It's miserable outside today - cold and rainy, and it's very hard to believe that just a few days ago Diva Stacy and I were basking in the warm Florida sun. As Cher sang, if I could turn back time, I would definitely turn back the clock to Thursday afternoon March 27; that would mean that the next morning we would be heading down to Orlando to see our beloved Wilson sisters in concert. But I can't, so to get me through this depressing day, I'll just relive the awesome memories of our trip.
First of all, the weather was perfect. It was sunny, slightly breezy and low 80's the entire time we were there. But the 80's didn't bother us a bit because we had the a/c in the hotel room cranked down to a cool 69 degrees. We'd worried earlier in the week when rain was in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, and even packed our rain ponchos just in case, but it was gorgeous the entire weekend.
Second, the food we had was awesome. Before heading to the airport Friday morning, we had our prerequisite Krispy Kremes, which put us in a very happy mood. Believe me when I tell you the two chocolate iced Krispy Kremes that I had were worth every step I had to walk to burn off their calories. Our first night at the Hard Rock Hotel, we splurged and had filet mignon and a crab cake for dinner. I loved them much that I had them the next morning on my Eggs Benedict instead of the usual Canadian bacon.
Universal Studios properties were very impressive. We both liked the Islands of Adventure park better than Universal Studios, but both were very cool. With our bones, joints, and digestive systems not being what they used to be as teenagers, we passed on the Hulk roller coaster and other rides, and only rode the tram through Dr. Seuss Land. We both agreed once again that Dr. Seuss Land was our favorite part of the parks.
While we didn't get to meet our beloved Ann and Nancy Wilson like we'd hoped, we did get to meet other celebrities. We met and got our pictures taken with Spider Man and Bullwinkle. And I got my picture taken with royalty: Fiona's parents the King and Queen from "Shrek". They were very cool, and we would have loved to have hung out with them. We also saw Wolverine from "X-Men" and The Grinch, but didn't get our pictures taken. And from about 100 yards away, we saw Ellen DeGeneres, who was filming her show at Universal Studio's City Walk last weekend.
Needless to say, the highlight (and reason) for the trip was the Heart concert. It was the best concert by them that we've attended. And we've attended quite a few. We only had to stand in line about an hour before they let us in, and once in we were able to stake our spot right on the front row where my beloved Nancy Wilson would be rocking. She was probably 5 feet away from us. Like I said, the concert was awesome. They rocked as strong as they did when they first came on the scene back in the mid-70's, if not more. The thing that impressed us was when they performed "Barracuda" and "Crazy On You" - songs that they'd performed thousands and thousands of times in their 30+ year career - they played them with such energy and joy, as if it were the first time they were playing the songs on stage. We truly had goosebumps on our arms more then a few times during the concert, and clapped and cheered as loud as we could.
The last day of our trip was filled with travelling and waiting. After breakfast, we packed our bags and stored them at the hotel until time for our ride to the airport. We walked back over to Universal Studios and did some shopping at the world's largest Hard Rock Cafe. Once back at the Hard Rock Hotel, we sat out by the pool (in the shade, of course) and lolled about until time to head back and collect our bags and wait for the airport shuttle. We waited, and waited, and waited some more, but the shuttle never came. After 4 or 5 phone calls to the transportation company, we said screw it and got a cab to the airport.
We sailed through the security checkpoint, and went to find our gate. Luckily for the Divas, there was a Nathan's hot dog stand right by our gate. While eating, I ran across to the Southwest Airlines counter to ask them what time our flight got into Louisville. The two women behind the counter were scurrying around, and one stopped to check the computer for our arrival time. She reassured me "With the delays, you should get to Louisville at about 10:00. But don't worry - they're holding the plane in Birmingham for your connecting flight." Riiiiight - don't worry. We finished our hot dogs and went back to the counter to find out what was going on. All they would say was an "air traffic delay." So now instead of us having one hour to wait for the flight, we had almost three hours. But the Divas were very mellow at this point, thanks in part to the Dramamine and two cocktails we had while eating our hot dogs. We dozed for about an hour, and then watched one of our favorite movies, "Talladega Nights" on my portable DVD player until time for us to finally board.
We did in deed make it back to Louisville at about 10:00, totally worn out from the awesome weekend, but what a weekend it was. We can't wait until the next Diva-venture.
1 comment:
It rocked. Can't wait for the next one!
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