Nataliya and Seth's Orlando Vacation

Thankfully we didn't need the wake-up call from the lobby because they never called us. We got up and were waiting down in the lobby when Gator Tours picked us up at 8:25 am. Evidently we were the last pickup because the closest two seats were seven rows apart. Of course, no one offered to move so we could sit together, but we decided to make the most of the 45-minute ride.

Imagine our surprise when we stopped in a parking lot, about 1/2 of a mile away from our hotel. Evidently, there were three busses involved with this tour. Each Gator Tour bus picked up their passengers in their loop and then were to meet in this parking lot of the Crossroads Mall. As we were to learn, the bus that picked you up wasn't necessarily the bus that was going to take you to the Kennedy Space Center.

While we were waiting, I jumped off the bus and went to the Gooding's supermarket in the mall area and picked up some munchies for me and Nataliya. Once all the busses arrived and the majority of us were on the right busses, we all left for our scheduled tours. I say "majority" because one family's was supposed to be on a bus that had already left. I have no idea what happened to them... Anyway, this whole process took another 35-40 minutes.

On our new bus, we were able to sit together, and we drove 40 minutes to the first stop. About 16 people, including us, got off that bus and went for our swamp tour! Yes, NJ is full of swamps and marshland, but we don't have alligators AND we were going to tour the area on an airboat! I didn't realize how loud those large propellors were, but when they handed us headphones meant to dull the sound of gunfire, it should have been our first clue. While tooling around, we spotted a few turtles, a lot of cows, a couple of eagles and about a dozen or so alligators. It was actually a lot of fun. It falls under the "cool place to visit but wouldn't want to live there" category.

By the time we got back, the bus was waiting for us! It had dropped off the people who didn't want the airboat tour and it returned to take us to Kennedy Space Center now. Another twenty minutes later, we had arrived at our destination.

By this time, we were already a little tired, but we were at the Space Center and we had a few hours to look around. We started with the Apollo tour. This tour began with the first Apollo missions and how they led to the redesigned rocket engines that propelled the first man to the moon. The Apollo/Saturn V center had an actual Saturn V moon rocket and a description of all the Apollo and Saturn missions. They also had a piece of the moon that was about the size of a nickle that we both touched. Then we went to the Firing Room Theater where they recreated a launch of Apollo VIII mission that first took man around the moon and back. Then we saw a rather crude recreation of the first lunar landing on the moon.

As we were running out of time, we went to see a 3-D IMAX show of the International Space Center called Space Station 3D. It was Nataliya's first IMAX show, so she was very impressed. We followed this by a walk around the space ship graveyard - a lot outside where they had gathered a bunch of old rockets. Somewhere along the lines we visited the gift shop and we ended up in this out-of-this-world predictament! (see picture at right)

When we finally made it back to the hotel, we asked the concierge for suggestions for dinner. On their suggestion, we went to Bahama Breeze. There was a wait, so we decided to wait on the outside patio and order something to tide us over. We enjoyed a couple of frozen drinks and some garlic jerk shrimp while waiting and it was very good - in fact, once our table was ready, we decided to stay outside with our drinks for a little while longer. Twenty minutes later, we finally came in and were shortly thereafter seated for dinner. We had some grilled jamaican wings for an appetizer, and carribean-style fish dishes for dinner. Everything was very good! The carribean-type cuisine was different than what we're used to, and we even asked the manager if this place was a chain. Evidently it is and it's expanding throughout the country. Unfortunately, the closest one from home is about 80-90 minutes away in either Cherry Hill, NJ or in King Of Prissia, PA. Guess we'll have to wait before revisiting this restaurant.

After we finished, we went back to the hotel and fell right to sleep.