I heard a noise!

Time to check the mouse traps.

'Massive Fire Damages Gatorland" - WKMG Orlando

Local coverage of the Gatorland fire that happened while we were at Universal.

The link:
http://www.local6.com/news/10248992/detail.html?taf=orlpn

Daytona Beach Photos Online at Picasa Web Albums

Click the link below to see way too many photos of our Daytona Beach Trip.

http://picasaweb.google.com/TJMK50/DaytonaBeach2006

Daytona Beach

Day Nine - On The Road

Left about 7:30 this morning.

Daytona Beach

Day Eight

Best weather yet - a perfect day for the beach. We spent the whole day at the pool/beach then headed to Ponce Inlet to eat at our favorite restaurant, The Lighthouse Landing. We've eaten there every time we've gone to Daytona and it's always great. It's changed a little since last time we were there. They added an outdoor bar, a new dining area and some kind of Tiki Bar thing. The sun was just starting to set when we sat down. For starters, Natalie, Tom and I split a big order of steamed clams. Matthew had a bowl of clam chowder that he said was OK but a little too salty. Tom liked it enough to order a bowl for himself. For my main course, I got the best - a fried grouper sandwich. I'll have to ask the rest of them what they ordered.

After dinner we took the kids back to the condo and Natalie and I went out for a couple of drinks. First we went to Crabby Joe's, a pretty cool looking place on a fishing pier that you can just make out when you look south from Mike's condo. Now this was 9:00 PM on a Saturday night and the waiter said they were closing. Natalie said I got kind of nasty with the guy but I was genuinely shocked - a bar/restaurant closing at 9 on a Saturday Night? I really couldn't believe it. After that we went to Pirates Cove which is on the ocean at the Port Orange bridge. The hotel was half closed and all torn up for renovation but they were open. We got a couple of Coronas and went out on the deck. The deck would have been nice if it hadn't been enclosed in scratched up, dirty plexiglass the you couldn't see through. Oh well, at least the beer was cold. We left there and headed across the highway towards the bridge and stopped at D.J.'s Oyster Deck for one last drink in Daytona. Another nice place that we had been to before (I think I got frog's legs last time I was there). We sat on the deck and fed the catfish that congregate there. Little vending machines sell the fish pellets you feed them. We should have went there to eat instead of some of the other places we went to. After that it was back to the condo for the night.

Daytona Beach

Day Seven - Universal Studios/Daytona Beach

Beautiful day. We got up early and checked out of the hotel, picked up some delicious breakfast sandwiches from Burger King and headed over to the park. It was up in the air over which one to go to, but we decided on Universal Studios. Natalie insisted that this time we would do it in order instead of running from ride to ride. We got on all our favorites again - The Mummy, Back To The Future and The Terminator. We did ET's Adventure Ride, which we missed the first day. It was OK - the ride's cars look like bicycles. I nodded a little during the Terminator (for the second time). Must be sleeping sickness.

After we left the Terminator Show, a trolley came down the street carrying a bunch of cartoon characters. We got pictures with Scooby-Doo and Scraggy, Woody Woodpecker and the female Woodpecker (?) and Curious George and The Man In The Yellow Raincoat. While we were still in Hollywood, Natalie got pictures with Lucy and Desi Arnez and Maryln Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. They all went in the gift shop while I sat on the curb listening to the Ricky & Franky Ricardo Band. We must have missed Lucy and Ricky's show with them but I really enjoyed the band by itself. They were great. We left the park around 1:00. Matthew wasn't ready to go but I think the rest of us were. I know I wanted to get back to the beach and enjoy what was our best weather day so far.

We got back to Daytona around 2:30 and had sandwiches for lunch. We hung out around the pool and on the beach until it got dark. The beach was really nice and the ocean water had warmed up quite a bit, but that was nothing compared to the pool. The heater had been broken but it was definitely working now - the water must have been pushing 80 degrees. We got dressed and headed across the street and south a little to the China America Garden restaurant. The food was so-so. They had a big screen TV playing sappy Asian music videos in the corner. The videos were in one Asian language with sub-titles in a different Asian language. After dinner we walked up the street to the Congo River Miniature Golf course. They have about a dozen 4-5 foot long alligators out front that you can feed with fishing rods baited with hotdogs. The kids really liked that. The course had a lot of waterfalls and a real plane crashed into a fake mountain. Nice place.

Daytona Beach

Day Six - Islands of Adventure

Got up around 7:30. Beautiful day today. We had breakfast at the TGI Fridays that's actually part of the hotel. You couldn't order anything except the breakfast buffet. It was pretty good. We decided to take the hotel shuttle over to Islands of Adventure. We were dropped off a lot closer to the main entrance then when we drove over ourselves. The whole parking situation was stupid and expensive ($10.00). We could look across the highway from our room and see where we parked the previous day. We'd ended up at the back of the garage closest to our hotel and then had to walk quite a ways back to the entrance. We could have easily walked there but the hotel concierge had warned us about crossing the highway on foot - even though they had crosswalks and pedestrian signals. Other people were doing it.

It took a long time to get in again because of the fingerprint scanner. As soon as we got into the park, Tommy & Matthew went right to the Hulk rollercoaster. They ended up getting on that twice. Dr.Doom's Fear Fall was next. They liked it but thought it was too short. While they were on that ride, the Marvel Super heros arrived on ATVs. I wanted to shake Captain America's hand but I gave up after a couple of minutes. There was no order to the line and it wasn't worth getting into an argument with an 8-year old or their parents over who was next. All four of us got on the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. It was pretty cool but those kind of 3-D multimedia rides make me a little nauseated.

Next up was Jurassic Park, which was kind of dissappointing. We didn't get on The River Adventure ride until later so we just watched it and then we split up. Tommy and Matthew went to get on the Dueling Dragons rollercoaster while Natalie and I went to the Jurrasic Park Discovery Center. That was OK. While we waited for the kids, we went into the Alchemy Bar, which looked like something from the Lord of the Rings. It was a nice place and the bartender was really excited about the Democrats taking the House and Senate the day before. We had a couple of Bass Ales then hooked back up with the kids. They were really pissed off. They had waited in line for 30 to 40 minutes when they finally got to the front of the line they shut the rollercoaster down and made everybody leave. We tried to do Poseidon's Fury. The entrance area was really cool but after making our way into the cave we found out that it was a forty-minute wait for a forty-minute ride. We were wondering why so many people were coming back through the line and leaving.

At 3:30 we went to the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad Stunt Show. It was pretty good but we all agreed it would have been much better if the actors had just played it straight instead of making stupid jokes. The high point of the show was the witch bursting into flames. That was pretty intense. After the stunt show, we got on the Cat In The Hat Ride at Seuss Landing. That was cute in a "It's Small World" kind of way. We also stopped at Snookers and Snookers Sweet Candy Cookers for some of the worlds most expensive candy. By this time it was getting close to closing time so it was time to hit the water rides.

First, we got on the Jurrasic Park River Adventure Ride that's very similiar to the Pompei Ride at Williamsburg. You ride a big raft through Jurrasic Park and come down a flume. We only got a little damp on that one. The kids got on that one twice. Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls was next. It's a flume ride with five people to a log. I thought it was scary. On most flume rides, you go up up, circle around and then come down the flume. On this one, you go up three levels then you come down. We were still only damp but not for long. We argued about getting on the next water ride - Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. I didn't want to get on it because it looked like we would get soaked. I was out-voted. It was a fun river raft type ride but we did get drenched. The sun was going down and the temperature was dropping. We tried to find a sunny spot to warm up in but it was too late. Tommy and Matthew got on the Hulk one last time while Natalies and I tried to dry off a little. I emptied the water out of my shoes and put my wet socks in my pocket. We headed back towards the main entrance. Natalie did a little shopping while Matthew and I got some smoked turkey legs. We found a little corner out of the wind and sat down and ate them. We were all freezing by this point and the shuttle bus wasn't coming until 7:00. There was a little shop near the entrance that had clearance items on sale. Matthew and I bought Spiderman Class Of 1962 sweatshirts and Natalie bought an Islands of Adventure sweatshirt. Tom didn't see anything he liked and insisted he wasn't cold. Me, I would have worn anything to get warm. We got some coffee and cold hot chocolate at Starbucks and wandered around City Walk until it was time to get the shuttle. We almost went on a tour of Orlando. The bus driver thought the bus was empty until I went up and said something to him.

We ate dinner at the Orlando Ale House. I thought we would finally have a decent beer in Florida. No such luck. They had exactly one ale on the menu (Sierra Nevade Pale Ale) and they were out of that. I had the lobster special, which was good and a bargain. I'll have to ask the others if they remember what they ordered. After that, snoozeville.

Daytona Beach

Day Five - Universal Studios

Left Daytona for Orlando and Universal Studios this morning at 7:30. Traffic wasn't too bad - seemed a lot better then the last time we made this trip. We arrived at the hotel around 9:30. They let us check in early and we headed across the highway to Universal Studios. Then we had to park the car, take the long trek to the entrance, get our tickets and wait in line to have our fingerprint scanned. That fingerprint scanner was a real pain, the attendants tried all kinds of things to get it to work - constantly cleaning the lens, wiggling your finger around, etc. It was around 11:00 when we finally got in the park. Weather wasn't too good - cloudy and dreary.

We got on the first ride we came to, Shrek 4D. It was OK but geared towards little kids. After that, we started heading for the rides we wanted to get on most, instead of going through the park in order. The next ride we got on was Men In Black: Alien Attack. I thought it was disappointing. You're supposed to shoot the aliens, like in the test Will Smith takes at the beginning of the movie. Natalie wanted to ride it again and not bother with the guns but we never got back to it. Then came the best ride - Revenge Of The Mummy. Great beginning, great indoor rollercoaster and a cool ending. At the very end of the ride, the actor from the movie talks to you but because we were backed up behind another car, it was out of sync.

By this time the weather had gotten worse - it drizzled a lot and poured a couple of times. We stopped at Finnegan's fake Irish pub to get some food and regroup. We had pasties, Scotch eggs and soda bread with apple butter. The soda bread was great but Natalie was the only one of us who really liked the other stuff. Some guy played acoustic guitar with electronic backing. We could hear him but not see him. Southern rock and country music - yeech. We saw Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue at 3:30. Beetlejuice was trying to turn Dracula, Frankenstein, Frankensteins Bride and the Wolfman into a band. It was lame. After a stagehand set off some big explosion, Beetlejuice asked him "Where do you think you are, Gatorland?" Gatorland had a big fire the night before. When the audience groaned, he said "What, too soon?" That was the first of several Gatorland jokes.

As far as the other rides go - Twister: Ride It Out and Earthquake were live action shows. I liked them both. The Earthquake show started with a green screen special effects segment using volunteers from the audience and scenes from the movie "U-571". Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast was OK. I liked Jaws but the rest of the crew wasn't impressed, although Matthew really jumped in one part when the shark showed up on his side of the boat and there was a big explosion. All of us really liked Back To The Future: The Ride. Towards the end of the day we went to the Horror Make-Up Show. It was OK. The prize for the volunteer from the audience was tickets to Gatorland. I know I was freezing during the show. By then I was soaked and the air conditioning seemed to be running full blast. Somehow, we missed the exhibit of props from the movie "Van Helsing". It was right next door to the Make-Up Show. I remember seeing the carriage from the movie sitting in front of the theater. The Terminator 2 - 3D was really cool. It was a mix of live actors and 3D. I snoozed for a few seconds during it. One thing they had in "Hollywood" by the T2 ride was a Lucy Tribute. It was a room full of Lucy & Desi Arnaz memorabilia. There were monitors playing the show and home movies, dresses and jewelry worn on the show, her Emmys, Lucy records, Lucy comics - all kinds of stuff. You could take a Lucy trivia quizz. I really like the section about the technical aspects of the show, how they were the first TV show with permanent sets and multiple camera angles.

We all were soaked by the time the park closed at 6:00. On our way back to the parking garage, Natalie fell off the people mover. She was turned around talking to Tom, when it came to an end. She didn't hurt herself but she made a lot of noise and everybody was looking at her. Back at the hotel, we changed and sat around for a couple of hours taking it easy. We drove back across the highway to the Universal City Walk to eat. Universal City Walk is a free area before the entrances to the parks with two levels of shops and restaurants. We went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The food was very average. I had conch chowder without a trace of conch flavor. Natalie had crab corn chowder, the highlight of our meal. The two of us split an order of Jamaican jerk chicken. It was bland, really just barbequed chicken without any jerk seasoning. Matthew had a burger and fries, and I think Tom had some kind of chicken sandwich. There was a band playing, Blue Stone I think they were called. They were really good but most of the songs they played I am sick of - lots of 70's stuff like "Gimme Three Steps, Brown Sugar, Etc. And although I hate country music, I liked one song they did that's borderline - "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". One of the two guitar players switched to violin and he was great. After we left Margaritaville, we walked around the lake and went into the Hard Rock Cafe to look at all the memorabilia. When we got back to the main drag of City Walk, we decided to head back to the hotel.

Daytona Beach

Day Four

Pretty nice today but it's still very windy. This morning Natalie and I went for a walk on the beach then the four of us went to Ponce Inlet State Park. It's a really nice park that's really there by chance. During the 1920's, a hotel and resort was being built there when a bad hurricane came through and destroyed it. The place was never developed. A later hurricane unearthed parts of the original foundation. We walked out to the end of the jetty and then back the other way, along the inlet and Halifax river. There were a few surfers out in the ocean catching some good waves. We skipped the lighthouse this time around, I kind of regret that now. The weather turned bad again and it started drizzling.

Natalie crashed when we got back to the condo. For dinner, Tommy and Matthew and I went on a quest to find a cheese steak sub for Tom. First we headed south but couldn't find a subshop. We ended up at some dumpy-looking place called Pizza King that was only a block from the condo (right next to the "Biggins" strip club.). I wasn't optimistic. For one thing the name on the printed menu was "Antonio's" and the place was deserted. We were pleasantly surprised by the food - it was very good. We just hung out at the condo for the rest of the night.

Daytona Beach

Day Three

It was overcast and rainy when we got up this morning, so we decide to go down to the boardwalk. The boardwalk in Daytona is only a couple of blocks long and only half of that has game rooms and stuff. The Go-Cart track looks like it's shut down for good and the place that has kiddie rides wasn't open. At one end you go up some steps to this bridge across an access road for cars to get on the beach - that's how you get on the pier. I think you used to be able to continue across the bridge to a bar that we went to with Mike and Rita, BK (before kids). That was a neat place, can't believe they tore it down. I remember they had an old gas pump at the bar. There is a big vacant lot there now that will probably be a big high-rise. Behind the commercial part of the boardwalk is another big vacant lot that is going to be the Boardwalk Hotel.

The whole area was pretty deserted, I guess because of the weather. We played some video games Natalie got a beer and sat out in front of the arcade. By then the sun had come out. We took the kids back to the condo and Natalie and I went back towards the boardwalk and went over the bridge to the Halifax Art Festival. It was held along Beach Street, which fronts on the Inland Waterway. Really nice area, full of old stores straight out of the 50's and 60's. Lot's of bars and restaurants, an old theater and parks along the water. We stayed there a couple of hours and it was actually hot.

It wasn't hot back at the condo. The sun kept going in and out and the wind was still howling. Tommy, Matthew and I got in the ocean for a little while but the water was cold. For dinner that night we ate at Aunt Catfish's Restaurant, over the bridge in Port Orange. It was OK. It didn't help that the waitresses started cleaning up while we were still eating. The salad bar and "fish camp fixins" were great but the entrees were just so,so. I got the Pirates Trio - fried shrimp, scallops and catfish. Tom got catfish cooked three differrent ways. Natalie got a salad. There's a pier behind the place that's pretty nice.

After dinner we went back down to the boardwalk. We were going to park right behind it but there was no one around and it was kind of creepy. We checked out Ocean Walk in the Hilton right behind the boardwalk bandshell. Not much really. After that we wondered around the bandshell for a while then called it a night.

Daytona Beach

Day Two

I think we got up around seven at the hotel in Fayetteville. We enjoyed our fabulous "expanded" Continental breakfast, gassed up next door and hit the road. We stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center right over the state line. This book we took with us mentioned a chain of drive-in restaurants called Sonic so we decided to go there for lunch. It was about 10 miles further on. After pulling off of 95, we passed the place had to continue down this busy highway and make a u-turn. The Sonic was behind a couple of businesses and not very scenic. It looked new. Our waitress didn't have roller skates on and the food was just so - so, like McDonalds. Pretty much a waste of time. I got a Chicken Toaster sandwich. We stopped again about 5 miles from the Florida border and gassed up again ($1.99 a gallon).

We got to Daytona just before dark, around 5:30. Mike's place is really nice, you walk out on a little porch and it's just a couple of steps to the pool and the ocean. It was very windy but there was a bright full moon. Tommy and Matthew went swimming in the pool. We overheard some people saying the pool heater was broken and wouldn't be fixed until Monday. For dinner, we had pizza from Genoveses's, a place just before the Port Orange bridge. I thought it was good but everybody else thought it was just OK.

Daytona Beach

Day One

We left Baltimore for Daytona Beach on friday at 7:00 PM. We got to our room at the Fayetteville Econolodge at around 1:30 AM - just about the time we figured on (six hours ). I had thought it would take us seven hours, but a friend of Natalie's at work said it would take six hours and he was right. We had no problem getting around DC, we took 295 right to the Woodrow Wilson bridge. Traffic wasn't a problem until the HOV lanes ended in Northern Viriginia and then it was slow going until we got to the 295 bypass around Richmond - that's a nice road and a real pleasure after the stop and go we had experienced.

Fayetteville was pretty much a dump. I didn't sleep well - maybe because of the jet-powered toilet in one of the rooms close by. It made a loud, wierd sound. The Continental breakfast was probably the worst we've ever had. We decided on that particular hotel because the AAA website said they had an "expanded" Continental breakfast. That was a load of crap.