Hollywood Studios

On Friday, we went back to Disney World but this time we went to Hollywood Studios.

Chuck and I went to the popular rides first thinking the lines would be shorter.  We first went to the Tower of Terror.  

We had ridden this ride 20 years ago when it was one of the newest rides in the park.  I screamed as much this time as I did 20 years ago.  :)

After leaving the Tower of Terror, we walked over to the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster.  We haven't ridden a roller coaster since the last time we were here.  This ride reminded me of how much fun rollercoasters can be!  :)

The ride looks like a very long stretch limo.

At the beginning of the ride, it goes from 0 to 60 mph in about 2 seconds and then immediately turns upside down and all around...in the dark.  I screamed all through this ride too.  It was a blast!  :)

After we got off the Rockin' Rollercoaster, we walked over and met up with the Gregorys and the Taylors...

...and then walked over to The Streets of America.

Some of the "streets" looked like they were from New York City.

Jake the Pirate aka Graham explored the streets of San Francisco.

Chuck and I next rode the Star Wars Tour ride, a 3-D simulator that can almost make you as queasy as the round and round Astro Orbiter.  Then, we walked over to the Light! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show.

Lightning McQueen made a quick appearance at the show.  :)

There was a lot of car chases and stunts.

And what's a stunt show without some fire and explosion?

After leaving the stunt show, we walked over to the Hollywood & Vine Restaurant where the Gregorys and the Taylors had gone for lunch so Graham could meet one of his favorite Disney characters, Jake the Pirate.  Sofia the First happened to be at the restaurant too.  Isabella, our oldest granddaughter LOVES Sofia the First.

Chuck kept following Sofia all around the restaurant trying to get an autograph for Isabella.

As he found out, Disney characters don't pay much attention to grownup grandparents.

But Bell, Pa did finally get Sofia's autograph for you.  :)

While Chuck was following Sofia the First around the restaurant trying to get her autograph, I practiced my grandma skills by holding little Aubrey while the Gregorys and the Taylors finished their lunch.

And with #4 grandbaby due in May and #5 grandbaby due in August, I probably could use a little practice!  :)

After leaving Hollywood and Vine, we rode the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster twice again -- once with Matt and Donald and then again with Matt and Erica.

We finished up our day at Hollywood Studios with a pretty good pizza at Pizza Planet and then watched the Fantasmic production with the Gregorys and the Taylors.  Another fun day at Disney!

A trip to Parkesdale

We have told Donald and Anna about Parkesdale Farms and their famous strawberry shortcake for years.  Since we were only about 35 miles away at Themeworld, we decided to take a little day trip to Plant City.

We were anticipating a long line because the Plant City Annual Strawberry Festival had just begun but we got lucky and only had about a 15 minute wait in line.

Papa-Donald liked his strawberry shortcake...

...and Graham and Nana-Anna did too!

Parkesdale strawberry milkshakes are very delicious too but we discovered that you need to either drink the strawberry milkshake first or eat it at a different time than the strawberry shortcake.  The strawberry shortcake is so sweet that it makes the milkshake not taste as sweet when you have them at the same time.

It was a very delicious but not necessarily nutritious lunch!  :)

Magic Kingdom

After leaving the Daytona area, we drove back to Themeworld RV Park in Davenport, Florida, because we were going to Disney World for a couple of days with Donald & Anna and their daughter and family, Erica, Matt, Graham & Aubrey.  It has been almost 20 years since we last went to Disney World so we knew it would be interesting to see how much has changed.

On the bus ride to Magic Kingdom, Graham was all excited about going to Magic Kingdom.

Donald and Chuck look pretty excited too.  :)

After we got through the gates, Graham looked at the map to try to figure out where we should go first.  :)

Of course, we first have to take a selfie with the famous Cinderella Castle in the background.

Erica suggested we go to Fantasyland first so Graham could ride Buzz Lightyear's (one of his favorite characters) Space Ranger ride.  The cars on the ride are equipped with laser guns with which you try to shoot as many targets and score as many points as you can along the ride.  Chuck didn't realize this until we were about halfway through the ride but he still beat me by several thousand points.  What do you think about this rootin' tootin' intergalactic couple?  :)

We decided to get one more ride in before lunch so we headed to the Astro Orbiter.  Couple of things we have learned about the Magic Kingdom.  The rides have gotten much smaller and much lower to the ground.  :)

We rode the elevator up to the Astro Orbiter assuming we could both ride in the same Orbiter.  After a couple of attempts and a lot of giggling, I decided to just step out and let Chuck ride alone.  However, the dedicated Astro Orbiter Steward insisted that I ride and led me to an empty Orbiter a few cars back.  This worked out well because I could get pictures of Chuck flying his Orbiter...

as well as Erica and Graham flying their Orbiter.

This was one of those rides that goes round and round and up and down.  We all did fine when we looked straight ahead but when we looked off (like Erica was doing in the above picture), we got just a little bit queasy.  I think this will be the last round and round ride for me.  Good thing we rode this before lunch!

After lunch at Cosmic Ray's, it was time for a little racing at the Tomorrowland Speedway.  These rides have shrunk too.  :)  Chuck and I were barely able to get down into our car.

I was driving but Graham did a better job driving the car that he and Nana-Anna were in than I did.

Since Papa-Donald didn't get to drive the race cars, he "raced" Graham around in the stroller after the ride.  :)

It had sprinkled rain earlier in the day but then it began raining harder.  We stopped and got a pineapple ice cream and waited under a dry pavillion for the rain to stop.

Little Aubrey looked like she was saying "Hey, what about me?  I want some pineapple ice cream!"

When the rain stopped for a few minutes, Anna, Erica, Graham and I explored the Swiss Family Treehouse...

...while Chuck and Donald stayed with Aubrey below.

It was turning into a good day for ducks...

...and people with ponchos.  :)

All the rain could have made us all very very sad.  :(

But hey!  We won't let a little rain make us sad!  :)

In our efforts to find a "dry ride," we thought we would just ride the train around the park.

When the rains let up again, Erica and Graham rode Dumbo, another round and round ride.  We passed on this ride.  :)

We finally made our way to "It's A Small World" where we knew we would be able to stay dry.

Of course, the lyrics are now permanently embedded into our brains for the next 20 years.

It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all!  It's a small world after all.  It's a small small world.  

Now, they are embedded into your brains too!  :)

We had planned to eat dinner in Magic Kingdom but all the "sit-down" restaurants had a very long wait.  Since everyone was pretty tired, we decided to eat dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel where Matt and Erica were staying.  Graham was so tired that he started falling asleep while he was sitting up eating his dinner.  And as we were getting ready to leave, Anna knocked over a water glass.  Chuck couldn't get out of the way fast enough and got his shorts wet.  We were laughing so hard, I know the people around us thought we were crazy.  And I guess we are...just a little bit... but we sure had fun!  :)

Daytona Wrap-up

We spent the rest of "Speed Week" at Daytona walking, biking, watching the Daytona races (on TV), playing card games, and eating a lot of really good food.

If you watched any of the races at Daytona on TV, you know that all of them were good and close.  We were glad to see Dale Earnhart, Jr. cross the finish line of the Daytona 500 after a nearly 6 hour rain delay Sunday night.  Congratulations Dale Jr.!

For our last night at Daytona, we went back to Aunt Catfish's for their delicious salad bar one more time.  We "toasted" our last night with our cinnamon rolls!  :)

Our waitress for this evening was Cousin Melissa.  Nice name, don't you think?  :)

As we talked with Cousin Melissa, she mentioned how she was a morning person.  I'm a morning person.

And she further mentioned how she is not very graceful.  Ask my family.  I'm not very graceful either.

OK.  This is getting weird.  We asked her what her birthdate was and guess what?  She has the same birthday as me.  Is that crazy or what?  Different birth year though.  :)

Cousin Melissa surprised us with a box of their delicious cinnamon rolls to take home.  Yummy!  :)

We finished the evening back at Donald & Anna's with one more game of Skip-Bo.  Another great week at Daytona!

Breakfast, Walk & Down the Hatch

On Tuesday morning, Anna, Karen and Sheila cooked up a delicious breakfast.  Boy, was it good!  :)

And you can't beat Anna's homemade strawberry jelly on Sheila's homemade biscuits.  Mmmmmm.  :)

After that delicious breakfast, we played a little cornhole and then walked our 10,000 steps starting from Donald & Anna's campsite, out the campground, and down the same trail we biked on Monday.  Karen and Kevin walked with us but I think Karen probably got about 12,000 steps to our 10,000.   :)

Of course, the most important decision of the day is where to eat for dinner.  Tonight, we decided to go to a restaurant that Donald & Anna had not been to in several years called "Down the Hatch."  The restaurant is located on a dock on the Ponce Inlet south of Daytona Beach.

Chuck and I split a broiled seafood combo dinner.  The food was o.k. but I think we all prefer Aunt Catfish's.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset after dinner.  :)

After leaving Down the Hatch, we drove to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse which was just a short distance from the restaurant.

This lighthouse is Florida's tallest lighthouse and is one of the tallest masonry lighthouses in the country.  We were all taking pictures of the lighthouse.  Chuck and I unsuccessfully tried a couple of selfies with the lighthouse in the background.

We gave up on my dumb-phone and asked Anna to take our picture with her smarter-phone.  :)

After all the picture-taking, we went back to Donald & Anna's for another fun evening of card games.