Wednesday, September 21, 2016

South Dakota Success!

I just got back from a week-long road trip to South Dakota, and it was incredible!  Perfect weather, the biggest, bluest open skies I've ever seen, amazing hiking and great company - it couldn't have been any better.

I'll finish up with the posts from Universal Orlando (I'm slow, I know) then begin writing about Rapid City and Custer State Park.  In the meantime, here are a couple of teaser pics I took:



Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 2, Part 2

Tip:  Always take a ziploc bag with you to a theme park - it's great to slip your phone/wallet into on water rides, and comes in super handy if it rains.  Also, you still need to wear sunscreen on overcast days.

After Jurassic Park, we continued on and came to the newest attraction at Universal, Skull Island: Reign of Kong.

Just like the Harry Potter area/rides, Skull Island gets extraordinary marks for theming.  On the outside it really looks foreboding with a huge weathered black wall covered with skulls, spears and torches, giant carved gorilla head (through which you enter) and mist-covered mountains rising in the distance.  Off to one side there's a huge temple with massive doors that open for the ride vehicles to pass through.

My current wallpaper
Just amazing from the outside

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 2, Part 1: Harry Potter and Jurassic Park

Today we set off for Islands of Adventure.  The park opened at 9am, but guests staying on-site get one hour early access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section - another perk of staying with Universal.

Fun with mirrors
Good morning Orlando

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 1

We just got back from spending 4 days at Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, and it was a blast!  The attractions ranged from fun to amazing, the parks were clean, and the employees were friendly and efficient with lots of smiles.  The crowd levels were low, plus we had plenty of rain (which didn't bother us) which drove the numbers down even lower.

In case you forget where you are

I'd be remiss if I didn't start off by saying that although I'm not a big Harry Potter fan (the movies were fun to watch, but once was enough, and I haven't seen the last 3 or 4 of them), the Harry Potter areas and rides at Universal were nothing short of incredible.  Talk about being transported!  Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley at Universal Studios are the most well-done, well-themed, areas I have ever seen at any theme park.  The queues and rides in those areas are so fully-immersive; it's like being in that world.  It really is worth the cost of travel and price of admission to see, and that's not even including the new Reign of Kong, or the fun Simpsons Land, or the etc., etc.

Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure

We stayed on-site at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort, and it was also great.  We had a slight problem after checking in, and the hotel staff immediately resolved it:  The hotel rooms are all non-smoking, but when we got up to our room it smelled, strongly, of cigarette smoke.  I called down to the lobby and requested they move us.  Within 5 minutes a member of the front desk staff brought up key cards to another room, apologized for the inconvenience, and we were set.  Great service!

Now, on to the photos.