading a book, David and I set off for an hour or so on a SeaDoo. It was his first time and while he didn't appreciate my donuts at first, he loved the high speed runs, and when I convinced him to have a go at driving I thought I was going to have to drag him back to the dock (lest we both burn to a crisp). More ocean and pool time topped it off. David spent a total of almost 7 hours in the water, and then he still had to be coaxed out for dinner!

Day 11: July 27, Kennedy Space Center

We couldn't come to the space coast without visiting KSC. While we enjoyed the tour, I can't help but whine about the pricing. The admission wasn't cheap ($32) and then the charges for things like food, drinks, and souvenirs were much more than the other attractions we visited, despite this being a "public" place showing public things. Something ain't right. After space fun we headed east for the longest car ride David has yet ever had, 2:15 to Ocala (well, Silver Springs) were we stayed at a convenient Knight's Inn across from ...

Day 12: July 28, Silver Springs

Silver Springs boasts glass bottom boats over a huge fresh water spring. The strong flow of the spring gives amazing clarity to the water, allowing humans to watch the things that go on in the normally murky depths of Florida's waterways. But David liked the snake presentations, making friends with a 100 pound albino Burmese python.

We packed up and headed south toward Busch Gardens.

Day 13: July 29, Busch Gardens

We'd read that Tampa's Busch Gardens sports some major hardware of the rolling variety, and the coasters were indeed very good. On the downside, David was about 1/2 inch too short for the two "big" coasters, Montu and Kumba. He was very disappointed, but took it well and even stood by while Amy and I rode (they were nice enough to let us switch off without waiting in line twice). The park overall was not as clean and well run as the Disney places. Trash overflowing in the restrooms, not a lot of shade, odd food & drink layout with little variety, and some almost surly staff. But we had fun, and took advantage of their "rain check" policy when the inevitable afternoon storms moved in. We stayed at the Best Western (was a Quality Inn) nearby and liked it pretty well. The room was a suite with 'fridge and good A/C, and the pool area with adjacent bar/restaurant was very nice.

After leaving the park we figured it had been a while since we'd had decent (as in nutritious) food so we hit a local grocery and feasted on veggies, rice, and octopus (it can be an adventure if you let Amy shop on her own...) in the hotel room while watching the Jeff Corwin Experience on TV.

Day 14: July 30, Adventure Island

Adventure Island is the water park companion to Busch Gardens. It was the most disappointing part of the trip. Maybe we were a bit tired, but after Typhoon Lagoon this park seemed a bit lame. The rides were big, for sure, but the lines were long and slow and they were mostly right out in the blazing sun. It was almost a relief when we were kicked out due to lightning. The hotel had a big sign saying they were famous for their ribs, so we tried them out. Best ribs we've had in years.

Day 15: July 31, Travel Home

First we spent a few hours at Busch Gardens redoing some of the fun things and catching a few we got rained out of. Then it was off to Orlando and the long flight home. While topping off the rental car we saw the results of a Chevy into the side of a BMW 528i. The beemer had a smooshed side, but the people inside (both front and rear) were unhurt. Makes me feel good about our BMWs!
It was a long hard trip back, but we were sure glad to hit the sheets of our own beds!

The picture of David above pretty well sums up the trip.