Summer

Well, so far my summer has been pretty good. I'm still going to Jazzercize every Saturday with my mom, and going to lunch with my mom and her friends once a week. And it is SO nice to not have to worry about homework or tests! I'm so glad to be out of school. lol. Sadly I do have two summer reading assignments to do, but I might try to read those books on the plane ride to California, since I won't really have anything else to do.

So yeah, we're leaving for our vacation to California next week, so that should be fun. My brother will also be able to come with us. And I also already took one vacation a the beginning of this month. So I have to tell all about that. lol. Well, we went to Florida and brought my friend along with us, since 1. she had never been to Disney World before and really wanted to go and 2. because she was dying to meet my relatives, some of who are quite odd (but nice) people. But yeah, we had TONS of fun. The first day we were there we went shopping at this big mall. We found this amazing store called Lush that has cosmetic stuff. Mostly stuff like bubble bath and soap and shampoo. But they have tons of different scents and everything in there almost looks like candy. Like they had these things called "bath bombs" that were like bubble bath, but they were bars. And they were so colorful! It was the coolest store.
Then we also found an M&M store! Yep, everything in there had something to do with M&Ms. They had tons of M&M T-shirts and other clothing. They had M&Ms in every color you can imagine. That was the only time in my life that I'd ever seen purple M&Ms! So yeah, that was really awesome too. :P
The next fun thing we did was Disney! My grandma knows this really nice lady who used to work at Disney, so she was able to get my friend, my mom, and me in for free. Plus she gave us a park hopper pass, meaning we could go to any of the different parks in Disney! Well, all the parks are huge so of course we didn't have time to do every single one, but we ended up going to Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom. We parked in Epcot and took a boat over to Hollywood Studios first. My friend really wanted to go there because she wanted to do Rock n' Roller Coaster, which is an Aerosmith-themed roller coaster that's in the dark and plays Aerosmith music. I thought the concept sounded quite cool, but the fact that the coaster had three inversions (upside down things) and was in the dark made me chicken out. I'm really afraid to go on a roller coaster that goes upside down, but I figure that if I ever were to try one, I'd at least want to do one where I would be able to see what was coming. lol. But my friend went on it and said it was the coolest thing ever, and at the end of the day said it was her favorite ride. I kind of feel like I missed something now, but oh well. lol. Because I can still say that I went on one intense ride! Before my friend did the coaster, she wanted to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. She had been trying to convince me to go on the roller coaster with her but I refused, but I compromised with her and told her that I MIGHT at least do the Tower of Terror with her. I'd have to check it out first. Basically, it was a free-fall ride, meaning it just dropped you straight down. It looked pretty intimidating because it was 199 feet tall, but I learned that it doesn't drop you from the very top all the way to the bottom. It has a series of shorter drops. So, even though I was a bit unsure, I decided I'd go ahead and try it. Of course, my mom doesn't ride ANYTHING (she wouldn't even go on the little kids' roller coaster at Sea World- we'll get to that later haha) so she just dropped us both off at the ride and then went and sat down somewhere. The line was really long and it was extremely hot, but luckily they had mist spraying so that made it more bearable. lol. Finally we actually went inside the building which was supposed to be the haunted hotel, and the people working in there were dressed as bellhops. We waited some more and finally my friend and I went with a group and we were led into a dark room. They shut the doors and played a short little video clip about the Twilight Zone. I don't really remember it much because at this point I was getting really nervous and all I could think about was the ride. Then they let us out of the room and we stood in line a bit longer, and this time we could actually see the "elevators" that we were about to ride. The scenery inside the hotel was really cool. It actually looked like an old abandoned haunted hotel. lol. But anyway, the time came and my friend and I were at the front of the line and they started lining us up to get on the ride. I noticed that there was an exit over to the side of the building, I guess for people who whimped out at the last minute, and for a minute I considered running over there, but I decided I was just going to be brave and try it. I was pretty much shaking at this point though. We went inside the elevator, and luckily they had seatbelts and little handles on the seats that you could hold onto. So the ride began. First, I think they showed another little video clip telling the story of the hotel. Back in 1939, it was this big glamorous hotel that all of the Hollywood stars stayed in. Then on Halloween night, five people got into the elevator when it was struck by lightning during a storm, and the people were never seen again. Apparently they had been transported to the Twilight Zone. So now we were apparently traveling to the Twilight Zone, in the out of control elevator. So after the clip played, we started moving forward. That part was cool because it was dark but you could see all these stars and stuff, like you were going through the Twlight Zone. And then, suddenly, came the first drop! It was so unbelievably fast and it felt like we were dropping really far, although I have no idea how many feet we actually dropped. Apparently no two rides on the Tower are ever the same, because the computer always randomly generates how many times and how far the elevator drops. Of course it was pretty scary and I used all the energy I had to scream as loud as possible, but at the same time it was lots of fun. We probably dropped 4 or 5 times, but each drop only lasted 2 or 3 seconds so it wasn't too bad. And plus since my friend was right next to me, it wasn't as scary. I'd never go on a ride like this alone, but when you're with your friend it's different. We actually laughed too on some of the drops. And before I knew it, the ride was over! I breathed a sigh of relief. The ride had been really fun, but I was actually starting to feel a little nauseous after all that falling, and figured 4 or 5 drops was enough. Plus my throat hurt from screaming and laughing. But, I did really enjoy the ride. What I liked about it was that you were in an enclosed elevator, which is good for people like me who are afraid of heights, because most of the time you couldn't actually see yourself falling, you just felt it. There were a few parts where it stopped at an open window and you could see outside right before the tower was about to drop, but I think I closed my eyes on that part. haha. But yeah, my friend and I came off the ride and found my mom waiting for us, so of course we had to tell her all about it. Luckily my slight nausea was fading away, so I could still eat since it was about lunchtime. We went and got some pizza, and then all three of us went on The Great Movie Ride. My mom could handle it since it was just a little train that took you through all these different recreations of movies. That was pretty cool. Then my friend did the Rock n' Roller Coaster, and we also saw a show called Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which was really cute.
After that, we wanted to go over to Animal Kingdom, but that park closes at 5:00 for some reason, and it was already 4:00 and it was starting to storm, which means they close all of the outdoor rides, so sadly we had to skip Animal Kingdom. My friend and I wanted to try this roller coaster called Expedition Everest (it doesn't go upside down, so I was willing to do it lol) over there, but we didn't get to. Stupid rain! lol. So we decided to go ahead and head over to the Magic Kingdom. We hoped it would stop raining soon but we figured we'd just try to do all the indoor rides until it stopped. So we took the bus over there. My friend and I got a kick out of the security people there. They had to wear these colorful uniforms, and every time someone passed through, the guy would say, "Have a magical day!" (My friend ended up recording that as her voice mail on her cell phone lol)
Anyway, we of course saw Cinderella's castle, which was beautiful! I think the first ride we did was the Haunted Mansion, and since that's not an intense ride my mom did that one too. We also rode the carousel and Snow White's Scary Adventures, which was just a leasurely ride that took you through the movie basically. We also went on one like that for Winnie the Pooh. haha. The cars we rode in were designed as honey pots. It was so adorable. lol. Then my friend and I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is a roller coster, but it's a very mild one. Of course my mom still wouldn't do it though lol. It went pretty fast and it had quite a few twists and turns, but there were no big drops. So yeah, that was fun. lol. And of course we had to ride the classic spinning tea cups too! The last thing we went on was Pirates of the Carribean. Disney was tons of fun!! We were so tired at the end of the day, but it was so worth it. :D
And then we also did Sea World! That was tons of fun too. We went to four different shows. One had dolphins and also acrobatics performing, another had sea lions, and then there were two Shamu shows- one called "Believe" and one called "Shamu Rocks." I liked the Shamu Rocks one- Shamu did all these tricks to rock music. :D Me, my friend, and my dad went on a ride called Journey To Atlantis, which was a "water coaster"- a combination of a log flume and a roller coaster. We just rode in this boat and first went through "Atlantis." That had some of the coolest scenery I'd ever seen. Then we had to escape from Atlantis because Medusa was there. haha. So Medusa appeared and we exited the little building and went outside. We went up a little ways until we finally came to the big drop into the water. I braced myself, because I wasn't exactly looking forward to it- it dropped you 60 feet. But hey, I did Tower of Terror, so I knew I could handle it. lol. So we went down the drop and splashed into the water, and since we were seated in the back of the boat we actually didn't get as wet. The people in the front were the ones who got drenched, but that was kind of a good thing because we didn't want to be soaked for hours. lol. This little tiny drop after that was the one that got you the wettest, surprisingly. Then after the flume part came the roller coaster part, which was really only one drop. We went back inside the building, and it was almost pitch-dark, but luckily I knew that the drop was coming because I had looked up the ride on youtube and on the website. That's a little OCD thing that I do- I always research every ride that I'm considering going on, at least if it's a thrill ride, because I have to know whether it'll be too scary or not. lol. So we went down the last drop and we were done! I really liked that ride!
We also went on the Wild Arctic ride, which was just a simulator ride that was supposed to be a wild helicopter ride through the arctic. Even though that was pretty mild, my mom (and my grandparents and aunt who had come with us) opted for the motionless seats. My dad, my friend and me did the ones with motion though, so that was pretty fun. Then, we went over to the "Happy Harbor"- which was the section for kids. But my friend and I were so excited about this, because we were going to finally get my mom on her first roller coaster, which was a kids' roller coaster called the Shamu Express. We got there, and it had a brightly colored pink track and you sat in little Shamu cars. But my mom took a look at the tiny roller coaster and suddenly said, "No, I don't want to do that!" My friend and I were so disappointed and couldn't believe she chickened out at the last minute! But the two of us still went on it. It was only about a minute long and had two drops, one of which was surprisingly steep for a kids' coaster, but still not that big. I still think my mom could have handled it. :P Then we headed over to the Swishy Fishies (which were like the spinning teacups at Disney, except they were shaped like fish instead), since my mom was willing to do those, although she requested that whoever rode with her didn't spin the cup at all. Sheesh. lol. So my dad rode with her and my friend and I rode in a different one. But as we tried to climb in, we discovered that since the ride was designed for small children, we barely fit in the thing! lol. My friend was practically sitting on me at first, and then we both got situated and ended up having to sit sideways for our legs to fit! lol. After that, we rode a carousel, except this one had sea creatures instead of the typical horses. And then, we headed over to the Manta! It's a new roller coaster that just opened there last month. However, only my dad and my friend were willing to go on it. Obviously my mom wasn't going to do it, and I immediately put the nix on it when I saw the gigantic loops and twists on it. And also, you're laying forward for the whole ride so that it's like you're flying! That actually sounds kind of cool, but at the same time I think it would be scary since I'm afraid of heights. lol. So my mom and I went and looked at a dolphin exhibit while they were riding that crazy thing. Then we met them afterwards, and of course my friend thought it was awesome! My dad liked it too, because he's a huge thrill seeker as well. At this point it was dinnertime and they actually both still had an appetite after riding that, so we ate dinner and then afterwards went to the stingray exhibit, where you could touch the stingrays. So that was fun! Then the last thing we did was go to the gift shop, where I bought a stuffed otter (since I love otters- they are so CUTE!) and my friend bought a gigantic stuffed walrus, because we had seen a walrus at one of the exhibits earlier and she had fallen in love with him. haha. So yeah, Sea World was tons of fun!
That was pretty much all the fun stuff we did. The trip back home ended up being long because we got stuck in a huge traffic jam, but we amused ourselves by rolling down our windows and waving the walrus at everyone. People's reactions were priceless. Some people just stared at us blankly, others smiled and waved, and several small children were absolutely delighted. These two ladies held their cat up to the window and made it wave back, and one guy even took a picture of the walrus! Haha it was great! And then we finally did get home! So yeah, this was definitely one of the best vacations ever!
And now we're leaving next week for our other vacation! I'm excited of course, but not so thrilled about flying. I don't know, something about being trapped hundreds or thousands of feet above the ground if anything happens to go wrong kind of freaks me out. I KNOW it's not likely for anything to go wrong with a plane, but just the mere possibility scares me. So please pray for our safe trip! If I can just get past the flying part though, I'm super excited about the trip! I'll be sure to tell about it when I get back! :)