10.28.2014

Florida part lll: the beach, Disneyworld & going home

so if you thought the last post had a lot of photos, you ain't seen nothing yet. this post probably has triple the amount of photos. we took lots and lots of pics. i am only sharing a few of the hundreds we took, so it could be worse right?

so after we finished Universal Studios, we were definitely ready for a day to relax. we researched beaches that would be good to go to, and decided on a beach in Titusville by Cape Canaveral. It is a National Seashore Park so it's really clean and bathrooms and well-kept. It was about an hour drive from our Marriott, but we didn't mind the drive with the windows down and the humid air blowing in. We stopped and got Subway to take to the beach, and also a gas station for gummies, drinks and candy.

We got there and, the way the park has it set up is, about every mile or so, they have a parking lot and number associated with the parking lot and it has a walkway to the beach (you can't see the beach from the road, you have to walk up a walkway to get to the beach). basically it's just super organized and very clean. so we are driving and each number we pass the parking lot is dead empty. like no cars whatsoever. keep in mind, it was a Tuesday, the day after Labor Day so school is in and it's the middle of the day in the middle of the workweek, so we knew it wouldn't be super crowded (that's why we planned it for that day) but we didn't expect it to be that dead. so we kept driving just to explore, and as we get to the last beach in the park, #13, the parking lot is PACKED. all the parking stalls are taken, and cars are lined on each side of the road. we are thinking, wow, this is where the party is at! and by this time Brett had to pee, so he ran into a stall and i decided to go up and check out why this beach was so popular. and keep in mind that we couldn't see the beach from the road, and the bathrooms are on the road part so Brett couldn't see anything either. so i walk up the walkway expecting to see a bunch of families with their kids building sand castles, frolicking in the water and enjoying the nice weather. ummm wrongo. i get up there and see this:

sensored for those who don't want to see bare butts. if you want the real one let me know ;)
and about 50 other bare bottoms and, i'm nauseous to say, full frontals. oh my gosh! and they were frolicking all right. frolicking all over the place and their bodies were frolicking as they moved. i wanted to claw my eyes out. not even kidding. i wish i could've seen my reaction, i got up there expecting to see a completely sweet and innocent scene, then to my surprise i saw bare body parts that nobody should have to see without being warned. couldn't believe what i was seeing, decided to take an iphone pic to have proof in case Brett didn't believe me, and hightailed it back to the car like a bat out of Hell. that place was crawling with people in the nude. they seemed quite comfortable in their nakedness. but i, for one, wanted to dig my eyes out with a spoon for a few minutes after witnessing what i witnessed. more power to them for being that comfortable with their bods. oh man, even as i write this my mind needs a little scrub-a-dub-dub. so many bits and pieces i want to rip out of my brain.

so anyways, i get back to the car and Brett gets out of the bathroom and he is about to go up to the beach because he didn't expect me to be by the car. i shout to him with all my might, stopping him so he didn't have to witness what i had. i wanted at least one of us to go on living without having those images stuck in their head. and what do you know, he didn't believe me. i knew there was a reason my first reaction was the take a pic. so i showed him and just like that, we were back in the car, heading straight to beach parking lot a few miles away from the nudists. safe and sound. we were thrilled to be the only ones in the parking lot. no surprise bums were going to be at the top when we got there, and i was very happy about that.

so we get up there, and oh my gosh, it's BEAUTIFUL!! (i'm sure the other beach was just as pretty, but the surrounding objects kind of stole my view of the water and its gorgeousness). just see for yourself:








oh isn't it beautiful? oh my gosh, i would give almost anything to go back. and it was so great because we had the entire beach to ourselves. it was awesome. it was so hot, but the good thing about it being so hot was the water was extra warm too. if you know me, i'm not a huge fan of getting into the ocean. i don't like the saltiness, i especially don't like the cold of it and the rocks on the bottom that hurt your feet. this trip changed my mind about getting into the water on the beach. it was like hot-tub water. it was SO warm. it was almost like someone filled up a gigantic bathtub of perfectly temperatured (is that a word?) water and dumped into the ocean that day. it was perfect. we swam in there for almost an hour, jumping waves and just talking while we swam. we thought about maybe even becoming nudists ourselves for a minute there, then realized maybe we were getting carried away with how good the water was and decided not to scare the fish.




















i have missed getting wet, then laying out, then getting wet then laying out. with a little boy running around you can't really do that so it was a special treat to just relax on the beach, read, listen to the waves, and just chill. what isn't so relaxing is going to the beach without any sunscreen. do you see that last pic of Brett with his back facing the camera? he is burning to a crisp by that point. you can't really tell, but i made him put his shirt on after being at the beach for 3 hours. even in the sun i could tell he was fried. i didn't have any on either, but i had been in the sun so much this summer that i knew i would be okay, although i ended up putting a shirt on too once i felt the tan turning into a slight burn. so our day at the beach got cut short to 3 hours once Brett could feel the sun had melted into his skin. but 3 hours was plenty of time.

so we drove back to the Marriott and Brett wanted to take a shower and before he got in, he came out of the bathroom and he looked like this...

this is not edited people! he was as red as a lobster. he may as well have been one. he was burned worse than he has ever been burned before. yeah not the smartest move. (to be fair, and so i don't look like i am irresponsible, the day before at Universal i kept seeing people putting on sunscreen and i commented to Brett that we should probably get some. he replied "oh i'm fine. i don't need sunscreen. i only tan". yeah, that's a real nice red and pink tan you got there). so i didn't even bother saying we should buy some on the way there because i knew he would say the same thing. so, this one isn't on me. 

well after i showered and Brett took a nice little sprinkle in the shower since he couldn't really handle anything touching him (i'm not sure how he even wore clothes to be honest) we went on a date to a jazz club where they had a live jazz band playing and you have dinner and listen to the music. it was SO fun. we have wanted to do it for a while and i was so glad we found this club that was just a little way from where we were staying. and by this time i had gotten used to the humidity so i was able to start wearing my hair down and not feel like i had to put it up 8 seconds later.









the food was amazing and pretty cheap. and the music was so fun! the band was really cool too. they asked the audience questions and were pretty funny. we were way impressed. we wanted to go back once more before we left but didn't have any time. then after dinner we went shopping for a little bit and i got some stuff at Charming Charlie's and we snapped a pic there since our room at the hotel didn't have a full size mirror. and Brett was a way good sport and didn't hardly complain at all about his sunburn, 

the next day (and day after) were the days i had been waiting for the most this entire trip. DISNEYWORLD!!!! i won't go on and on about my love for this place, but let's just say something in me changes when i go there. i turn into a 6 year old. i want Minnie ears. i want cotton candy. i want to find Mickey and Minnie and give them big hugs and kisses. i want to ride Space Mountain 9 times. i want it all man. Brett was so sweet to oblige my childhood fantasy. he took me to do all those things, some of them even twice. what a guy :)

first Disney day, Magic Kingdom:





they had the cutest sequins Minnie ears. i hadn't even planned on getting ears (not saying i didn't want them but it wasn't really a priority) until i saw those ears. it was like i was magnetically drawn to them. that was the first thing i did when we got there. then of course took pics.







yes i beat Brett in yet another shooting game. i was on a roll. and we just had to meet Buzz for Dylan. 



this Gaston was hilarious. we were dying.







and of course we had to meet Pooh and Tigger because Dylan loves them too. 






teacups! and yet another video for your enjoyment.




Space Mountain. my favorite ride. i laugh the entire time on this thing. it's the best. and again, there were hardly any lines peeps. we walked on this one 6 times then the last two times had to wait 20 minutes (that was later in the night).







we ate at the California Grill. it's a nice restaurant on top of one of the hotels at Disneyworld. it definitely wasn't worth the money, but it was a cool experience. and the food wasn't half bad either.





the view was pretty cool. that's Epcot right there.


then it was the moment i had been waiting for. Mickey. they actually got smart at Disney and decided to just have the most popular characters in a certain spot the entire day so you can meet them whenever you want (and so you don't have to roam the park searching for them). and what was cool about this Mickey is he blinks and his mouth moved as he talked. i was in complete awe. it was magical. see, i tell you. i'm 6.







we played a card game with him. he is so cute.








oh man we were absolutely pooped by the time the day came to an end. we loved every single second of it though. and it was cool what they've added, like the village in Beauty and the Beast, Gaston's tavern, a new Little Mermaid ride, Rapunzel's tower. it was fun to see it all. and we rode pretty much every single ride in that place. twice at least.

our second and last Disney day was Hollywood Studios...





 i haven't been there since they put in the Rockin' Roller coaster and it was so fun! i was disappointed there weren't more dips and that it went by so fast, but it was still really fun.


okay so i need to explain something to you guys. i was excited for this day, but my most biggest fearful ride ever is there, and i knew i would have to go on it. Tower of Terror. i was avoiding it as much as possible for as long as i could. but Rockin' Roller coaster is right next to Tower of Terror, and luckily the Disney app tells you the wait times, and lucky for me, the Tower of Terror had no line at all. yay. I knew it was inevitable that i would have to go, but i was super scared, as you can tell by the photos. i posted a photo from when Brett and i went with his parents back in 2008 of us on the same ride:


yeah you see that guy peeing his pants at my expense? that's my father-in-law. here's 2014:


as you can see, not much had changed between then and now. if you can't find us, we are the bottom left. but then, after riding it, i figured it wasn't so bad so i said we should go again, so we walked right on it again, and this is what happened the second time:


much more cheerful right? we took a break but wanted to come back after we did some other rides.

the Toy Story shooting game was SO fun. we used our fast pass on it (you can only have two per day, yeah they changed that too) and we were so glad we did. i won Brett the first time around and he beat me the second.





                                                     Kate                                               Brett



                                                Kate                                      Brett

then after a few other rides, it was time to hit-up Tower of Terror again. i was the one to suggest it. who was i? i didn't even know. all i knew is i was starting to love that ride.



the first time back on after a few hours i was pretty scared. Brett and i had planned on making silly faces, and i did it, but before the camera took it so it got me scared out of my pants.


back right


middle right. see, by the end i was a pro, and loving that ride. i conquered my fear! yahoo!



Rockin' Roller Coaster again







this stunt show was awesome. they showed us how they do fast car scenes in movies and it was way entertaining. we have a video but it's way long so i won't post it.


oh yeah, and it poured for a little bit while we were there. a lot actually. we got soaked to the bone. but by then it was 6pm and we were getting to be done anyways. so we did a couple more rides then decided to head back.





oh what a treat it was. we loved it all. and i was happy that i ended up loving the Tower of Terror. it's now my favorite ride. that night we got back to our hotel and packed and dreaded going home, but were so excited at the same time. we were dying to see Dylan.

the next morning we woke up, checked out, and headed to the airport and dropped off the rental car. funny story though. we missed our flight. that has never happened to me before. apparently you have to be checked in for your flight 45 minutes before takeoff. we got there at 38 minutes before takeoff. so lame! and it wasn't even our fault. but that's a long story that isn't interesting so i won't tell it. but luckily the guy at the desk was super awesome and found us a flight that was only an hour after our first one had left. and we got to sit together on both flights (we had a layover) which we were shocked about.



our layover was in Dallas and they had some pretty cool stuff at their airport:





that candy shop was amazing. i was tempted to buy until we heard some guy saying the prices. 1lb of gummy candy was $4. ridiculous. but it still deserved a pic. then that's us waiting for the train they have around the airport. and that benefit vending machine? most amazing thing ever! i wanted to buy something just to feel special, even though i am stocked up on most everything i use. i loved it.

then we got on the plane and headed home






i started that book on the plane ride out to Orlando, and finished it on the plane ride home. it was SO good. no i didn't cry on the airplane. well, kind of. it was so good. i need to see the movie now.

anyways, we got home and my heart ached to see Dylie. i was dying. it was like Christmas morning, the anticipation to see him. well we finally saw him by the baggage claim with my mom, and spoiler alert, he didn't even care to see us. he warmed up to Brett pretty good but wanted nothing to do with me. i was a little angry. what the heck? i had worried day and night about that boy and this is the thanks i get? he was spoiled rotten while we were gone. my mom warned me before we came home though that he would be that way. i didn't actually think he would because he is kind of obsessed with me (not to sound weird but you know? boys and their moms). but after about 10 minutes and by the time we were walking to the car he was hugging me and kissing me and didn't want me to put him down. that made it all better.

and there you have it. Florida in 2 posts. sorry this one was extra long. but i didn't want to split it up into 3. so thanks for those of you who stuck around to the end of this post for reading. we had a fabulous time and can't wait for our next adventure (not that we have anything planned, but when we do :)

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