Long one...

Well we finished at Disney! It's all been a blur and we get home so late that I can barely stay awake long enough to brush my teeth, let alone blog about the whole day. We went to Animal Kingdom super early to see the animals before it got hot. They don't like the heat much. The gazelles were full of energy, running, prancing, and frolicking around their enclosure. It was almost as if they were showing off, bringing to mind Marty the Zebra from Madagascar. To contrast the lively gazelles, the tigers could have been stuffed furs and we wouldn't have known the difference. It struck me how dismal a life it would be to be caged in a zoo. I asked one of the tiger keepers if they were going to feed them lunch anytime soon but they only eat before the zoo opens and after it is closed. Once in a while they freeze a hunk of meat in a block of ice and toss it in the tiger's watering hole. The tiger will spend a good hour playing with it trying to get the meat out. This is the only mind stimulating that cat gets. I'm so glad I'm not that tiger! After that we spent a few days at Disney Quest and the Disney water parks. Wherever we went there were buses and buses of Brazilian teen age kids running around. Oh my word. They were always either clapping in unison, singing loud chants, or talking at the top of their lungs to their neighbor who was only inches away from them. They walked slow, talking up entire streets, and were impossible to cut through. They have no comprehension of forming a line or waiting in a line that was already formed and they don't speak a drop of English so you can't tell them to get into the back of the line. I have no doubt that if an American school took a trip to a non-English speaking theme park that the American teens would be just the same and the natives would be just as annoyed. Suffice it to say, after ten days of being in crowded theme parks Andrew and I are sick of people. It is hard to stand in any form of a line anymore. It seems annoying people search us out and deliberately hang around us. I'm not making up how ridiculous a lot these people are. For example, while standing in line at Blizzard Beach (a water park) there was a family with two girls who were between the ages of 8 and 11. The mother bent down to talk to the oldest of the girls and the girl mouthed off to her mother and slapped her in the face. The mother just took it and the father didn't say a word. The same girl reached up and grabbed the waist band of her father's swim suit and pulled as far back as she could. If Andrew or I had of been any closer to the man we would have had front row sets to a bare butt shot from him. I'm sure people in the line beside us got to see all the way down. The father turned and stifled a yell of embarrassment and anger at the girl. But the girl wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her head into him. The father turned back around and the girl did it again! The same thing happened but no actual punishment ever took place. Then the girl started groping her father. I was shocked. I couldn't believe this was being allowed to take place at all, let alone in public. Her father pushed her away and stepped as far as he could away from her. This left only the girl's little sister to pick on. The girl stood there for only a moment then grabbed her sister's arm and twisted the skin on it in an painfully ugly way. This child was a honest to goodness brat. She could have done well with a good spanking and other disciplinary actions. She had no respect for anyone one, least of all her parents. Andrew and I just stood there in awe at what we had witnessed. This is just one example of the the kind of annoying people we have encountered. For this reason we feel our anti-social behavior is necessary for a reboot before we go deal with more crazies at a park. I think my favorite water park was Typhoon Lagoon. The lines weren't too bad and we got to go snorkel in a cold salt water pond with sharks, sting rays, and other tropical fish. At first I couldn't get the hang of the snorkel. I'd try to breath out of my nose (which obviously didn't work)then I would hyperventilate trying to breathing out my mouth piece. Finally I got the hang of it and started through the pond. Andrew was ahead of me. He looked back and gave me a thumbs up, I smiled but my high cheek bones raised up with the smile breaking the suction of my goggles. Water started pouring into my face mask and I inhaled a great deal of salt water through my nose. The burning went all the way down my spine. Somehow I made it to the midway point and climbed up the rock that was the rest stop. Andrew met me there and we fixed my mask. The rest of the swim/float was great. Andrew almost touched a shark! We had so much fun we went to that park twice. The second time through the water was much better without any inhalation of salt water. Last Friday we headed to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens (it's like Animal Kingdom but targets an older age group). The tropical storm Bonnie had hit Tampa pretty hard drowning our hopes of making it to the park that day. Our hotel room was great though! It was right by the beach and had a beautiful view. That evening Andrew and I went on a moon-lit walk along the beach. It was as though I was in a fairy tale. Everything was just so perfect and beautiful. The next day we headed over to Busch Gardens. It wasn't as nice as any of the Disney parks, but it was still good. We got in and went straight to this huge roller coaster. We went to get in line but the girl who was measuring the kids to see if they were tall enough to ride started freaking out at us. She said that we had to put our back pack in a locker. Ok.... So we went to the lockers and found that they wanted to charge us to use the lockers. We hadn't brought change so we went to a gift store to see if they could break our dollars into change so that we could use the lockers. I was very put out about the situation. We had already paid an arm and a leg to get into the park and now they wanted to charge us more ride the rides. I pointed this our the the worker at the gift shop and told him it was ridiculous that we had to pay to ride a ride that we had already paid so much for. He agreed and said that if we wanted we could just put our things where everyone put their shoes but the park wouldn't be responsible if anything was stolen. We were ok with that so we went back. We walked past the girl again, and again she started yelling at us. I was not in the mood for her crap so I started having back at her. She still wouldn't let us through even though we explained to her what the man at the gift shop had said. She was so rude to us I couldn't believe it! Andrew asked for her name so that we could report her if we needed to or had the chance. We went back to the gift shop and told the other worker what had happened. He called his manager, came back and told us to go back to her and have her call her manager. We went back to the girl but she had called in for a switch and in her place as a tall black guy. I don't know if she thought this would intimidate us or if she was just trying to get out of there before we came back and I didn't care. The way we had been treated and the park's policies was ludicrous. We had the tall guy call his manager and they still said we had to pay to ride the rides. Andrew and I had had it. We went to guest relations and got a refund for our double pass to Bush Gardens and Sea World. This actually works out better. We have four open days to do the Universal parks and the beach. The rest of the day Andrew drove back to Orlando while I napped. That evening we went to the movie Inception. OH MY GOODNESS! The previews made me made because I couldn't figure out what the movie was about. I didn't want to see the movie because I was still irked that it had confused me. But the ratings for it were so good! Andrew really wanted to see it so I caved. I'm glad my stubbornness took a break on this one. It is the best movie I've seen in a long time. Really really intense. The movie got out super late. The mall it was in had closed, Andrew and I had to walk all around the outside of the mall to get to Toothless. As we were walking we saw a a black guy walking toward us from the bushes separating the other parking lots. There was only one other couple around and I was already on edge from the movie. I changed our direction slightly to see if the guy would continue on straight. My stomach dropped as he adjusted his course to intercept with ours. Again I redirected us and again he corected to match us. I started to panic. He was walking fast and the parking lot was dark. the other couple had gotten into their car but hadn't pulled away. According to Andrew, they were keeping an eye on us and making sure help was there if we needed it. Finally the guy was about seven feet away from us, he called out politely and asked if he could borrow our phone. He said his ride had left him and he needed to make a call. Andrew handed him his phone. He made his call and left. The other couple left after the guy was past their car. I was grateful for them. It just goes to show you that there are good people everywhere, even in creepy dark parking lots at one in the morning. Thank goodness.