Weekend Review {10/5}

FRIDAY

After getting out of work at lunchtime on Friday, I met Teh German at home and we took care of last minute things/packing before heading out to his friends' house (Friends 1), where we were dropping off Yurtle and heading to Orlando from.  The drive was fairly uneventful.  It included a nap for me and some reading and chatting.  We actually stopped at another friend's house (Friends 2) for the night.  We had dinner at a seafood place and I tried rock shrimp for the first time in my life and they were delicious.  I asked Teh German if he wanted to share a huge seafood platter (scallops, crab legs, rock shrimp, and a lobster) and he agreed.  When it arrived, I learned something new about him: He does NOT do critters for food.  It needs to be completely prepared and consumable when it arrives in front of him.  If it has eyes and a shell, he will not eat it.  He also did not know how to eat the crab legs or lobster. 

If I hadn't been so hungry I would have taken a photo of the plate.  More importantly, I wish I would have had a photo of the look on his face when they put a steamed (whole) lobster in front of him.  I was afraid he was going to leave the table.  I cracked the legs/shells and pulled the meat from the crab and lobster and put half of it on his plate because there was no way I was eating that entire plate by myself.  He did eat almost all the fries while I was busy operating on the platter of shellfish.  His friends kept joking with him about the look on his face.  He was downright horrified that something like that arrived in front of him.  He will never live it down and I will never serve him shellfish.

After dinner, we headed back to Friends 2's house and it was bedtime.

Obligatory touristy photos:

SATURDAY

(Most photos are at the end because I'm lazy. #notsorry)
We woke up at 6 so we could get ready, have breakfast, and head to Universal/Islands of Adventure when it opened.  By 7 we were on the road with Friends 1.  Friends 2 was planning to meet us at the park later in the afternoon since they were running a 5k race that morning.  We stopped at Ihop for breakfast and then headed straight to Universal. 

Obligatory touristy photos:

We were pleased with our choice to get up early because we were able to head straight to the Harry Potter area/Diagon Alley and ride the rides with little to no wait.  #worthit  After we finished HP at Universal, we took the train to Islands of Adventure and did Hogsmeade.  The dueling dragons ride was still there!!!  YAY!  Sadly, the cars no longer go at the same time (apparently assholes were dropping/throwing shit at each other?) but the ride was still awesome.  Additionally, the red side is better than the blue side.  I couldn't remember from eons ago when Teh Sister and I rode them, but I knew that one side was better than the other and we rode it 2x to check and see.  I grabbed a Butterbeer (not frozen) and wasn't able to drink it because it was too sweet.  I had asked the cashier at the counter which was better but she never really specified so I went with the most popular one since it's "the original."  Siiiiigh.  Friends 1 Wife told me afterwards that she usually would get the frozen since it was less sweet.  Good timing..... 

We then ventured around Islands of Adventure and discovered that the Hulk ride was closed and we were all HULKSMASHED (aka crushed).  The Hulk ride is probably the best in Orlando, despite how much I really love the dueling dragon ride (also, I know it's no longer called dueling dragons, but some of us are stuck in the past, kthx).  We rode the Spiderman ride and opted to skip the water rides since it wasn't really hot (this was surprising to me too) and none of us wanted to walk around wet.  We ended up heading back to Universal to ride the Mummy and then decided it was time for lunch.  I picked Cowfish in CityWalk since I knew that park food probably wouldn't be as delicious as CityWalk food. 

After lunch, Friends 2 arrived and we did/rode Shrek, Transformers, and The Mummy.  We were going to get in line (40+ minute for either) for Rock It (a serious rollercoaster with a vertical start) or Despicable Me but we figured since it was 15 minutes till the park closed, we'd just head out to dinner at the Ale House and we'd catch Despicable Me/Rock It during the Halloween part of the night.

We didn't have many Dr. Seuss books, but of the ones we did have, this one was my face.

We didn't want to stand in line, so I posed him.  #win #photographyskillz

I survived sitting at the Ale House while several college football games were being shown.. and by that I mean I survived being surrounded by loud, obnoxious football fans while I was eating/trying to enjoy some downtime of not being bumped into/overstimulated by amusement park things.  The day was full of people and noise and I just don't appreciate how quiet my surroundings are until I'm completely out of my element. 

We eventually headed back to Universal to partake of the Scaroween or whatever they call it.  The lines were obnoxious to get in but we survived.  When Teh German and I purchased our tickets, we decided NOT to do the express passes since that would have been $200 more on top of the $475 we'd already spent on admission tickets for the day.  I just couldn't swallow it.  Friends 1 and Friends 2 both had express passes so they just left us behind while we waited in line.  While I get it, it was obnoxious trying to meet back up, but we survived.  We ended up doing 5 of the 9 haunted houses, which was pretty good.  Teh German and I also rode The Simpsons ride and The Mummy again. 

I knew it was time for me to slow down when my hip started giving me serious issues and I almost went down in the middle of a food court because something in my hip pinched.  Teh German was pretty concerned when I said we could power on after I did some stretching.  We ended up meeting back up with Friends 1 and 2 at 11ish for the Bill and Ted's Awesome Adventure show, which was completely awesome at showcasing 2015 pop culture, aka was right up my alley.  It was a dance skit so they played some of the most popular 2015 songs and did dance routines to them, which meant that Teh German and I were the only ones in our area/section dancing with no shame.  We totally #bahlalala fist bumped to our awesomeness.  After the show, we did a few more houses with short waits, then around 1:30am we finally left the park exhausted (and achy).  We didn't end up riding the Rock It coaster because of the wait or Despicable me because it was closed.

I had seriously worried that I was going to be petrified.  I wasn't.  Instead it became a mind game for me (thanks for that bootcamp).  I was hunting for where the people could be hiding to scare me.  The street walkers that tried to scare me were mostly unsuccessful because they'd stop in front of me and I'd just cheshire smile at them until they or I moved to the side.  There were a few times that I was scared and I did poke one of the characters in a haunted house in the face/eye trying to push her away from me.  Oops.  I apologized (like I do) and she didn't even break character and just kept repeating, "help meee." 

When we got to the hotel, I barely kept my eyes open as I brushed my teeth and crashed into bed.  Teh German got to witness me at probably my worst (at least since we've been together) when he was trying to joke around about turning off the light and I finally had to point blank tell him I was too tired to be silly, turn off the light or I'd do it myself.  2am Megan isn't very nice or silly.  She's sleepy and grouchy and achy, do not poke Teh Bear Megan.  Once I put in my earplugs, I didn't wake up other than to use the bathroom around 7am and then again when Teh German was waking me up to go down and get breakfast. 

SUNDAY

Teh German had showered and Friends 1 had gotten up and been moving around and talking and I hadn't even budged.  The power of earplugs and exhaustion, Gentle Readers!  I did finally get up after a few minutes of not wanting to be awake and put on clothes and just took my crazy hair downstairs for breakfast.  We stayed at an Embassy Suites and the breakfast was on point.  I was glad because I had no idea when we'd be stopping for lunch.  I felt like there was a serious communication issues between Friends 1 and me and/or Friends 1 and me/Teh German.  If your friend doesn't speak English as a first language, cryptic partial sentences aren't helpful in conversation.  Use whole sentences so your friend can use context clues and so his GF can comprehend what is going on when her ESL BF doesn't understand.  Le siiiigh.  Communication is essential people, it's not that hard!

We were on the road by 1030 and headed back to the Flood Zone Charleston.  We stopped for lunch somewhere in Georgia.  Soon after, we started to hit rain, which meant we were almost back home.  After we arrived back in Charleston, we picked up Yurtle, retrieved Phil and Meri from Teh SC House Finder's house, dropped them off at home, then headed out to pick up my laptop from work (so I could work from home today (as it was suggested by our manager)) and pick up groceries.  When I stepped out of Yurtle at the grocery store, I thought I was stepping onto parking lot, but actually I was stepping into a parking lot river that went up to my ankle.  Thankfully, I was wearing my orthopedic flip flops (Oovoos or whatever) and had rolled up my jeans before I got out of the car.  Literal high-waters in so many ways.

After groceries, we headed home and made dinner, hung out with the dogs, and unpacked.  It was so glorious to be back in Teh Cloud.  I'm pretty sure we have the same conversation each time we come back from our adventures about how good it is to be back in our bed.  #90yearolds


Harry Potter photos:

It was totally worth the exhaustion and missing Teh Cloud to have such a good time this weekend (and to not have to deal with all the flooding).  Teh German hadn't ever been to Universal/IoA and I hadn't gotten to experience Harry Potter land/world/thing, so it was perfect.  I had also never done a halloween thing, so now I have and I'm not as frightened by them as I thought I was.  WINNN.


 FYI: I haven't floated off yet, nor have I had to swim anywhere.  All is well, abet slightly damp.. and by slightly damp I mean I hope the water starts to recede from my side yard soon and I'll be having wet running shoes for the near future.


Linking up with these ladies:
Ashely @ A Cute Angle
Meg @ Life of Meg
Biana @ BLovedBoston