...and on the way back got this for fuel economy. I'll have to ask if they did anything else!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
July Holidays
Just got back from our summer holidays, would have posted something sooner but as usual I forgot some stuff. This time it was the cord needed to transfer the pictures from the camera...oh well.
This time we took off for Quebec. Our final destination was Tadoussac, to go whale watching. It is a very long drive! We stopped overnight at Quebec City on the way up for a break.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Napanee,+ON&daddr=Tadoussac,+QC&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=39.299398,81.738281&ie=UTF8&ll=46.21025,-73.33374&spn=5.246017,10.217285&z=7&om=1
(Wow, that's some link, I hope it works)
As usual, we got lost. Remarkably no one lost thier temper and we made it to our hotel.
The next morning we went to the Parc Aquarium (http://www.sepaq.com/paq/en/) Here's some photos:
Brooke relucantly agreed to pose with the mascott.
More to come later!
This time we took off for Quebec. Our final destination was Tadoussac, to go whale watching. It is a very long drive! We stopped overnight at Quebec City on the way up for a break.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Napanee,+ON&daddr=Tadoussac,+QC&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=39.299398,81.738281&ie=UTF8&ll=46.21025,-73.33374&spn=5.246017,10.217285&z=7&om=1
(Wow, that's some link, I hope it works)
As usual, we got lost. Remarkably no one lost thier temper and we made it to our hotel.
The next morning we went to the Parc Aquarium (http://www.sepaq.com/paq/en/) Here's some photos:
Brooke relucantly agreed to pose with the mascott.
Here's a cool picture of me and Brooke underwater.
They sure do like thier bridges in Quebec. And they just don't build one, whenever there's a bridge there's at least two!
More to come later!
Monday, July 16, 2007
July 16, 2006 update
| Fill Number | Date | Odometer | Fuel | l/100km | MPG (CDN Gallons) |
| 13 | 07/09/2007 | 10128 | 38.628 | 4.73 | 59.67 |
| 12 | 06/30/2007 | 9312 | 34.753 | 4.96 | 56.90 |
| 11 | 06/27/2007 | 8612 | 38.038 | 5.42 | 52.132 |
| 10 | 06/21/2007 | 7910 | 37.77 | 4.45 | 63.42 |
| 9 | 06/15/2007 | 7062 | 36.775 | 4.62 | 61.07 |
| 8 | 06/07/2007 | 6267 | 37.411 | 4.64 | 60.78 |
| 7 | 05/30/2007 | 5462 | 37.055 | 4.33 | |
| 6 | 05/19/2007 | 4607 | 37.899 | 5.14 | |
| 5 | 05/13/2007 | 3870 | 37.187 | 4.75 | 59.45 |
| 4 | 05/06/2007 | 3087 | 36.961 | 4.89 | 57.89 |
| 3 | 05/02/2007 | 2330 | 35.035 | 4.7 | 59.9 |
| 2 | 04/11/2007 | 1588 | 44.493 | 6.33 | 44.5 |
| 1 | 04/02/2007 | 885 | 38.425 | 4.34 | 65 |
Friday, May 11, 2007
New personal record
Napanee to Kingston, drove around the mall area for a bit for a bite to eat and some shopping with the family. We went up on the 401, came back on the number 2.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
April 26th Adventures
Today we got up early as we knew we'd have a busy day.
We finished packing and Keturah couldn't find her stuffed Stingray, so we had to calm her down and called housekeeping and lost and found, etc. etc..They said they hadn't seen it. We didn't take it out of our room, so that means our maid must have...
We checked out of the Seralago and went to eat breakfast at IHOP again...eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast...Yummy coffee too!
We then drove to the MGM Studios Park. We had to take a tram from the parking lot to the front door.
We walked down a couple of streets here and both streets were all stores, except for a beauty and the beast show...We then went to the Sunset Boulevard area, where Kevin and Brooke got a fastpass for the Rock and Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith (their music anyway).
We then went over to the Animation Courtyard, where we went to see the Magic of Disney Animation. It was a short movie and then an interactive area, where you could add your own picture/sounds/colours to the animated characters on the computer screen. IT was neat to see what they go through to design characters for the animated movies. We also went to a short workshop after this, where an artist taught us to draw Minnie. We got to take home our finished product. I think we all did a good job.
We then went back to the roller coaster ride as it was time for them to ride. Keturah and I hung out in the gift shop while we waited. They said it was kind of boring, compared to some they've been on.
We then caught three quarters of the Indiana Jones Epic-Stunt Spectacular, where they showed stunts that he might do in a movie, with explosions, jumps, etc.etc. pretty cool.
We then went to the Star Tours ride, which is a Star Wars flight simulators..similar to what we went on before.
We went to see Muppet Vision 3d, which is a hilarious 3d Film starring the muppets. It was pretty cool as we all love the Muppets. It was in a theatre that looked exactly like the real muppet show theatre, complete with the two old guys in the theatre, cracking jokes.
We then went to the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour that showed us the magic of movie-making magic. It was pretty cool.
We then had to go because we had to catch our plane.
We dropped off our rental van at the airport and then showed up at the JetBlue counter to check in, only to be told that we had missed our plane!!! Yikes..It was MY fault as I didn't look at the tickets in the last two weeks, I knew there was a 6pm involved, but that was the time we should have arrived in Syracuse..OOPS...We freaked out for a bit, and then calmed down and re-scheduled for the same time the next day -Friday.
We then went to the airport hotel, called the Hyatt (which means expensive in some language I'm sure). It was convenient, so we decided to stay there. It was the nicest hotel we've stayed in in our lives I'm sure!
There was a food court in the airport, actually, it was like a shopping mall, with lots of stores, etc. So we ate dinner there.
We then went swimming in the pool and relaxed for once at the hotel. Kevin and I read, Brooke surfed as we had wireless internet here and Keturah watched TV.
We got up around 8am and got ready and went for Breakfast in the food court again. The girls and I had bagels and kevin had McDonalds crap!
We then went swimming in the hotel pool. WE then packed up and had to check out at 12noon. We then got our boarding passes and checked our bags in. We then shopped around a bit. We went through security around 1pm and my carry on got held up for some reason and as I was waiting the fellow doing the xraying said to his helper that there's a big bottle in there and then I thought..crap! that's my sunscreen. You can't take anything in liquid/gel/lotion form in your carryon if it's over 3oz. So, she said she had to confiscate it...I said that's fine, it's my own fault! It was 1/2 gone anyway, so wasn't too bad!
We then went and grabbed some lunch...Kevin and Keturah had salads and Brooke and I had a piece of pizza. We walked around our gate a bit and then we noticed that our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours..SIGH. Due to weather in New York I think, our plane was late getting there.
We got on the plane and headed out about 4:40PM. We had an uneventful flight. The pilot said it might be a bit bumpy, but I didn't notice any turbulence. I read my book most of the flight and listened to my iPod.
We landed at 7:15pm. After we retrieved our baggage, Kevin called the hotel shuttle and they were there within 2mins with our keys and dropped us off right beside our van. WE loaded up and headed home at 8pm.
We drove straight through and had no problems at the border. I had all my receipts ready (well, the ones I could find!).
We got to Napanee about 10:30, but stopped at A& P to grab some milk and bread for breakfast.
We got home and unpacked a little and then went to bed at 11:30pm. It was a long day today!
We are all glad to be home, but miss the nice florida weather already. When we left Florida, it was 89 degrees, sunny and hot and when we landed in Syracuse it was 59 degrees, cloudy and rainy! YUCK.
Well, it could have been worse, it could have been snowing! HA
Thanks for reading about our adventures, now I gotta sort through the 1000 pictures I took!
We finished packing and Keturah couldn't find her stuffed Stingray, so we had to calm her down and called housekeeping and lost and found, etc. etc..They said they hadn't seen it. We didn't take it out of our room, so that means our maid must have...
We checked out of the Seralago and went to eat breakfast at IHOP again...eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast...Yummy coffee too!
We then drove to the MGM Studios Park. We had to take a tram from the parking lot to the front door.
We walked down a couple of streets here and both streets were all stores, except for a beauty and the beast show...We then went to the Sunset Boulevard area, where Kevin and Brooke got a fastpass for the Rock and Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith (their music anyway).
We then went over to the Animation Courtyard, where we went to see the Magic of Disney Animation. It was a short movie and then an interactive area, where you could add your own picture/sounds/colours to the animated characters on the computer screen. IT was neat to see what they go through to design characters for the animated movies. We also went to a short workshop after this, where an artist taught us to draw Minnie. We got to take home our finished product. I think we all did a good job.
We then went back to the roller coaster ride as it was time for them to ride. Keturah and I hung out in the gift shop while we waited. They said it was kind of boring, compared to some they've been on.
We then caught three quarters of the Indiana Jones Epic-Stunt Spectacular, where they showed stunts that he might do in a movie, with explosions, jumps, etc.etc. pretty cool.
We then went to the Star Tours ride, which is a Star Wars flight simulators..similar to what we went on before.
We went to see Muppet Vision 3d, which is a hilarious 3d Film starring the muppets. It was pretty cool as we all love the Muppets. It was in a theatre that looked exactly like the real muppet show theatre, complete with the two old guys in the theatre, cracking jokes.
We then went to the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour that showed us the magic of movie-making magic. It was pretty cool.
We then had to go because we had to catch our plane.
We dropped off our rental van at the airport and then showed up at the JetBlue counter to check in, only to be told that we had missed our plane!!! Yikes..It was MY fault as I didn't look at the tickets in the last two weeks, I knew there was a 6pm involved, but that was the time we should have arrived in Syracuse..OOPS...We freaked out for a bit, and then calmed down and re-scheduled for the same time the next day -Friday.
We then went to the airport hotel, called the Hyatt (which means expensive in some language I'm sure). It was convenient, so we decided to stay there. It was the nicest hotel we've stayed in in our lives I'm sure!
There was a food court in the airport, actually, it was like a shopping mall, with lots of stores, etc. So we ate dinner there.
We then went swimming in the pool and relaxed for once at the hotel. Kevin and I read, Brooke surfed as we had wireless internet here and Keturah watched TV.
We got up around 8am and got ready and went for Breakfast in the food court again. The girls and I had bagels and kevin had McDonalds crap!
We then went swimming in the hotel pool. WE then packed up and had to check out at 12noon. We then got our boarding passes and checked our bags in. We then shopped around a bit. We went through security around 1pm and my carry on got held up for some reason and as I was waiting the fellow doing the xraying said to his helper that there's a big bottle in there and then I thought..crap! that's my sunscreen. You can't take anything in liquid/gel/lotion form in your carryon if it's over 3oz. So, she said she had to confiscate it...I said that's fine, it's my own fault! It was 1/2 gone anyway, so wasn't too bad!
We then went and grabbed some lunch...Kevin and Keturah had salads and Brooke and I had a piece of pizza. We walked around our gate a bit and then we noticed that our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours..SIGH. Due to weather in New York I think, our plane was late getting there.
We got on the plane and headed out about 4:40PM. We had an uneventful flight. The pilot said it might be a bit bumpy, but I didn't notice any turbulence. I read my book most of the flight and listened to my iPod.
We landed at 7:15pm. After we retrieved our baggage, Kevin called the hotel shuttle and they were there within 2mins with our keys and dropped us off right beside our van. WE loaded up and headed home at 8pm.
We drove straight through and had no problems at the border. I had all my receipts ready (well, the ones I could find!).
We got to Napanee about 10:30, but stopped at A& P to grab some milk and bread for breakfast.
We got home and unpacked a little and then went to bed at 11:30pm. It was a long day today!
We are all glad to be home, but miss the nice florida weather already. When we left Florida, it was 89 degrees, sunny and hot and when we landed in Syracuse it was 59 degrees, cloudy and rainy! YUCK.
Well, it could have been worse, it could have been snowing! HA
Thanks for reading about our adventures, now I gotta sort through the 1000 pictures I took!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
April 25th Adventures
We slept in a bit today-me until 730am and the gang until 8.
We got ready and went across the road to McDonalds for breakkie. I had the pancakes kids' meal. Keturah had the fruit, nut and yogurt, while Brooke and Kevin had egg mcmuffins...their coffee was pretty disgusting.
We the hit the highway to go to Cocoa Beach, which is about 45 mins from Kissimmee.
We stopped for gas and it cost only 40 dollars to fill up--about 1/2 what our van at home costs---but then it's US dollars too!
We had to go on this toll highway which cost us 75 cents and then a little while later down the road it was another 75 cents and a little farther down it was 1.25---crazy! The roads were in pretty crappy shape for being toll roads!
We got to Cocoa Beach around 11am and found a parking area, which cost 5.00 to park. Later we found out we could have parked for free down the road a bit!
We walked down the beach and collected some seashells and the girls played in the sand. We saw a jellyfish (we think it was) dead on the beach. We didn't touch it though, just in case!
We stayed only about 2hours due to the sun and the fact that Kevin and I were getting headaches from the sun...of course, we don't have hats to wear! We didn't come prepared at all, as we were also getting thirsty and hungry and didn't bring anything to eat or drink.
The beach was really nice and sunny and breezy too. Kevin, Brooke and Keturah got sunburned pretty bad because they were wearing their bathing suits and didn't put sunscreen on their backs.
We drove over to Merritt Island, where the Kennedy Space Center is, but the girls didn't want to go at all. WE couldn't even bribe them into going :-)
So, we finally found a Burger King to eat lunch and had burgers and chicken fries and even pie for dessert because we were fairly hungry at this point (2pm).
We then drove back to the hotel and headed down to the pool. I didn't want to swim because of my heat rash on my neck and the whole pool is in the sun. So I sat in the shade while they swam I read a book and listened to my iPod, mostly in the shade. My feet were in the sun and they even got burned!
We stayed at the pool for about 1.5 hrs and got ready and went to Walmart. Brooke wanted to return a CD she had bought.
We then went out for supper. We couldn't decide on where to eat...We all wanted different food, so Keturah and Kevin ate at a Chinese Buffet and Brooke and I ate at an Italian Buffet. We had pizza, pasta, salads and dessert. It was pretty good for 4.79/person! Kevin said there's wasn't that great, but Keturah liked it. OH yeah, the buffets were in the same plaza, so we were just 2 stores away from each other!
We came back to the hotel and packed up our bags--making sure everything fit!
Kevin and and the girls are gone for a quick swim, so I stayed here to write this up so I won't forget!
We hope to go to MGM Studios tomorrow so we can use up our Disney pass.
We got ready and went across the road to McDonalds for breakkie. I had the pancakes kids' meal. Keturah had the fruit, nut and yogurt, while Brooke and Kevin had egg mcmuffins...their coffee was pretty disgusting.
We the hit the highway to go to Cocoa Beach, which is about 45 mins from Kissimmee.
We stopped for gas and it cost only 40 dollars to fill up--about 1/2 what our van at home costs---but then it's US dollars too!
We had to go on this toll highway which cost us 75 cents and then a little while later down the road it was another 75 cents and a little farther down it was 1.25---crazy! The roads were in pretty crappy shape for being toll roads!
We got to Cocoa Beach around 11am and found a parking area, which cost 5.00 to park. Later we found out we could have parked for free down the road a bit!
We walked down the beach and collected some seashells and the girls played in the sand. We saw a jellyfish (we think it was) dead on the beach. We didn't touch it though, just in case!
We stayed only about 2hours due to the sun and the fact that Kevin and I were getting headaches from the sun...of course, we don't have hats to wear! We didn't come prepared at all, as we were also getting thirsty and hungry and didn't bring anything to eat or drink.
The beach was really nice and sunny and breezy too. Kevin, Brooke and Keturah got sunburned pretty bad because they were wearing their bathing suits and didn't put sunscreen on their backs.
We drove over to Merritt Island, where the Kennedy Space Center is, but the girls didn't want to go at all. WE couldn't even bribe them into going :-)
So, we finally found a Burger King to eat lunch and had burgers and chicken fries and even pie for dessert because we were fairly hungry at this point (2pm).
We then drove back to the hotel and headed down to the pool. I didn't want to swim because of my heat rash on my neck and the whole pool is in the sun. So I sat in the shade while they swam I read a book and listened to my iPod, mostly in the shade. My feet were in the sun and they even got burned!
We stayed at the pool for about 1.5 hrs and got ready and went to Walmart. Brooke wanted to return a CD she had bought.
We then went out for supper. We couldn't decide on where to eat...We all wanted different food, so Keturah and Kevin ate at a Chinese Buffet and Brooke and I ate at an Italian Buffet. We had pizza, pasta, salads and dessert. It was pretty good for 4.79/person! Kevin said there's wasn't that great, but Keturah liked it. OH yeah, the buffets were in the same plaza, so we were just 2 stores away from each other!
We came back to the hotel and packed up our bags--making sure everything fit!
Kevin and and the girls are gone for a quick swim, so I stayed here to write this up so I won't forget!
We hope to go to MGM Studios tomorrow so we can use up our Disney pass.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
April 24th, 2007
April 24th, 2007
Today we got up at the usual 7am and went to Burger King for breakfast, because it was close and fast and we had about an hour drive ahead of us to Busch Gardens near Tampa.
We got there around 10am and it was not very busy to get in at all.
The park is split into 7 sections and the first section was the Nairobi section and we started there. We saw the animals in that section: alligators, chimpanzees, gorillas, caiman, and tons of birds. There was a section called the Curiousity Caverns which include rare species of reptiles (a lot of snakes). We then went to the nursery and saw some animals I had never even heard of, but also some pot bellied pigs, warthog and parrots. We also visited with a friendly flamingo, who kept biting my watch and my camera. He/she was very cute and friendly and didn’t bite too hard. There was also a younger flamingo, who wasn’t pink yet, he was dancing with his head down. It was funny to watch him. We’re aren’t sure what it was actually doing!
We then caught a train that went around the park and on here we got to see a lot of animals out in the fields such as giraffe, rhino, hippo and various types of deer, birds, etc. etc. We got off at the Stanleyville section. Here we ate lunch at the Zambia Smokehouse. Brooke had bbq chicken and Keturah had bbq ribs. Kevin had a turkey wrap with coleslaw and I had a side salad and a small bowl of rice with black beans (although I didn’t get any beans!). It was all very good, although kind of pricey ($45 for everything). Keturah had chocolate pudding and Brooke had fresh strawberries, which cost 3 bucks each!
Kevin went on a ride called the “Sheikra”. Even Brooke wouldn’t go on it as it had two 90 degree drops and she said her stomach couldn’t handle it!
Keturah and I watched while Kevin and Brooke went on the Tidal Wave ride, which was a type of log(flume) ride. They got soaked! We almost went up on this bridge to watch them as they came down (would have made a great photo), but then we saw some people get soaked there, so we didn’t want to wreck our video camera, so we stood nearby.
We then headed over to the Bird Gardens section, where we saw a lot of different kinds of birds in the Aviary. They had a Lory feeding area, but they weren’t very hungry, so we didn’t buy any food for them.
We went to the Dragon section here, which had a bunch of kid’s things to do. The girls went through this climbing gym and Keturah went into this bouncy castle type thing and then they went through the little water spray pad so they could get cooled off!
We then went to the Morocco Section, where Brooke and Kevin rode on the Gwazi roller coaster (wooden one). Actually it included two roller coasters called the Lion and the Tiger. They had fun on both and there were no lineups.
We went through the Myombe Reserve and checked out some animals there, they were the ones we had seen from the train earlier.
We then went to the Congo Section where Brooke and I went on the Congo River Rapids and of course I got soaked to the underwear again! What are the chances of it happening twice I asked Brooke before we got on? She got a bit wet!
Kevin and Brooke went on the Kumba ride which was really fast and had a lot of spins and turns in it…Kevin said he felt a bit dizzy on it.
We had inquired about the adventure tours, where you can go out in an open air truck and pet and feed the animals such as the giraffe and bongos, but it cost 34 dollars for each person! Nice, but too expensive.
We then took the train again to the Timbuktu section. Brooke and Kevin went on the Cheetah Chase roller coaster and Keturah went on the Carousel Caravan.
We then went over to the Egypt Section where we some more Clydesdale horses because of the Anheiser-Busch sponsorship I guess. Kevin also got a free sample of beer at their hospitality house.
We saw King Tut’s tomb and the three of them went on the Skyride, which is a ride that stretches across the top of the park…I don’t like heights, so I rested on a bench.
We went to Adventure photo and I bought a picture of all of four of us, that their photographers had taken of us when we entered the park and then we headed back to the hotel or so we thought…
Kevin was supposed to have turned to go on 75 south and he went north instead. I didn’t really notice until he asked me how long we should be on the 75 because we weren’t on that road very long on the way there. That’s when I noticed he should have went south for a little bit. So now, I had to figure out how to get us back over to the hwy #4 as we were going parallel to it. We found a couple of little highways that led us to Dade City, where we stopped at a Wendy’s and had something quick to eat. We got back in the car at 8pm and drove until we found the right road and were finally on our way. We got to the hotel about 9:15pm. It took us a little longer than 45 minutes, but at least we got home eventually!
I went down to check my email and add a couple of more postings to the blog. I also checked out some of our pics that we had done in Belleville before we left for Disney.
If you want, you can check them out at www.photojenic-photography.com
They turned out pretty good. Hopefully our CD with the rest of them, will be waiting for us when we get back!
See you later!
Today we got up at the usual 7am and went to Burger King for breakfast, because it was close and fast and we had about an hour drive ahead of us to Busch Gardens near Tampa.
We got there around 10am and it was not very busy to get in at all.
The park is split into 7 sections and the first section was the Nairobi section and we started there. We saw the animals in that section: alligators, chimpanzees, gorillas, caiman, and tons of birds. There was a section called the Curiousity Caverns which include rare species of reptiles (a lot of snakes). We then went to the nursery and saw some animals I had never even heard of, but also some pot bellied pigs, warthog and parrots. We also visited with a friendly flamingo, who kept biting my watch and my camera. He/she was very cute and friendly and didn’t bite too hard. There was also a younger flamingo, who wasn’t pink yet, he was dancing with his head down. It was funny to watch him. We’re aren’t sure what it was actually doing!
We then caught a train that went around the park and on here we got to see a lot of animals out in the fields such as giraffe, rhino, hippo and various types of deer, birds, etc. etc. We got off at the Stanleyville section. Here we ate lunch at the Zambia Smokehouse. Brooke had bbq chicken and Keturah had bbq ribs. Kevin had a turkey wrap with coleslaw and I had a side salad and a small bowl of rice with black beans (although I didn’t get any beans!). It was all very good, although kind of pricey ($45 for everything). Keturah had chocolate pudding and Brooke had fresh strawberries, which cost 3 bucks each!
Kevin went on a ride called the “Sheikra”. Even Brooke wouldn’t go on it as it had two 90 degree drops and she said her stomach couldn’t handle it!
Keturah and I watched while Kevin and Brooke went on the Tidal Wave ride, which was a type of log(flume) ride. They got soaked! We almost went up on this bridge to watch them as they came down (would have made a great photo), but then we saw some people get soaked there, so we didn’t want to wreck our video camera, so we stood nearby.
We then headed over to the Bird Gardens section, where we saw a lot of different kinds of birds in the Aviary. They had a Lory feeding area, but they weren’t very hungry, so we didn’t buy any food for them.
We went to the Dragon section here, which had a bunch of kid’s things to do. The girls went through this climbing gym and Keturah went into this bouncy castle type thing and then they went through the little water spray pad so they could get cooled off!
We then went to the Morocco Section, where Brooke and Kevin rode on the Gwazi roller coaster (wooden one). Actually it included two roller coasters called the Lion and the Tiger. They had fun on both and there were no lineups.
We went through the Myombe Reserve and checked out some animals there, they were the ones we had seen from the train earlier.
We then went to the Congo Section where Brooke and I went on the Congo River Rapids and of course I got soaked to the underwear again! What are the chances of it happening twice I asked Brooke before we got on? She got a bit wet!
Kevin and Brooke went on the Kumba ride which was really fast and had a lot of spins and turns in it…Kevin said he felt a bit dizzy on it.
We had inquired about the adventure tours, where you can go out in an open air truck and pet and feed the animals such as the giraffe and bongos, but it cost 34 dollars for each person! Nice, but too expensive.
We then took the train again to the Timbuktu section. Brooke and Kevin went on the Cheetah Chase roller coaster and Keturah went on the Carousel Caravan.
We then went over to the Egypt Section where we some more Clydesdale horses because of the Anheiser-Busch sponsorship I guess. Kevin also got a free sample of beer at their hospitality house.
We saw King Tut’s tomb and the three of them went on the Skyride, which is a ride that stretches across the top of the park…I don’t like heights, so I rested on a bench.
We went to Adventure photo and I bought a picture of all of four of us, that their photographers had taken of us when we entered the park and then we headed back to the hotel or so we thought…
Kevin was supposed to have turned to go on 75 south and he went north instead. I didn’t really notice until he asked me how long we should be on the 75 because we weren’t on that road very long on the way there. That’s when I noticed he should have went south for a little bit. So now, I had to figure out how to get us back over to the hwy #4 as we were going parallel to it. We found a couple of little highways that led us to Dade City, where we stopped at a Wendy’s and had something quick to eat. We got back in the car at 8pm and drove until we found the right road and were finally on our way. We got to the hotel about 9:15pm. It took us a little longer than 45 minutes, but at least we got home eventually!
I went down to check my email and add a couple of more postings to the blog. I also checked out some of our pics that we had done in Belleville before we left for Disney.
If you want, you can check them out at www.photojenic-photography.com
They turned out pretty good. Hopefully our CD with the rest of them, will be waiting for us when we get back!
See you later!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
April 23rd.
April 23rd, 2007
Today we slept in a bit. I got up about 730am and the rest of the troop around 8am. We left and had breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). What’s a trip to the USA without a visit to the IHOP? We all had bacon and scrambled eggs, except Keturah who had stuffed French toast. It was stuffed with banana cream and topped with bananas and walnuts and caramel sauce. It looked very sweet! She has been eating a lot of sweet stuff for breakfast, because she doesn’t like most eggs or breakfast meat. She’ll sometimes eat hashbrowns, but that’s about it for breakfast foods. She does like boiled eggs, but only sometimes! SIGH.
We then stopped at Walmart SuperCentre, about twice the size of the Walmart in Kingston. It was humongous. Kevin bought some videotapes and I bought some earphones for my iPod, as I lost one of the earpieces for mine and I was using an old pair of Brooke’s and they wouldn’t stay in my ears!
We then headed to Gatorland Zoo. Kevin and I had been here about 20 years ago on our last visit to Florida. We heard they had a fire last fall and so they are lucky to even be open.
They have a whole bunch of alligators and crocodiles along with other animals as well. Kevin thought we’d be there a couple of hours, but we ended up being there almost 5 hours.
What we did:
Saw the gator jumparoo show, where they dangle raw chicken above the water to entice the gators to jump out of the water for it. Not all that exciting to tell you the truth!
WE then walked around and looked at all the different sizes of gators. The girls fed the fish in the ponds…I guess we have to fatten them up for the gators who were in the same pond.
We viewed a lot of other animals such as tortoises, snakes, birds, iguanas, goats, deers, llamas, turkeys and flamingos.
We then took a train ride around the property. It was very hot today in the sun. The weather channel said it was going to be 80, but it felt a lot hotter than that today.
We walked through the woods and viewed some crocodiles from around the world. We also walked through the swamp walk and saw a few lizards..the ones that are all over Florida! We didn’t see anything else. We saw some turtles just before the swamp walk and they were great big snapping turtles. I was throwing ice cubes in the water to tease the fish, who thought it was food and tried to eat them.
We then went to the breeding marsh, which has 3 stories that you can check out the females to see if any are nesting. There was one actually looked like she was guarding a nest, but we didn’t see any eggs. They did have some babies in the incubator…they were so cute…about 8 inches long maybe…
We also saw a lot of birds along the trail by the water. Quite a few of them also had babies in their nests and I tried to take a lot of pictures…when don’t I?
We then watched a show called Upclose Encounters, where you could find out about other animals. They had a tarantula, a pygmy rattlesnake, a diamond back rattlesnake and an albino python. They then let you hold either a snake or a lizard for $5.00, so Kevin got his picture taken with a lizard. Pretty cool!
We then left after that and went to Ponderosa for supper. Kevin and I both had a steak dinner. It was pretty good. Brooke had grilled chicken and Keturah just had the buffet. All was very good and we were very hungry since we didn’t have any lunch.
We came back to the hotel and Kevin and the girls went swimming for awhile and then into the hot tub. I just relaxed in the shade and listened to my iPod.
We then went over about a block away from our hotel to a place called Old Towne. It is an amusement park with stores, services, dining places and bars. Kevin and I had drinks. He had a margarita and I had a strawberry daiquiri (for Merle of course!). It tasted like another (and another)!
The kids rode some rides, we all rode on the go karts and we checked out a few stores. There was a t-shirt store that we went in and had a few laughs, reading the various shirts.
We just got home a few minutes ago and we are all tired out again! I’m sure we can catch up on our sleep when we get home!! Let’s hope so!
Well, we hope to go to Busch Gardens tomorrow and maybe the beach the day after that and then on Thursday we make our trek home…We’ll be sad to head home after having so much fun here!
More later...
Today we slept in a bit. I got up about 730am and the rest of the troop around 8am. We left and had breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). What’s a trip to the USA without a visit to the IHOP? We all had bacon and scrambled eggs, except Keturah who had stuffed French toast. It was stuffed with banana cream and topped with bananas and walnuts and caramel sauce. It looked very sweet! She has been eating a lot of sweet stuff for breakfast, because she doesn’t like most eggs or breakfast meat. She’ll sometimes eat hashbrowns, but that’s about it for breakfast foods. She does like boiled eggs, but only sometimes! SIGH.
We then stopped at Walmart SuperCentre, about twice the size of the Walmart in Kingston. It was humongous. Kevin bought some videotapes and I bought some earphones for my iPod, as I lost one of the earpieces for mine and I was using an old pair of Brooke’s and they wouldn’t stay in my ears!
We then headed to Gatorland Zoo. Kevin and I had been here about 20 years ago on our last visit to Florida. We heard they had a fire last fall and so they are lucky to even be open.
They have a whole bunch of alligators and crocodiles along with other animals as well. Kevin thought we’d be there a couple of hours, but we ended up being there almost 5 hours.
What we did:
Saw the gator jumparoo show, where they dangle raw chicken above the water to entice the gators to jump out of the water for it. Not all that exciting to tell you the truth!
WE then walked around and looked at all the different sizes of gators. The girls fed the fish in the ponds…I guess we have to fatten them up for the gators who were in the same pond.
We viewed a lot of other animals such as tortoises, snakes, birds, iguanas, goats, deers, llamas, turkeys and flamingos.
We then took a train ride around the property. It was very hot today in the sun. The weather channel said it was going to be 80, but it felt a lot hotter than that today.
We walked through the woods and viewed some crocodiles from around the world. We also walked through the swamp walk and saw a few lizards..the ones that are all over Florida! We didn’t see anything else. We saw some turtles just before the swamp walk and they were great big snapping turtles. I was throwing ice cubes in the water to tease the fish, who thought it was food and tried to eat them.
We then went to the breeding marsh, which has 3 stories that you can check out the females to see if any are nesting. There was one actually looked like she was guarding a nest, but we didn’t see any eggs. They did have some babies in the incubator…they were so cute…about 8 inches long maybe…
We also saw a lot of birds along the trail by the water. Quite a few of them also had babies in their nests and I tried to take a lot of pictures…when don’t I?
We then watched a show called Upclose Encounters, where you could find out about other animals. They had a tarantula, a pygmy rattlesnake, a diamond back rattlesnake and an albino python. They then let you hold either a snake or a lizard for $5.00, so Kevin got his picture taken with a lizard. Pretty cool!
We then left after that and went to Ponderosa for supper. Kevin and I both had a steak dinner. It was pretty good. Brooke had grilled chicken and Keturah just had the buffet. All was very good and we were very hungry since we didn’t have any lunch.
We came back to the hotel and Kevin and the girls went swimming for awhile and then into the hot tub. I just relaxed in the shade and listened to my iPod.
We then went over about a block away from our hotel to a place called Old Towne. It is an amusement park with stores, services, dining places and bars. Kevin and I had drinks. He had a margarita and I had a strawberry daiquiri (for Merle of course!). It tasted like another (and another)!
The kids rode some rides, we all rode on the go karts and we checked out a few stores. There was a t-shirt store that we went in and had a few laughs, reading the various shirts.
We just got home a few minutes ago and we are all tired out again! I’m sure we can catch up on our sleep when we get home!! Let’s hope so!
Well, we hope to go to Busch Gardens tomorrow and maybe the beach the day after that and then on Thursday we make our trek home…We’ll be sad to head home after having so much fun here!
More later...
April 22nd
Today we slept in a bit! When I say “we” I really mean them, as I have been up by 7am everyday on this holiday. The bed gets uncomfortable by then on my back, so I get up!
We left the hotel around 8am and drove across the road to have breakfast at Ponderosa’s all you can eat buffet. It was only 4.99, but we only ate 1 plate each. We checked out a discount gift shop next door and then hit the road for SeaWorld, which was only 10 minutes away!
It was very busy at the ticket lines and at security as well. This is the first park where we’ve encountered waiting in line so I guess their process could use a little improvement.
First on our tour was visiting the dolphin nursery. There were about eight small dolphins swimming around all of them born in 2005, so they were not really babies (toddlers maybe!) They were awesome and I could have stayed there all day just watching them.
We then headed to the Seaport Theatre, where we watched a show called “Pets Ahoy”. It had performing cats, dogs, ducks, doves, geese, a pot-bellied pig and even a skunk. The trainers said they get all their “talent” at local human societies. It was a cute show!
We then walked along the water on our way over to Shamu’s Stadium. It was already quite packed by the time we got there so we were up quite high…but at least it was in the shade..another hot day!
The killer whale show was really cool and they had two babies who stayed pretty close to their moms. We weren’t in the soak zone, so we didn’t get wet like quite a few people did, thanks to Shamu!
We went to the Wild Arctic next, where you ride a on a helicopter simulator to the Arctic. Your seat, the floor and whole theatre move while you watch a movie. It’s pretty lifelike and I have to admit I screamed a few times, much to the delight of Keturah!
When you came out of the ride, there were some animals to check out such as beluga whales, polar bears and walruses. They also had underwater viewing as well, so you could get a real close up look.
We then went to Shamu’s Happy Habor where Brooke and Kevin rode on the Shamu Express, which was a kiddie roller coaster.
Keturah and Brooke then went through this climbing type gym structure, went on a giant boat and got wet on the splash pad. It was really a section for younger children, but they seemed to have fun.
We then went through the Clydesdale Hamlet and checked out the big horses and took lots of pictures for Keturah (the horse lover).
We then went to the Nautilus Theatre where we saw a show called “Odyssea” which is a non-traditional circus show that defies gravity. It did include extortionists, high-wire acts and gymnasts. We were not allowed to take pictures in there though, but it was pretty cool.
Shark Encounters was next on the list and there was a big pond where you could view about 3 kinds of sharks, big fish and stingrays.
We bought food, (dead fish) to feed to the sharks, but they were pretty full, from being fed all day, but the fish and the rays ate it.
Inside this building there were more sharks. We traveled through the aquarium and the sharks and fish swam over and beside us…it was pretty cool. They also had other types of fish in here like lionfish, barracuda, dragonfish, which looked like leaves stuck together!
We then ate a late lunch at the Spice Mill Café. Brooke, Kevin and I had the chicken finger dinner and Keturah had a chicken garden salad. It was pretty yummy!
We then went to see the penguins. They had 2 different kinds in their display along with puffins and a duck-type bird called marres.
Brooke and Kevin went on the Journey to Atlantis which is a log (flume) ride, while Keturah and I hit the gift shop. We did end up catching them as they came down the big hill. They got a bit wet.
We also stopped at Oyster’s Secret, where they have divers diving for shells and then you can buy a shell for 14.99 and you are guaranteed to get at least 1 pearl inside it. It was pretty cool but too expensive for me!
We viewed some alligators which were small ones, one our way to see the manatee rescue area.
We spent quite awhile talking to the keeper and watching the manatees eat and float around. She said a couple of them on display were injured by boats and some of them were orphaned. We also viewed them underwater as well.
We saw dolphins splashing around and viewed them underwater too. We wanted to pet them, but they weren’t coming over to the edge..they were probably tired of the crowds…we were!
We then went to the stingray lagoon where we did get to pet a stingray as they went swimming by. They feel pretty slimy. We all enjoyed this very much!
We saw a lot of flamingos and took lots of pictures. The first ones were really dark pink (peachy) and the other ones where lighter pink..pretty cool!
We headed out at 10 to 7, as the park was closing at 7pm.
Headed back to the hotel and here I am sitting by the pool as I write this. It’s getting cold out though—it must be 76 now! The kids are swimming away with not a care in the world and Kevin is down posting a couple more of our daily adventures! As mentioned, we have to go down to the lobby to use the wireless internet, which is the only thing that sucks about this hotel!
It was another hot, sunny day. I think it is supposed to be around 80 degrees today, but it felt hotter than that!
This was a good way to spend earth day today---at SeaWorld.
Kevin and I were both really surprised that the USA (Florida anyway) doesn’t do a lot of recycling.
At the Disney parks they had a few recycling bins, here and there, but you had to really look for them.
We didn’t see any at Cypress Gardens and I think we saw one today.
I was having a hard time throwing my plastic bottles in the regular garbage!
Even at our hotel, we have to garbage cans in our room, but no blue boxes, so I’ve been using one for recycling items, but I’m sure our maid just garbages them all, but it makes me feel better!
Well, more tomorrow!
We left the hotel around 8am and drove across the road to have breakfast at Ponderosa’s all you can eat buffet. It was only 4.99, but we only ate 1 plate each. We checked out a discount gift shop next door and then hit the road for SeaWorld, which was only 10 minutes away!
It was very busy at the ticket lines and at security as well. This is the first park where we’ve encountered waiting in line so I guess their process could use a little improvement.
First on our tour was visiting the dolphin nursery. There were about eight small dolphins swimming around all of them born in 2005, so they were not really babies (toddlers maybe!) They were awesome and I could have stayed there all day just watching them.
We then headed to the Seaport Theatre, where we watched a show called “Pets Ahoy”. It had performing cats, dogs, ducks, doves, geese, a pot-bellied pig and even a skunk. The trainers said they get all their “talent” at local human societies. It was a cute show!
We then walked along the water on our way over to Shamu’s Stadium. It was already quite packed by the time we got there so we were up quite high…but at least it was in the shade..another hot day!
The killer whale show was really cool and they had two babies who stayed pretty close to their moms. We weren’t in the soak zone, so we didn’t get wet like quite a few people did, thanks to Shamu!
We went to the Wild Arctic next, where you ride a on a helicopter simulator to the Arctic. Your seat, the floor and whole theatre move while you watch a movie. It’s pretty lifelike and I have to admit I screamed a few times, much to the delight of Keturah!
When you came out of the ride, there were some animals to check out such as beluga whales, polar bears and walruses. They also had underwater viewing as well, so you could get a real close up look.
We then went to Shamu’s Happy Habor where Brooke and Kevin rode on the Shamu Express, which was a kiddie roller coaster.
Keturah and Brooke then went through this climbing type gym structure, went on a giant boat and got wet on the splash pad. It was really a section for younger children, but they seemed to have fun.
We then went through the Clydesdale Hamlet and checked out the big horses and took lots of pictures for Keturah (the horse lover).
We then went to the Nautilus Theatre where we saw a show called “Odyssea” which is a non-traditional circus show that defies gravity. It did include extortionists, high-wire acts and gymnasts. We were not allowed to take pictures in there though, but it was pretty cool.
Shark Encounters was next on the list and there was a big pond where you could view about 3 kinds of sharks, big fish and stingrays.
We bought food, (dead fish) to feed to the sharks, but they were pretty full, from being fed all day, but the fish and the rays ate it.
Inside this building there were more sharks. We traveled through the aquarium and the sharks and fish swam over and beside us…it was pretty cool. They also had other types of fish in here like lionfish, barracuda, dragonfish, which looked like leaves stuck together!
We then ate a late lunch at the Spice Mill Café. Brooke, Kevin and I had the chicken finger dinner and Keturah had a chicken garden salad. It was pretty yummy!
We then went to see the penguins. They had 2 different kinds in their display along with puffins and a duck-type bird called marres.
Brooke and Kevin went on the Journey to Atlantis which is a log (flume) ride, while Keturah and I hit the gift shop. We did end up catching them as they came down the big hill. They got a bit wet.
We also stopped at Oyster’s Secret, where they have divers diving for shells and then you can buy a shell for 14.99 and you are guaranteed to get at least 1 pearl inside it. It was pretty cool but too expensive for me!
We viewed some alligators which were small ones, one our way to see the manatee rescue area.
We spent quite awhile talking to the keeper and watching the manatees eat and float around. She said a couple of them on display were injured by boats and some of them were orphaned. We also viewed them underwater as well.
We saw dolphins splashing around and viewed them underwater too. We wanted to pet them, but they weren’t coming over to the edge..they were probably tired of the crowds…we were!
We then went to the stingray lagoon where we did get to pet a stingray as they went swimming by. They feel pretty slimy. We all enjoyed this very much!
We saw a lot of flamingos and took lots of pictures. The first ones were really dark pink (peachy) and the other ones where lighter pink..pretty cool!
We headed out at 10 to 7, as the park was closing at 7pm.
Headed back to the hotel and here I am sitting by the pool as I write this. It’s getting cold out though—it must be 76 now! The kids are swimming away with not a care in the world and Kevin is down posting a couple more of our daily adventures! As mentioned, we have to go down to the lobby to use the wireless internet, which is the only thing that sucks about this hotel!
It was another hot, sunny day. I think it is supposed to be around 80 degrees today, but it felt hotter than that!
This was a good way to spend earth day today---at SeaWorld.
Kevin and I were both really surprised that the USA (Florida anyway) doesn’t do a lot of recycling.
At the Disney parks they had a few recycling bins, here and there, but you had to really look for them.
We didn’t see any at Cypress Gardens and I think we saw one today.
I was having a hard time throwing my plastic bottles in the regular garbage!
Even at our hotel, we have to garbage cans in our room, but no blue boxes, so I’ve been using one for recycling items, but I’m sure our maid just garbages them all, but it makes me feel better!
Well, more tomorrow!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
April 21st
April 21st, 2007 Adventures
Today, we had to get up really early to go and listen to the timeshare spiel. We went to the Orange Lake Resort for about 7:50am. We met our representative who was very nice of course! We were offered muffins and donuts and fruit as well as coffee, tea or juice.
Kevin did most of the talking while I hung in the background. We had to watch a video, hear the spiel, get the tour etc. etc. It was an awesome timeshare program, all for the low, low price of $29,000 USD! If we had bought it today during the tour, we would have saved $2000. They were quite offended when Kevin said that he never buys anything on the spur of the moment. I can testify to this…shopping for our new bed almost drove me nuts, especially, since we ended up back at the first store, buying the first bed we tried! Anyway, the salesperson didn’t get anywhere with us, so his manager came over, who was more pushy and he really turned us off. We then had to do a survey about the whole process, so we complained about the manager! We were there about 1.5 hours altogether. We then got our tickets for the three theme parks and hit the road for Cypress Gardens, which is about 45 minutes away from Orlando. I’m not sure if it was worth saving $300+ dollars, but Kevin seemed to think so!
We had an uneventful drive to Cypress, but enjoyed seeing the orange trees growing along the road at various orchards. They looked good enough to eat!
We got to Cypress about 11am and the security guard at the gate said I couldn’t bring my bag in and I was getting ready to yell at him and then he said, it was because it was a Disney World bag and laughed ..Whew..I thought I’d have to trek back out to the car in the parking lot (Okay, Kevin would have to)!
At every park we’ve been to so far, they have security guards at the front gate who checks your bags for knives, guns, etc. etc. I usually leave my home when I visit theme parks!
We visited the Nature’s Way section, which had various animals on display and of course, this was our favourite part again.
Brooke was asked to play a game called Gunk’d. Where there were two teams who had to play water games. Brooke was on the red team with three other kids and they won all three games against the blue team and at the end they got to whip water balloons at the losers. It was funny to watch!
They had a kidzapalooza program going on and it included various activities for the kids. They were given an activity sheet and whenever they finished an activity, they got a stamp and when they got all their stamps from each area, we had to turn it in at guest services and they got a small cup of ice cream. The kids enjoyed it…They got to make a necklace out of sand (similar to the sand art kits), a foam visor, chalk drawing, hand art, wall art and colouring a magnet. It was a great idea for the little ones. I think Brooke was a bit too old for the activities, but she wanted the free ice cream!
We also went to an bird aviary, which was cool as well. There were parrots, a cockatoo and a few birds we didn’t know the name of, but the cockatoo was named Sadie and was very friendly, talking to us. The other parrot named Cheecko, kept saying his name and asked “how are you?” Keturah thought it was just awesome!
For lunch Kevin wanted to go to Backwater Bill’s BBQ. The girls and I had the chicken with sides of corn on the cob and Keturah had baked beans. We were also given garlic toast and a pickle…Kevin had a pork sandwich with the same side dishes. It was all very good!
We then hit the rides and they went on a couple of roller coasters..Kevin included. Keturah liked the ride “kite flyers”. They also went on the dizzy dragons, galaxy spin, fun slide, seafari swings, etc. They wanted to keep going, as there were quite a few rides and the best part of it was that it wasn’t very busy, so there were few lineups. But, we wanted to catch the water ski show, so we left to watch that. It was awesome and it was the main thing I remembered from being here 20 years ago!
We then hit the gardens, which were just beautiful, I think I took about 100 pictures of just plants, flowers and trees. I tried to include the kids and Kevin in as many as I could, but they were getting tired of it too! It was funny to see signs warning about the alligators, saying not to feed them or go near them.
(Un)fortunately, we only saw birds and fish on our trek through the gardens. The fish we saw were tilapia (my favourite to eat), or we think they were. We asked someone and he said they were anyway! They were building nests in the water and probably getting ready to lay eggs or whatever it is they do! We also saw a small gar pike.
We saw quite a few birds as well. We saw some cardinals. They are so rare in Canada, and today was the third time we’ve seen some this week! The male cardinal that I saw was eating crumbs off the table and then he was trying to eat garbage out of the garbage can.
We then went to the topiary gardens and saw beautiful trees trimmed (groomed?) to look like animals such as a duck, goose, cardinal, ladybug, rabbit, snail, peacock and caterpillar..we took lots of pictures here too! I wish I could post them, but we are still out of space I guess!
Kevin and Brooke went on the Sunshine Sky Adventure which took them up 150 feet and then slowly moved around 360 degrees. Kevin videotaped it for Keturah and I…we went to the gift shop, but it wasn’t as interesting as the Disney ones were!
We then decided to head home as it was getting kind of cold, probably down to 69 or so!!! Today it was only about 76 degrees, which was kind of nice for me, because I enjoy it a bit cooler, but Kevin of course, was complaining…it was also spitting a bit in the afternoon, but I didn’t mind too much!
I got sunburned on my shoulder/neck and today it was itchy and has a heat rash on it..Looks worse than it feels! Hopefully it will clear up soon. I may have to buy some solarcaine or something for it.
We drove back to Orlando around 6pm. We are all starting to sound like the natives around here…we’ve been practicing our southern accent. Y’all understand? Keturah and Brooke were hilarious coming home in the car…must have been the sugar!
We stopped down the road from our hotel at the Cracker Barrel again and had some dinner. I had a house salad…all their salads had meat and sliced eggs in them..I could live with the meat if I had to, but not the sliced boiled eggs..gross! I had a house salad that only had bacon, plus all the other veggies that should be there! I have to admit it was pretty good with the bacon in it, probably due to the blue cheese dressing! I also had vegetable soup which was pretty good too! Kevin had a turkey salad and Keturah just had a side dish of hashbrown casserole and Brooke had a kids meal with a grilled cheese.
We got back to the hotel about 8:30 and we got ready and the girls went swimming! I had my sweater on watching them! Kevin got in the hot tub with them and I soaked my legs/feet as well..it felt really good as my feet were very sore today again!
We noticed that they have an exercise room here and there was actually someone using it as well. Can you imagine, exercising on your holiday? I can’t imagine exercising anytime, because I don’t like it, but wouldn’t think of doing it while on vacation in Florida, where there is so much to do! Maybe they needed a break from their family?
We’ve been doing so much walking, I figure that is good enough for now…I’ll hit the treadmill again when I get home!
Well, it’s 10:20pm and tomorrow is going to be another busy day with us going to Sea World I think.
Good night!!
Today, we had to get up really early to go and listen to the timeshare spiel. We went to the Orange Lake Resort for about 7:50am. We met our representative who was very nice of course! We were offered muffins and donuts and fruit as well as coffee, tea or juice.
Kevin did most of the talking while I hung in the background. We had to watch a video, hear the spiel, get the tour etc. etc. It was an awesome timeshare program, all for the low, low price of $29,000 USD! If we had bought it today during the tour, we would have saved $2000. They were quite offended when Kevin said that he never buys anything on the spur of the moment. I can testify to this…shopping for our new bed almost drove me nuts, especially, since we ended up back at the first store, buying the first bed we tried! Anyway, the salesperson didn’t get anywhere with us, so his manager came over, who was more pushy and he really turned us off. We then had to do a survey about the whole process, so we complained about the manager! We were there about 1.5 hours altogether. We then got our tickets for the three theme parks and hit the road for Cypress Gardens, which is about 45 minutes away from Orlando. I’m not sure if it was worth saving $300+ dollars, but Kevin seemed to think so!
We had an uneventful drive to Cypress, but enjoyed seeing the orange trees growing along the road at various orchards. They looked good enough to eat!
We got to Cypress about 11am and the security guard at the gate said I couldn’t bring my bag in and I was getting ready to yell at him and then he said, it was because it was a Disney World bag and laughed ..Whew..I thought I’d have to trek back out to the car in the parking lot (Okay, Kevin would have to)!
At every park we’ve been to so far, they have security guards at the front gate who checks your bags for knives, guns, etc. etc. I usually leave my home when I visit theme parks!
We visited the Nature’s Way section, which had various animals on display and of course, this was our favourite part again.
Brooke was asked to play a game called Gunk’d. Where there were two teams who had to play water games. Brooke was on the red team with three other kids and they won all three games against the blue team and at the end they got to whip water balloons at the losers. It was funny to watch!
They had a kidzapalooza program going on and it included various activities for the kids. They were given an activity sheet and whenever they finished an activity, they got a stamp and when they got all their stamps from each area, we had to turn it in at guest services and they got a small cup of ice cream. The kids enjoyed it…They got to make a necklace out of sand (similar to the sand art kits), a foam visor, chalk drawing, hand art, wall art and colouring a magnet. It was a great idea for the little ones. I think Brooke was a bit too old for the activities, but she wanted the free ice cream!
We also went to an bird aviary, which was cool as well. There were parrots, a cockatoo and a few birds we didn’t know the name of, but the cockatoo was named Sadie and was very friendly, talking to us. The other parrot named Cheecko, kept saying his name and asked “how are you?” Keturah thought it was just awesome!
For lunch Kevin wanted to go to Backwater Bill’s BBQ. The girls and I had the chicken with sides of corn on the cob and Keturah had baked beans. We were also given garlic toast and a pickle…Kevin had a pork sandwich with the same side dishes. It was all very good!
We then hit the rides and they went on a couple of roller coasters..Kevin included. Keturah liked the ride “kite flyers”. They also went on the dizzy dragons, galaxy spin, fun slide, seafari swings, etc. They wanted to keep going, as there were quite a few rides and the best part of it was that it wasn’t very busy, so there were few lineups. But, we wanted to catch the water ski show, so we left to watch that. It was awesome and it was the main thing I remembered from being here 20 years ago!
We then hit the gardens, which were just beautiful, I think I took about 100 pictures of just plants, flowers and trees. I tried to include the kids and Kevin in as many as I could, but they were getting tired of it too! It was funny to see signs warning about the alligators, saying not to feed them or go near them.
(Un)fortunately, we only saw birds and fish on our trek through the gardens. The fish we saw were tilapia (my favourite to eat), or we think they were. We asked someone and he said they were anyway! They were building nests in the water and probably getting ready to lay eggs or whatever it is they do! We also saw a small gar pike.
We saw quite a few birds as well. We saw some cardinals. They are so rare in Canada, and today was the third time we’ve seen some this week! The male cardinal that I saw was eating crumbs off the table and then he was trying to eat garbage out of the garbage can.
We then went to the topiary gardens and saw beautiful trees trimmed (groomed?) to look like animals such as a duck, goose, cardinal, ladybug, rabbit, snail, peacock and caterpillar..we took lots of pictures here too! I wish I could post them, but we are still out of space I guess!
Kevin and Brooke went on the Sunshine Sky Adventure which took them up 150 feet and then slowly moved around 360 degrees. Kevin videotaped it for Keturah and I…we went to the gift shop, but it wasn’t as interesting as the Disney ones were!
We then decided to head home as it was getting kind of cold, probably down to 69 or so!!! Today it was only about 76 degrees, which was kind of nice for me, because I enjoy it a bit cooler, but Kevin of course, was complaining…it was also spitting a bit in the afternoon, but I didn’t mind too much!
I got sunburned on my shoulder/neck and today it was itchy and has a heat rash on it..Looks worse than it feels! Hopefully it will clear up soon. I may have to buy some solarcaine or something for it.
We drove back to Orlando around 6pm. We are all starting to sound like the natives around here…we’ve been practicing our southern accent. Y’all understand? Keturah and Brooke were hilarious coming home in the car…must have been the sugar!
We stopped down the road from our hotel at the Cracker Barrel again and had some dinner. I had a house salad…all their salads had meat and sliced eggs in them..I could live with the meat if I had to, but not the sliced boiled eggs..gross! I had a house salad that only had bacon, plus all the other veggies that should be there! I have to admit it was pretty good with the bacon in it, probably due to the blue cheese dressing! I also had vegetable soup which was pretty good too! Kevin had a turkey salad and Keturah just had a side dish of hashbrown casserole and Brooke had a kids meal with a grilled cheese.
We got back to the hotel about 8:30 and we got ready and the girls went swimming! I had my sweater on watching them! Kevin got in the hot tub with them and I soaked my legs/feet as well..it felt really good as my feet were very sore today again!
We noticed that they have an exercise room here and there was actually someone using it as well. Can you imagine, exercising on your holiday? I can’t imagine exercising anytime, because I don’t like it, but wouldn’t think of doing it while on vacation in Florida, where there is so much to do! Maybe they needed a break from their family?
We’ve been doing so much walking, I figure that is good enough for now…I’ll hit the treadmill again when I get home!
Well, it’s 10:20pm and tomorrow is going to be another busy day with us going to Sea World I think.
Good night!!
Friday, April 20, 2007
April 20th Adventures
April 20th, 2007
Today we had to get up early again as we had to checkout and get our rental car.
We had breakfast at the café and had bagels and juice. We have just been eating so much—gotta get our money’s worth with the meal plan don’t we?
We then packed up our room, hit the gift shop for one last look around and then went down to the front office to await our rental car.
The fellow from Budget picked us around 10am and took us to the budget office, which was pretty close to our hotel too. Thanks to Kevin for his planning ahead!
We had planned today today be fairly quiet so we could relax and rejuvenate for the rest of the fun!
We were lucky in that we could check in at the hotel early. It is pretty much the same as Disney. The room is quite standard. The only downside is that they don't have wireless internet, so here I am down at the lobby using the wireless here. It's only good in this locale. So here goes:
We then checked out the pool and went for a swim. It was so, so hot that I got burned and then I ended up with a headache from the sun after only a few minutes of laying by the pool. It’s 85 degrees today, the highest it’s been all week. It has been 84 consistently since we got here!
We then went for lunch down at the cafeteria in the hotel. We had pizza and wings, which were not too bad.
The kids were trying to catch small lizards that were running around here all over. I just followed them around and pointed them out. The girl at the desk said they are all over at dusk…great! I think I’ll turn in early to avoid any unnecessary run-ins with them!
We (Kevin) purchased tickets for Sea World, Cypress Gardens and Busch Gardens through this “special” at the hotel. We do, however, have to listen to a spiel about their new vacation properties tomorrow before they give us the tickets…It ended up being about ½ the price, so it is well worth it… They are throwing in breakie too, so that’s also a plus!
We then got in the rental van and went for a drive down the road. We stopped at a mall and at an outlet store that sells Disney stuff. We bought a few small things there.
We also went to target and bought some groceries/snacks/drinks as we have a fridge and microwave in our room. They have such an awesome selection compared to Canada. Kevin was thrilled that he could buy some Molson Canadian at the grocery store and so no more camel pee for him!
We then started home and ended up stopping at an A&W drive up restaurant, where they take your order, then bring it to your car, just like the old days, Kevin remembers, but I don’t!!! Also had music to match as well. But, same crappy food!
Back to the hotel and I am doing laundry SIGH…I thought I was on vacation? The kids are swimming and Kevin is complaining it is too cold. It is a bit breezy, but I’m lovin it!
Well, the beds here look a little less comfy than Disney, so hopefully I will get a good nights sleep as we plan to go to Cypress Gardens tomorrow!
I am finally feeling better today from that bad cold I caught last Saturday! Wow, can't believe I had it a whole week already!
More tomorrow, if I can get down the lobby again for the wireless!
Good night!
Today we had to get up early again as we had to checkout and get our rental car.
We had breakfast at the café and had bagels and juice. We have just been eating so much—gotta get our money’s worth with the meal plan don’t we?
We then packed up our room, hit the gift shop for one last look around and then went down to the front office to await our rental car.
The fellow from Budget picked us around 10am and took us to the budget office, which was pretty close to our hotel too. Thanks to Kevin for his planning ahead!
We had planned today today be fairly quiet so we could relax and rejuvenate for the rest of the fun!
We were lucky in that we could check in at the hotel early. It is pretty much the same as Disney. The room is quite standard. The only downside is that they don't have wireless internet, so here I am down at the lobby using the wireless here. It's only good in this locale. So here goes:
We then checked out the pool and went for a swim. It was so, so hot that I got burned and then I ended up with a headache from the sun after only a few minutes of laying by the pool. It’s 85 degrees today, the highest it’s been all week. It has been 84 consistently since we got here!
We then went for lunch down at the cafeteria in the hotel. We had pizza and wings, which were not too bad.
The kids were trying to catch small lizards that were running around here all over. I just followed them around and pointed them out. The girl at the desk said they are all over at dusk…great! I think I’ll turn in early to avoid any unnecessary run-ins with them!
We (Kevin) purchased tickets for Sea World, Cypress Gardens and Busch Gardens through this “special” at the hotel. We do, however, have to listen to a spiel about their new vacation properties tomorrow before they give us the tickets…It ended up being about ½ the price, so it is well worth it… They are throwing in breakie too, so that’s also a plus!
We then got in the rental van and went for a drive down the road. We stopped at a mall and at an outlet store that sells Disney stuff. We bought a few small things there.
We also went to target and bought some groceries/snacks/drinks as we have a fridge and microwave in our room. They have such an awesome selection compared to Canada. Kevin was thrilled that he could buy some Molson Canadian at the grocery store and so no more camel pee for him!
We then started home and ended up stopping at an A&W drive up restaurant, where they take your order, then bring it to your car, just like the old days, Kevin remembers, but I don’t!!! Also had music to match as well. But, same crappy food!
Back to the hotel and I am doing laundry SIGH…I thought I was on vacation? The kids are swimming and Kevin is complaining it is too cold. It is a bit breezy, but I’m lovin it!
Well, the beds here look a little less comfy than Disney, so hopefully I will get a good nights sleep as we plan to go to Cypress Gardens tomorrow!
I am finally feeling better today from that bad cold I caught last Saturday! Wow, can't believe I had it a whole week already!
More tomorrow, if I can get down the lobby again for the wireless!
Good night!
April 19th Post
A bit late posting…we didn’t get back to the hotel until 10:30pm last night so here goes:
Another Busy Day!
We got up around 7:30am. Slept in…we’re such slackers today. We went to Boatwrights, sit-down restaurant because we were kind of lazy to wait in line for the café.
We had a funny little waiter-guy waiting on us and he kept tapping our shoulders to make us look the wrong way. He got Kevin and myself, but couldn’t get the girls. He reminded me of Peter Pan. He also kept putting straws in my purse, so I ended up with three extra to go!
Kevin had to call for rental insurance and confirm our car rental for tomorrow, so we waited while he did that. We ended up leaving a bit later than usual and got to the Animal Kingdom about 10:30. The shuttles were also a lot busier at this time of day, with a lot of teenagers hitting the water parks, which are also on the Disney bus routes.
At Animal Kingdom, we walked around the Tree of Life, which is a really neat humongous tree, albeit a fake one (what is actually real at Disney is the question?). Carved into the tree are animals of every kind. It took quite a few pictures as you can’t believe them until you see them.
Also, at this park are animals along the paths, which we all loved because we are such animal-lovers. We then went to a 3D movie inside the Tree called It’s a Bug’s Life with Flick from the Bug’s Life Movie. It was pretty cool, because of the special effects, fog, water spraying etc. etc.
Kevin and Brooke got their pictures taken with Flick as well as Pocahontas (Keturah too!). Kevin got his picture taken with Rafiki, they looked like twins! Brooke also got her picture taken with Pooh, Tigger and Eyeore. I got my picture taken with Eyeore. He’s my fave!
We got fast passes for Expedition Everest and the Kilamanjaro Safari. It is so cool to be able to get these, as it means no waiting in line to get on the ride. The only downside is watching the clock so that you make it back at the right time for your ride time.
We went on the Kali River Rapids ride, which is a white-water rafting adventure. We waited in line for this one for about 20 minutes and it was well worth it. A sign said “You will get wet on this ride, you MAY get soaked on this ride. Well, guess who got soaked and who stayed dry? I got soaked, right through to my underwear! Keturah and Brooke got wet and Kevin the dog got a few spots of water on his shirt…Disgusting! Actually, it was so hot, that I didn’t mind getting wet. It didn’t take long for my outside clothes to dry, but my unders were wet until about supper time!
We had a late lunch at a place called Tusker House Restaurant. I shared a rotisserie chicken dinner with Kevin, which came with potatoes/gravy and green beans. It was pretty yummy for a cafeteria style restaurant. The girls had a turkey wrap (Keturah) and chicken salad (Brooke). They complained that there was couscous in both, but ate most of it. It was in the African section of the park, so we’re lucky we found something as tame as chicken and couscous! At least it wasn’t zebra or giraffe.
We spent time going through the Maharaji Jungle Trek and viewed various animals, the tigers were awesome..they are my favourite! We also saw humongous fruit bats with wingspans of up to 6 ft.
There was also a bird house, which we traveled through trying to identify the approx 20 species of birds (they give you a guide to follow).
We also spent time watching the gibbons, who were playing way up high in their habitat…they are always so entertaining to watch!
We went back to the safari ride when it was our turn with the fastpass. It was a big jeep driven by an employee that held about 24 people. They took us through the safari and pointed out various animals along the way. It was okay, except, they didn’t stop long enough (or at all) to take any good pictures. Luckily, Kevin videotaped the whole thing.
We took a train ride over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch where they talk about conservation and how you can help with animal habitats. We didn’t get to see the petting zoo there as we had to be back in time for another ride with the fast pass.
Then it was off to Expedition Everest, the big roller coaster. Brooke was so excited. Kevin said it was pretty tame, but rather smooth riding.
We got the shuttle back to the hotel, changed shoes as my feet were killing me and then we took a river cruise down the Sassgoula River (Disney man-made river, created when they drained the swamp) and went to the re-nowned downtown Disney.
We tried to get dinner reservations earlier that day and I guess we should have taken the one for 9pm, because by the time we got down there, they were all full or seating in 1 hour or more. We ended up walking around and ate at Cooke’s Restaurant which specialized in fish and chips. The only downside, we had to eat outside on the sidewalk where there was a cement barrier. The meal was very good, but of course, by 830pm, we were all starving and would have ate anything!
We went to a few stores, all Disney stuff of course. We didn’t buy anything because the lineups were crazy. So that is where everyone goes at night!
We caught the shuttle boat back to the hotel and got in about 10:30 and fell into bed exhausted!
Another Busy Day!
We got up around 7:30am. Slept in…we’re such slackers today. We went to Boatwrights, sit-down restaurant because we were kind of lazy to wait in line for the café.
We had a funny little waiter-guy waiting on us and he kept tapping our shoulders to make us look the wrong way. He got Kevin and myself, but couldn’t get the girls. He reminded me of Peter Pan. He also kept putting straws in my purse, so I ended up with three extra to go!
Kevin had to call for rental insurance and confirm our car rental for tomorrow, so we waited while he did that. We ended up leaving a bit later than usual and got to the Animal Kingdom about 10:30. The shuttles were also a lot busier at this time of day, with a lot of teenagers hitting the water parks, which are also on the Disney bus routes.
At Animal Kingdom, we walked around the Tree of Life, which is a really neat humongous tree, albeit a fake one (what is actually real at Disney is the question?). Carved into the tree are animals of every kind. It took quite a few pictures as you can’t believe them until you see them.
Also, at this park are animals along the paths, which we all loved because we are such animal-lovers. We then went to a 3D movie inside the Tree called It’s a Bug’s Life with Flick from the Bug’s Life Movie. It was pretty cool, because of the special effects, fog, water spraying etc. etc.
Kevin and Brooke got their pictures taken with Flick as well as Pocahontas (Keturah too!). Kevin got his picture taken with Rafiki, they looked like twins! Brooke also got her picture taken with Pooh, Tigger and Eyeore. I got my picture taken with Eyeore. He’s my fave!
We got fast passes for Expedition Everest and the Kilamanjaro Safari. It is so cool to be able to get these, as it means no waiting in line to get on the ride. The only downside is watching the clock so that you make it back at the right time for your ride time.
We went on the Kali River Rapids ride, which is a white-water rafting adventure. We waited in line for this one for about 20 minutes and it was well worth it. A sign said “You will get wet on this ride, you MAY get soaked on this ride. Well, guess who got soaked and who stayed dry? I got soaked, right through to my underwear! Keturah and Brooke got wet and Kevin the dog got a few spots of water on his shirt…Disgusting! Actually, it was so hot, that I didn’t mind getting wet. It didn’t take long for my outside clothes to dry, but my unders were wet until about supper time!
We had a late lunch at a place called Tusker House Restaurant. I shared a rotisserie chicken dinner with Kevin, which came with potatoes/gravy and green beans. It was pretty yummy for a cafeteria style restaurant. The girls had a turkey wrap (Keturah) and chicken salad (Brooke). They complained that there was couscous in both, but ate most of it. It was in the African section of the park, so we’re lucky we found something as tame as chicken and couscous! At least it wasn’t zebra or giraffe.
We spent time going through the Maharaji Jungle Trek and viewed various animals, the tigers were awesome..they are my favourite! We also saw humongous fruit bats with wingspans of up to 6 ft.
There was also a bird house, which we traveled through trying to identify the approx 20 species of birds (they give you a guide to follow).
We also spent time watching the gibbons, who were playing way up high in their habitat…they are always so entertaining to watch!
We went back to the safari ride when it was our turn with the fastpass. It was a big jeep driven by an employee that held about 24 people. They took us through the safari and pointed out various animals along the way. It was okay, except, they didn’t stop long enough (or at all) to take any good pictures. Luckily, Kevin videotaped the whole thing.
We took a train ride over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch where they talk about conservation and how you can help with animal habitats. We didn’t get to see the petting zoo there as we had to be back in time for another ride with the fast pass.
Then it was off to Expedition Everest, the big roller coaster. Brooke was so excited. Kevin said it was pretty tame, but rather smooth riding.
We got the shuttle back to the hotel, changed shoes as my feet were killing me and then we took a river cruise down the Sassgoula River (Disney man-made river, created when they drained the swamp) and went to the re-nowned downtown Disney.
We tried to get dinner reservations earlier that day and I guess we should have taken the one for 9pm, because by the time we got down there, they were all full or seating in 1 hour or more. We ended up walking around and ate at Cooke’s Restaurant which specialized in fish and chips. The only downside, we had to eat outside on the sidewalk where there was a cement barrier. The meal was very good, but of course, by 830pm, we were all starving and would have ate anything!
We went to a few stores, all Disney stuff of course. We didn’t buy anything because the lineups were crazy. So that is where everyone goes at night!
We caught the shuttle boat back to the hotel and got in about 10:30 and fell into bed exhausted!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
April 18th Adventures!
(note from Kev - we're out of blog space for photos...no more pics until I can figure out how to get more space)
Well, today was another busy day that started at 7am. We had breakfast at Boatwrights. It was way to busy at the Mill Cafeteria, so we went the more expensive route. It was very good though. I had pancakes and bacon, Kevin had the big breakfast, Brooke had pancakes and bacon and Keturah had deep fried toast with sugar and cinnamon…tasted like donuts to me! Way too sweet for breakfast…She only ate about ½ of it.
We then caught the shuttle bus to Epcot, which took about 5mins. It was a bit overcast starting out, but the sun came out in full force again…it was 84 degrees again today. A tad bit too hot for me, but I’m not complaining after the snowstorm of Monday!
We went to Spaceship Earth, which was a pretty cool slow moving ride through the history of communications. The girls loved it.
The next thing we tried was the Universe of Energy with a movie that included Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy talking about energy and how it all started back with the big bang and showed animatronic dinosaurs that even spit on us! Cool. It was very funny, as only Ellen can be! The whole audience moved through the movie/attraction.
Mission Space was our next stop and it was really cool. It is a space simulator ride with teams. Our team included, me as navigator, Brooke as pilot, Keturah as commander and Kevin as engineer. We all had to press buttons to help us land on Mars…it was really neat and felt like the real thing.
Kevin and Brooke went on the Test Track, which is a race track which goes up to 60 mph. Kevin said it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Keturah and I hit the gift shop while we waited for them.
We then went to Innoventions, which allowed us to play with toys and tools of tomorrow.
We then headed over the World Showcase, but the kids found it kind of boring. But we did visit Mexico and went on an indoor boat ride highlighting Donald Duck.
We headed through Norway, but the line up was too long for the ride there. We then went to the China section and watched a movie about China in Circle Vision 360..Was okay, except we had to stand up the for the whole 14 minutes!
We then headed back the way we came, and stopped for a margarita on our way back through Mexico. Kevin and I shared, but he drank the lion’s share of it…I was leery of drinking it because I had just had some Advil before that…Today my throat has been very sore! Hope it’s not Strep!
We then went to the Canada section and I sat and rested in the shade while Kevin went in the building with the girls. They had a lot of totem poles around in this section.
We then headed over to Imagination and watched a 3D movie called Honey I Shrunk the Audience, very similar to the movies that were out a few years ago. Something touched your leg, when there were a bunch of mice loose in the movie and when the dog sneezed, we all got wet again..I hope it was just water!
We walked through and tried a computer program, where it takes your picture, you modify it on the computer, then email it to whoever you want. Keturah emailed hers to her friend Talen and to Anne. Kevin’s head was superimposed onto a monkey (or vice versa) and he emailed it to himself. It was quite funny.
We then went on a little ride about the senses and your imagination.
We then went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends…It was really cute and after the ride, you end up in a section with real fish and we spent quite awhile in there too, watching the manatees, sharks, dolphins, etc. etc. There was also an interactive show with Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo, it was really cute, he asked the kids questions and they asked him questions. He had us all laughing.
I was starving, because we didn’t have any lunch, so the girls and I grabbed a hotdog…I hadn’t had one in awhile, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be…
We hit the gift shop on the way out and caught the shuttle back to the resort. It had started to sprinkle, but it didn’t stop the kids from wanting to go swimming!! I told them I was too tired to go, but they could go if Kevin took them, so off they went..They just got back and it is almost 9:30 and guess what? I’m ready for bed already! Maybe I’ll have a coffee!
Well, I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow. Maybe MGM studios and the water park or the Animal Kingdom…It depends on the weather I guess! It is suppose to be nice all week through the weekend..
Thank Goodness!
Well, today was another busy day that started at 7am. We had breakfast at Boatwrights. It was way to busy at the Mill Cafeteria, so we went the more expensive route. It was very good though. I had pancakes and bacon, Kevin had the big breakfast, Brooke had pancakes and bacon and Keturah had deep fried toast with sugar and cinnamon…tasted like donuts to me! Way too sweet for breakfast…She only ate about ½ of it.
We then caught the shuttle bus to Epcot, which took about 5mins. It was a bit overcast starting out, but the sun came out in full force again…it was 84 degrees again today. A tad bit too hot for me, but I’m not complaining after the snowstorm of Monday!
We went to Spaceship Earth, which was a pretty cool slow moving ride through the history of communications. The girls loved it.
The next thing we tried was the Universe of Energy with a movie that included Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy talking about energy and how it all started back with the big bang and showed animatronic dinosaurs that even spit on us! Cool. It was very funny, as only Ellen can be! The whole audience moved through the movie/attraction.
Mission Space was our next stop and it was really cool. It is a space simulator ride with teams. Our team included, me as navigator, Brooke as pilot, Keturah as commander and Kevin as engineer. We all had to press buttons to help us land on Mars…it was really neat and felt like the real thing.
Kevin and Brooke went on the Test Track, which is a race track which goes up to 60 mph. Kevin said it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Keturah and I hit the gift shop while we waited for them.
We then went to Innoventions, which allowed us to play with toys and tools of tomorrow.
We then headed over the World Showcase, but the kids found it kind of boring. But we did visit Mexico and went on an indoor boat ride highlighting Donald Duck.
We headed through Norway, but the line up was too long for the ride there. We then went to the China section and watched a movie about China in Circle Vision 360..Was okay, except we had to stand up the for the whole 14 minutes!
We then headed back the way we came, and stopped for a margarita on our way back through Mexico. Kevin and I shared, but he drank the lion’s share of it…I was leery of drinking it because I had just had some Advil before that…Today my throat has been very sore! Hope it’s not Strep!
We then went to the Canada section and I sat and rested in the shade while Kevin went in the building with the girls. They had a lot of totem poles around in this section.
We then headed over to Imagination and watched a 3D movie called Honey I Shrunk the Audience, very similar to the movies that were out a few years ago. Something touched your leg, when there were a bunch of mice loose in the movie and when the dog sneezed, we all got wet again..I hope it was just water!
We walked through and tried a computer program, where it takes your picture, you modify it on the computer, then email it to whoever you want. Keturah emailed hers to her friend Talen and to Anne. Kevin’s head was superimposed onto a monkey (or vice versa) and he emailed it to himself. It was quite funny.
We then went on a little ride about the senses and your imagination.
We then went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends…It was really cute and after the ride, you end up in a section with real fish and we spent quite awhile in there too, watching the manatees, sharks, dolphins, etc. etc. There was also an interactive show with Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo, it was really cute, he asked the kids questions and they asked him questions. He had us all laughing.
I was starving, because we didn’t have any lunch, so the girls and I grabbed a hotdog…I hadn’t had one in awhile, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be…
We hit the gift shop on the way out and caught the shuttle back to the resort. It had started to sprinkle, but it didn’t stop the kids from wanting to go swimming!! I told them I was too tired to go, but they could go if Kevin took them, so off they went..They just got back and it is almost 9:30 and guess what? I’m ready for bed already! Maybe I’ll have a coffee!
Well, I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow. Maybe MGM studios and the water park or the Animal Kingdom…It depends on the weather I guess! It is suppose to be nice all week through the weekend..
Thank Goodness!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Sue's Observations for April 17th
We all had a better sleep last night...Although I found the bed to be a little hard---it's certainly not a Serta, that's for sure!
We got ready and went down for breakfast. We tried the cafeteria-style restaurant this time. Kevin got a make it yourself omelette...well, he didn't actually have to make it himself, just pick what he wanted in it. Brooke and I had french toast and fruit and she had bacon and I got sausages, which I gave to Keturah to go with her chocolate danish (yeah I cringed too).
It's awesome having the meal plan--you just have to flash them your disney card and go on your merry way.
We found the shuttle buses right outside the front doors. The one we caught to the Magic Kingdom was very busy and we had to stand up the whole way... luckily it was only a 10 minute trip!
I thought it would be more lined up at the gate than it was, but we went right on through with no waiting at all. You just scan your handy dandy disney card once again.
We went Tomorrowland first and went to this Monster's laugh club with Mike (with one eye) from Monsters Inc as the MC. It was an interactive show where they picked on audience members, but we didn't get picked at all. DARN!
We went on this ride called Stitch's Great Escape. It was a dark, interactive alien experience. We got spit on and had air blown on our necks in the dark and when Stitch burped, it really smelled like chili dogs--kind of gross eh?
We then went to Space Mountain, where I thought it was a similar ride to the Mountain roller coaster at Wonderland, LaRonde..Boy, was I wrong! It was so dark, fast and scary with lots of sharp turns and sudden drops..I was freaking out with my eyes shut the whole time praying that it would soon be over and that I would survive it. Keturah was very upset after that and I really had to apologize to her and suck up a lot after that mistake. Brooke and Dad on the other hand, loved it and wanted to go on again.
We went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride, which was a quiet little shuttle ride around the whole section and it was enjoyed by all!
We also went on the Carousel of Progress, which educated you on the changes made over the last 100 years. It was interesting!
Over at Mickey's Toontown we went on a kiddie coaster called the Barnstormer...more my speed, but Dad and Brooke were bored! I still screamed my head off!
We took the Disney Railroad to the Frontierland section next. Kevin and Brooke got a fastpass for the Splash Mountain--kind of a water flume ride. The enjoyed it thoroughly and Kevin actually bought the picture that Disney takes of you..It was funny to see the look on their faces.
Keturah and I went and got her a hair wrap while we waited for them. IT seemed to take forever, but it looked cute!
We ventured over to Adventureland after that and went on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. It was cool boat ride with lots of animatronic characters, but no Johnny Depp, much to my disappointment...I was hoping he would jump out on me (i mean at me!:-))
We spent some money at the gift shop there as well...lots of cool things...Brooke and Keturah got mouse ears with Pirates of the Caribbean headbands attached...
We also went on the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse...which was a nice climb up about 4 stories high...I remember watching that show on TV when I was young! The girls went on Aladdin's magic carpet ride and Brooke got spit on by a camel...
We went on a jungle cruise in a boat through the jungle with lots of animatronic animals and a captain who was a wannabe comedian...He was actually quite funny in a cheesy kind of way. (Keturah liked his humour).
We were all so hot and tired, that we came back to the hotel to rest and have dinner. We had planned to go back to Disney, but we were all so tired and the kids wanted to swim, so we didn't bother!
We ate at Boatwrights again and this time Kevin had the Prime Rib (because it was the most expensive thing on the menu and we have to get our money's worth) and I had the veggie pasta with artichokes, spinach and sundried tomatoes...all was very yummy again.
We got dessert to go (pecan and apple pie)...Hey it's included on our meal plan, so what the heck, we'll diet when we get back to Canada!
We walked around the resort and checked out some birds, ducks, etc.
We went swimming, but it was colder than it was yesterday, although the air was warmer.
And here we are checking email and updating our blog!
Enough for now..I see it is 11pm alreayd and so I'm off to bed!
We got ready and went down for breakfast. We tried the cafeteria-style restaurant this time. Kevin got a make it yourself omelette...well, he didn't actually have to make it himself, just pick what he wanted in it. Brooke and I had french toast and fruit and she had bacon and I got sausages, which I gave to Keturah to go with her chocolate danish (yeah I cringed too).
It's awesome having the meal plan--you just have to flash them your disney card and go on your merry way.
We found the shuttle buses right outside the front doors. The one we caught to the Magic Kingdom was very busy and we had to stand up the whole way... luckily it was only a 10 minute trip!
I thought it would be more lined up at the gate than it was, but we went right on through with no waiting at all. You just scan your handy dandy disney card once again.
We went Tomorrowland first and went to this Monster's laugh club with Mike (with one eye) from Monsters Inc as the MC. It was an interactive show where they picked on audience members, but we didn't get picked at all. DARN!
We went on this ride called Stitch's Great Escape. It was a dark, interactive alien experience. We got spit on and had air blown on our necks in the dark and when Stitch burped, it really smelled like chili dogs--kind of gross eh?
We then went to Space Mountain, where I thought it was a similar ride to the Mountain roller coaster at Wonderland, LaRonde..Boy, was I wrong! It was so dark, fast and scary with lots of sharp turns and sudden drops..I was freaking out with my eyes shut the whole time praying that it would soon be over and that I would survive it. Keturah was very upset after that and I really had to apologize to her and suck up a lot after that mistake. Brooke and Dad on the other hand, loved it and wanted to go on again.
We went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride, which was a quiet little shuttle ride around the whole section and it was enjoyed by all!
We also went on the Carousel of Progress, which educated you on the changes made over the last 100 years. It was interesting!
Over at Mickey's Toontown we went on a kiddie coaster called the Barnstormer...more my speed, but Dad and Brooke were bored! I still screamed my head off!
We took the Disney Railroad to the Frontierland section next. Kevin and Brooke got a fastpass for the Splash Mountain--kind of a water flume ride. The enjoyed it thoroughly and Kevin actually bought the picture that Disney takes of you..It was funny to see the look on their faces.
Keturah and I went and got her a hair wrap while we waited for them. IT seemed to take forever, but it looked cute!
We ventured over to Adventureland after that and went on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. It was cool boat ride with lots of animatronic characters, but no Johnny Depp, much to my disappointment...I was hoping he would jump out on me (i mean at me!:-))
We spent some money at the gift shop there as well...lots of cool things...Brooke and Keturah got mouse ears with Pirates of the Caribbean headbands attached...
We also went on the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse...which was a nice climb up about 4 stories high...I remember watching that show on TV when I was young! The girls went on Aladdin's magic carpet ride and Brooke got spit on by a camel...
We went on a jungle cruise in a boat through the jungle with lots of animatronic animals and a captain who was a wannabe comedian...He was actually quite funny in a cheesy kind of way. (Keturah liked his humour).
We were all so hot and tired, that we came back to the hotel to rest and have dinner. We had planned to go back to Disney, but we were all so tired and the kids wanted to swim, so we didn't bother!
We ate at Boatwrights again and this time Kevin had the Prime Rib (because it was the most expensive thing on the menu and we have to get our money's worth) and I had the veggie pasta with artichokes, spinach and sundried tomatoes...all was very yummy again.
We got dessert to go (pecan and apple pie)...Hey it's included on our meal plan, so what the heck, we'll diet when we get back to Canada!
We walked around the resort and checked out some birds, ducks, etc.
We went swimming, but it was colder than it was yesterday, although the air was warmer.
And here we are checking email and updating our blog!
Enough for now..I see it is 11pm alreayd and so I'm off to bed!
Sue's Observations for April 16th
Well, where do I start today?
We were woken up by a screaming baby in the next room around 1:30AM. We got up and looked outside to see the snow falling all around...Great!
I woke up about 4:20am and tossed and turned until our wake up call at 5am.
Everyone also woke up then and we noticed it was STILL snowing with about 2 inches on the ground.
We got ready and took the shuttle to the airport. We got our boarding passes and checked our bags in.
We then had to go through SECURITY...Felt like a prisoner being stripped search as we had to remove our coats, sweaters, shoes, and anything metal. I was surprised my new hip didn't set off any alarms, but it didn't...YEAH
We grabbed some brekkie--bagels, coffee, juice and fruit.
We even saw a couple of people we knew from Deseronto-it's a small world after all!
We then went to gate 15 to wait.
And wait and wait....
We were supposed to board at 830am and they said there would be a delay of about an hour due to the weather and a computer problem.
They came back on the speaker and said there would be another delay due to a mechanical problem...GREAT...can this day get any worse?
They gave out free snacks, including blue chips (JetBlue) and water since we had to wait so long....as if a crappy bag of chips could make up for our lost time at Disney.
About 10 mins before 12, they said we'd be boarding in 5 to 10 minutes... We finally started boarding about 12:30 and had to wait while they de-iced the wings. WE finally took off a little aftrer 1pm with an ETA of 2 hours and 17 mins. Brooke started her stop watch to time it.
The flight was a bit bumpy in spots, but it was cool to be able to watch TV while we flew. I ended up watching 2 episodes of Spin City. They gave us more snacks and drinks.
We flew on an Airbus 320 and there were about 150 seats and everyone of them was full! Our cruising altitude was around 35,000 ft and we went at speed of 550mph...There was a station on our TV that was from mapquest and told you all this information and where we were at any given time...Cool. I kept flipping to this station during commercials!
I was a bit creeped out flying over the ocean -but then again, I'm not really a water person either.
The landing was pretty cool especially to see such greenery everywhere and with temperatures in the 80s.
We claimed our baggage and then had to hike (with all our baggage) across the Orlando airport to find the Disney Express Shuttle.
We finally got loaded onto the Disney shuttle and left at 10 to 5 (what day is this?). I felt revitalized after we got to Florida...before that, I was totally exhausted!!!
We got to our resort room around 5:30pm and walked around a bit while we waited to be "paged" for our dinner reservation.
We ate at the resort at a sit-down restaurant called Boatwrights with New Orleans style food. Kevin and I both had the Jambalaya, which was pretty good with the right amount of spice.
We walked back to get our sweaters as it went down to 59 degrees and went on a hunt for the closest pool---just to check it out mind you!
We felt the water and it was quite warm, so the girls got changed and they swam, while we watched and drank coffee, trying to stay warm.
Hard to believe we went from blizzard conditions to swimming in an outdoor pool on the same day!
Tomorrow we plan to go to the Magic Kingdom if we can find the shuttle to get there!
The resort is quite nice with lots to do and lots of scenery, walking paths, water, etc. Very peaceful and relaxing---hard to believe it is part of all the Disney craziness!
However, our room is just your typical hotel room...Nothing overly fancy about it, except the price!!
More tomorrow!!!
Sue
We were woken up by a screaming baby in the next room around 1:30AM. We got up and looked outside to see the snow falling all around...Great!
I woke up about 4:20am and tossed and turned until our wake up call at 5am.
Everyone also woke up then and we noticed it was STILL snowing with about 2 inches on the ground.
We got ready and took the shuttle to the airport. We got our boarding passes and checked our bags in.
We then had to go through SECURITY...Felt like a prisoner being stripped search as we had to remove our coats, sweaters, shoes, and anything metal. I was surprised my new hip didn't set off any alarms, but it didn't...YEAH
We grabbed some brekkie--bagels, coffee, juice and fruit.
We even saw a couple of people we knew from Deseronto-it's a small world after all!
We then went to gate 15 to wait.
And wait and wait....
We were supposed to board at 830am and they said there would be a delay of about an hour due to the weather and a computer problem.
They came back on the speaker and said there would be another delay due to a mechanical problem...GREAT...can this day get any worse?
They gave out free snacks, including blue chips (JetBlue) and water since we had to wait so long....as if a crappy bag of chips could make up for our lost time at Disney.
About 10 mins before 12, they said we'd be boarding in 5 to 10 minutes... We finally started boarding about 12:30 and had to wait while they de-iced the wings. WE finally took off a little aftrer 1pm with an ETA of 2 hours and 17 mins. Brooke started her stop watch to time it.
The flight was a bit bumpy in spots, but it was cool to be able to watch TV while we flew. I ended up watching 2 episodes of Spin City. They gave us more snacks and drinks.
We flew on an Airbus 320 and there were about 150 seats and everyone of them was full! Our cruising altitude was around 35,000 ft and we went at speed of 550mph...There was a station on our TV that was from mapquest and told you all this information and where we were at any given time...Cool. I kept flipping to this station during commercials!
I was a bit creeped out flying over the ocean -but then again, I'm not really a water person either.
The landing was pretty cool especially to see such greenery everywhere and with temperatures in the 80s.
We claimed our baggage and then had to hike (with all our baggage) across the Orlando airport to find the Disney Express Shuttle.
We finally got loaded onto the Disney shuttle and left at 10 to 5 (what day is this?). I felt revitalized after we got to Florida...before that, I was totally exhausted!!!
We got to our resort room around 5:30pm and walked around a bit while we waited to be "paged" for our dinner reservation.
We ate at the resort at a sit-down restaurant called Boatwrights with New Orleans style food. Kevin and I both had the Jambalaya, which was pretty good with the right amount of spice.
We walked back to get our sweaters as it went down to 59 degrees and went on a hunt for the closest pool---just to check it out mind you!
We felt the water and it was quite warm, so the girls got changed and they swam, while we watched and drank coffee, trying to stay warm.
Hard to believe we went from blizzard conditions to swimming in an outdoor pool on the same day!
Tomorrow we plan to go to the Magic Kingdom if we can find the shuttle to get there!
The resort is quite nice with lots to do and lots of scenery, walking paths, water, etc. Very peaceful and relaxing---hard to believe it is part of all the Disney craziness!
However, our room is just your typical hotel room...Nothing overly fancy about it, except the price!!
More tomorrow!!!
Sue
Sue's Observations from the Road --April 15th
April 15th, 2007
We left for Syracuse via Walmart at 10:30am. Realized on the way to Walmart that we didn't have our up-to-date insurance card in the van. Went home after Walmart to pick it up. Stopped to get gas as well and ended up leaving Napanee about 11:30am.
Uneventful trip to the Border. Our guard at the border said he'd been to the Port Orleans Resort at Disney and that it was awesome. Let's hope so!
We stopped in Watertown at the Cracker Barrel Store/Restaurant for lunch. I had breakfast for lunch complete with grits and biscuits and gravy...can you tell we are south of the border? Keturah got a side dish of turnip greens, and they actually charged us for them!! Umph. They looked liked cooked spinach and tasted similar too--it must be an acquired taste!
We bought some goodies at the store, about $12 worth and it came to just over $6 at the register..hmmm-that's a pretty good sale, I thought. Got outside and noticed that we didn't get charged for the can of Jelly Belly's (4.99) and Kevin's Necco Wafers (.79)--Brooke said "RUN"--she thought they'd come after us...Needless to say, I didn't go back to correct this wrong-doing, one because we wanted to get on our way and two, it was way too busy.
We had a quiet trip to Syracuse with Brooke and Keturah colouring and drawing pictures. We also ate the Jelly Belly jelly beans trying to match the flavours to the colours--lot's of fun sampling.
We found our hotel right beside the airport. Went to check out the pool, but it was an outdoor pool and it was also empty!
We ended up going to the Carousel Centre and walked around. I bought a journal to record our exciting Disney Vacation!
The girls went to the Build a Bear Workshop,., where they built a bear. It was pretty neat, stuffing him, adding his heart and picking clothes and dressing him. Keturah got a cute fluffy bear and dressed him in a striped shirt and denim overalls with sport sandals--she named him Patrick. Brooke got a smooth-velvety bear and dressed him in a soccer outfit complete with cleats. She named him David (After Beckham). They both got certificates and a special carry box for their bears. Very cute concept; very expensive price. Oh well, it's hopefully a once-in-a lifetime experience.
We had dinner at Applebees although we weren't that hungry. Kevin and I had salads. He also had a Coors light which he said tasted like Camel Pee...I wonder how he knows what that tastes like? I noticed he drank the whole thing though!!
Back at the hotel we relaxed and hung out. Of course, Brooke was online chatting to her friends she just can't live without. We played a few rousing games of SkipBo before turning in around 9pm.
Course, going to bed so early that night, I just tossed and turned and ended up getting up to take some Buckley's to help me sleep..Oh yeah, did I mention, that I woke up with the cold on Saturday morning. Still feel like crap, but the Advil helps me carry on.
The weather network is calling for a blizzard here in Syracuse tomorrow. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be as bad as they predict as I'm nervous enough flying in clear weather! hehe
We left for Syracuse via Walmart at 10:30am. Realized on the way to Walmart that we didn't have our up-to-date insurance card in the van. Went home after Walmart to pick it up. Stopped to get gas as well and ended up leaving Napanee about 11:30am.
Uneventful trip to the Border. Our guard at the border said he'd been to the Port Orleans Resort at Disney and that it was awesome. Let's hope so!
We stopped in Watertown at the Cracker Barrel Store/Restaurant for lunch. I had breakfast for lunch complete with grits and biscuits and gravy...can you tell we are south of the border? Keturah got a side dish of turnip greens, and they actually charged us for them!! Umph. They looked liked cooked spinach and tasted similar too--it must be an acquired taste!
We bought some goodies at the store, about $12 worth and it came to just over $6 at the register..hmmm-that's a pretty good sale, I thought. Got outside and noticed that we didn't get charged for the can of Jelly Belly's (4.99) and Kevin's Necco Wafers (.79)--Brooke said "RUN"--she thought they'd come after us...Needless to say, I didn't go back to correct this wrong-doing, one because we wanted to get on our way and two, it was way too busy.
We had a quiet trip to Syracuse with Brooke and Keturah colouring and drawing pictures. We also ate the Jelly Belly jelly beans trying to match the flavours to the colours--lot's of fun sampling.
We found our hotel right beside the airport. Went to check out the pool, but it was an outdoor pool and it was also empty!
We ended up going to the Carousel Centre and walked around. I bought a journal to record our exciting Disney Vacation!
The girls went to the Build a Bear Workshop,., where they built a bear. It was pretty neat, stuffing him, adding his heart and picking clothes and dressing him. Keturah got a cute fluffy bear and dressed him in a striped shirt and denim overalls with sport sandals--she named him Patrick. Brooke got a smooth-velvety bear and dressed him in a soccer outfit complete with cleats. She named him David (After Beckham). They both got certificates and a special carry box for their bears. Very cute concept; very expensive price. Oh well, it's hopefully a once-in-a lifetime experience.
We had dinner at Applebees although we weren't that hungry. Kevin and I had salads. He also had a Coors light which he said tasted like Camel Pee...I wonder how he knows what that tastes like? I noticed he drank the whole thing though!!
Back at the hotel we relaxed and hung out. Of course, Brooke was online chatting to her friends she just can't live without. We played a few rousing games of SkipBo before turning in around 9pm.
Course, going to bed so early that night, I just tossed and turned and ended up getting up to take some Buckley's to help me sleep..Oh yeah, did I mention, that I woke up with the cold on Saturday morning. Still feel like crap, but the Advil helps me carry on.
The weather network is calling for a blizzard here in Syracuse tomorrow. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be as bad as they predict as I'm nervous enough flying in clear weather! hehe
Hard to find a good tech when you need one...
Our internet was down, so I am just now making some updates. Here's how our day went on Sunday.
Can we leave yet dad? Nope.
Can we leave yet dad? Nope.
Can we leave yet dad? Nope.
Can we leave yet dad? Nope.
1:00 pm (4 hours later)
Can we leave yet dad? Yup!
Here we are flying into Orlando Airport :
Monday, April 16, 2007
Stuck at the airport
Guess what, we're stuck at the airport. Bad storm in the U.S. today
So far they say that our plane will be 1 hour late.
Great start to the vacation!
So far they say that our plane will be 1 hour late.
Great start to the vacation!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hmmmmm....
Second fill up, Odometer reads 1588 km.
Distance Travelled 1588 - 885 = 703 km
Filled with 44.493 l
6.33 l /100 km or 44.6 mpg
I guess they kept the car full at the Honda place.
Distance Travelled 1588 - 885 = 703 km
Filled with 44.493 l
6.33 l /100 km or 44.6 mpg
I guess they kept the car full at the Honda place.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
First Fill - 885km Travelled
Stopped in at the local gas station, filled up with 38.425 l of gas, the odometer reads 885 km. This was our first fill, and I don't know how much gas the dealer put in before we got the car, but it figures out to:
65.0604 miles per Imperial gallon
23.0319 kilometers per litre
4.3418 litres per 100 kilometers
0.0434 litres per kilometer
Looks very promising!
I used this site to calculate the numbers http://www.calculatenow.biz/conversions/consumption.php
I'm thinking these numbers are too high, I'm guessing that they threw 5 bucks in to transport it, then filled it at the dealer for demo's etc. I'll know better at the next fill up.
65.0604 miles per Imperial gallon
23.0319 kilometers per litre
4.3418 litres per 100 kilometers
0.0434 litres per kilometer
Looks very promising!
I used this site to calculate the numbers http://www.calculatenow.biz/conversions/consumption.php
I'm thinking these numbers are too high, I'm guessing that they threw 5 bucks in to transport it, then filled it at the dealer for demo's etc. I'll know better at the next fill up.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Initial Impressions
I'm no car expert, but here are my unqualified impressions of the car. I love it! Lots of room in front and back seats for adults. Car is extremely quiet. The kids love it, the wife loves it...its all good.
My only complaint at the moment is the smell from the rust proofing we got at the time of purchase. Hopefully that'll go away soon.
We are still on the first tank of gas, so far we have about 700km on the car (Woohoo!) with a quarter tank remaining. It has a 47 litre tank.
There's no manual on how to drive a hybrid, so I did some research and found all kinds of stuff on maximizing the fuel economy (hypermiling seems to the be going term for it). Basically, try to keep the RPM's down below 2000 and all is good. I'll dig up some of the posts I ran into and link them here. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306)
Driving from home to Kingston Ontario, I managed to get 4.8 l/100km (~59 mpg) taking the highway 2 with a top speed of 90 km/hr. Taking the 401 netted me about 6 l/100km range (~47 Mpg). My wife isn't too concerned about the technology behind the car and maximizing the fuel consumption, she drives it as we did our previous car and gets around 6.5 l/100 (~43 mpg) km on the 401.
By the way, the mpg - l/km display displays it's mpg's based on the US gallon, which is smaller then the Canadian gallon...which we don't use anymore...so I guess it doesn't matter anyway hehe.
The car doesn't have a regular automatic transmission. It has a electronic controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission). Basically this means that there's no shifting gears like a normal vehicle. The car just accelerates smoothly until to get to the speed you want to go. The higher you rev, the quicker you accelerate. The higher you rev, the more gas you burn as well. So there's a trade off between how much you want to tick off drivers behind you, and how much gas you want to save hehe.
The motor isn't typical either. It has a 20 hp electric motor/generator bolted on. What does this mean? When you accelerate, the electric motor and the gas engine both kick in to get you going. The harder you press the gas, the more both motors kick in.
Whenever you coast, brake or go down a hill really neat things happen. The most common thing is that the battery pack (located between the rear passengers and the trunk) will get a charge. They get a huge boost whenever you use the brakes. You see, the car doesn't normally use the brakes to stop, it uses the generator to stop. The harder you press the brake, the more of a charge the battery gets. The technical term for this is called Regenerative Braking. I'm not sure of the ratio of regenerative braking / break pads are used when stopping, but I'm guessing that its mostly the generator braking you and the pads kick in when you want to stop fast.
Ever drive a manual transmission car, and shut off the engine going down hills? Works ok as long as you dont have power steering hehe. This car takes that to a new level. If the hill is steep enough, or you are travelling at lower speeds, the gas engine will 'coast'. It basically shuts off. Infinite gas mileage, 0 l/100 km....its awesome.
The motor also shuts off whenever you brake at a stop light or slow down for other cars turning etc. It's not burning any gas, its recharging the battery. When you stop or slow, the car is silent except for the vent fans. As soon as you take your foot off the brake, the gas engine fires up again and away you go.
At speeds less then 60km or so, when you are going down hill, or on a straightaway, the gas engine will sometimes shut off. There's a 3-4 km stretch of downhill road heading into town from work. If you time everything right, the motor will be off the whole time.
My only complaint at the moment is the smell from the rust proofing we got at the time of purchase. Hopefully that'll go away soon.
We are still on the first tank of gas, so far we have about 700km on the car (Woohoo!) with a quarter tank remaining. It has a 47 litre tank.
There's no manual on how to drive a hybrid, so I did some research and found all kinds of stuff on maximizing the fuel economy (hypermiling seems to the be going term for it). Basically, try to keep the RPM's down below 2000 and all is good. I'll dig up some of the posts I ran into and link them here. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1306)
Driving from home to Kingston Ontario, I managed to get 4.8 l/100km (~59 mpg) taking the highway 2 with a top speed of 90 km/hr. Taking the 401 netted me about 6 l/100km range (~47 Mpg). My wife isn't too concerned about the technology behind the car and maximizing the fuel consumption, she drives it as we did our previous car and gets around 6.5 l/100 (~43 mpg) km on the 401.
By the way, the mpg - l/km display displays it's mpg's based on the US gallon, which is smaller then the Canadian gallon...which we don't use anymore...so I guess it doesn't matter anyway hehe.
The car doesn't have a regular automatic transmission. It has a electronic controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission). Basically this means that there's no shifting gears like a normal vehicle. The car just accelerates smoothly until to get to the speed you want to go. The higher you rev, the quicker you accelerate. The higher you rev, the more gas you burn as well. So there's a trade off between how much you want to tick off drivers behind you, and how much gas you want to save hehe.
The motor isn't typical either. It has a 20 hp electric motor/generator bolted on. What does this mean? When you accelerate, the electric motor and the gas engine both kick in to get you going. The harder you press the gas, the more both motors kick in.
Whenever you coast, brake or go down a hill really neat things happen. The most common thing is that the battery pack (located between the rear passengers and the trunk) will get a charge. They get a huge boost whenever you use the brakes. You see, the car doesn't normally use the brakes to stop, it uses the generator to stop. The harder you press the brake, the more of a charge the battery gets. The technical term for this is called Regenerative Braking. I'm not sure of the ratio of regenerative braking / break pads are used when stopping, but I'm guessing that its mostly the generator braking you and the pads kick in when you want to stop fast.
Ever drive a manual transmission car, and shut off the engine going down hills? Works ok as long as you dont have power steering hehe. This car takes that to a new level. If the hill is steep enough, or you are travelling at lower speeds, the gas engine will 'coast'. It basically shuts off. Infinite gas mileage, 0 l/100 km....its awesome.
The motor also shuts off whenever you brake at a stop light or slow down for other cars turning etc. It's not burning any gas, its recharging the battery. When you stop or slow, the car is silent except for the vent fans. As soon as you take your foot off the brake, the gas engine fires up again and away you go.
At speeds less then 60km or so, when you are going down hill, or on a straightaway, the gas engine will sometimes shut off. There's a 3-4 km stretch of downhill road heading into town from work. If you time everything right, the motor will be off the whole time.
New Car
This is our first brand spanking new car in years, plus its a hybrid, so instead of retelling everyone what I think of it, I thought I'd try this 8)
2007 Honda Civic Hybrid
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