Best Friend and Fun Times

This weekend was another fun-filled, fantastic adventure as I got to see my very best friend for the first time in five years. We had a lot planned and treated this weekend as a sort of dual-engagement party, as she is newly engaged as well! She was able to make it out of the snow to come down to Orlando for a few days and we packed every minute of girly, geeky friendship into it that we could!

Friday night, we met up and went out to dinner with her parents at “Sweet Tomato” (think multi-station, restaurant engulfing buffet). We headed back to our hotel room, that had an unbeatable view of Universal Studios, and talked and talked and talked about all things friendship, weddings, and just general catching up. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep.

On Saturday, we went to Sea World. I’d never been there before, so I was very excited to see what it was all about. First, I have to say, the park is MASSIVE. We barely covered all the things we wanted to do, and only because we planned super efficiently! We started with stingrays, going to the pool where you could pet and feed them. Feeling brave, we decided to buy some food to give to them. This ended up being a hilarious disaster, as both of us were too scared to feed them properly (their mouths are on the bottom, so you had to hold the food as they slurped it up). We ended up getting soaked from the flock of stingrays fighting over the food we panickedly dropped in the water. I got the hang of it towards the end, and it was quite fun, but it had to be on of the weirdest sensations I’ve ever experienced.

We then headed over to see a dolphin show (again, something I’ve never done). It was amazing and the skill needed by both the trainers and the dolphins was astounding. We sat in the splash zone, figuring it wouldn’t make much difference after the stingrays. These ended up being the best seats in the stadium and really enhanced the overall experience, as some of the acrobatics were literally done right over our heads! It was incredible.

 

We watched all of the other shows (including a sea lion performance that went hilariously wrong at every turn) and walked around, being sure to visit every exhibit we could. The one that we spent the most time at was the orca exhibit. The orcas won’t be performing until April, but it was amazing to watch them, as I’ve never seen an orca before in person. There were five, including a mom and baby, and, had it not been for our carefully, efficiently planned out schedule, I would have watched them all day.

My next favorite exhibit had to be the penguins (who doesn’t like penguins?). There were literally hundreds of the fluffy, chubby birds waddling around! It was an overload of frozen, adorable cuteness. There were even penguin chicks, though they were in the back of the exhibit just out of sight. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take one home :P

   

We finished up the day with a mad dash around to the last exhibits we wanted to see and some super speedy shopping (Shamu pajamas, anyone?). We headed over to Disney Marketplace, another place I had never been, and continued with a little more shopping, but mostly just talking and laughing and being the goofy best friends that we are.

The next day, we headed out early to Islands of Adventure, which is home to my favorite, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Katie and her family had VIP access and got to enter the park early, so I waited behind for a bit and tried to plan out the rides we wanted to hit. By the time I entered the park, I assumed Katie and her family were having breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, so I decided to quickly sneak over to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (probably my favorite ride of all time). For single riders, seating was immediate, so I was able to get on the ride with no problem! 

However, the ride stopped about 30 seconds in, with my group dangling over a view of Hogwarts (not so bad considering the car next to us was stuck nearly upside-down - yikes!). The lights went up and the intercom blurted out assurances that the ride would begin moving soon again and again. It ended up being only about five minutes that we were stuck, but, as you can imagine, it felt much longer than that. The ride finished up without a hitch and I received a text message from Katie saying that she had been in line when the ride broke! After they got off the ride, they headed to breakfast, so I grabbed a butterbeer and wandered for a bit. I swear, I will never get tired of visiting Hogsmead.

After Katie finished breakfast, we headed around the park loop to a few rides we definitely wanted to try. We did the Popeye roaring rapids and got soaked (those human-sized dryers are totally worth the $5). We went on Spiderman and Cat-in-the-Hat. We finally ended where we began and went on the Harry Potter ride one more time, afterwards making a quick stop at Honeydukes.

Then began the long car ride to meet up with my dad. Once we hit the highway it was pretty quick and we were at the meeting point before I knew it. While our dad’s talked Katie and I hugged and hugged and hugged in an effort to not have to leave. It was hard, only getting to see each other for two days after five years, but they were two fantastic days that rendered many happy and lasting memories.

Katie is just leaving Florida today after spending one more day at Universal with her family. She bought a minion plushie and named it “Bloocheese”, due to the fact that minions highly resemble two of our favorite characters (Bloo and Cheese) combined.

 

I know that I am going to see her many times this year and probably over the next few years due to our weddings and soon-to-be closer proximity to each other (D.C. is much closer to Connecticut than Florida!). I am looking forward to every chance I get to see her and know that we will continue to make good memories as best friends.