Wednesday's adventure!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Wednesday I got to do something I had never done before: meet in person an LJ friend I'd never met in real life! I also got to drive in circles (not new), and I got quite a light show coming home.

I realized from greyias's journal that she was in Orlando this week! Orlando isn't far, so we arranged to meet Wednesday in the late afternoon. I drove out there and found her hotel just fine. Then we headed towards Downtown Disney, to the Lego store, which is a wonder. Next, we headed around Downtown Disney. There was a moment at a light when I said, "Wait--was I supposed to turn onto that road? I think I was supposed to turn left there," and I was in the right turn lane. No matter, I thought; everything loops back around at Disney so that you get as many chances as possible to spend money!

Yes, everything loops back around, but sometimes it takes its own darned time doing so. I should have made a U-turn right away, but my one opportunity looked like too tight a turning radius, possibly with traffic coming on (so I might not have time for a three-point turn, or my specialty, the seventeen-point turn), so I didn't do it. Oops. Well, Greyias got a better idea of just how big Disney is!

We did eventually get to Downtown Disney, where I was so relieved to find parking that I parked in pretty much the first space I found. Last time I went, with Brilliant Husband and Small Child, we drove around a while before we got a space, and I didn't want to do that again. I couldn't find my map of Downtown Disney itself, but I figured, "It's not that big!" It is in 90° heat, actually, when you've parked at nearly the farthest possible point.

We did, however, get to the Lego store! They have a number of creations built by people paid to build with Legos; can you imagine? I hope the photos give some sense of the size of the larger ones:

The Lego crab:




Lego London:




Lego Sydney:






Millennium Falcon:




Lego person:




The Loch Ness monster!





We also had a good dinner and watched an anole strutting his stuff on some lilypads. (Anoles are lizards, not amphibians, Greyias; I had that wrong Wednesday night.) I only got lost briefly on the way back to the hotel!

I made it home with no trouble, but lightning all the way home. I actually got very little rain, and only for a few miles. I had the most amazing light show, though, I had to work to keep my eyes on the road! Most of it seemed to be cloud-to-cloud lightning, which I haven't seen much outside of Florida. Sometimes I just saw colors: mostly yellow, but some orange and rose. I also saw some streaks across the sky, a couple even right across the highway in front of me! That was a little scary, but I was fine. (Other people got golfball-sized hail and torrential rains, it turns out, but I got very light rain.)

So I had a fabulous time Wednesday, and Greyias appears not to blame me for first driving her all around Downtown Disney and then dragging her all through it on foot!

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

That is so cool!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time! always so awesome to meet new people (even if you've known them quite awhile, lol!)

*Cuddles you like mad*

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Yep, a great time!

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

I reckon I've met about a third of my flist in real life. But then the Denial crew (and all my old friends from Pros) are very sociable *g*. So should you ever come to England, expect to meet us!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Oh, I hope so! I've been to England several times, before I had so many LJ friends there. Actually, now that I think about it, only one of my trips was after I started my LJ, and that one was less than a month after!

I knew three of my LJ friends personally before I got on LJ, but several others through fanfic, e-mail, and a discussion board I used to frequent. The only other person I can think of that I knew from electronic communication before I met him or her was a guy I met online, dated once, and I think we bored each other to death! I think that must be the exception, though. (Only a handful of my LJ friends are men, interestingly--and one of those is my husband!)

I do expect I'll go back to England sometime in the next few years.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Those are some awesome models!

And it is very awesome to meet an LJ-only friend in RL! *g*

[aelfgyfu_mead]

The photos don't fully convey the combination of large scale and tiny details!

Yes, it was a lot of fun, and I hope eventually to meet more LJ friends in real life!

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I was never really interested in Disney World but if I had my vey own tour guide then I'm in :D I'd even take SC!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Disney actually does have a huge range of things to do. My husband and I are ride freaks; the trouble is that most of the rides in the Magic Kingdom are really very tame, and, last time we went, Space Mountain was closed for refurbishing! We had only convinced SC to ride that one visit previously, and she was crushed not to be able to go on it again! She still won't do a lot of the "scarier" rides (and few things at Disney are truly scary, except for Tower of Terror--unless you count being constantly approached by Disney characters, which can be frightening indeed).

They also have shows and restaurants and shopping. If you ever find yourself coming to the Orlando area, you must let us know!

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

You're on. Come to Melbourne and I'll take you to the footy (you have to come in our winter for that though :D)

random

[archersangel (from livejournal.com)]

hello. long-time lurker-type here. i friended, hope you don't mind.

Re: random

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I certainly don't mind! Don't I know you from the SciFi bulletin board? I'm afraid my memory's awfully fuzzy (I haven't been back there in a while), but I know your name from somewhere!

Re: random

[archersangel (from livejournal.com)]

yes, i post at the scifi.com bboard