Today Jack started his day with some training as we have State Relays as soon as we get back!!! Not happy with his form as he cuts himself no slack considering he has been out of training for four weeks!! After his training we headed to Sizzler for $4 breakfast which considering the price was not too bad. All you can eat buffet featuring eggs ( fried or scrambled), bacon, sausage, hash brown, potato, French toast, fruits, cereals, Danishes etc.
Off to Universal Studios we headed for a Day at Islands of Adventure - the rides side of Universal Studios. These included The Incredible Hulk ride, spiderman ride, free fall ride, dragon ride and the two Harry Potter rides. We even managed to do the Dr Seuss rides, Popeyes rapids ( a complete soaking - and freezing - still wet at 7.00 pm!!) among many others! The memorable moments were.... The people dryer available at the end of the rapids ride - a little open cubicle that for $5 would heat up for about 5 minutes to give you chance to dry off - warmed me up but didn't really dry me off at all. Eventually I stopped walking like I had dirtied my pants...... The disappointing moment when you wait for the next adrenalin rush and it doesn't come.......butter beer in Hogwarts area - a little sweet but yummy and not sure how to describe the flavour really......the realization that Jack must do engineering with the intention of becoming a theme park ride creator as none of the rides live up to his expectations. We all found the rides fun but lacking that thrill factor - whether that is that we are ride- aholics after 8 days or they just didn't live up to our expectations I am not sure. There is a doozy to come in Universal Studios itself!
It is Martin Luther King Jnr Day today so it is a public holiday and with the large numbers of Brazilian tourist groups we have encountered we decided to bite the bullet and pay extra for the express pass. I think the reason we got through everything we wanted to on the rides scene today was due to the express pass thing. It is an extra $40 a day so it makes it quite expensive really but worth it in the long run today. A shame that they don't just make it available like they do a WDW.
A quick walk through City Walk to view the potential eating spots for later this week saw us visit NBA restaurant , Hard Rock Cafe and several not so exciting restaurants .
Tonight we dined at Sante Fe again to take advantage of their $2 margaritas and buy one get one free beers. We ate a little more substantially tonight and all shared a gorgeous dessert , a smaller tip and same costs as last night! Think we will visit again yet!!!
Tomorrow is to be a hottest day of the week at 77 degrees ( 25 degrees C) so we are off to Disneys Blizzard Beach water Park. This is followed by two more days at Universal and then 2 days doing nothing but hanging around the pool foursome rest and relaxation or so the plan is!!!