I just realized I have not written anything since from return from Florida.

Park Key:
AK = Animal Kingdom
BB = Blizzard Beach
EP = Epcot
HS = Hollywood Studios
MK = Magic Kingdom
TL = Typhoon Lagoon

Disney World was GREAT! A lot had changed since my last visit when I was 4 years old, so there really wasn't much I remembered. But we also had a lot more time for this visit, and we got to do pretty much everything we wanted to at every park. Hollywood Studios was our favorite, I think, and Animal Kingdom our least. HS had the most things for us to do and more interesting shows, and AK was just sooooo hot and miserable, with a lot of walking and not much to look at inbetween.

I gotta admit that I'm pretty proud of myself right now. I went on my first roller coaster, with loops and the works. And I went on it twice. Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster in HS. My mom went on it, too - actually before I did, because she was the one that convinced me to try it - and she hates heights and things like that more than I do. I also went on things like Splash Mountain (MK), Big Thunder Mountain (MK) and Test Track (EP)... rides that have some of the tamer aspects of a roller coaster. What I would NOT do, after my traumatizing experience in it 13 years ago, was the Tower of Terror (HS). My mom did try it again with my dad, to see if she really didn't like the ride, or if it was my screams that made it unenjoyable the last time. Turns out she just doesn't like it.

Typhoon Lagoon was definately better than Blizzard Beach as far as the waterparks go. I loved the giant wave pool at TL, where as I almost drowned in the smaller one at BB... Weird. But something also seemed... less clean about BB. And I prefer the curvy sloshy slides of TL over the straight fast "ski slope" ones at BB. And I know they were trying to maintain a unique theme, but the Christmas music at BB was a summer-mood killer, even if they were Jimmy Buffet and Beach Boys renditions. The only disadvantage to TL, I think, was that the lines to the slides were kinda crazy, in both length and the fact that it was hard to tell which slide you were getting in line for.

Magic Kingdom was the better park for smaller children. It was 50% gift shops, and pretty much once you've seen one you've seen them all. There were a lot of dark rides and kiddy rides, like Snow White's Scary Adventures and Small World. But then there also rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, and the afore mentioned Big Thunder Mountain, which were cool. There's a lot of diversity in attractions there since MK is split into sections, with the western/southern stuff, the Toon Town stuff, etc...

Epcot was alright, but there were only two memorable rides that I rode - Test Track and Soarin'. They were great. Then we spent a lot of time at the World Showcase area, which is a mostly-walking section that goes through many countries, especially ones featured in Disney cartoons. It's a lot of specialty shops and restaurants. But I got to see a lot of the characters there, in their respectable country.

After Disney, we proceeded to come down with a cold or really bad allergies, and made our way to our second destination - Treasure Island. We spent a lot of time on the beach next to where we were staying (a really nice place called Sunset Vistas, where every room has a view of the gulf). We went to just about every little beach shop by John's Pass. Ate at a Bubba-Gump's Shrimp Co. for lunch one day while we were there. The waitress had to bring in back-up to stump us on Forrest Gump trivia. I think the question that finally got me and dad was what Lt. Dan's last name was. I've already forgotten the answer. >_< My Uncle, Aunt, and two of my three Florida cousins visited us. We had sort of a birthday party for them, since we wouldn't get to celebrate with them on the actual days. And that was about all of what happened there.

This has been a very short summary compared to what all I *could* talk about. I'll leave you with the pictures to tell the rest...

Album 1 - [link]
Album 2 - [link]
Album 3 - [link]
(Some of the pics may show as x's in the overview, but they should come up if you click on them)

Since I have been back, I've started my summer babysitting job. It's been very easy because this kid is an angel compared the kids I've watched in the past. I'm basically getting paid to play the Wii and hide and seek all day. Lol. The most take-charge thing I have had to do was round the boy and his dog up in the basement and find a radio when a bad storm hit on Friday. Even then, he was cooperative, though I suspect that this boy, like me, is going to be a storm-geek and he really wanted to be upstairs looking out the windows. Especially when I was telling him how tornados aren't common here and he said "Yeah, but it would still be cool to see one, huh?". I had to agree. I'm off duty this week because his mom is off, but I'll be back next week.

I got to see my baby niece a couple times this weekend, at my grandmother's birthday party and a Father's Day get-together. She has developed a nice scowl when she sleeps. Looks like my brother's. Ha ha. My brother and Ja'net say Sophia is wide awake at home, and as soon as they put her in the car to go somewhere, she's asleep and impossible to wake up. So I haven't seen her awake much, although she would often open one eye to check out her surroundings.

Right, well... So long for now.