Sunday, August 31st....continued.
The plan after breakfast had been to head for a drive to Kissimmee for one more round of mini golf, either at Congo River or Mighty Jungle. The family wanted one more round of 18 holes to wrap up our vacation, and its an activity that tends to make us happy....and quite honestly we were all suffering from a lack of happy on this travel day home.
What we werent counting on, however, was how blazingly sunny the day would start out to be, meaning it hot and humid just didnt sum it up at all. It was searing. Even sitting in the van, with the A/C on full blast, we could feel the sun frying our exposed skin. By the time we reached there, we were all in agreement.....it was simply too hot for golfing.
So disappointed
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Sweetie spied one of the kooky gift shops, and asked if we could make one more souvenir stop as she had just enough money and just enough luggage space left for one of the red Lifeguard hoodies that she had had her eyes on since we arrived two weeks prior. So we stopped, and we shopped. Its a good antidote for the going-home blues
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I must admit, I was sad this day. Like, really and
profoundly sad.....and Im not sure why
. I knew we were coming back (in a short 8 months, no less), we had been there a full two weeks (so its not like it felt too short), and the trip had been amazing.......but yet, I felt the tears stinging my eyes on more than one occasion. Im generally not very good at endings at the best of times, but I really sucked at it that Sunday.
I also must admit......I didnt plan for this day very well. We normally fly out in the morning or early afternoon, which means little to no time to do anything on our final day before having to head to the airport for the rental drop-off and pre-flight rituals (baggage check, security, etc.). With an early evening flight, we didnt have to be to the airport until at least 5 pm, meaning we could have (and SHOULD have) done a partial park day somewhere (Aquatica or SeaWorld), or at least until late afternoon. Without a full slate of things to do to occupy both the bodies and the minds, we felt kind of lost. And irritable. The day felt long, and the things that had slid off us like water off a duck for our entire vacation (traffic, heat, etc.) made us grouchy
. Lesson learned for next time.
The kids wanted Cicis one last time for lunch, so we stopped at one on International Drive. Then, with thick clouds starting to darken the skies, we thought it might be wise to seek an indoor activity to help pass the time. One we had not yet done in Orlando was just down the street, so why not?
Now, this was not our first Ripleys Believe it or Not. We had been to the one in Niagara Falls a couple of times over the years, so we knew what to expect. We used our BOGO coupons from the Entertainment Book and in we went. Thank the Lord, too, because walking into this building gives you a very weird feeling.....like my head was going to explode kinda feeling. Like the whole world is tilted and you might fall off kind of feeling. What your eyes see and what your body feels is very, very different...theres some kind of optical illusion (is that what you would call it?) happening here and wasnt pleasant. I wonder if the employees ever get used to it? Or do they walk into the building with their eyes closed every day?
At any rate, inside the floors both felt and looked straight (hallelujah!), so we were off to the various exhibits.
This is no 5-star attraction by any means, but it was something to do. There are lots of interactive exhibits, some to make you think:
....some that are just weird, like an autographed pair of Madonnas underpants:
....or a portrait of Beyonce made entirely of gummy candy:
There were some really odd exhibits too. Very bizarre, indeed. Like the Incombustible Man, featuring the fellow who could apparently stay in an oven holding a pot roast until it was cooked through (I mean....what would have made him want to attempt this the first time, in the first place?
):
There were the fantasy coffins which reflected the occupation or achievements of the deceased (anyone want to be buried in a large fish?):
There was a Thor statue made entirely of car parts:
And a portrait of Frankenstein crafted from a zillion computer keyboard keys:
We also learned a little about lightening in the state of Florida:
....and Jake gave us the gears (lol....I made a funny there, did you see that?
):
There were lots of little places for photo ops, like this one (Steve said this is how he felt after eating himself silly for two weeks in Orlando
):
All in all, it was not our most notable Orlando attraction, but it blew a couple of hours and was well air conditioned. Am I allowed to say that Im glad we had buy one, get one free coupons and didnt pay full price? At full price I would have been disappointed. Discounted by half, it was okay.
Time was ticking, it was now mid afternoon. The kids asked for an hour to walk around the Florida Mall, so thats where we headed......and as we did so, the skies opened up:
It poured BUCKETS, but not for long. It was over within an hour. Following our short foray at the mall, we were on our way to the airport under sunny skies once again. We filled up the van and dropped it off to the friendliest Alamo garage agent EVER (I wish I had gotten her name, she was awesome!), and were on our way to baggage check.
One more post to go. The ending is next.
However, you seem to gave missed the fun of squirting people on Journey to Atlantis, I love just standing and watching as I wait for my two to ride it 
.....I still have one more day to report on. Details on our final day are coming up soon.
. It was much cooler to hang out in the aquarium.....ah, air conditioning 
. Next time, for sure! 
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. Thank you so much, for the kind words and for reading along! I am grateful to all of you for sharing in my memories 
most of our vacations are usually 12 - 14 days. This surprise Xmas trip is only 7 nights. We were very lucky we could only go from Dec 20th to 27th, never thought we would get decent flight prices being we booked late and low and behold about 2 weeks after deciding we would keep an eye on flights on Friday morning both days $113 each way. From Buf to Orlando. Booked them asap.
You, in particular, are getting so close!!
Or if I should even care if we look out of place? 
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