#31 – Hard Rock cafe

My friend Shamina collects the Hard Rock glasses as in each city they have the location named on the glass.  So while we were in Orlando she asked me if I would go with her.  I jumped at the chance as not only did it sound like fun but I realised I had never actually eaten at a Hard Rock café before.

Just the drive to the Hard Rock Café was a good sign of the evening to come.  Shamina had worked out the route on her phone GPS but somehow it didn’t quite work out as smoothly as it should have done.  We ended up at a back area with no entrance before re-routing and finding ourselves at the Hard Rock hotel.  I found it quite amusing that over the entrance of the hotel was the Eagles line: “You can check out but you can never leave” …do they not know the context of the song???  Seems like an odd way to promote your hotel.  But one of the staff there was able to give us very good directions so that we were able to locate the parking area and park the car somewhere vaguely near the restaurant.  Clearly as a collective in the car we had not learned our lesson as we followed Shamina expecting her to lead us out of the parking lot towards food.  Eventually Mark and I both got wise and questioned as to why we were not following the arrows to the attractions instead of heading deeper into the car park.  I knew at that point that re-finding the car was going to be very entertaining! (I was NOT disappointed!)

We eventually made it out into the Universal Studios park area and wandered over in the right direction while hoping that the other car group (who had arrived without our travel adventures) had already put our names down for a table.  They had and so the wait wasn’t too long for us to be seated.  Shamina told me about this great quesadilla with pineapples that they do and I was sold on what I was eating that night.  So after discovering that that little delight no longer features on the menu it was tough to come up with a good second choice.  But the Hickory BBQ Bacon cheeseburger was definitely a good choice.  The food was good, the company was even better and we had a fun night together.

Once back in the car park we were trying to follow the signs to the area of the car park which thankfully Mark had remembered for us, but all the signs actually seemed to hang over the moving walkways heading in the wrong direction.  So Shamina and I decided to go with the arrow even if it meant going the wrong way on the moving walkway.  The first steps on there felt incredibly weird as the ground tried to send your feet the wrong way but once we got moving it was a lot of fun.  Quite the work-out really between the extra effort required (Mark casually walked alongside us on solid ground to give us some perspective – and to laugh at us!) and the hysterical laughing at the same time!

Back in vaguely the right part of the car park and we still couldn’t spot the rental car.  So we wandered while I pointed the keys at any potential vehicles and tried unlocking to see if the lights would flash.  Eventually, and to our great relief, we hit bingo and got back to our hotel with far less adventure but no less laughter.  Definitely a big laughter evening – thanks Shamina!

#30 – Hold a baby gator

After the airboat ride we headed back into Wild Willy’s HQ to meet Cricket and Sergio, the two lil baby gators.  Cap’n Kenny got Cricket out of the tank and showed us how to hold him properly – right hand under his belly up against his front legs, and the left hand over the top of his tail against the legs.  I got to hold the baby gator first while Mark had camera responsibility.  Cricket was really calm in my hands and was so cute that you kind of forget that this is an alligator you are holding.  Even as I held him up toward my face and chatted with him he didn’t wriggle or try to snap at me.  He seemed more than happy.  Then I had to hand him on to Mark and take over the camera responsibility.

The photos of me didn’t come out so great but the experience itself was lots of fun.  It may not be totally sharp but it does corroborate the fact that I held a baby alligator!

#29 – Air boat in the Everglades

We arrived a day early in Orlando for a training course.  So big dilemma… what to do with a free day?  We drove on over to Kissemmee and took a lovely walk along Lakeshore Boulevard on the northern ridge of Lake Tohopekaliga.  From there we headed into Kissemmee… but being pre-midday on a Sunday there wasn’t a whole lot open.  We did find a tea shop though advertising itself as English, and indeed they did have a good selection of English tea bags including Yorkshire Gold and Typhoo.  I was a little amused though when the hot chocolate I requested was served in a teapot!  Just seemed wrong!

Then for the big event!  We drove down the side of the lake to Wild Willy’s Airboat Tours.  My prior knowledge of airboats is all from the TV show of my childhood ‘Gentle Ben’ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061255/).  So it felt like a fun reminder of childhood times.  The weather wasn’t exactly tropical Florida so once that boat got moving it got even chillier as the wind whipped through us but it was so much fun.  Riding around the lake we got to see snail kites and great blue herons.  I loved seeing the little coots running across the top of the water.  We also saw some highly venomous moccasin snacks which thankfully did not bother to attack us.  The cold weather meant that most of the larger gators were keeping hidden below water where it was warmer but our driver Cap’n Kenny did manage to find us some baby gators in amongst the reeds to admire.  He suggested that we could easily get a larger gator to appear by poking the babies so that they made a noise.  But his description of the size and strength of mama gator led us to the very wise decision to leave well enough alone.

 

 

It was fun seeing all the wildlife of the Florida Everglades but I think the highlight for me was definitely the donuts.  Not the edible variety, but the spinning round and round in the airboat.  So much fun!  So much fun in fact that I asked him to do it again so that I could record it on my camera.  Of course the camera footage is never as good as the real thing, but it is a nice reminder for me of a fun afternoon: 

  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153820088130585&l=3891048088340520837

All too soon our time came to an end and we had to head back in from the lake.  But there was more fun still to come…

#28 – Banana boat ride

During a trip to Senegal we had the option for some team bonding time - it was between a shopping trip at local markets or a ride out off the coast on a banana boat.  I had already been shopping once that trip, and there is definitely a limit to my shopping ability, so the choice was really no choice at all, especially as the boat option sounded really fun.

So a group of us wandered down from the hotel to the beach and the boat which Rick had organised for us – with swimming stuff under our clothes just in case!  We had one of the smaller banana boats which meant that the probability of getting wet was increased.  Having Rick with us in the group we discovered meant those getting wet odds became a certainty!

 

It was a beautiful hot, sunny day as we waded out to the boat and got ourselves comfortable.  When the questions from our boat crew went along the lines of whether we ladies in the group were all married or not I decided my French was not up to admitting an understanding or attempting an answer and left Tiana to ably field off the questions.   

 

So I just sat back and enjoyed the breeze as we raced along parallel to the coast.  We were amazed to see quite so many hotels having not realised we were in quite such a touristy spot.  It was a national holiday and all the fishing boats were still moored and so it was pretty quiet out on the water...  Pretty quiet that is until Rick decided we needed to be wetter than we were and Phumeza decided to make it war!

 

Rick was sat at the front of the boat and so could send water over us pretty easily.  Phumeza however was sat just in front of Tiana and me and didn’t seem to notice that her attempts to go against the wind and get Rick wet were really only succeeding in sending an absolute deluge of water back on top of us.  Apparently our screams were not enough explanation as she was intent on beating Rick and getting him wet.  Between that and Rick’s final attack having jumped out quick as the boat came in to moor we were pretty wet.  Okay, so we were totally bedraggled and drenched!  But it was worth it and was so much fun.

#27 – Une visite à la patinoire

On my original list was Ice Skating at Somerset House as I remembered enjoying ice-skating when I was younger.  It is also outdoors which somehow makes it very Christmassy.  But when we discovered there was an open air ice-rink, or patinoire, up the Alpe d’Huez while on holiday there it became the new to do item on the list, replacing Somerset House.

It had been a rainy day down in Bourg d’Oisans and snowy with limited visibility up the mountain – so not the best day for outdoor activities.  But by the evening it was foggy but nothing actually falling from the skies.  So once Charlotte had put the boys down we drove through the fog and came out the other side on our way up the mountain to a beautiful sky full of stars.  It was cold but perfect weather for ice-skating.

First challenge was managing to communicate ‘trente-neuf’ at the boot hire.  That accomplished I was putting the boots on and suddenly realised it was really quite a while since I had last skated.  In fact I would still have been at school… so a really, really long time ago!  But I was determined to give it a good go and enjoy myself into the bargain!

We hobbled out toward the ice and managed to get on there without falling over.  I’d say my initial skating was more along the lines of shuffling on ice while momentarily letting go of the side.  But gradually my confidence grew and I could go longer without touching the side.  Charlotte started similar to me but grew in confidence a bit faster than me.  Stuart though was straight on and showing off.  Our evaluation being that he perhaps had more confidence than actual competence! 

The end of the rink was being used for a children’s ice-hockey game and so there was the width of the rink that I had to master skating across without any chance of holding on.  The first time I managed to get all the way around the rink without a touch of the sides I let out a big whoop.  Then I managed 2 times around without grabbing the sides.  And gradually I got faster and more confident.  I actually only fell over once when I twisted a little too much taking a corner.  I did also let out an involuntary scream at one point as a boy who was skating as if he had more control than he really did bombed towards me when I was mid-way across the width when I had no side to grab on to.  But somehow I managed to get out of his way and kept going till I reached the safety of the side.

It was great fun and I kept smiling even when I fell over.  Staying upright and being able to pick up speed was also a huge confidence boost.  And doing it all under a beautifully starlit night sky with a mountainous backdrop was even more of a bonus.  A very fun evening!