the Last of Orlando (01-02-13)

Oh, by the way, Happy 2013!  Paul and I actually made it to midnight on December 31, but we didn’t go to the RV park party, we just stayed home and watched TV.  I think New Years Eve is a young person’s holiday, but maybe I’m wrong.

Once the kids left, I got “hitch Itch”, ready to move on to the next place, partially because I really miss them after they leave and I need to keep myself pretty busy. We had 4 more days in Orlando though and did manage to find a few things to do!
Two of my favorite days of the year are the day the Christmas decorations go up,  and the day they come down.  I know a lot of people out there know what I am talking about.  The house looks so festive when you put them up:

and so clean and neat (and a little bare) when you take them down:

While I was keeping myself occupied by “undecorating”, Paul found his own project to work on.  This is what happens when Paul gets bored:

That’s our shower enclosure.  Not just the door- the whole thing. We had a leak where the glass meets the fiberglass and when he looked at it, he discovered that there was a problem with the installation of the enclosure.  Now, he had two choices- he could just added silicone to the area that was leaking, or he could pull the whole thing apart and install it correctly.  The course of action he took is pretty obvious.

We had a third “free” day at Universal Studios, so we waited until a “low crowd day” and headed over to ride a couple of roller coasters.

We started with The Hulk.  I must say, this is my favorite coaster ever! Usually, going up the first hill is torturous- that slooooow chugging along, waiting to get to the top.  The Hulk doesn’t do that.  Instead, you are pretty much catapulted to the top, and by the time you get there, you are traveling at 40 mph and are upside down. No time to think, and worry!


 
 I loved that, and also that there was no huge “down” where you lose your stomach.  Just lots of loops and twists. I literally had to hold on to my glasses to keep them on my face.
After a couple of rides and wandering the park for a while, we had dinner at Margaritaville again.






We did some shopping before we left and bought something we’ve been eyeing for a long time:

We love a good campfire but many places don’t have fire pits.  Well, now we have our own!



Blue Springs State Park is one of the best places to see manatees (thanks Elaine!) so we spent a half a day exploring this park.

You can swim, snorkel, and scuba dive at this beautiful spring, but not in the winter when the manatees are there.  After watching them for a while we said, Yup, submerged blobs. 

They don’t do much moving, and only stick their nose out of the water to breathe. We did see a mom and a calf swimming down the river.

I thought this was the funniest picture of the day- just a bunch of friends, hanging out in the sunshine (I wonder if the turtle is afraid if he moves, he’ll get eaten?)!!