It was pouring down rain on Friday morning when I got up in the morning.  By the time the sun came up up it had cleared and we had herons in the yard:

Pickleball was lurking around the house:

After lunch we headed to the airport.  Thankfully, they’ve moved the Hertz area onto the airport grounds so returning the car was much easier than last time.  Then we headed over to Terminal A where check was blissfully short as was security.  This is the main atrium mid day:

We headed over to terminal A.  We had some food and waited on our flight.  Terminal A seems to be a little emptier than it’s been in past years.  The whole airport seemed a little emptier than usual.  I think the sharp reduction in small regional jets in the last couple of years has hit Orlando pretty hard.  The terminal is lovely:

The tram that leads from the pain terminal to the gates:

Mr. Poe in his smart new Harry Potter shirt enjoying free internet access.  Hello gorgeous:

The main terminal/Hyatt:

Our ride:

The gate.  The door alarm wouldn’t stop going off and they were working on it while we boarded:

We got on our flight:

4/29/11 Virgin America Flight 305 MCO-SFO A320 Dep 4:40 PM Arr 7:50 PM

The flight was as stylish as the flight out.  We definitely had a screaming baby problem on the flight.  Which was incredibly irritating.  She screamed pretty much the entire flight.  I paid for WIFI again so at least I wasn’t trying to sleep.  Mr. Poe wasn’t hungry this time so he didn’t avail himself to the menu but the food choices looked good.  This was the cabin in flight:

We were flying one of the older A320′s and it had this cool bar at the back by the galley.  The newer ones have a different configuration:

Here it is with the flash:

We got in a little late and collected our luggage.  This is the view from the Air Train on the way to BART:

We headed home to the extreme delight of the dogs.  I was starving by that point so I made some dinner and we went to bed.  I was beat.

Thursday Mr. Poe and I went riding around in the golf cart before lunch.  I keep getting lost in her neighborhood.  It’s designed kind of like Golden Gate Park in that the designers took pains to conceal the true dimensions of the area by using all sorts of curving roads so you think you’ve traveled a great distance when in fact  you’ve been running around in circles.  We headed over to the community center where we totally got the fish eye from the lady manning the desk until I was able to produce the magical guest passes that gave us access to everything.  It’s very, very pretty:

Inside:

Glamorous Pool:

Hello gorgeous!

After lunch we headed off to the nursery so Mom could get a few things for her butterfly garden.  The nursery was enormous by California standards with many pretty things in it:

Mr. Poe and Mom at the nursery:

I learned new stuff.  Spanish Moss isn’t parasitic after all.  People just think that because it can have the effect of shading out the branches it’s growing but it derives all of it’s sustenance from the air:

We headed over to the AT&T store and got Mom and Iphone.  OMG she’s joined 2007!

Wednesday we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  Mr. Poe is a total Harry Potter fanatic and was very, very excited when we showed up to go there because of the recently opened Wizarding World.  The theme park is made up of a bunch of different sections, some more successful than others.  The architecture was for the most part beautiful and it was the attractions that kind of sucked or the themes that didn’t really have cohesion.  The Harry Potter area was itself mostly recycled from a medieval themed section of the “Lost Continent” island and only the Hogwarts part was new.  But it’s gorgeous and fabulous and definitely worth the admission even if the rest of the park falls short.   I kept helping that the attractions lived up the amazing architecture and at the end of the day they didn’t.

We got to the park right as it opened which turned out to be a fabulous idea because the we escaped both the hottest part of the day and the long lines.  We didn’t have to wait very long for anything and the longest line we were in, for the wand store, was only about a half an hour.  More advice: buy your tickets online and print them out and bring them with you. 

Both of the Universal theme parks are entered from a common public area that has parking, a huge movie theater and a bunch of restaurants.  None of it was opened when we got there at 7:30 and it still wasn’t open when we left at 1:30.  But they had a bunch of good choices and higher end stuff than in the park.  I think they’d be really fun at night:

Mr. Poe was almost running when we got into the park because he was so excited about seeing Hogwarts.  It didn’t disappoint.  The building is fabulous.  The architects have played with perspective to make it look much taller than it actually is.  It’s breathtaking:

Hello gorgeous!:

Me:

We headed right over to Hogwarts for the Forbidden Journey ride.  It’s kind of this CGI think that isn’t very scary but is really neat and is highly recommended.  I’m not really an amusement park person and I thought it was totally awesome.  The best idea they had was to make the line for the ride a trip through places you’d recognize from Hogwart’s.  It’s such a great idea because there was always something to look at as you worked your way to the actual ride.  We didn’t have to wait in much of a line so Mr. Poe didn’t get as good of a look at some of it as he’d like.  It’s meticulously detailed and totally fabulous:

They got a lot of the cast to do the filming for the ride before the movie finished so there were a lot of cameos.  In the dim light it was hard to see it was a screen and Mr. Poe thought they were live actors:

The Sorting Hat:

From there we went to the Hippogriff coaster which billed itself as being “family friendly”.  It was recycled from a unicorn ride that was part of the Medieval village that previously held that spot.  Although it wasn’t very scary, it totally freaked Mr. Poe out and he was screamin’ like a baby.  That was the last ride of the day.  This is Hagrid’s hut from the ride–  it’s very well done:

Then we headed into Hogsmeade.  The villiage was also recycled and although it’s incredibly beautiful, it didn’t look much like the Hogsmeade from the movie and I wondered about that. 

Hello gorgeous:

The architecture is amazing.  Except for the snow which looked dirty and fake.  We waited in line for about a half an hour for the wand shop demonstration and it totally sucked.  It’s supposed to look the like wand scene from the first movie but ends up coming off like an informercial.  Not recommended.  Also, I thought the wands were gonna look really cool but they kind of didn’t and I wasn’t interested enough to price them.  They do have some super fantastic clothing and Mr. Poe bought a few things.  They aren’t cheap but they’re well made and nicely detailed.  Like!  The gift shop at Hogwarts is a little less chaotic than the one at the wand store. 

Here are some pics from Hogsmeade.  Incredible: 

Hello gorgeous:

This is the inside of the restaurant in Hogsmeade:

This is the view of Hogsmeade from across the lagoon:
 

Then we headed over to the Lost Continent area.  It’s part Sinbad and part Atlantis.  The architecture is really fantastic but the area isn’t cohesive and the attractions are lame.  There’s like a zillion ways they could have made it cooler.

This is the Poseidon’s Fury attraction.  It looked so promising but it totally sucked.  I mean horrible.  It’s this stupid, contrived tour through a temple led by this actor that was so bad that the living were envying the dead.

 
From there we went to the Seuss Landing which was very imaginative and incredibly well executed.  They had a couple of rides that looked promising but I wasn’t up for a repeat of the Hipogriff drama so we just walked around:

Hello gorgeous:

This is the view of Seuss Landing from across the Lagoon.  It seemed like they should have put a beach there but they didn’t and I wondered if it had to do with water quality:

Then we headed over to Marvel Super Hero Island.  I love comic books and had been looking forward to that area.  It was OK.  There were a couple of decent looking rides although the Hulk and Dr Doom one looked too scary for me.  I was hoping they’d have some merchandise I hadn’t seen before but they didn’t have anything you don’t see in comic books stores everywhere.  The coolest thing I saw were these little painted structures that had all these Marvel heroes many of which you don’t really hear about anymore.

The original X-Men

60′s – 70′s montage:

80′s montage:

60′s looking Fantastic Four:

The original Avengers:

The Invaders:

This awesome looking Phoenix was part of the the display at one of the stores:

Then we headed over to the shit show that calls itself “Toon Lagoon”.  It was awful.  Is this really the best they could do??  I love how they designed it around a theme that nobody has cared about for thirty years.  Brenda Starr??  Seriously?

A spread-eagled Kathy does not make me want to eat ice cream:

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse I saw a line of of Marvel heroes who were randomly riding ATV’s for some reason.  Look, I got the point from Captain America!:

We headed over to the Mythos restaurant for lunch because the map indicated that they had vegan options.  Which they did.  I had pad thai which was kind of terrible. It was as if the guy who made it had never eaten it before and didn’t know what he was doing.  I figured it was gonna be like that and wisely ordered french fries too and they were really good.  But they get big points for having a vegan option in the first place.  And look how cool the restaurant was.  It was amazing:

This is me and the view of the restaurant from across the lagoon:

Then we headed over to Jurassic Park which was really awful too.  The worst part of it was that they were billing parts of it as educational but it wasn’t educational and it was just really stupid.  And they kept making references to the movie but the movie came out a long time ago and I didn’t remember it very well.

By far, the stupidest thing we saw all day was the Triceratops.  We thought it was a garden and got stuck in this group and were too polite to bolt.  They have these fake game wardens that assemble groups and send you in to see a fake veterinarian who shows you a fake triceratops that growls at you and pees.  I don’t know how many drugs you have to be on to be a fake veterinarian at a triceratops exhibit but I bet it’s a lot.  Still the fake vet was super cute:

It pees!  I was so hoping it pooped:

We headed back to Harry Potter world and bought some stuff and headed for the exit.  We’d been there more than five hours and that was about our limit.  The Port of Entry area doesn’t have any rides but the architecture is so special.  Gorgeous:

This is the lighthouse at the entrance:

They have a seaplane that looked real to me:

The view of their other theme park:

We got home a little earlier than I’d planned which was fine because we hang out in the pool for a while and then had dinner.  I can report that Rocky’s feeling a whole lot better and has resumed his delightful behavior of insisting that he get a cookie everything you pass by the place in the kitchen where the cookie box is kept.  Good times.

I got up pretty early on Monday morning.  Mom was making plans to get Rocky into the vet.  Since they weren’t going to be open til 9AM, I sent her off jogging.  I took some pics of my Mom’s recently installed butterfly garden before the day got too hot:

The view from her backyard:

The Florida room:

We took Rocky to the vet around noon.  He has a spinal injury/inflamation in his neck that’s not uncommon for a dog his age.  The doctor prescribed a steroid and a pain killer and sent him home to see how he responded to that.  I explained to my mom that she had to refer to the pain killers as “dolls” and then had to explain Jacqueline Suzann to her.  I could tell that my mom thinks I have a brain full of useless crap.  She’s probably right.

Mom’s gotten a new cat since last I visited.  She calls him Mr. Pete and he’s super cute and pretty nice.  I think when he’s older he’ll be the type that parks themselves in your lap for the better part of the day but he’s still pretty young and likes to run around a lot:

The other cat’s name is Pickleball which is a terrible name for a cat.  I’ve tried to get her to change the name to “Peggy” but have not been successful.  Pickleball is very, very shy and avoided us completely.  She has this habit of staring at us from a distance with this very disapproving look on her face as if she’s wondering “Who invited these tacky people?”

Rocky looked better as soon as we started giving him his medication.  Here are he and Chica napping.  I think they were sleepin’ off a heavy lunch:
 

Here’s Mr. Poe in the Florida room.  Hello gorgeous!

After lunch we moved some unbelievably heavy pots which was made a little bit more difficult because I’m still pretty stiff from falling off my bike on Friday.  We couldn’t tell Mom this because, if you recall, I promised her up and down that I wouldn’t commute on my bicycle anymore after I knocked out my teeth in 2009.  I tried to play off my stiffness as airplane seat related and I could tell she wasn’t really buying it.  Late in the day the sky opened up and it poured down rain for about an hour.  I love it with when it rains like that. So pretty:

We had dinner and went to bed pretty early.  It was a long day and we were beat.  Tuesday was a bit more of the same.  A bunch of errands followed by the pool at the end of the day.  I can report that Rocky’s definitely on the mend.

Virgin America is a sparkingly stylish airline.  At times almost cloyingly so–  as if it’s trying too hard to be cool.  We got mad cheap tickets on their recently launched nonstop service to Orlando.  Which in itself is such a luxury because I’ve always had to change planes on the way to go visit my mom because the nonstop on United was either too expensive or got in too late to Orlando.

4/24/11 Virgin America Flight 300 SFO-MCO A320 Dep 9:55 AM Arr 6:20 PM

This aircraft was named the “Spruce Moose”– evidently named to promote their new Canadian service.  It was rainy and crappy in San Francisco but our flight left on time.  Here she is at the gate:

Here’s what Virgin America looks like onboard.  Very, very stylish:

One we got flying there was a drink service.  Anything that you wanted after that you ordered via the IFE panel on the seat back in front of you which was pretty awesome.  Virgin America has WIFI on their flights for like $10 which is an incredible deal on a longer flight.  Please note that they do not have a content filter which will be really embarrassing if you aren’t paying attention to your search search results before you click on something.  Sadly, their WIFI isn’t fast enough to stream a movie off of Youtube, but they have a bunch of on demand movies and television.  You have to pay for the most recent selections but I think the US consumer at this point is so used to being nickeled and dimed by the airlines that it’s to be expected.  Their food choices seem to be a little better than other airlines I’ve flown.  There was a salad I could have eaten but I had a burrito at the airport and wasn’t really hungry.  Mr. Poe had an enormous sandwich which he enjoyed very much.  Evidence:

For $9 you get a sandwich with a freakish amount of meat on it.  Not unexpectedly, Mr. Poe nommed the whole thing down very quickly:

Loads were pretty light on the flight and we didn’t have anybody in the middle seat which was awesome.  We also managed to be screaming baby free for the entire flight!  We got into Orlando airport on time and Mr. Poe went to go get the luggage and sort out the rental car and I stayed behind to wait on my mom who was flying in from Baltimore.  Orlando has a very pretty airport–  it’s spacious and pretty.  We flew into terminal A and the wing we were in seemed pretty empty. 

The main atrium of terminal A.  Orlando only seems to have fast food which sucks if you’re me. 

This is the landside area of the airport which has a Hyatt in it.  Very picturesque:

Mom got in on time and we didn’t have any trouble with the car so we were at her house a little earlier than I thought we’d be.  Sadly, something was very wrong with her poodle Rocky and we were all worried about it.  He kept crying and I didn’t like the way he was holding his head.  We had dinner and talked about going to the vet in the morning.  We didn’t get to bed until after 11PM.  I was still on Pacific time so it was hard to get to sleep.

Sunday Mr. Poe and I made our way to SFO for our flight to Orlando to go see my mom.  Virgin America is now flying out of the newly refurbished terminal 2 and it is indeed super fantastic.  Although it looks like they’ve kept a couple of elements of the old terminal, just about everything looks brand new.  This in the new entrance which is such an incredible improvement over the old one.  It’s gorgeous:

And here is the beautiful new check in area.  It’s beautiful.  Well designed, thoughtfully executed and just all around glorious.  Terminal 2 is only American and Virgin America with Virgin America being the more stylish resident but a very wide margin:

This is Virgin America’s check in.  There’s unused space next to their area:

Fresh flowers!:

American was already a shit show at 8AM on a Sunday morning. So glad we weren’t flying on them:

One thing that I noticed that was different from just about every airport terminal I’ve ever been in is the lack of concessions landside.  I think there was a place that had newspapers and drinks by the American Airlines check in but that was about it.  It totally makes sense.  People want to make their way through security as soon as possible and then not leave the secure area until their flight.  All of the concessions should be airside and that’s what they’ve done in Terminal 2. 

One of the seating areas landside:

I like the art in the terminal.  It’s interesting but, as one would expect, neither controversial nor too exciting:

I like the mobiles.  I think they’re perfect for the space.  They won’t age well but they probably aren’t expected to.

We headed through security and made out way through the terminal.  I recognize the basic configuration of the terminal from back when it was the International Terminal and, although they gutted the building and took it down to its frame, they kept the basic layout.  I have mixed feelings about that because, although nostalgic, the lollipop shape of the terminal isn’t the best use of space and there are only fourteen gates.  I wonder if they would have been able to get more gates in had they demolished the building and started over.  Maybe they have plans to expand it later.  This should look familiar to you if you ever visited the old International Terminal:

This is a children’s play area:

The gates:

Terminal 2 has more concessions per gate than I think I’ve ever seen.  Probably a good idea since people tend to be captive audiences for at least an hour before boarding their flights and I don’t think you can get a hot meal on a domestic flight in the US anymore if you aren’t flying first class and even then only on certain flights.  Me being vegan is always a challenge for finding airport food but there were a bunch of places I could have eaten at.  They even have a Plant Cafe and they have vegan cupcakes!  There doesn’t seem to be anything on the low end.  No McDonalds, Burger King, Sbarro or anything like that which doesn’t bother me but might not be the greatest for people traveling with kids.  Big fast food places likely aren’t allowed under the planning agreements the airport they have with the city.  I wonder if, in the long term, this many concessions will be profitable.  There is, of course, a sushi bar that had this beautiful cherry-blossom-on-tv thing going on.

Food Network chefs Cat Cora and Tyler Florence both have restaurants in Terminal 2.  I’m fond of Mr. Florence, but I love Cat Cora because we both share the same lesbian hair cut.

Terminal 2 also has a zillion places to sit dowm, plug in an work.  And free wifi!  Here’s Mr. Poe looking a little befuddled that life could be so good:

One thing that people who like looking at and taking photos of aircraft will not be very happy about is the tint on the windows.  It’s like a bunch of little polka dots and foils most attempts at photography:

The bathrooms are very nice.  I think the arrows are poorly placed and look like an ad for Activia gone awry:

I don’t understand what the seating area in the men’s room is for.  Who is gonna use that and why?  Are they anticipating herds of drag queens that need touch ups on their faces before their flight to Dallas?  I think likely not.  Men without exception rightly consider public restrooms to be vile, filthy places and we do our best to get in and out without touching anything.  Still, the rest room interior is as carefully designed as everything else and looks really good.  I think it will likely hold up pretty well too:

This art installation airside in the terminal was an interactive exhibit about bay area birds that made bird noises:

There’s a lovely exhibit on 20th century silver as well.  Swanky:

This painting was opposite one of the gates:

According to the website, the Virgin America Clubhouse is still located in the International Terminal which makes absolutely no sense since they only have their Mexican flights coming into that terminal.  I’m guessing they haven’t finished the new one in Terminal 2 yet.  Because they charge a per use fee on the clubhouse and nobody’s gonna plunk down $35 to go out of the secure area and then either walk ten minutes or take the train to the International Terminal and then come back and go through security all over again so they can get their flight.   I think they’d just stay in the secure area and eat at one of the many, many restaurants.

My body and I had an argument on Saturday morning about whether I got to go bicycling or not.  My brain said that I wasn’t gonna ride all week and it was gonna be a gorgeous day and I should go.  My body, on the other hand, explained to me in no uncertain terms that I was forty years old and I’d fallen off of a bicycle the day before and I wasn’t going to ride no 120 miles no way no how.  In the end, my brain gave up and I canceled my ride and went back to bed.  I lounged about the house all day and felt a lot better by the end of the day than I did when I woke up– I’m more achy than anything and just need a lot of stretching.  I’m definitely gonna be ready for riding next weekend.  I spent the afternoon baking snacks for our house sitter.  I made banana cake and also these chocolate rolls that turned out fucking fantastic.  Check this out–  the things that look like raisins are in fact chocolate chips.  I can’t wait to hear back from Nathan to find out how he liked them:

After dinner Mr. Poe walked the dogs and we went to bed early. 

I’m pretty banged up but nothing is broken.  My pretty-sure-it-was-damaged helmet turned out to be totally cracked.  I pinned a note to it explaining it was ruined and tossed it.  Mr. Poe, furloughed for the day, came and took me out to lunch.  He’s Italian and characteristically fed as much as he can.  Italian manta:  feed a cold, feed a fever.  We had Chipotle for lunch and then he got me a cookie and a cup cake from the Plant Cafe.  Deee-licious.  I managed to ride home on my bike and thankfully, I’m less sore riding than I am walking.  I headed home and visited with Mr. Poe and our friend Elaine who had stopped by for tea.  Mr. Poe went for a movie with his friend Sharon and I felt like baking so I made the classic milk bread from the Joy of Cooking and then I rolled it with green chili and cheese.  It turned out spectacularly:

I’m still planning on riding tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

It has not been a pleasant morning.  I fell on my way down Market.  There was a large patch of oil in front of Marshalls on Market at 4th and biker after biker went down on it.  It happened so fast–  I was riding and then I was down.  I don’t think I’m too badly banged up– mostly because I slid on the oil instead of smacking on the ground.but I’m feel stiff and crappy.  This is what two of the cans of diet coke that were in my backpack look like now–  it’s pretty much how I feel:

I can report that of the eight or ten riders who fell after me I was the only one who was screaming “Fuck” at the top of lungs from the moment he started skidding on the grease.  I should probably work on that.  Mom thinks we could pay off the national debt by installing a swear jar next to my desk.  I’m supposed to ride tomorrow and it’s my last ride before going on vacation.  I really want to go and hope I don’t have to cancel.  I took some Advil and I’m starting to feel a lot better.  Mr. Poe’s coming to take me out for lunch and I’m going to see how I’m moving.  I’d like to ride my bike home after work– with a new helmet as the one I was wearing was likely damaged–  and see how I feel.  Developing.

Thursday I came down Market into work and headed home for lunch.  I managed to get a pic of Mr. Poe’s prize winnin’ wisteria before I came back.  I know there have been many, many pics of the Wisteria on my blog over the last few weeks but it’s been such a great year for it and it looks different every day:

The trumpet vine attached to the front of our house is starting to come into bloom.  Stay tuned for more garden spectacular:

After work I headed off Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Spruce to Washington.  I stopped for a pic of my favorite view of the north bay:

One of the spectacular homes that enjoys that view:

I took Washington to Arguello to Lake to 23rd.  These are some of the fabulous homes on Lake around 23rd:

I took 23rd to Cabrillo to 47th to Fulton to the Great Highway.  I stopped for pics at the beach.  What a beautiful day:

Me:

I took the Great Highway to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett and home for dinner.  I walked the dogs after work and went to bed early.