Day 2.9: Orlando, FL to Hollywood, FL

We made the smart decision to sleep through the dinky breakfast and instead got up around 10am. We packed up our belongings and drove a few minutes to Wawa, where Arielle got her beloved iced coffee and Abe ordered his choice banana cream smoothie, which, thanks to the much-advertised Siptopia promotion, cost only $3 for a large!

We had planned to find a toll-free route to our next destination but saw that it would add 36 minutes to a trip that would otherwise be just over an hour. Unfortunately, the first tollbooth we went through took only the SunPass or exact change (in coins), so we had to get an envelope to mail a check for $1, which just seems silly. The second toll took dollar bills and made change, and then we passed a sign that noted that EZPass was now accepted, which got us through the next three tolls. Apparently the state of Florida is very slowly incorporating EZPass, with just one small 40-mile stretch outside Orlando currently doing so. We arrived at Fishlips, a restaurant in Port Canaveral, to meet Pam and Ron, who, if you read this blog back in August, were our gracious hosts in Nashua when we attended Elly’s wedding. They’re also the parents of number one blog fan Nancy, who we’re so glad is reading this post. We heard all about their rented home in Cocoa Beach over a very tasty lunch of Cajun Redfish (Abe) and Butter Crusted Cobia (Arielle) sitting outside by the water.

We walked around briefly before setting out further south, this time without any tolls. It took us about two hours to get down to Stuart, where Abe’s grandfather Marty, better known as Pop-Pop, is spending a few months this winter at the Marriott Resort Hutchinson Island. This enormous property, located over two bridges, offers him a great view of the ocean and the pool, which he looks at as he sits and reads on his porch every day. We were amused that, immediately after we got off 95, every sign referenced Martin because we were in Martin County, an apt place for Pop-Pop to be vacationing. After catching up inside his hotel room, we drove back over one of the bridges to Josephine’s Cafe and Bistro. Abe got an ahi tuna appetizer, which was underwhelming, the zucchini fries, which were decent, and the manicotti, which was pretty good. Arielle ate some of his minestrone soup and got the caprese, which she liked.

We had a nice meal with Pop-Pop and then continued south down to Hollywood, stopping for gas and slowing down due to an accident close to where we were getting off, ultimately arriving at the residence of our friends Andrew and Lauren a little after 10. We unloaded many items from our car and settled into the familiar spare room we had stayed in many times before, chatting briefly with Andrew before heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 250

Day 2.8: Orlando, FL

We got up ready for a day in the sun and encountered the dinkiest hotel breakfast we had ever seen. The best summary of the experience - which wasn’t terrible or disgusting or anything like that - was that Arielle noticed her pancake was ice-cold and opted to microwave it... on a styrofoam plate, which seemed like the intended plan for this not-hot food.

To top it off, Abe grabbed a hot chocolate powder mix from our snack box and poured it into the lidless hot cup provided by the hotel, only to spill half of it out the window when we went over a speed dump in the hotel parking lot. It would have been a lot worse had Arielle not recommended holding it out the window, and as a result, only a little bit got on the car. Though we were only about 4 miles from Disney World, we hit a good amount of traffic getting into the Magic Kingdom parking lot and waiting for the monorail after taking the tram.

We were excited to be able to see our friend Hailee, who helped make our day magical and suggested we watch her friend Mickey in the Move It, Shake It parade, which was great. The park was way more crowded than we thought it would be, and we saw cheerleading teams all over the place, apparently in town for a big competition. We reserved a time with FastPass for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but in exploring the wonder of Magic Kingdom, we completely forgot and thus never got to go on the ride.

We took the monorail over to Epcot, where we stopped in to try Coca-Cola flavors from around the world, with Abe enjoying two non-carbonated options, and traversed through countries. Realizing how exhausted we were after only half a day, we stopped for fish and chips from England, which were delicious (and reasonably priced, which is not something we had expected). Abe was feeling particularly tired after the meal.

We used our FastPass to go on Living with the Land, a very low-key but highly informative tour of the greenhouses in use and ecological endeavors being undertaken to make Disney environmentally sustainable.

While Abe stopped at the bathroom, Arielle quickly reserved a ride with FastPass for a far more exhilarating attraction - Mission: Space. Abe opted for the lighter “green” mission while Arielle went for the more traditional “orange.” Separately, we both found the experience remarkably unpleasant, pushed to extreme discomfort and nausea by the motion simulator and use of G-force, not to mention the fact that you’re trapped in metal boxes with no escape or panic button. Arielle got what she calls an insta-migraine. Arielle had remembered earlier that our friend and Abe’s former coworker Maxine had two sisters who worked at Disney World, and when Abe texted her, she called him to say that she happened to be visiting and was coming over to Epcot shortly! We sat and recovered from Mission: Space while waiting for Maxine and her sister Sarah to exit the Test Track ride, which Abe went on eleven years earlier and knew well enough not to try again. We caught up with Maxine and Sarah briefly and walked over to our next reserved attraction, Soarin’.

While we were both a bit apprehensive about being hoisted into the air to see majestic sights from all around the world, it ended up being enjoyable and did not add to our misery. We bid Epcot adieu and journeyed back via the monorail and tram to our car, which we drove to Hollywood Studios. There, we boarded a tram that took us in a big loop to just across from where we had parked. Hungry but not yet having had dinner, we each bought ice cream. Abe opted for the Mickey sandwich and Arielle got the Mickey ice cream pop.

We didn’t have too much time before the Fantasmic show but decided to try for one of the rides in Toy Story Land. Abe had the opportunity to go on Toy Story Mania a dozen times in a row during his last park visit in May 2008, when the ride was still in previews. It was considerably more crowded this time, but we took the fact that the standby wait time dropped from 40 minutes to 30 as soon as we arrived as a good sign. The lines inside to get to the ride seemed neverending, but eventually we did make it! It turns out that this rotating shooting game was well worth the wait. Abe managed to trounce Arielle score-wise, but her overall accuracy was better. We highly recommend this attraction!

We raced over to Sunset Boulevard for the 8pm Fantasmic show, noted as a must-see by avid fans Teri and Aaron. We were very grateful that Hailee got there early and saved us seats in the fourth row. We will note that we got quite a bit wet as water sprayed during the theatrics, and we were also sitting right behind a pole that at some pointed blocked Mickey entirely from Abe’s view as he tried to survive being targeted by a number of Disney villains in the extravagant if a bit convoluted story. After an enjoyable performance, we walked back to our car and said goodbye to Hailee. We had originally planned to head straight back to the hotel but instead drove about half an hour to Universal Studios City Walk. Arielle had found out that her cousin David and his family were in town visiting from White Plains, so we met them and walked around for a while catching up.

We left and returned back to the hotel, ready for a good night’s sleep after an exhausting but very worthwhile day at Disney.

Approximate number of miles covered: 10 (by foot)

Day 2.7: New Orleans, LA to Orlando, FL

We got up early for our most ambitious drive of this trip yet. We had the car packed before our planned 8am departure time - Arielle wants to emphasize that since it rarely happens. Arielle started driving but realized quickly that she was too tired, and so we stopped just as soon as we crossed the border into Mississippi to switch. Right before that, we had been mesmerized by the length of the bridges, one of which took us 4 minutes and 35 seconds to cross at 75 mph. It was hard not to think about the fact that we were suspended on a piece of concrete in the middle of the water, very far from either side. Technically, Mississippi was the 41st state for Arielle, and should count because she bought a Mountain Dew. Alabama, however, does not count since she only woke up to take a picture of the sign and for us to sing the Fifty Nifty United States song we always do upon entering a new state. Fear not - we’ll do something more concrete on our next visit to both states in just two weeks. We were already in Florida before we knew it, marking the 25th state our car has driven through, regardless of activities done or not done. We stopped at the welcome center and were greeted by an offer of a cup of orange juice or grapefruit juice, which was far sweeter than the unhelpful directions we got from a SunPass representative about a toll-free route to Orlando (the state is just starting to accept E-ZPass in some places, but right now they’re still mostly on a system we don’t have). We were amazed that our GPS told us we had six and a half more hours left in Florida alone, along with a one-hour time difference not in our favor. We were also greeted by the sight of a Confederate flag right next to a Shell station visible from the highway.

Somehow, we made it to Kissimmee, FL by around 7:15pm, stopping eagerly at a Wawa gas station down the street from our hotel, fully aware that we would return to the convenience store daily during our time in Florida. We were a bit nervous about the quality of the Destiny Palms Hotel Maingate West, which we had booked the night before for just $59 on Hotels.com. Fortunately, it was perfectly fine, and we unloaded a few items into our room before driving down the “main drag” to local restaurant Olive Garden. We were not pleased to discover an excessive wait time of more than half an hour, but upon checking back in with the hostess, we were directed to the bar, where we got to sit and watch the bartender make numerous drinks per minute. Arielle got the reliable soup (minestrone) and salad, first with Italian house dressing and then with ranch, and Abe got the equally reliable Fettuccine Alfredo, which was superb as always.

Abe was excited to see Chocolate Brownie Lasagna on the menu and couldn’t believe that they had brought back the delicious Chocolate Lasagna dessert discontinued during his summer working for Olive Garden in Massachusetts back in 2006. Sadly, that was not the case, and some quick description reading and Googling convinced him not to try the pale cream cheese-heavy imitation. We were beyond tired after a great dinner and returned to our hotel, ready to call it a night before a trip the next day to what many call the happiest place on earth.

Approximate number of miles covered: 647

Day 2.6: New Orleans, LA

We slept in compared to our normal routine, waking up around 7:45am. We had a nice breakfast with Rabbi Silver and realized that we had a connection to one of her oldest congregants, whose grandson went to college with Arielle and married someone Abe grew up with in Massachusetts. We walked about ten minutes to Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation, where we were immediately greeted by a number of members. Abe led the Shacharit morning service and Arielle was introduced as the speaker following services. Services were energetic but traditional, and intentionally inclusive, which was wonderful. This synagogue just seemed to do everything right. The lunch was lavish and prepared by the synagogue’s chef, and included a huge bowl of guacamole, a delicious eggplant dish, amazing cookies, and chocolate covered almonds that Arielle is still carrying around. We met some young couples who knew many people we knew - the Jewish geography game took no time at all. After lunch, we returned to the chapel and Arielle began her session with over thirty congregants in attendance. Arielle spent the next hour facilitating a conversation around the importance of having value-based end-of-life conversations and fielded questions from congregants who were experiencing this in their own lives. It was a fantastic session - Abe can attest. We walked back to the rabbi’s home and, after some debriefing and chatting, we left to drive down to Bourbon St, which was a questionable decision on our part. Somehow we managed to get a spot just two blocks from Cafe du Monde, and remarkably didn’t get a ticket even though we were sure we were missing some signs. We were delighted to have made last-minute plans to meet up with our friends Jill and Dan, who we had seen post online about being on a flight to New Orleans from New York. Dan had never been to Cafe du Monde, and though we could have gone to a location closer to where we were, we wanted to give him the full experience. We waited in the to-go line for about forty minutes and then swiftly ordered some beignets, a hot chocolate for Abe, and coffees for the other three. We walked up to sit on benches overlooking the water and enjoyed the very powdery and messy treats.

We said goodbye to Jill and Dan and returned to our miraculously still-there vehicle and decided to leave downtown New Orleans right away for a calmer area. We attempted to find a good restaurant in Metairie and ended up settling on a place just down the street from the synagogue, Bistro Orleans. Abe thought his blackened redfish was delicious, while Arielle was underwhelmed by her angel hair marinara, which was initially far too spicy and then just bland when she got the sauce on the side.

The overall ambiance was pleasant, though the experience was soured mildly when the check arrived and we found out that the waitress asking Arielle if she wanted soup or salad with her pasta had mistakenly led us to believe that it came with one or the other, neither of which she would have ordered knowing that they were extra. Overall, it was a decent meal, and we returned to the rabbi’s home to pack up our things for the next day, socialize briefly with the rabbi, and get to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 12