Tuesday - November 14, 2006
Birthday Fun
November 4th was my birthday and to celebrate
Sarah planned a weekend away. She whisked me off to a hotel near Universal so
we could get away from it all, and then she surprised me with Universal tickets
she had won. We went on Saturday, which was a good choice because the park was
empty. We did everything at Universal Studios, including rides, shows, a some
character greetings by 1, so then we went to Islands of Adventure, which was
also relatively empty. We skipped several of the rides here because they toss
you around too much or because they scare Sarah (she doesn't like big drops),
but we had a wonderful lunch and a nice walk around the park. After the parks
we went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and Sarah took me out to dinner at one of
the hotel restaurants.
The next day we got up late and headed over to EPCOT for the Food and Wine Festival. They just opened the new Finding Nemo themed ride at The Living Seas, so we headed there first. The line was out the door (something I haven't seen at The Living Seas in over a decade), even with a dramatically extended queue inside. We waited about 30 minutes for the ride, but I would have waited more: the ride is amazing, with beautiful sets, neat projection effects, and one very cool animatronic fish. This is one of the few rides I think is better than what it replaced. The only trouble is that inside The Living Seas not a lot has changed, so it breaks the story continuity because it looks like Sea Base Alpha, but we never go to nor leave from it (in fact, you can now see outside to the park because they replaced the up-hydrolators with automatic doors).
After that we wandered around World Showcase. We stopped for lunch in France where we had an amazing meal, which was finished with birthday cake and a rendition of "Bon Anniversaire" from the waiters. Sarah loved every minute of getting to embarrass me. We wandered some more after lunch. Sarah found a mango wine she really liked (and ended up getting two bottles of it) and I got a Guy Fawkes effigy because it was Guy Fawkes day in the UK. After a while we met up with one of our friends and tried to visit Figment, but the attendant was having a "bad day" and we ended up missing him. We had planned to eat dinner in Mexico, but were tired and ended up heading home early, which was okay because after France I don't know if we could have eaten another full meal. We ended the night at home, resting from the weekend.
Then, one week later on Friday, she threw me a party. It was awesome: she invited some friends I haven't seen in a while and we had a pirate ship cake. It was a great end to my birthday festivities. I can't thank Sarah enough for everything she did for my birthday. It's no wonder she's the woman I love and want to marry.
The next day we got up late and headed over to EPCOT for the Food and Wine Festival. They just opened the new Finding Nemo themed ride at The Living Seas, so we headed there first. The line was out the door (something I haven't seen at The Living Seas in over a decade), even with a dramatically extended queue inside. We waited about 30 minutes for the ride, but I would have waited more: the ride is amazing, with beautiful sets, neat projection effects, and one very cool animatronic fish. This is one of the few rides I think is better than what it replaced. The only trouble is that inside The Living Seas not a lot has changed, so it breaks the story continuity because it looks like Sea Base Alpha, but we never go to nor leave from it (in fact, you can now see outside to the park because they replaced the up-hydrolators with automatic doors).
After that we wandered around World Showcase. We stopped for lunch in France where we had an amazing meal, which was finished with birthday cake and a rendition of "Bon Anniversaire" from the waiters. Sarah loved every minute of getting to embarrass me. We wandered some more after lunch. Sarah found a mango wine she really liked (and ended up getting two bottles of it) and I got a Guy Fawkes effigy because it was Guy Fawkes day in the UK. After a while we met up with one of our friends and tried to visit Figment, but the attendant was having a "bad day" and we ended up missing him. We had planned to eat dinner in Mexico, but were tired and ended up heading home early, which was okay because after France I don't know if we could have eaten another full meal. We ended the night at home, resting from the weekend.
Then, one week later on Friday, she threw me a party. It was awesome: she invited some friends I haven't seen in a while and we had a pirate ship cake. It was a great end to my birthday festivities. I can't thank Sarah enough for everything she did for my birthday. It's no wonder she's the woman I love and want to marry.