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Published: January 15th 2008
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Kou
My friend Kou, while we were at the mall The alarm went off, apparently... several times, in fact. It's definitely a good thing I was at home with Mom last Saturday night, who woke me up at 4:30 the next morning; otherwise I might have missed my flight to Florida with the orchestra. So, waking up in time for the flight was a good start to the week.
We (approximately 40 of us) flew into Orlando and got there at about 10:00 (Florida time.) As it was my first time in a state east of Illinois, I was pretty excited. The weather was a complete 180 from Minneapolis's weather, so that was fun. Since we had to wait for a few hours before we could check into our hotel for that night, we all got on our tour bus and were dropped off at the Orlando Mall, which was really cool, despite the fact that it was a mall. I don't see an M & M's world at the Mall of America. So props to the Orlando Mall for keeping things exciting that day. My friends Miriam and Kou and I had something to eat, and then explored the mall. After that, we all went to the Metropolitan Express
Miriam, Kou, and me
There, now it shows all of us. hotel to check in, and my roommates were my friends Miriam, Arwen, and Bryony. Arwen is a name that her parents got out of the Lord of the Rings books. Bryony is a common female British name. Just thought I'd get those questions answered right away.
Miriam hadn't slept the whole night, so she went to sleep immediately at the hotel. Bryony, Arwen, and I walked around the area for awhile, and eventually came across Universal Studios. There is something called a CityWalk, which is basically a long strip of shops and restaurants right next to Universal Studios. So, since we were there, we walked around and had fun in the Disney stores and such.
That night Bryony, Arwen, Miriam, and I went grocery shopping to stock up on peanut butter, bread, jelly, pretzels, etc. That way we wouldn't have to eat out all the time. While we were in the supermarket we found Flake chocolate bars, which was exciting for Bryony and me, since we like Flake. They aren't that easy to find.
Monday, we left at around 11 and rode the bus down to a town called Fort Myers Beach (which is a different town
from Fort Myers, with a different mayor, but Fort Myers Beach isn't listed on TravelBlog), which is about a 4-hour drive from Orlando. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach behind our hotel (Holiday Inn.) My roommates and I took the 25 cent trolley to Times Square in Fort Myers Beach, and looked around. We ate dinner at a cheap but good restaurant next to the ocean.
Tuesday, the first half of the day was devoted to the beach. Then at 4 pm, we had an outdoor orchestra concert in Times Square, and had a surprisingly large audience. It was really a nice concert; it was the first time we'd played outdoors. When we played a really loud chord, all the birds in the trees above us would fly off, and when we got softer they would come back. That was pretty funny.
Then, St. Peter Lutheran Church hosted dinner for all of us, which was very nice. We had some good salads, sloppy joes, and star fruit, strawberries, and other fruit that isn't in season in Minnesota. The rest of the evening was spent on the beach. Ocean swimming at night is very fun...
even though there is no way to tell what you are about to swim into or step on.
On Wednesday we had until 5 to do whatever. My roommates and I got up before sunrise, took the trolley in the opposite direction of Times Square, and ended up walking around a very secluded beach. It was really, really nice to have no one else around, and we were hoping to see dolphins, but that didn't happen. However, we found a lot of sand dollars, shells, and saw some osprey and pelicans. Then, I saw a nature trail that I *really* wanted to go on, but we went back so we could have breakfast while the hotel was serving free breakfast. Then, we took a trolley to Times Square and looked around more there. I kept thinking about the nature trail, though. Although I was all fired up to play a huge game of volleyball on the beach after getting back to the hotel (it was the strings versus the woodwinds and brass), I ended up getting on a trolley instead and going to the nature trail that I was, for some reason, obsessed. with. So for about an hour
and a half, I walked down the nature trail by myself, and I have to say that was really nice. There were little lizards and cool birds along the way.
At 5:15 we loaded our instruments and headed to Cypress Cove, which is a very nice retirement home, where we had a concert at 7. Here's a link to what it looks like, just to give you an idea... http://www.cypresscoveliving.com/ After that, Cathy (she's the person in charge of Augsburg trips) and our orchestra director decided to take us out to a very awesome pizza parlor... courtesy of Augsburg College.
The next day we had until 1 to do the beach thing. At 1 we checked out of the hotel and loaded the bus to head to Naples, just 40 minutes from Fort Myers Beach. We had a rehearsal, had some free time, then had dinner hosted by Shepherd of the Glades Lutheran Church, which is where we performed. We had fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, and angel food cake., so it was like an indoor picnic, which is always fun. Then, we had our performance. Afterwards, we met up with host families, who we stayed with that
night in Naples. Miriam and I stayed with a couple in their 80s named Merrl and Leila. They are from Minnesota, and live in MN now for 5 months out of the year, and in Naples for the rest. They've been doing that now for 24 years. They were so, so wonderful, and had a beautiful home. Before taking us to their house, they drove us around downtown Naples, showed us the most fancy area of Naples, and then took us home and we had tea, crackers and cheese, grapes, and little sweet tart-like things. It was really, really good, and it gave us a chance to get to know each other. They were interested in the fact that I'm studying German, because Leila is one hundred percent German. Unfortunately she never got a chance to learn the language, but she is interested in the culture since it is her heritage. By the way, Leila reminded me a lot of Aunt Martha (her personality) so that was fun.
The next morning, Merrl drove Miriam and me back to the Lutheran church, where our bus picked everyone up, and took us to Orlando, and we checked into the Metropolitan Express
hotel again for that night. My roommates and I went to a British pub across the street called "George and the Dragon" for some pasties (by the way, Sara, mine was cheese and onion... one of my favorite combinations, as you know!) Afterward, Miriam and Arwen were tired and went back to the hotel. Bryony and I met up with some other orchestra people at a mini golf course near the hotel. We saw little alligators and huge goldfish in a pond in front of the golf course. Then, we split up into groups of 4 for the game. We won little toy lizards because we totally OWNED the scavenger hunt. Heck. Yes.
The next day... 7 of us went to Universal Studios!! That has been a long-time dream of mine, and it was, on that day, fulfilled. I knew I would have really, really regretted it if I didn't go when I had the perfect chance. We got a ticket that included Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We went at 9 am when the parks opened, and rode our last ride at about 6:57, because the parks closed at 7. So we got the most out of
sunsets are pretty...
This was in Orlando, I think. the day. After that, we split appetizers at the Hard Rock Cafe by Universal Studios. It's the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world.
Then... we went back to the hotel, crashed, and got up the next morning at 4:30 to get to the airport. It was a good trip. I think the best part was getting to know the orchestra members better. The beach had its perks too, of course.
Anyway, the text part has gotten long enough. Now, time for the visuals!
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Uncle John
non-member comment
Sounds like a nice trip
Yes, as I was saying, it sounds like a nice trip.