My cousin’s birthday

[fbhjr]

The family curse was working quite well. When we got to Florida it was 87F/27C. It dropped 20F/10C the next day, but went back when we left.


But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Wednesday morning we got up at 5 to head to the airport. It was well above freezing with a nice cold rain.

I’m generally not a big fan of Florida, but that’s the sort of weather than makes me not mind going south.


We got to Logan airport, through security and to the gate without problem.
At times I think the airports are too high tech. For instance, electronic bathroom condition reporting.

Of course, the clock was off 12 hours, so maybe it isn’t too high tech.

Our plane was ready on time and no problem getting seats together.


But, the plane didn’t have a starter. So, they had to wait for the special cart to arrive to start the plane.


Then, off into the rainy sky.


Given it was the day before Christmas, I thought it nice our flight path was shaped like a candy cane.


The clouds were over most of the east coast, but broke up as we reached Florida.


We flew past Saint Augustine. I like that place. We will probably visit there again at some point: http://fbhjr.livejournal.com/515875.html


Very soon after we were landing in Orlando.


The day before Christmas in Orlando airport is a busy day.


Our flight was too late to meet my cousin for lunch. So, we went right to the post lunch activity of the Chocolate museum.

My wife did not feel well, so she stayed in the car. I perused chocolate while waiting for my cousins to arrive.


My cousins arrive and we went on the chocolate tour. Ricky our guide assured us that there would be no chocolate water falls, boat rides on rivers of chocolate or Oompa Loomas. Ah well. I guess that was too much to expect.


This turned out not to be a chocolate pirate ship, but a representation of Hernan Cortez’ ship that brought chocolate back to Spain.


They had some of the early chocolate equipment from when it was just a drink. They also had us try what it was like before someone thought of adding sugar to it. I’m glad they add sugar to it.


They had a lot of stuff from folks who liked chocolate back in the day.


Some of the family were interested in some things, other in other things.


They had a large collection of chocolate carvings. Or, maybe I should say a collection of large carvings.













They also had a bunch of equipment used to make chocolate.

This actually is used to make carmel. But, they found that out after they bought it for the museum and thought it was cool so they kept it.


And, graphs! They had graphs!


And, diagrams!


They also had a very large collection of chocolate wrappers.


And, selections of molds.


Once the tour was done I got my wife out of the car so she could come in and join us for desert and presents for my cousin’s birthday.


Afterwards, my wife went off with some of my cousins who were going home so she could rest. I went off with mariness so she could see the fireworks at Disney for her birthday.
It was cloudy, but we figure they’d still go on.


We at dinner by the pool of one of the hotels. There was a very large (the size of my thumb) bug that liked to swim in the pool. It would jump in, swim around, climb out and then jump in again.


There was some concern about my cousin getting out the lady’s room in her wheel chair when the edge of the pool was very close and downhill from the door.

But, she managed fine.

Sadly about 20 minutes before the fireworks were to go off a fairly strong rainstorm swept in.


Some of my weather apps were less than helpful about how long it would last.


We waited with a group from Oregon in the hopes it would not last long as they had paid for a boat ride to see it.


The storm was fairly strong, but not super wide. So, we had hope it wouldn’t last long.

(We were the purple dot to the right of center…)
But, it turned out the storm was moving north east, so we stayed in it longer than expected.


We decided to move to a better place to see the fire works.


We did see some over the hotel where we ate dinner.

These turned out to be ones at Magic Kingdom, not Epcot. We were next to Epcot. So, once they were over we went into the hotel to wait for mariness’ brother to come get her.
While we did that, the ones next to us went off.
We came out just for the end of them.
So, we saw some, but not as much as we could have. mariness was unhappy about it, but we did see some. And, I got to have a nice visit with my cousin, so I was happy.

Her brother got her, and I went off to her parents to pick up my wife. We went back to our hotel and had no trouble getting to sleep.

Comments

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

LOL at your less than helpful weather app - hahaha

I'm disappointed by the lack of a chocolate river, oompa loompas and a boat ride but still looked pretty good :)

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I should, in fairness, point out that they did give you samples of a dozen different types of chocolate to compare.
Not much of each, but it was nice to try a wide selection.

The white chocolate with blueberry jam was my favorite, even if not a proper chocolate...

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

White with blueberry jam sounds interesting!
It would be criminal if they didn't let you taste some chocolate after spending all that time talking and looking at it.

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

Oooh, do you remember all the types you got to try?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

No, I'm afraid I don't. I thought it would be listed on their web page, but it isn't.
If you go and look, you will need to be better than me at recording it.

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

I love the Easer Island sculptures. Now I would love a small one of those to put in an Easter Basket.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's some chocolate….

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

What weather app is that?

also, I didn't realize that planes without starters exist! :O Wow, that's pretty uncommon, right?

All those chocolate carvings seem like such a waste of good chocolate! :p

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

It is called "Authentic Weather". Normally it just used bad language to describe the weather.

It was the first plane without a starter we have seen in quite some time. A few decades ago it was very common.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I was going to be sad for the lack of a chocolate pirate ship, then I saw the chocolate Obama. Ha! That's so amusing.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Our guide tells me it is properly pronounced "ChocObama".

[merilune.livejournal.com]

I like your weather app a lot!

Ahh chocolate... I think I would have gained 10kg by just looking at all of that chocolate...

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I heard about this app from folks down your way...

[chaquir.livejournal.com]

I bet the smell of chocolate was huge in there!!

[meathiel]

Chocolate museum looks interesting - esp. all the stuff made from chocolate.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry your wife felt bad. The chocolate museum looked really interesting.

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

It's too bad someone broke off the Pharaoh's head on that Abu Simbel model and ate it.