Universal Studios

Florida is flat. I found that this made trips across the state... well, boring. Maybe I was expecting too much from Florida's Turnpike, but the drive really just looked like this the whole way from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando. I've been spoiled by Arizona's landscape.

But it was worth it!

It was almost worth it for the corny picture opportunities alone. Ha.

Universal Studios was a blast. Having never been before I listened to stories of how cool it was... and was let down at first! I was expecting thrilling roller coasters, but as anyone who's ever been knows, rides like Jaws are not (he showed me where on the ride he had cried as a kid). The Mummy was better, though.

I mentioned corny picture opportunities, right? We practically had the place to ourselves that Tuesday morning. It was almost awkward being the only passengers on the Jaws ride. All those theatrics just for us. So special.


We (the coolest people in line) did the new Simpsons ride and weren't too impressed. We hadn't encountered any lines all morning, but waited ages for the Simpsons. Technical difficulties aside, the ride was interesting but for me it's not worth a repeat.

And that's when we moved on to the other park, Islands of Adventure, which fulfilled all of my wildest hopes and dreams. Roller coasters and dinosaurs! *Swoon*


The giddy eleven year old in me (who had been absolutely obsessed) revealed herself for the Jurassic Park ride. I boggles my mind that fifteen years have passed since the movie was released.

Between the Hulk and the Dragons, we certainly got our fill of roller coasters and thrills. Since the lines were so short, we were able to hop off the ride and right back into the line with less than a five minute wait to ride it again. We repeated the dragons four times back to back before we decided we had had enough.

After a slew of other rides and attractions (including the animal actors show, ha) we ended the day with two more trips on the Mummy, running through the empty lines to make it that one last time before they closed. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Happy Jess.