Disney 2010: Day 9
It took us a while to recover from being awake over 24 hours in an attempt to see the space shuttle launch, but we were finally up and around, and ready for lunch by 2pm. The first thing we did was go check out the “Most Unique McDonald’s in the World” right down the street. It’s definitely unique. The entire inside is a huge arcade and they have amazing stuff on the menu, like:
Very neat but very noisy, so we had lunch at a Chili’s that was down the street. After lunch we played mini-golf at my favorite course, where John beat me by 9.
We wandered around some after that, looking for reading material to pass the time before leaving for the shuttle launch attempt and for our wait at the airport. We also stopped by the model train exhibit, but John didn’t want to go in because he’s not into G-scale. When we got back to our room around 6pm, we had this waiting for us:
Mark, Geoff and Eric had gone to our house to shovel our driveway; but when they arrived the found that our neighbor, also Mark, had already done it. So they sent us this photo instead. We still can’t believe that our neighbor spent all that time shoveling, and that we had friends who were prepared to do it too.
We watched the Superbowl through the end of the 3rd quarter and then went to get some dinner around 9pm at a tapas restaurant that I love to go to when I’m down here on business. And we napped some more too.
And then Lee and his dad picked us up at 12am for launch attempt #2. Short story is: yes, we got to see it launch at 4:14am. It lit up the whole sky like sunrise x2. Here’s a video I took with my cheap little “point and shoot” camera.
Disney 2010: Day 8 (Part 2)
What day is it again? We’ve lost track of all time and space at this point.
We headed out for dinner around 7pm and wandered around some. Finally settled on TGI Fridays before heading back to the hotel to kill time before we were supposed to meet up with Lee for the shuttle launch. We watched the Bud Shootout, and then John surfed the internet while I started watching Runaway Jury. Almost forgot, we saw this insane Lobstermobile, on the way back to our room, at the “Boston Lobster Feast” buffet. The lobster must weigh as much as the car.
Lee called around 11:20pm, so we headed downstairs to meet him at the front of the hotel. It took around an hour to get to Kennedy Space Center where we would be watching the launch of STS-130. It was scheduled to go at 4:39am. It was very chilly on the causeway where employees were assigned to park. Not much wind, but my hands were freezing as I tried to hold on to my hot chocolate. We were about 4.5 miles away from the launch pad and could see the shuttle. Unfortunately my little P&S camera isn’t good enough to get decent shots so Lee told me he’d send me his once we’re all done.
I sent some commemorative envelopes to selected people at home. They’re addressed and stamped, but won’t get postmarked and mailed until the launch has actually happened. And then we waited, and waited, and waited some more. As we were waiting, the clouds were starting to move in and the chance of a launch dropped from 80% to 30%. Unfortunately the numbers just weren’t on our side — the launch was scrubbed at T-9 (4:30am) because the clouds just wouldn’t clear. It’s been rescheduled for 4:14am Sunday night, so I think we’re going to try again while we’re here.
It took us over 3 hours to get back to our hotel because the traffic was so bad. John is still sleeping, and I’ve been up for less than an hour. I think we’re going to putz around Orlando some and then have dinner at Cafe Tu Tu Tango before heading out again tonight. Since my camera won’t capture any of this, here are some photos from NASA’s photo gallery. (Photo credits and copyright as described on the NASA website.)
Disney 2010: Day 8 (Part 1)
I know Day 8 isn’t over yet, but I figured I’d post anyway. We’re at our new hotel now; John is napping and I’m on hold with Airtran checking to see if we can get a better flight out of here.35 minutes on hold and counting……
First things first. We woke up to this monster:
We slept in and got everything packed up to go. I took a couple of final pictures of the view from our patio and the Lion King characters in the sheers before we headed to Downtown Disney to buy a gift for the guy who’s watching our cats.
We did a little shopping at Downtown Disney, then had lunch at T-Rex. We got an appetizer platter that included chips and queso, onion rings, a quesadilla, bruschetta with eggplant and goat cheese, and St. Louis-style ribs. It was very tasty, and we were glad to be able to spend time in there — it’s very intricately themed.
And then we picked up our rental car. I reserved a Chevy Aveo for $55 and fully expect to have some issues getting all of our luggage into it. But there was no Aveo waiting for us; instead, we got this. Yes, my friends, that is a brand new Dodge Charger. It’s pretty sweet.
So, we’re here in downtown Orlando, with a rental car, and plans to meet Lee and his dad around 10pm or so to go see the launch tomorrow morning. We’re in the hotel that I stay at when I come down here on business, so I can’t wait to show John my favorite restaurant and mini-golf course which are on the other side of the block. Airtran finally answered and it looks like there’s nothing open until Monday; so no flight changes. But they did tell me that there are some business class upgrades left available for me to use my free vouchers on (from my frequent flier miles), so I will call after midnight while we’re waiting over at Kennedy Space Center to claim them.
Signing off for now so John can use the computer to pay our bills. 
Disney 2010: Day 7
We woke up to this monster:
We started the day somewhat sure we aren’t going home, but still hoping that the storm would pass quickly and we could get out of here.
Our first stop for the day was Animal Kingdom where we had some “cleanup” to do. We had missed the Kilamonjaro Safari and the Finding Nemo show on our first cruise through, so we came back to do them. While we were at Animal Kingdom we also finally caught a glimpse of the “Tree Lady” who I’ve been looking for but never seen. It’s very cool to watch how she slowly walks around on those stilts and raises long poles above her head to mimic trees that are around her. When she covers her face, you would never know she wasn’t a real tree.
And look what else we found! He’s only been here for three weeks (which is still a lot longer than the newborn monkey we saw — 3 days old).
From Animal Kingdom, we took a bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center, and then a ferry from there to Magic Kingdom to finish up our shopping. We left Magic Kingdom just as the rain started. But not before we saw these HUGE rice krispies treats in the Main Street Confectionary. They’re $50 each.
I called our friend Pam to send her hugs over the wires since she was supposed to be getting married on Saturday. All is well — they and their officiant are staying overnight at the resort where the wedding is, so they’re getting married no matter what. But she mentioned that she had heard that flights were being canceled already. I called Airtran and sat on hold for 35 minutes and was told ours was not canceled. 20 minutes later in our room (where we found a puppy towel animal) I got an email that our flight is canceled. UGH. Right now we’re rebooked for a flight home at 6:30pm on MONDAY; and that’s the first one I could get. So the plan of the moment is to:
- Pick up a rental car at the Disney Car Care Center
- Check out of Animal Kingdom Kidani Village and check in at the La Quinta downtown
- Meet up with Lee to see the shuttle launch from the NASA employee guest area (super cool!)
- Do whatever on Sunday afternoon and Monday
- Fly out Monday night and then recover at home on Tuesday
I did laundry at the resort while I was arranging the car and new flight info, and making phone calls to let everyone and their mother know what’s up. With all of that done, we had a wonderful evening to look forward to at “Jiko: The Cooking Place” at the Jambo House side of the resort. We had decided to do a really nice dinner for our last night down here, and this restaurant took 2 table service credits. It was definitely worth both of them. When we arrived at the resort, they were still doing free family portraits, so we stopped by and had pictures taken before dinner. I’m not going to bother going into all of the details of dinner. Just know that we ate ostrich, shrimp, lamb, goat cheeses, and had these for dessert:
John’s was a Lemon White-Chocolate Mousse with Sour Cream Ice Cream. Mine was a trio of choclate goodness — a Flourless Chocolate Cake, White Chocolate Ice Cream, and Chocolate Mousse. They also brought this tasty Pistachio Creme Brulee as a gift for our anniversary. The drawings on both my plate and the “gift” plate are actually chocolate that’s been painted on. “Shangilia”, on the plate below, means “Congratulations” in Swahili. They also gave us a card with anniversary good wishes written in 6 African dialects.
For anyone who is keeping score, here is our current family of towel animals that we’ve found in our room… they wanted a group portrait.
When we went to bed, we were looking at this. Oh my.
