Orlando ~ Day 3

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Geo: 28.5377, -81.3774

May 12, 2010
A side note to our days ~ hubby has been watching some TV in our hotel room and since it isn't pre-recorded and he can't pause TV like at home ~ he's a DVR junkie ~ he's been "forced" to watch commercials for the first time in over a year. He is fascinated! He is cracking-up at them! He's yelling at me to hurry and come in the room and watch them or look-up and see this or that. I am highly amused. There was a commercial about a guy celebrating because he started the lawn mower on the first pull that was hilarious. Maybe commercials have gotten better???
So... Day 3. We slept~in this morning. Sorta. We were awake by 8:00. We can see IHOP from our window and decided to have hubby's fav chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. His comment prior to leaving.. "Can we take a cab to IHOP?" I just laughed. He thinks his feet are "bruised" from walking too much. He's hilarious. He wasn't like this in Italy or in Quebec. I think it must be his new sandals but he refuses to wear his old ones. I love this spoiled brat. :-)

We start walking and we both decide chocolate chip pancakes sound too sweet.. so Denny's it is, again. We love Denny's. We eat and then walk to the trolley and take the trolley to the IMAX cinema to see Ironman 2 on the big IMAX screen. The ticket says be 30 minutes early so we were. We were the first people in the cinema so we chose perfect seats ~ up high and exactly in the middle!! I didn't think anyone else was going to show-up and then around 10 minutes before the previews, about 20 or 25 people trickled-in. We had just ate but we were amused at the people walking-in ~~ with GIANT drinks, FULL pizzas, FULL meals-in-a-bag (burger & fries), etc.. We joked that it was a contest to see who could bring in the biggest soda or the most food to eat prior to the movie. I thought it was hilarious. One thing I noticed was the cinema here sells beer and wine. They actually had a full counter advertising it ~ like they were selling Junior Mints or something! I tried to get a picture of hubby so you could see how huge the theatre was ~ you could have easily put 2 glassword in this one auditorium ~ the picture didn't turn-out so well...
The movie was AWESOME!! I liked the storyline better in Ironman 1 but Ironman 2 never lost my attention ~ the "fighting" wasn't so much that I felt like I was watching a comic strip or anything. A hint to anyone who watches this... you need to stay and watch ALL the credits roll BEFORE you leave or you will miss a final clip!! They did that in Ironman 1 also. Our entire audience stayed for this clip so everyone must have been clued-in about the surprise. It was a good way to spend several hours on what was a very hot mid-day here in Florida.
Next we took the Trolley up and down I-drive and took a gander at this and that. We went to the mall. We "miraculously" ended-up at a Coach store. We walked-in and I immediately saw the purse I wanted. So, hubby bought me the purse as my Birthday gift (next week is my B-day). It is beautiful and I LUV IT!!
We went to the Publix grocery store which is extremely far south on I-drive ~ pretty-much where the touristy stuff ends. We got Havarti cheese (one of our favorites) and a bottle of wine. We have noticed the majority of the tourists we have met are British. The stores have UK adaptors for plug-ins, the restaurants have items themed after London food, and we stopped at Houlihan's during Happy Hour to have a margarita and they had a copy of the UK newspaper at EVERY seat and they had a replica of the London aquarium at their entryway. MANY of the people we converse with or hear in the stores or on the trolley are with British accents. I have been told they love Disney and they luv-luv the "American food" ~ which I can understand ~ we have had some terrific seafood (and Denny's) while we've been here. Yes, I know... we are cheap tourists. Oh Well. We are happy tourists. This is a trip to Orlando Florida, not Hong Kong!
After a couple of hours in the hotel's lazy river (yet again ~ we luv it!) we decided to go to Bahama Breeze for dinner. It was FABULOUS!! It has been rated one of Orlando's favorite restaurants by locals for years but tourists also sat around everywhere. They have a calypso band playing on the outside terrace and open-air (but covered) dining. A very Caribbeaneque atmosphere however... the food was mainly Cuban! It was FABULOUS!! Neither one of us were very hungry after the wine and cheese and swimming so we ordered appetizers ~ jerk wings, tilapia salad, angus burger (hubby), and Cuban sandwich (me). It was soooo much food we brought three containers and an entire bag back to the room with us!! I couldn't even eat half of the Cuban sandwich ~ but what I did eat was fantastic!! I would recommend this restaurant for the great atmosphere, the excellent service, the cheap prices ($7 and $8 a plate) and the huge quantities of oddly-spiced but delicious food!!
We then walked around I~drive and went into a few stores and bought a few souvenirs. We also noticed two signs posted on I~drive today ~ VERY BIG SIGNS saying "$229 fine for running a red light" ~ they are posted near SeaWorld and near Universal Studios ~ both signs are basically at the beginning and the end of the tourist walking areas. Since we walk everywhere and have crossed the streets fifty times thus far, this is quite comforting to see.

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