Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries

Yesterday, we took a run up to Winter Garden to go to the huge mall again. Forget the name right now, but we have been there quite a few times this winter. The Barnes and Noble store is still not open but the rest is pretty well up and running.

Our visit there accomplished two things. First, I had Geek Squad at Best Buy look at my Toshiba Qosmio laptop. It died on me almost 3 weeks ago now. What I thought might be a seized up hard drive, may in fact be another bad mother board. I had the original board replaced under warranty over a year ago in Ottawa. Seems like I may be going through the same steps again. I definitely won't be buying Toshiba again. Geek Squad couldn't get the parts in before we leave for home, so repairs will have to wait until we return to Ottawa.

The second reason for our visit to Winter Garden was to pay a visit for lunch at Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries. Truly, the best burgers we have ever had, requiring at least four napkins to wipe your chin. One must unhinge one's jaw to take a good bite as well! A treat every now and then is perfectly fine! Besides, we have been exercising regularly............... Maybe there was a little guilt there, but that soon vanished once we chowed down.

Please click on the title of this blog entry to visit the Five Guys website.

Busch Gardens

The four of us took in Busch Gardens on Friday. A very interesting park with some awesome rollercoaster rides including Sheikra. The picture here shows the cars hanging over a drop off at the top of the ride. We were in the front car when we did it and you are 160 feet up in the air. They stop the car right at the edge and let you hang for about 5 seconds, contemplating your fate, before they let you go. Your feet are hanging free as well because there is no floor. Just a shoulder harness to hold you in place. The ride only lasts about 40 seconds but we were hitting speeds of 65 mph with all the drops and turns. Lots of screaming on this ride!

We spent the entire day at BG and I think we hit most of the rides including an old wooden rollercoaster. Chris and I found that one the hardest on our bodies. Lots of bumps and jarring of the neck. We were glad that ride was over. We spent some time on a 3/4 scale steam train touring the park and seeing all the wild animals as well. Lots of elephants, rhinoceros, flamingos, giraffe, water buffalo, gorillas, etc.

This is a photo of our ride. I decided to take a picture of a picture instead of paying $20. Note the relaxed expression on my face. Not sure how that happened! The kids did Sheikra again later in the day, but once was enough for us.

We bought tickets that are good for a year at no extra charge, so Chris and I will likely return to BG again at the end of March when we return to Tampa to have some work done on the motorhome.

There is also a skyride which offers an aerial view on the park. Gondolas on a cable take you over just about everything. We saw these rhinos from the air. The was a rhino rally offered as well, which is a off road vehicle ride through the animal habitats but unfortunately the lines were too long for us to do it. Perhaps next time.

We brought Buddy with us and boarded him right at the kennel at BG. It cost $6 which we thought was quite reasonable.

Yesterday, the kids went back to Disney, downtown area and spent the day. There were tornado warnings last night beginning around supper time which made for an interesting time. No funnel clouds materialized anywhere but temps have dropped from high 70s yesterday afternoon, to only 60F today. But at least the sun is out.

Looks like we are headed for Universal Studios today.

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

We headed off to Universal Studios yesterday morning. Forecast was for 80F and sunny, we ended up with fog and mist for most of the day and a temperature around 72F. It was great weather to do the parks. The crowds were minimal and most attractions never had waiting lines longer than 10-15 minutes. The first ride we tried was the Hulk. Great roller coaster ride!! The next best ride ride we found was the Dueling Dragons ride. We only tried the one ride there, not realizing there was a totally different second ride that basically cued up at the same place. This had your feet dangling in mid air as you rocketed around the turns. Definitely a lot of fun.

We took advantage of the kennels offered at Universal Studios to board our Bichon, Buddy. It only cost $10 for the day and he had a few other dogs to keep him company. All dogs are boarded in separate cages. Water is provided and we brought his own food for him. We toured Islands of Adventure until about 1 pm and then returned to take Buddy for a walk and feed him his lunch. After that it was back to Universal Studios for the afternoon tour. Universal was interesting as well. Terminator exhibit was amusing. We also enjoyed the Fear Factor Live show. They used tourists for volunteers. Our day ended around 6 pm. Buddy was very glad to see us and was the only dog left in the kennel. We got back to the RV around 7 pm and had a late supper.

Of course we forgot our camera in our RV, so we had to rely on some cell phone pictures instead. Not the same resolution but certainly passable.