Sunday, October 22, 2006

Vacation - Sunday


We spent the day today at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Park. We got there before the park opened to try and get a jump on the crowds, and beat the crowds we did. All day long we simply walked in on any ride we went on. The longest part of waiting was having to wind your way through all of the roped in areas that are normally filled with people. We started off with the the Spiderman Ride, the Dr. Doom Free Fall and the Hulk Roller coaster, which were amazing. Unfortunately, Maddie was not quite big enough for the last two, short by a couple of inches. Cathie and I switched off taking Nate on the roller coasters, while the other took the kids on other rides. We were all able to go on the Spiderman ride - which is this cool 3D ride that completly disorients you to the point that you have no idea which is way is up. We all liked it except Emily, who was a little freaked out by it.

Cath had the forsight to fill a backpack full of water, snacks and everything else we could ever want, which saved us a fortune in $5 waters.


We then went to Dr. Suess Land, which was done up exactly like the stories. The whole city was builton the Dr. Suess books with all of the characters and stories. The kids are standing in front of the Lorax set. Going through this area, I was reminded how my Mom used to read these books to us, and most of them she'd read enough that she didn't have to even look at the pages.

Throughtout the park,t hey had great signs, including this one on the battling dragon roller coaster, which I'd never seen before.


In the super hero area, Nate and I tried to get our picture taken with as many cheesy characters as possible. They meant well, but the costumes were a little corny, especially wolverine, who apparently rides a four-wheeler.

We left the park around 1:30 and headed back to the hotel for lunch and to go swimming. The nice thing about the unlimited pass is that you don't feel like you have to fit everything in at once. We came back, and had some downtime (hour long nap for Cathie and I) and then hit one of the pools with a cool water slide.

We went out to a Japanese Steakhouse tonight, which the kids had never been to. They had fun with the chopsticks, seeing it all cooked in front of them and a little fire mixed into it all. The kids fell asleep on the five minute car ride back to the resort.


You can see the pictures for the vacation so far here at the Kurt Family Photo Album. Tomorrow we head to Disney's Animal Kingdom to go on a safari.

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