Orlando- first day

Busy busy busy.

We left Oklahoma a few morning ago, bright and early as Tay dragged me out of bed at 6 am so we could  get into St.Louis early for a few things. Driving back was pretty quick thanks to both Tay's new GPS and his driving.

Got back to STL, repacked a bit, cleaned a bit. Called my friend at school who was working at the lasercut lab and picked him up since nobody is cutting anything on account of the final presentations going on. Bumped into my studio professor briefly in the hall, just long enough for him to utter a surprised hello and hurry down the hall. (He later gave me a B+ for studio, which is probably generous).

We ended up going to Dewey's for pizza. Good. Actually, really good. Decent prices too, and apparently we arrived the night they were training the staff so we got great service. Gave the car and my house keys to my friend who's going to look after Suki. Cab came to pick us up the next morning at 6 AM for our ride to the airport.

Flight to Orlando was quick- two hours. Mom picked us up at the airport in the rental car and we drove straight to the massive city of outlet stores.

Almost.

Actually, she put us up for two nights in the Loews Portofino hotel in the Universal Studios resort, so we went there first. It was actually pretty nice. I could make some really sarcastic comments about the artifice of a fake Italian seaside town on an artificial lake, but you know, it kind of works you know? If the gelatteria on the harborside piazza isn't Italian and the bueno sera has a southern twang, really, who cares? Fundamentally, you have people living in high density residential low-rise apartments with some shops and restaurants and cafes surrounding the piazza. The wine and gelatto is still good, and even though the small boats floating around the harbor are permanently anchored, a real water taxi is there to ferry guests.

You can talk about artifice all you want, but the truth is that the Paris, France we see today was totally contrived and scripted since the days of Hausmann. The Paris that existed prior to that was almost completely eradicated and was then effectively frozen in time.

The one thing, however, is that the resort circulation is a real pain in the ass.

1. Park your car at the handy self-park.
2. Navigate your way through the parking garage where there are two sign one above the other pointing to the elevator lobby in opposite directions. (The elevator lobby is actually straight ahead).
3. Take the elevator up to the lobby. Walk across the lobby to the other elevator.
4. Take the elevator down to the harbor level.
5. Stroll across the harbor around the lake to the guestroom building elevator lobby.
6. Take the elevator up to your floor.
7. Walk the 200 meters through the double-loaded corridor to your guestroom.

Anyway. 

We got settled and then took the water taxi to the main park. Universal Studios Orlando really consists of two theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, which are accessed via the hinge of the complex, CityWalk, the shopping center. Then there are three satellite hotels, including the Portfoino, which send boats back and forth to the CityWalk dock. CityWalk is a heavily, heavily themed shopping and dining center. You can't just have a bar and grill, it has to be the "Official Restaurant of NASCAR Bar and Grill." 

We worked our way over through CityWalk to the blue man group box office and got student tickets for 9pm. We had some hours to kill so we had a drink at the Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Not the main Margaritaville restaurant, not the patio, but the satellite cantina bar. They had some $4 margaritas so we signed up for three of them. We had a lot of really bad, cheap drinks this trip. And really really bad music. At this cantina, it was we were listening to a record made by terrorists who had had kidnapped and drugged Jimmy Buffet and forced him into making terrible covers, tripping balls and at gunpoint. 

After the drinks, we wandered through the rest of CityWalk. Apparently the vast majority of people there were transitory, moving from and to the parks, and the place was actually really dead. 

So we hightailed it to the outlet mall.

Traffic was terrible all the way there, and the place was packed. Close by, however. Actually, the whole operation was very slick, very international. People from all over the world coming to get some screaming deals on luxury merch. Tay set the itinerary since we had limited time before our Blue Man Group engagement. We actually ended spending most of our time at JCrew which was having a 30% off everything sale, on top of the current sales on top of the discounted prices. Since we hit it last, we were racing the clock, and combined with the cheap prices, it was difficult to not run through the store throwing random items into the cart like we were contestants on Shopping Spree. 

Grabbed Subway on our way out and rushed back to the hotel room (see steps 1-7) and then after slamming down our sandwiches, rushed back to the Blue Man Group theater in CityWalk.

The show was really good. None of us were sure of what to expect, but I really enjoyed it. The humor was kind of Dadaist and strange, the music was good, and they gave us some really interesting and unique experiences. The blue guys were really talented and the highlight of the show was this very funny and strange sketch where they had an audience member come up on the stage and share a dinner of twinkies.

After the show, we took the boat back and enjoyed a midnight drink at the harbor-side bar on the piazza. They even served draft Peroni beirra.