We awoke to a beautiful scene; the sun coming up over the
horizon, the pool glistening and the breeze blowing through the palm fronds. It
was going to be another beautiful day in Florida; exhausting but beautiful. It
wasn’t long before the lil one was bouncing off the walls asking when we could
leave, what time did they open, when could we leave, can we leave now; did I
mention the lil one wanted to know when we were leaving to go to Universal
Studios. This was our one day pass to this park unless we changed our minds
about which park to use our third day option on.
With all the
excitement it didn’t take us long to get dressed, have breakfast and hit the
gates. We knew that we only had the one day here but also knew that we would
skip a few rides due to the lil one being too short for them at the moment. At
the gate we got our map and magical birthday badge and began formulating a plan
to see it all in but only one day.
Right off the bat we
met Scooby Doo and Shaggy, it was almost as if they were there to welcome us.
By looking at the map we could see that we weren’t far from Bikini Bottom. This
path was dotted with shops, rides and even a talent show with the four legged
actors from the Universal movies; the lil one especially loved this. We rode
one ride and wanted to buy the picture, they explained how the photo pass
worked (better than the guy yesterday did) and we quickly jumped on the chance
to have someone else take our pictures throughout the park (I’m usually the one
behind the lens). Every person we saw holding a camera we ran up to them, had
our card scanned and smiled pretty for the cameras; I couldn’t wait to go
online and print them out.
Soon enough we found
ourselves in the middle of Bikini Bottom waiting on SpongeBob for a meet and
greet with him. They had replicas of his chair, house and Gary to take pictures
with, not to mention SpongeBob himself. The lil one had two dreams to come true
in two days! It was time to move on to other sights and rides. We loved riding
bikes with E.T., you really felt like you were there. I’m glad the lil one had
watched the movie prior to this trip; similarities were pointed out through the
whole ride.
The Transformers and
Simpson’s rides were two of my favorite. The lil one really enjoyed the
minions, the lil one and I rode this one by ourselves; daddy took a break. The
lil one even got special attention from one of the HOP bunnies in the birthday,
they came over with birthday wishes; these were those magical powers provided
to us by the birthday badges. We saw and did absolutely everything we could (we
thought), we ate at as many different places as possible; we smiled and laughed
until our cheeks hurt.
As the sun started
going down, we rounded a corner and spied one more ride. I let the lil one and
daddy go on it by themselves while I took a mommy break from the hustle and
bustle. While enjoying some mommy time I did what every mommy does; I thought
of and shopped for the lil one. There just so happened to be a vendor for the
pearl jewelry outside the ride. While talking to the sales lady about the
oysters and prices, she showed me several pieces within my budget. I showed her
the few that I could afford for her to show the lil one, I didn’t want to spend
a fortune on a necklace that may or may not get broken/lost. When the ride was
over I pitched the idea to the hubby behind the lil ones back in parent code
that you learn over the years. He was sold; we did a U-turn and pitched the
birthday gift to the lil one. Oh how the eyes sparkled at being able to pick
the ugliest oyster and be the very first person on Earth to see what was hiding
inside. It ended up being a HUGE pearl, a whopping 7.9 in size. We had all
agreed that with the size of the oyster it needed a setting to do it justice; a
butterfly was the only one big enough to hold such a magnificent pearl. This is
very fitting as the lil one is very fond of butterflies. With the pearl set and
placed safely in its carrying bag we were ready to find seats for the fireworks
over the lake.
 |
| getting ready for the show! |
This just so happened
to be after Universal’s 100th Anniversary and they were still
performing the amazing show at the closing of the park. They had water curtains
to show scenes and images from their movies they have created over the years.
It was fun for the hubby and I to try to name all the movies that we knew from
the images created in the falling water; we knew almost all of them. Before
long we were following the crowds out of the park along all of the conveyor
belts (this was something the lil one had to do all the time, every time) and
into the parking decks; only to join the lines of cars waiting in line to get
onto the Interstate. I didn’t have another meal cooking while we played; this
meant a stop before getting back to the relaxing room.
We stopped at CiCi’s
pizza and filled up. On the receipt there was a coupon for the gift shop next
door. Being the tourists that we were, we had to see what they had to offer.
After filling the bellies and emptying the debit card, it was time to hit the
room and shower. The beds were getting more and more comfortable as our
exhaustion levels went up, we were falling asleep as soon as our heads hit the
pillows.
Until next time….
Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know
where they’re going. ̴̴̴ ̴̴̴Paul
Theroux
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