Florida Staycation: The Rest of the Week

Now that we had our place for the week, it was time to find things to do. On Sunday, we decided to drive up International Drive and see what changed since the last time we were there. We started at the south end and headed north. We passed by the WorldMark, where we stayed when we first moved to Florida. We passed by SeaWorld, where we once had a season pass. We passed by the Convention Center, where we attended the Model Railroad Association show one year. We passed the upside down building known as Wonder Works. We passed the Orlando Wheel, which I still haven’t rode yet. Eventually, we ended up near Universal Studios, which I haven’t visited yet.

About that time, it started raining, so we headed south, back towards the condo and the Farmer’s Market in Celebration. On the way, we realized that it would be closed by the time we arrived, so we detoured to Disney Springs.

Star Wars characters outside Lego store

Frozen characters outside the Lego store

In Disney Springs, we walked around, looking for a good place to eat. One thought was T-Rex, which we visited years ago when family was in town. Instead, we went to a burger place. After eating, we continued walking around and passed by the Lego store, where they had Star Wars characters and Frozen characters outside.

Then we decided to catch a bus and go explore some of the free Disney attractions. We got off the bus at the Polynesian and got a pineapple Dole Whip ice cream to share. Then we rode a boat to the Magic Kingdom and caught the monorail to the Contemporary. From there, we wanted to catch a boat to the Wilderness Lodge, but the boat was out of service. Instead, we got back on the monorail to the transportation center and took the other monorail around Epcot Center and back. Then we took a boat back to the Magic Kingdom and caught a bus to the Pop Century. Finally, we caught a bus back to Disney Springs. From there, we headed back to the condo.

Back at the condo, I packed some of my things, then headed home. I had a Monday morning meeting that I needed to attend virtually, but from home. On the way, I realized that I left everything that I had packed. Luckily, I had everything I needed at home.

Monday, I dialed into work and attended the meeting. After work, I packed my work computer and headed back to the condo. Once there, we went for a walk around Old Town and Fun Spot. On the walk, we passed by a Shoney’s, so I stepped inside and asked about strawberry pie. They had pies, but I resisted, for the moment. On our way back to the condo, the skies opened and the rain came down hard and fast. Andrew looked at a weather app on his phone and it was clear that this wasn’t going to end soon. We had no choice but to run from one covered sidewalk to the next. By the time we made our way as close as we could get, the rain finally let up. We were able to run to our resort and then from entry to entry until we finally got to our building.

Tuesday, I set up the work computer and dialed in. Then I realized that I was missing my power cable. Susan and Andrew were planning to go back to Melbourne for Physics class, so once my battery was down to 10%, we all went home, a little earlier than planned. I continued working from home while they went to class. After work, we all went back to the condo.

Wednesday, Andrew was amped to watch the Space X launch of the Inspiration4 crew from Cape Canaveral. We had watched the first two episodes of the Netflix special about the crew the previous night, so we felt like we kind of knew half the crew. We headed east about two hours before the launch, only to find that there were two wrecks along our route, including a road closure. Luckily, the GPS directed us around the crashes and back-ups and we arrived in Titusville about 30 minutes before T Zero. You can read more about the launch in another blog post.

Friday was my off day, but I decided to dial in to work and help my teammate with a feature he was struggling with. Our week ended Saturday, but we decided to leave on Friday night because we had to be at Kennedy Space Center at 6:00 AM Saturday for the Gateway To Space 5K race. On the way out, I tried to stop at Shoney’s to grab a pie, but was confronted with a one way street that went the wrong way. Maybe next time.

To summarize, we didn’t have much time to play, but it was still fun being away from home all week. Several times during the week, I chuckled as I looked around the condo. I was working at the dining room table on my work computer while Susan and Andrew were busy at the kitchen bar, each with their own computer. This could look pretty strange to some, but pretty normal for us. With me working virtually and Andrew in home school, we can do our thing from nearly anywhere that Wi-Fi is available.