Tanya's Blog

Birthdays for me have always been these special, magical days – as a kid I’d get super excited, butterflies in the tummy excited, every time I’d think of how many days to go. I’d also remind everyone weeks ahead of the time thus ensuring they never felt the angst or trauma of forgetting, some might say Sixteen Candles had an indelible effect on me. Because lets face it, there is nothing more miserable than a Leo on her birthday with no prettily be-ribboned boxes to open (one might be lead to believe this indicates a very very spoilt brat – fortunately no-one I know would ever say that about me *cough* and live).

As the years have passed and I’ve grown older (possibly wiser) I’ve learnt to contain my excitement somewhat, still remind everyone weeks ahead of the time because lets face it…..

Still this year the birthday excitement was somewhat tempered by the mind boggling fact that I was turning 40 – how the heck did that happen? How did I go from being the youngest in any social gathering to one of the more mature members of the group? (In case you’re doff – that was a rhetorical question, I. Do. Not. Want. An. Answer). There were moments in the build up to The Big Day where I questioned my sanity (again….comments are not required) and *gasp* even considered ignoring the day all together. Something which would have caused a crack in the very fabric of the universe (you can tell I don’t read much Sci Fi) that was until The Big Day arrived and my usual birthday optimism and joy on receiving all things wrapped in pretty paper and ribbon kicked in.

It was a stupendous weekend and ranked up there with a previous momentous birthday weekend a decade ago…. oh my friggen hell……. did I just write decade?

{there was a short interlude due to the writer of this post attempting to slit her wrists with a very blunt nail file}

Family came over, family flew down from Jhb, friends sent b/day sms’s and facebook messages and there were presents, oh boy were there presents which leads me to my somewhat cryptic title.

I am now the very proud owner of an Apple iPad 2* and have completely gone over to the dark side. This baby is beautiful, mind boggling beautiful and dare I even say it, might very well be the death of the physical book? *ducks the lightening bolt* The screen is insanely sharp, some of the apps are really very clever and Gina the talking Giraffe provides hours of mindless amusement. I am by nature a hoarder and collector of things, I don’t care if I now have more books in my library than I could possibly read in a lifetime (which keeps getting shorter and shorter every blimmen year!) the very idea of being able to carry around 1000′s of 1000′s of books in one relatively light device, excites me almost as much as waking up on my birthday.

* very very spoilt brat!!

Disney isn’t kind like the rest of the hotels, motels and inns we’ve stayed at along the way, there is no free wifi hence the lack of blog posts excitedly extolling the wonder that is Disney. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been wonderful or exciting just means they’re too money grubbing to give us free internet….big corporate meanies.

Anyway let me sum up the days so far:

We left New Orleans fairly early in the morning having arranged for the taxi guy to pick us up, good thing he gave us his personal number because the taxi rank’s number just rang and rang, not sure how legit the whole thing was but we really didn’t care. Two planes later (had to stop in Atlanta and transfer to another plane) we landed in Florida.

Urgh it’s just as hot here as New Orleans only the humidity isn’t quite as life threatening – won’t whinge about the heat again just remember it’s flippen hot.

The transfer from the airport to the hotel went smoothly, the electronic voice in the bus raving about what we can see and do got a little annoying and then we were finally at our hotel – the All Star Music resort. Had told the kids we had to hit Disney running seeing as it was 4th July and all, besides which we have 4 days in which to cram 4 parks, a universal studio plus the water parks.

First park – Hollywood studios where Tamsyn and I discovered what millions of people know (and believe me there are millions of people here) that being scared half to death on a ride is the only way to go. Our first ride (and personal favourite so far) – the Tower of Terror, where you’re ushered into a beautifully decorated room, the door closes behind you and scary music starts piping from the speakers, you’re convinced they’re going to plummet you to your doom without so much as a handle to cling to when they turn the lights out but really it’s all just the build up to the actual ride. That’s the nice thing about the rides here the build up (ie the long wait in really long queues) is part of the whole experience and just adds to the enjoyment. Having scared me half witless we were shown where to take our seats for the ride, 30 seconds later adrenalin pumping, heart racing we were out in the street again. The ride basically drops you and picks you up again several times and most of it is spent alternatively screaming and trying to hang on – So Much Fun!!

Once we’d established I wasn’t going to freak out or throw up after a ride the game was on and we have since tried to find all the ‘x-factor’ rides in each theme park. None, in my opinion, have really lived up to the Tower of Terror although the Rock and Roll coaster has come pretty darn close. Not even the Hulk at Universal Studios was as bad as it looked from the ground, can kind of understand those nut cases you hear about who travel the world in search of the ultimate rollercoaster.

Each park is beautifully decorated and you really do feel like you’re in a fairytale especially in the Magic Kingdom. We haven’t really had time to explore it’s been more a rush to get to a ride, see how long the wait is, grab a fast pass if available, stop in as many air conditioned shops available, find a bite to eat and survive the crush of people. That’s really the only downside the overwhelming mass of people (and the heat of course) you can’t enjoy things as much as you would if you weren’t fighting and jostling with people. Having said that everyone waits very patiently in the queues and you don’t get any feeling of impatience or animosity in fact most people are really friendly and will strike up a conversation given half a chance.

We watched the 4th July fireworks display in the Hollywood Studios park and one can’t leave without seeing them go off over the castle in the Magic Kingdom. They’re really beautiful and almost impossible to capture on camera.

Yesterday we went to Universal Studios park which for Jessica has been a major highlight – two words Harry Potter, she’s been waiting for this moment since the trip began and I do believe it lived up to her expectations. I’ve had people say they prefer Universal to Disney but I’m not so sure. The park was great and I especially enjoyed the Dr Seuss part of it but it doesn’t have the same feel as Disney it’s more like going to Ratanga. Of course I goofed and we initially ended up in the wrong park which would have been a total disaster. They have two theme parks and the one I figured Potter would be in turned out not to be, so it was a mad rush to the customer services centre to have our tickets re-issued. They were very good about it (I’m guessing I’m not the only nit around) and gave us half an hour to get to the other park. It was fun and we spent most of the day there.

Epcot (back in Disney) was quite disappointing so we didn’t stay there long, the Animal Kingdom was interesting, and had a rollercoaster which at one point takes you backwards in the dark, still it wasn’t as good as the Tower. Have also realised one shouldn’t do the rides again ‘cos they are never as thrilling or nail biting as the first time.

Tamsyn and I swam for a bit this afternoon but these crazy Americans heat their pools so its like swimming in a tepid bath, boggles my brain it does especially as the outside temperature is somewhere in the high 30’s with humidity tossed in and they go and heat the pools, madness.

For our final night we went back to Hollywood Studios and did our two favourite rides, bought loads of Disney merchandise and then Wouter and I celebrated our anniversary by having a drink at the poolside bar – ten years together, pretty darn amazing.

Which finally brings our trip to an end, our bags are packed and the long flight(s) lie ahead of us.  It’s been an awesome trip and one not likely to be forgotten any time soon.

Photos to be added at a later date.

Humidity and heat are not a good combination, toss in a group of people and you have a really good chance of them turning on each other, as was evidenced yesterday. Damn but this place is HOT, hotter than Las Vegas (only because of the humidity).

Other than the heat New Orleans is as equally fascinating as San Francisco just in a different way. The people are friendly and I just adore their accent, hard to describe but definitely distinctive. We’re staying in the Historic Creole Inn which is everything its website claims it is. The rooms are charming and we have a bar fridge, access to a microwave and for some reason at least a dozen flannels (go figure). There is no maid service during your stay but there is aircon and right now I’d take aircon above absolutely anything else.

This sign is pretty much the only indication that one is at the right place

We walked around the French Quarter popping into many shops unfortunately prices of things around here are exorbitant, they’re beautiful but way out of our price range, sadly. Many antique shops with inkwells (Mom collects them) but I figured $175 was definitely more than we were willing to fork out.

A typical street in the French Quarter

Yup, they want $15k for 7 signed Potter books – are they nuts?

In our travels around town we spotted a tour booth, initially we thought we’d take one of the Ghost tours but as soon as the seller mentioned it was a 2 hour walking tour I put my foot down. We ended up on the swamp tour which was made almost bearable by our guide, he was both informative and funny. I know I’m going on and on about the heat but it is as bad as I’m making out. Oh and the tour booth seller could seriously do with an anger management class whilst he was dealing with us some poor unsuspecting tourist reached out to take a pamphlet and got her head bitten off in the process much yelling on the part of our seller and then he turns back to us as sweet as can be.

Anger Management Dude

The swamp

The only gator we saw – even he was too hot to swim out to eat the marshmallow

For some reason they feed them marshmallows, not sure if that’s ecologically a good thing but its what they do. They apparently have a couple of really big alligators reaching up to 11 feet in length.

After the swamps we came back to our rooms (oh sweet aircon) and played google trying to find somewhere to eat but more importantly somewhere to buy booze. Both missions accomplished we left the kids happily watching tv while we foraged.