Of Mice and Rockets - A Long Weekend in Central Florida

I spent a long weekend down in Central Florida this month, escaping the Michigan winter for a few days. I've been known to do this sort of thing on occasion. (If you'd like to see more pictures than those shown here, I've got that covered.)

The Leaving

The idea for the trip came out of a conversation with my lady friend Sarah, as we were both bemoaning the long slog through winter weather from the new year until spring. She's mostly a Michigan homebody, with just a few trips elsewhere, and none that were near an ocean. Seemed like a perfectly good excuse to go south in February! Convenient Valentine's Day present, too. We flew non-stop from Grand Rapids to Orlando - the availability of a direct flight was a major consideration in the choice of destination! Flight got us in late Friday night, so the real trip didn't start until the next day.

Day One: The Coast

It's only about an hour's drive from Orlando out to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, which I greatly enjoyed visiting. The Space Shuttle exhibit with the Atlantis orbiter was particularly impressive, in my opinion. I've seen the full-size mockup orbiter that they have in Houston, but it was awfully cool to see the real thing in person! There's plenty of other space flight history as well, plus exhibits about current action in areas like Mars exploration and cooperation with private companies like SpaceX. We missed the SpaceX heavy launch by about a week, but that's probably just as well since it would have extremely crowded.

In the afternoon we drove down to Cocoa Beach and spent a few hours at the shore. Beautiful day, in the upper 70s/low 80s with a nice breeze. Plenty of other folks out enjoying it as well! Particularly nice since it was Sarah's first time at an ocean beach. Lake Michigan beaches are fine, of course, but it's a very different feeling with that salt water breeze and looking out at an entire ocean!

After driving back to Orlando, we cleaned up and took a nap. Being at the beach is hard work! For dinner, we went over to the Universal City Walk. Tons of restaurants to choose from and various live entertainment around the area. And most importantly, a very large cookies-and-cream milkshake for dessert.

Day Two: Non-Mouse Orlando

The second day was spent seeing some sights around Orlando that aren't theme parks. The Harry P. Leu gardens are part of an association with the Meijer Gardens here in Grand Rapids, which is how I heard about them. The grounds are beautiful, though be warned that the parking is very limited! We happened to visit when they had an exhibition of Lego sculptures around the park, which made it even more fun.

Later, we headed over to the Orlando Science Center and spent a few hours there. My favorite part of that was their wetlands habitat, which had fish and turtles and some small alligators. We even happened to catch feeding time for the gators, which was cool to see.

In the evening, we had a nice Valentine's Day dinner (a few days early, avoid the crowds) and went downtown to Orlando's Wall Street plaza area to see the nightlife. I particularly enjoyed the entirely Christmas-themed Frosty's Christmastime Lounge, where pride of place over the bar is given to a days-until-Christmas countdown clock.

Day Three: House of Mouse

We picked Epcot as our Disney park for the trip. We could have tried to hit a couple more parks in the first two days, but decided we'd rather not overdo it. I've been to Epcot before, but that was so many years ago that I hardly remembered the details, and what I did remember was all good.

You can schedule up to three rides ahead of time with the Fastpass program and skip the longest part of the line. Sadly, I wasn't able to sign up for the Frozen ride since it was already fully booked, but we did get into both Spaceship Earth and the Finding Nemo Aquarium ride. Both of those were great, though for different reasons. Spaceship Earth is fun mostly for the ride itself: going up into that big globe, through some (extremely simplified) history, and into a planetarium-style space view. The Nemo ride wasn't that impressive, but the aquarium afterward is excellent with some nice big tanks and plenty of underwater species to observe.

We walked around the World Showcase a couple of times. Went pretty quick at first, heading straight to Italy for lunch (which was excellent). Once we were less hungry, we took a bit more time and looked around several of the country pavilions. I liked Japan and Italy particularly, but they're all great.

It so happened that we picked a day during the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, so in addition to all the usual sights, there were a bunch of artist pavilions set up around the area. We saw lots of paintings, sculptures, and various other artistic pieces as we walked around the area. A few live displays, too, such as creation of specially dyed scarves and other clothing items.

Near the end of the day, we caught several live performances. Acrobats at the China pavilion, drummers at the German pavilion, and a performance of several Broadway songs by Ashley Brown and Josh Strickland. The Broadway performance was particularly fun - my favorite was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins, and Sarah really enjoyed Let It Go from the upcoming Frozen Broadway show.

Finally, at the end of the day was the nightly fireworks display. It was a little underwhelming, to be honest. Possibly we were just too tired to enjoy it, and certainly we didn't have the best viewing location. Nonetheless, even an underwhelming display of fireworks is still pretty impressive.

Day Four: The Bonus Day

We were supposed to leave very early on a 7 AM flight, but we were late to the airport and missed our scheduled flight. Entirely my fault, that was - I'm so used to smaller airports with lower passenger volumes, as well as traveling with only a carry-on bag, that I assumed an hour before the flight would be enough time. And it would have been, if we weren't trying to check bags and get through security in the hectic mass of people that is Orlando International. We ended up with four days in the warm weather instead of three, which isn't a terrible thing, and had no trouble on the second return attempt. I was very glad that I'd paid for refundable tickets so changing flight times was a simple process!

So after our misadventure at the airport, we had an extra day to fill. As boring as this sounds, about half of it was spent sleeping. We'd been up early to catch our flight (though obviously not early enough) and were tired after that full day at Epcot.

In the afternoon, we went over to the I-Drive 360 entertainment area. There's a bunch of restaurants and gift shops surrounding the main building with the Sea Life Aquarium and Coca-Cola Orlando Eye Ferris wheel. We enjoyed both, though I definitely think the aquarium came out as the most fun. It's small, but had lots of good displays and a hands-on section. Sarah liked the various types of rays particularly, and I was happy to see that the hands-on part had a selection of northern Pacific tide pool creatures...not so different from what I used to see on the Oregon coast.

Finally, we took one more trip into the mouse lair to visit Disney Springs. Had some dinner at the House of Blues, saw a few different live musical performances around the area, and of course saw any number of gift shop displays.

The Return

The next morning we slept in, with our flight scheduled for the afternoon. Well, Sarah slept in. I went out jogging, promptly got lost, and ended up going about three times farther than I'd intended. Missed breakfast, but no harm done. The airport experience this time went smoothly. We actually had about an extra hour to kill, which is par for the course with air travel. Arrive when you're supposed to, and end up waiting. Arrive later, and not enough time. We had to rush a bit when we landed in Grand Rapids to get Sarah to work, but that's to be expected when your plans change by an entire day.

All told, it was a very enjoyable trip. Everything from the space coast to Epcot was a fun adventure, and even our air travel fail was only a fairly minor hassle. The rest of winter will be a little less depressing after a few days in the sun!

A Trip to Southeast Texas

I recently took a trip to the Houston area in Southeast Texas, meeting up with my parents, brothers, and families. We stayed in Montgomery (about an hour northwest of Houston). Most of the time we spent catching up with each other, but we also found some time for a little sightseeing.

In case there was any question that you're in Houston, this is what greets travelers leaving Terminal A in the airport.

Before this trip, I knew in theory that the Houston area is heavily populated, but being there really gives you a feel for how many people live in and around the city. Wikipedia says that Houston is the 4th-largest city, and the wider metro area is the 5th most-populated, in the United States. We made the drive from the city to Montgomery several times during our stay, and it never felt like we were out in the country. Texas has a whole lot of land, and the people are certainly spreading out across it.

Full-sized shuttle mock-up at the Space Center.

The place we stayed at is a condo complex on Lake Conroe called Villas on the Lake. The buildings are a bit older, but are well enough maintained. There was plenty of room for all eight of us (six adults, two kids) in the three-bedroom condo. There's not a whole lot nearby other than the lake itself, but within moderate driving distance you can find a good number of stores and restaurants.

Memory Park in Montgomery.

Visiting in the middle of March was a wise decision as far as weather goes. Mostly upper 70s during the day and 60s at night. There were a couple of minor rain showers and some fog, but mostly the skies stayed clear. It was easy to imagine just how hot and humid things would be in the height of summer, though. I don't think I'd want to go back in August!

A few hanging fish at the Museum of Natural Science.

We took three trips for sightseeing while we were in the area:

• Space Center Houston is right across from the NASA Johnson Space Center. It's set up largely like a children's museum, with lots of interactive exhibits and learning presentations. For us old people there's also some displays on the history of NASA's various programs and a full-sized space shuttle/carrier plane mock-up.
• The Houston Museum of Natural Science has three floors packed full of all kinds of exhibits, from Texan wildlife to Amazon tribal culture to ancient Egypt. We picked this particular museum largely to indulge my niece's love of mummies by visiting the "Mummies of the World" special exhibit. We only spent an afternoon in this very impressive museum, but I could easily have spent twice that long and still not seen everything.
• On the other end of the sight-seeing spectrum from those large establishments was Fernland Park and Memory Park in Montgomery. Fernland Park is a collection of historic buildings that have been moved to Montgomery from their original locations, some from nearly 200 years ago. I particularly liked the log cabin that was built in the late 1800s. Adjacent to Fernland is Memory Park, a pond surrounded by walking paths with many memorandum signs from those who have donated time, money, and labor to creating the park. 

The hour or two spent to see those small Montgomery parks was a nice contrast to the hours spent at the larger Houston establishments. Nice to avoid the drive through Houston traffic, too.

One of the log cabins at Fernland Park.

This short trip was a nice introduction to some of what Southeast Texas has to offer. If I make another visit, I'd like to see the rest of the museum district, and maybe catch one of the Houston sports teams in town.

A Week in the Warm

I recently returned from a week's vacation in the Dominican Republic. January is a great time to get out of Michigan's winter and enjoy some Caribbean weather. (Here's some more pictures, besides those you see here.)

The beach in Costambar.

A group of guys I know make this trip nearly every year, and this is the third time I've joined them over the last decade or so. We spent a few days in each of three different areas: Costambar, Puerto Plata, and Sosua. Going with a group that's used to the trip makes things easy. I'm able to mostly leave the trip planning to others and enjoy the ride. Nice to have insider knowledge about good places to visit.

Food on the beach in Costambar.

Costambar is mostly an ex-pat community. There's a nice beach area that's not too crowded, since most of the tourists are elsewhere. Several local restaurants are run by folks from places like Germany and Italy. For the golf-inclined there's a local course, not that I made any use of it, but the paths around the outside of it made for a nice jogging route.

Big Lee's on the Malecon.

Puerto Plata and Sosua are much more tourist destinations. There are several all-inclusive resorts in the area. We weren't staying at those, but you see a lot of groups from them wandering around. In Puerto Plata, we took tours of a couple of local factories, Del Oro chocolate and Brugal rum. More good food, too. I particularly enjoyed visiting Big Lee's Beach Bar on the Malecon (roughly, "road along the ocean") - great fish and chips, and my friends knew Lee from years past so we hung out for a while and talked with him. And the main beach in Sosua is a big tourist attraction with a ton of small shops and food stalls, though I spent more time at the smaller Alicia Beach where it's not so crowded.

Ugly tourist by a beach sign in Sosua.

Streets and buildings are noticeably more run-down in most places in the Dominican Republic than we're used to here in the United States, and you have to be careful to drink bottled water. The traffic is pretty crazy - I certainly wouldn't want to drive myself around, so it's a good idea to make friends with a local cab driver. But those are fairly minor things to deal with, and it's pretty safe as long as you stay with a few friends and don't go wandering around in the dead of night or anything. And the cost is very reasonable - I spent less than $200 per day overall, including all the flight and lodging expenses. In a lot of places, you'll spend that on hotel alone.

Alicia Beach in Sosua.

Taking a trip down to the Caribbean makes a fine mid-winter break from the cold and snow. I'm not sure I'd ever want to move down there full-time like some of the ex-pats I met, but as a vacation spot the Dominican Republic is a fun place to visit.

Talking Rock Caverns

During our recent trip to Branson, Missouri, my family took a short drive outside of town to visit Talking Rocks Cavern.

It's around a half-hour drive outside of Branson to get to Talking Rocks Cavern, but you don't have to worry too much about getting lost. There are lots of signs along the way, mostly featuring a very happy lizard (probably a salamander, since they have those in caves) with a camera. The route goes right past Silver Dollar City, the large theme park outside of Branson, so you can zoom past the long lines of cars waiting to enter there and feel good about your choice of destination.

The outdoor Speleo Box.

Before we even entered the building above the cave, we discovered the Speleo Box, a big wooden structure that simulates crawling through a cavern. There are actually two of them, one inside the gift shop, and one out in front. The sign on it recommends that no one larger than 6'2" or 240 pounds try it out. My brother isn't too far shy of that, but he tried it anyway and was able to make it through. I didn't feel like contorting myself quite that much, and considering how much my brother complained about soreness later on, it was probably a wise decision. Lots of the many kids running around had a great time crawling through, though, without consequences on old bones and muscles.

My niece Frances, on her way out of the Speleo Box.

The cavern itself is around 100 feet deep, with just one human-sized opening at the top. It's quite damp, with a pool at the bottom, and there are some small drainage holes which keeps it from flooding (except in really heavy rains, which take some time to drain out). You walk down some fairly steep steps until you're fairly near the bottom, just above that muddy pool. It's not a difficult climb, but you definitely want to be careful and take it slow to avoid slipping. Our guide told us that the steps were built by lowering cement down one bucket at a time through that top opening - not a quick or easy task.

The "angel" formation in the cave...from the right angle it looks like a tall thin person with wings.

Speaking of our guide (whose name was David), he (and all the others working there) were knowledgeable and friendly. My nieces were particularly curious about just about everything in the cave, and he was very patient answering their questions. In between their interruptions, he told us some of the history behind the discovery of the cave and how the various owners over the years had made use of it as an attraction.

More cave formations.

None of the rocks in the cavern actually talk, although previous owners of the cavern thought it would be a great idea to hide speakers in the cave and use them to startle visitors during the tour. This went over about as well as you'd expect, and the whole talking rock idea was abandoned. The current owners opted to avoid frightening people and instead play some music with a bit of a light show for the tour groups, of which I approve.

Our family at the bottom of the cave.

In addition to the cave itself, visitors can explore a nature trail that's about a mile long. There's a few interesting-looking rock formations along the way, and a wooden lookout tower that commands a nice view of the valley where Talking Rocks is located. It mostly goes through fairly thick woods, so I imagine that some wildlife moves through there as well, although I didn't notice anything beyond insects.

View from the lookout tour on the nature trail.

All told, we probably spent 3-4 hours at the Talking Rocks Cavern, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Well worth the visit if you're in the area.

The Titanic Museum in Branson

When my family decided to take a short vacation in Branson, Missouri, I must say that a museum dedicated to the Titanic was not something I was expecting to find.

View of the museum as you pull into the parking lot.

Right off the main road through Branson's entertainment strip, at a fairly major intersection, sits the museum. They have signs, but they're not really necessary since the building is modeled to look like the front half of the luxury liner. With an iceberg, of course.

My Titanic passenger - Quigg Baxter.

When you first arrive and get your ticket, they also give you a card with information about a passenger or crew member that was on the Titanic when it went down. After you go through the whole museum, there's a wall near the end that tells you whether your person survived or perished. (Mine didn't make it.) It's a nice little personal touch to give everyone something to think about on the way through.

Cameras aren't allowed once you get inside, so I don't have anything to show of the actual displays. I thought they were very well put together, though. One of the first things you see is a scale model of the entire ship that took two full years to build, for instance. There are lots of artifacts from the Titanic herself or the Olympic, her sister ship. Everyone is given an audio tour handset to listen to as you go through the displays that adds some more information to what is posted.

Completely unrelated to the museum itself - this car, driven by a guy with a full white Santa beard, pulled up as we were waiting to go inside. The toy car key actually turns as the car is moving.

There are details on all the things you'd expect - the ship's size and construction, the three different passenger classes, the crew, details on the fatal crash. One whole room was devoted to the musicians who famously played on as the ship was going down, which I thought was one of the better parts of the entire tour. Lots of details on various individual passengers and crew as well, especially those with relatives who had saved some of their belongings.

And then there are things that I was surprised to see, such as information about the dogs that were on the ship. Apparently the butcher was in charge of keeping them fed and exercised. Impressive detail of research, that is, although I did note that they were unsure of the names or breeds of some of the pooches. There was also a room kept very cold that I assume was meant to give you an idea of what the night of the crash felt like, and an actual ice wall to touch on the way in. A bit overkill, perhaps, but it added some flavor to the experience.

A closer look at the side of the museum building, iceberg and all.

Southern Missouri isn't the first place I think of when the Titanic is mentioned, but I very much enjoyed this particular museum. They've done a good job with the displays and there's plenty of interesting information. Worth a stop if you're in the area.

A Stay in Branson Missouri

My brothers and I met up recently in Branson, Missouri as a sort of mini-family vacation.

They have a nice riverwalk area in downtown Branson.

The very first thing you notice when making your way into Branson for the first time is the traffic, which is always backed up on the main road. (At least, it is during the summer tourist season, when we were there.) Long-term municipal planning was apparently not a high priority when the city got started. The one main road is only a single lane each way, always incredibly crowded, and almost all the major attractions are located along it. Once you're off that road, the rest of the town is pretty widely spread out with lots of empty space between clusters of buildings. It's not a place where you want to run a tight schedule, because getting around is likely to take a while.

Our parents couldn't make it, being in Japan, but they provided the housing at the Wyndham Meadows time-share resort. It's a few miles outside of the downtown strip. The complex is medium-sized as these things go, around forty building sections with a half-dozen units each. There's a recreation center building with various places for games and movie-watching, but the main attraction is five different pools scattered around the complex. The staff was helpful and friendly, and didn't try too hard to sell us on buying into the time-share. Overall I'd say it was a good stay.

View from one of our rooms at the resort.

There was one minor disruption when a thunderstorm came through and knocked out power for a few hours one evening. That's a hazard anywhere in the Midwest, and it was handled fairly quickly. Fortunately it happened in the early evening, so we still had natural light and the heat wasn't too oppressive even without the air conditioning.

Riverboat. It had a paddlewheel for show, but was moving pretty fast.

Branson has a lot of theatre shows of various kinds. Acrobats, magicians, musical acts, illusionists, hypnotists, variety shows...there are advertisements everywhere. Nearly as common are the billboards and other ads for discount tickets. None of our family is has any particular interest in the theatre shows, though, so we looked into some of the other options.

Downtown Branson has the usual assortment of shops and restaurants that you find in many smaller tourist towns across the United States, so we spent an afternoon there. (Highlight: the soda fountain/ice cream place.) There's no lack of restaurant choices on the main strip, either. Fairly wide variety, and the few that we tried during our stay were all good.

This statue was located downtown. No explanation offered.

Since we skipped the theatre shows, that left time for some other attractions. Prominently displayed at a major intersection is the Titanic museum. You can't miss it since the building is shaped like the front half of the famous luxury liner. We also took a half-day trip about a half-hour drive away to the Talking Rock Caverns, and took the tour down into the cave. I enjoyed both, and will likely post some further details another time.

It was hot. This was on the cavern trip, but all the days were similar.

Branson was an interesting place to visit and they certainly have plenty of options for entertainment (especially if you like those theatre shows). It's a bit far away from Michigan to make it a repeat vacation destination for me, but it's certainly worth visiting once.

Origins 2016: The Logistics

Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio is a gaming convention that happens each summer. I first attended back in the late 1990s, but haven't been back for many years.

Walking up to the Convention Center entrance.

This year I went down for just a couple of days, driving down on Friday and back on Saturday. The original plan was to meet up with several friends and spend one more night, but some things came up so that only half the originally planned crew was able to go. That worked out fine for me, as I find that a couple of days worth of gaming convention is about right for me these days. A little longer can be fine with a bunch of friends, but with a smaller group, the shorter time works well.

The lines were long on Saturday morning.

The trip from Grand Rapids to Columbus was fairly uneventful, taking about six hours. It's summer, so there was a lot of construction traffic to deal with, especially along I-75 south of Toledo. No major delays, though. On the way back, I took a different route to avoid all that construction, west into Indiana and north from Fort Wayne. A bit longer, but less stressful.

White Wizard games in the exhibit hall.

I ended up staying near the airport, about a 20 minute drive from the convention center downtown. The ideal convention lodging is someplace you can walk to, but this worked fine for just the one night. Traffic between the hotel and downtown was a minor issue, but my Google Maps app did a good job directing me around the backups and I never got stuck for very long.

They had some Ascension for sale, but sadly no organized events were run.

Origins is held in the Greater Columbus Convention Center (and some nearby hotels). The facility has been around a while, but it's well maintained and easy to navigate. Origins isn't as big as some other conventions (i.e. GenCon), so there's plenty of room. Parking was easy to find and fairly cheap, which is a nice feature of being in a fairly small city.

Salmon sandwich and sweet potato fries at Tip Top.

There's quite a few restaurants and bars near the convention center, so there's plenty of options when it's time for a break from the gaming. I had dinner Friday night at Tip Top with some friends. It's a small restaurant/bar a few blocks from the convention center. Good food...the sweet potato fries in particular are amazing. Worth stopping by if you're in downtown Columbus.

Some of the guest of honor signing areas in the exhibit hall.

On Friday, the convention wasn't too crowded, but a lot of people showed up for Saturday. The line for event registration was huge. Even picking up your pre-registration badge had a long line on Saturday, so I was glad to have gotten my stuff on Friday. The exhibit hall was very crowded on Saturday as well. I spent most of Saturday playing in events, though, so it didn't bother me.

More exhibit hall. Lots of t-shirts available.

I spent 2-3 hours in the exhibit hall across both days. There was plenty to see, from artists displaying their work to authors doing book signings to every kind of game for sale. Most of the booths have games available to try out, so I did a few demos of things I hadn't tried before. Picked up a couple of new quick-play games to take to game nights.

New games! These are fairly quick, 15-30 minutes for 4-5 people. Good for game nights.

I particularly like browsing the artist booths. There's usually a selection of different styles, from cartoon-ish to almost photographic quality. Buying the originals is way out of my price range, but most of the pieces are available as prints, so I often take home one or two of my favorites. Got one this year, a piece by Charles Urbach.

Highland Flame by Charles Urbach

There's tons of gaming accessories for sale, too. One booth was selling nothing but wooden hand-crafted dice boxes, for instance. Dice were everywhere, of course. And there were lots of game mats for sale at various places - I found two of those that I liked enough to take home.

Game mat purchases.

Tomorrow, some words about the gaming events!