Last week, Tessa and I took our second vacation together as we made the long ass haul down to Orlando, FL to hit up Universal Orlando and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  Needless to say it was a nonstop adventure!

We left Greenville on Thursday making many well needed stops along the way!  Then, first thing Friday morning, we awoke to the terrible news of the earthquake in Japan while simply checking on the day’s weather forecast.  Trying to keep our spirits, when grabbed some breakfast and hit Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

When we first got into the park, the lines weren’t too bad so we hit The Incredible Hulk Coaster and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man in the Marvel Super Hero Island.  We skipped past all the water rides since it was still a bit chilly and ran right past to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Lo and behold, that was where the crowd was!  We rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and had to get out of there due to the insanity of the crowd but not before Tessa took numerous pictures and shed a few tears over the replication of the scenery from the films of which she is a big fan!

After that, we grabbed some food and I had the bright idea of hitting the water rides with the temp still in the 60s!  So, we hit all three water rides then made a break back to the hotel to change and wrap up for the day then had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.

Saturday it was back at it again as we hit Universal Studios first thing in the morning.  The crowd wasn’t as bad for most of the day allowing us to cover the entire park and be done fairly early so we could shower and take a brief nap before going to Planet Hollywood for dinner.

We didn’t get in until late Saturday and realized on the way back to the hotel that we had to set our clocks ahead an hour and lose yet another hour of sleep.  Needless to say, that made it all the more difficult to get up bright and early to hit Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

At the start of the day, the crowds weren’t terrible so we immediately hit the two most popular rides in the park: the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring AEROSMITH and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which were right next to each other on Sunset Blvd.  I gotta admit I was pretty scared getting on the Tower of Terror for the first time since I am not a big fan of drops.  However, I loved the ride and it has now become a new favorite of mine!  I was dissapointed to learn that Star Tours was temporarily out of commission due to renovations so I may have to schedule a return visit soon!

After we left the park, Tessa and I went to Downtown Disney for some dinner at Rainforest Cafe and some shopping!  The crowds out there progressively got worse so we had to make our escape after we hit every store we could fit into!

We slept in just a little longer Monday morning getting up just in time to grab some free breakfast and check out in time.  We then made our way up to Savannah, GA where we hit River St. and did a haunted tour of historic Savannah….in the top of a hearse!  Tessa took a TON of pictures on the tour and numerous orbs showed up in the images.  I’m not gonna say what I believe the orbs are but what I will say is that the only time said orbs appeared in any of the pics on the entire trip were that night and on that tour.  Just take a look at THIS one:

The next morning we slept in yet again getting up just in time to check out at noon and head to Tybee Island to eat lunch, walk on the beach and the pier and do yet more shopping (needless to say our asses are now BROKE)!

When we got home, I helped unload and then went to the station to try and catch up on some work and I have been doing that ever since!  I love vacations but, boy, they sure do tax my ass!