1999 Summer Vacation to Orlando
(This page is under serious construction)

July 2, 1999
We began our drive to Orlando on Friday, July 2, 1999. We spent the first night on the road in Tallahassee, Florida. Once there, Alex and Lesia continued a family tradition. We made it to our hotel in Orlando the following day. The family tradition continued as Alex further demonstrates.

July 4, 1999
The first theme park day was spent at Universal Studios. We started out there because the general feeling around the people at the hotel was that Universal would have the best fireworks show. It was awesome.

July 5, 1999
Believe it or not, we went to Universal Escape on Tuesday and spent the entire day with Lesia's friend Andrea and her family. No, while Lesia and Andrea are great friends, we did not take a vacation together. Andrea has relatives that live in Orlando and so it was a nice coincidence. (BTW, I think it is cheating to have relatives in Orlando.)

July 6, 1999
We went to Sea World on Tuesday. It was a hectic day for the Sea World folks as there was a dead human inside the killer whale tank when the park opened. As a result the Shamu show was somewhat shorter than usual. I thought the highlight of the day was the dolphin pool. I took about 30 photos of Alex and Lesia feeding them. We would go back again on Friday to see the full Shamu show. It was great.

July 7, 1999
On Wednesday it was off to MGM Studios.

July 8, 1999
At Lesia's request, we went to the Magic Kingdom on Thursday. My recollection from the trip to Orlando last year was that Magic Kingdom was somewhat of a disappointment compared with the newer parks (MGM and Universal). I was wrong. We all had a wonderful time. The highlight for Alex and Lesia may have been the numerous times they rode Space Mountain.

July 9, 1999
On Friday it was back to Sea World to see the Shamu show once again. We had the best seat in the house being in the front row right in front of the middle section where the whales come up out of the water and wave. I got some great whale shots. I also got soaked at the end of the show but I was able to turn around and protect my camera.