[Benjamin:] SeaWorld 4

The next day we went to SeaWorld for the forth time! The first thing we did was watch the Sea Lion show.  After watching the Sea Lion show we went and fed Seals. 

Though I must say that looking at the other people who were feeding I worked out that the thousands of birds probably got more fish than the seals.
       We went to the stingray feeding area. There we got a stingray tooth for free , unfortunately dad got bitten by a stingray.

Me and mum nipped off early to watch the dolphin show. 

Then we went on Atlantis which is a bit like splash mountain but even wetter and with two dips, dad went on the Kraken five times and we only went on Atlantis four times.

[Benjamin:] Two Parks, One Day

The next day we went to Aquatica first. 

At Aquatica we we waited while dad tested out some flumes, dad came back saying they were really good. Then we went on a flume which two people could go on where you whizzed around for a bit before entering a sort of giant bowl, before zooming downwards into a pool. We went on this flume twice. Then we went on another flume. On the other flume a maximum of four people per inflatable. Which meant that two of us needed to go down backwards and I went down backwards two out of the two times that we went on it. In this one there were no giant bowls.
          Then we played in the same water place that was like funky fun house and went down a couple of flumes there. The flumes there were shorter than the other ones. But there was also some fun water pistols, and loads of different ways of getting wet.

      Then we went to the wave pool. This time we stayed in for a little more than last time but still got in then out.
     Then we had lunch and headed off to SeaWorld. At SeaWorld we had a look at some baby dolphins on route to where we were going. Then we went on a wild arctic ride. Next we had a (not very good) look at the beluga whales. We also had a (good) look at a walrus, and a (not so good) look at a polar bear. Then we watched a Shamu show from far back. 

After that we went back to the holiday home.

[Benjamin:] Epcot

 On Saturday we went to Epcot. At Epcot the first ride we did was NASA-style training where we went to Mars and it was sort of a rollercoaster as in you were jerked around; in fact you were jerked around so much that there were sick bags provided in the capsule! This ride was so good that we went on it twice.

There was also a race on a screen with two rockets. The rockets had problems with them, which the people on their team had to fix by using computers. The teams were groups of people standing by the computers helping fix that rocket. You were not allowed to fix both rockets. The rockets went faster the less unfixed problems they had with them, and our team (Orion) won! After this game we played on another game when you had to find missing astronauts. 

After lunch we went to Turtle Talk. At Turtle Talk we talked with a sea turtle called Crush, who said the word 'dude' more than any other word known to sea turtle, even if it made no sense in the sentence. Crush is a character from "Finding Nemo". 

Then we went on a extremely boring ride. Which did not go up or down, or side to side. But moved very slowly and let you look at some trees. It also let you look at some different species of fish. 

After that we went on a different ride. This ride was called test track. In this ride you designed a car and then ride a car. That uses your stats and the other people that are driving with you's stats to make up the cars power, capability, performance and effisancy. 

     

   

[Benjamin:] The Worlds Largest Theme Park

On Monday we went to Animal Kingdom. The first ride we went on was the safari ride which was recommended to us by Paul (Scott and Kaleigh's dad). These were all the Animals we saw.

Yup I did not say loads for nothing, there are a lot of Animals on that ride. Including some that were almost extinct, and some that weighed loads, plus some babies.  

       The second ride we went on was "River Rapids". On which we got totally soaked and dad stayed like that all day, we went on this ride twice. 

Although I think this ride could do with a little more excitement than one dip down that is not a double-dip. Plus even if there was a double dip I would still like more than one double dip. 

     Then we went on possibly the most famous ride which was everest, in this ride we were tossed around more than any other ride we had been on. Plus I would definetly suggest for you not to eat before entering this ride, and wear ear mufflers. We also went on this ride twice.

    Then we watched a 'Finding Nemo' show where there were some cool puppets held on sticks by people (sort of like marshmallows). There were also people running around in the audience. It was amazing how short you could make a show that still gave you a pretty good overview of the film. This show we did not watch multiple times. 

Then we went to Dinoland and me and Dad went on a ride which is a bit like a teacup ride as it spins you around but it spins up and down as well, and we went on this 3 times. 

Then we watched the Lion King show, where they got the audience to make animal sounds, we made the lion sound. And there were some cool gymnasts I especially liked some especially mutinous monkeys, with a very bossy leader ie Timon. 

Then we watched a bugs life show and before we watched it an ant bit me. The Bugs life show told us not to kill bugs though afterwards Mum said if she found the ant that had bitten me she'd still kill it!

[Benjamin:] Chill day two

The first thing we did on our second relaxing day was go in the pool. For a long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long time in the pool.

Then we had a gigantic brunch at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). I think I will show you what we had rather than telling you.

You see it was truly enormous. Plus it lasted us one meal for the whole of the day. After brunch we went and did the largest shopping trip we have ever done. Before jumping back into the pool, and going to bed.

[Benjamin:] SeaWorld two

On Friday afternoon we went to SeaWorld. First dad went on the Manta ride, whilst Amelie and mum and I had a look at the aquarium. 

When dad had come off Manta ride, we went on something called Turtle Trek, which explains the life of a turtle as a 3D movie as though you're looking through the turtle's own eyes.

Then we went to watch a dolphin show, and the dolphins didn't have to be fed every 2 seconds unlike the killer whales. And also unlike the killer whale show, there were gymnasts. They did great stunts, for example when a woman was spinning around in the water, two dolphins each had their noises against her feet.

There were also different activities that happened in the dolphin show, such as this one:

Next we went to feed some dolphins. One of my fish was snatched by an annoying bird, possibly a great egret. The dolphins felt like they were made of rubber. We were only allowed to touch the dolphins under their chins.

[Benjamin:] Hollywood Studios

First we went to a Toy Story ride, in which you shoot lots of different things in lots of different settings I got 28% accuracy. (In this game if you just shoot loads and loads then you'll do better than if you if you pay attention to every shoot and aim).

Next we went on a Pirates of the Caribbean ride where there was Captain Jack Sparrow as an idiot! He nearly killed himself and he admitted he was his own worse enemy. 

The next ride was my favourite ride, it was called Star Tours and you were in a space ship where C3P0 and R2D2 were arguing about how to fly the space ship. When R2D2 got his way we flew at the baddies blatting them and most of the time going at light speed. When C3P0 got his way we fled from the baddies but never hit light speed. We got to deliver a rebel spy to the rendezvous coordinates. This ride was so good we went straight back on it. 

Then we went on the Toy Story ride again. This time I got 43% accuracy. 

Then we went to something called Jedi training, where you got to slash your light sabre around at someone pretending to be Darth Vader.

We also spotted 3 people dressed up as builders who were pretending to be idiots. There was a Boss who told the other 2 to go somewhere and told them to go back to where they were before and the workers were twice meant to stack cones in a truck the first time they did not do it very well but the next time they did it well. After the second time the Boss asked why they didn't stack the cones this well the first time and the wormers said it esas because the first time it was because they weren't told they were going in a break after they had stacked them.
Then I went to a souvenir shop where I got this:

[Benjamin:] Disney World Magic Kingdom

On Tuesday we went to Disney world Magic Kingdom. First we went to the car park by car, next we went to  the monorail station by tram, and got to Magic Kingdom by monorail.

The first ride we went on was one that was recommended to us by Paul (Scott and Kaleigh's dad), and it was "Pirates of the Caribbean". On the ride we saw lots of skeletons and pirates, also at one point we got splashed by a waterfall.

The next ride was called "Splash Mountain", and it wasn't called this for nothing! There were lots of ups and downs in this ride, and in the last one it looked like we were going to knock into some fake thorns. The last down was also one of the times were we got splashed, the other one was when another boat was coming down the last drop and it splashed us.

 Next we went on a ride called "Thunder Mountain", which had less ups and downs and lots of sharp turns. The setting for this ride was in a gold mine. We were in a runaway train. The ride may have only been a few minutes long but it was still my favourite and first ever rollercoaster.

The fourth ride was a Buzz Lightyear ride, which was recommended to us by our cousins, Ewan and Calum. You were meant to zap 'Z's and score points to defeat Zurg, ie, a baddie in Toy Story.

At the end of the day, I thought that I'd left my stomach on one of these rides!

[Benjamin:] Whale watching again

On Monday we went to SeaWorld. SeaWorld is a sort of water park, but instead of swimming you watch shows.

    The first show that was actually on that we watched was a show about a fisherman (the first one we tried to watch was cancelled because of dangerous weather). In the show with the fisherman, he was pulled into the water where there was a sort of circus with a wicked queen. There was also a princess who fell in love with the fisherman, but the wicked queen forced them apart (it's hard to know exactly what was going on because it's a mime). Then the fisherman snatched the evil queen's staff and used it to get rid of her.

    Next we watched a sea lion and otter show, which was about pirates. At one point in the show an actor said a brilliant pun, which was "that's our pie-rat!' (the actors thought the otter was a large rat!).

    Then we watched a orca whale show. We were splashed with freezing cold water that smelt of fish! During the show the orca whales were fed.

    My favourite was the sea lion and otter show, because I wasn't splashed with freezing cold water that smelt of fish!

[Benjamin:] Aquatica

    The first thing we did when we were at Aquatica was check out the dolphins, they were cool and ever so playful. Then we went and had a little swim around in the wave pool, which was half tiring half fun but mainly fun.

    Next we went to a set of flumes which we went down and most of the time it had a covering over the top but just at the end there was a vertical drop with no covering.

    Next we went to the lazy river. It pulled us along at fairly high speeds, and there were islands and you had to pick to go around one side of the island or the other. The narrower side was the faster side.

    After that we went home.

[Benjamin:] Discovery Cove

We went to discovery cove to go snorkeling for the first time without any practice. We had one of the largest breakfast ever. When I got into the reef for the first time I came out thinking it was too cold, after looking at creatures through water-logged goggles, and breathing salty water I thought I would never snorkel again. But then mum showed me how to use the mask and snorkel and I went back in, and I really got the hang of it, after doing four laps of the reef I thought I could live down there. Plus I saw all of these creatures:

Then we went to the lazy river which was nothing like a lazy river because it moved so slowly. (The last one was really fast.) Next we had lunch which was gigantic and very filling. 

Next we went to check out the otters, there must have been about 6-8 of them. We also had a look at some Brazilian Marmosets. 

Then me and Dad returned to the reef, while  Mum and Amelie decided to explore the aviary instead. This time we found one of the things we'd been trying to spot, which was the spotted conga eel, which on the whole wasn't that impressive. After that we just stood there stroking rays as they swam by.
They also for some random reason they put some parrots in the park.
Then we went and had a shower before getting a 'I touched a stingray' T-shirt.
The whole way through the day we were having snacks and drinks while watching the dolphins leaping around, just like this:

 

[Not forgetting stroking an Armadillo]

[Benjamin:] Boston to Orlando

The next day, Thursday, I got up had breakfast and got in a cab to go to the airport. We dropped off our luggage at baggage drop, and went through security before realising that dad didn't have a boarding pass. So we waited while dad sorted it out he came back with his boarding pass to our relief. Then we boarded the plane after a second/first breakfast. When we we were on board the plane I switched channels until I got to the sport channel then I watched American football for most of the flight and after that I watched football/soccer. Early on in the flight we had a apple juice.

      When we got off the plane we took the tube to baggage claim. Then dad drove to the holiday home. We got in the pool for a hour before having tea.

[Benjamin:] The Aquarium

On Wednesday we went to the Aquarium. The first thing we did was stroke Sting Rays, they felt sort of slippery and slimy.

I am going to tell you that if I named everything we saw and did this blog would go on for ever. But that does not mean that I will not show you any of them. There was only one thing that I and dad saw that mum and Amelie didn't and that was a conga eel. This video and this picture are from the main tank. 

Then I had Macaroni cheese and chicken wrapped in bacon which I did not eat all of. Next we went and got a red socks  baseball cap for twenty dollars! After that we went back to stroke the Rays this time we also stroked the sharks. 

Then we went to watch a seal show and found out we were on the wrong place. But we enjoyed watching the seals fight over a ball.  

Then we went back and played in a water park for a while. Mum and dad decided that our lunch was so big that we were not going to have a proper tea. But a ice-cream, so me, Amelie, mum, dad and Gemma had one ice-cream each.

[Benjamin:] Water Park

That day we went to the water park. Plus we saw  lots of different globes like this one. 

But before we actually got there this woman came up to us and asked if we could only bring three things to Mars what would we bring? Me and Amelie both chose food, water and air, but mum chose hairdryer, chocolate's and wine. The woman said it was for a student program. 

Then we played around a in a warm pool  and got sprayed by a cold fountain for a bit. 

Then we went to Havard Square and watched chess games after having some drinks and sharing a brownie.

Then we bought a cake to celebrate Gemma's first year in America. Next we rejoined with Gemma and had a roast dinner with cake for pudding.

[Benjamin:] Mouse Hunt

I'm not going to bore you with the details, but the main event of today..... THERE WAS A MOUSE IN GEMMA'S HOUSE. Dad and Gemma ran around with a cloth and a bucket, meanwhile mum screamed, me and Amelie just said it was cool and generally got in the way. 

The discovery made before that was that there was cat food in the oven, the mouse was the culprit not the cat. After a while Gemma bought some mouse traps. Which where put down that night, we didn't find the mouse in our visit but we are sure that Gemma will find it later.

[Benjamin:] Whopping Whales

We got up fairly early. We fed Dash, the cat, his breakfast. After that we stayed in a queue for at least an hour in the car, generally there was a lot of queuing today. Then we arrived at our destination, which was I'm not quite sure. (plimouth/Plymouth, spelt both ways). 

The first thing we did was, after being given tickets for free popcorn, was have a good look at the Mayflower II. Next we saw the rock which the Pilgrim Fathers landed on and it had the date 1620 carved into it. After that I had fish and chips for lunch , I tried iced tea and corn bread for the first time. The results are iced tea yuk and corn bread yum. 

Next, after two more queues, we got onto a boat and set off to watch whales. For a while we sped out into the Ocean until we stopped where there were 2 whales (called Pinball and Mogal). Pinball got about 20 feet away from us. After watching Pinball splash around and show off for a while we went for a last look at Mogal before heading back to shore. 

Where we had tea which was hot dogs and cupcakes then we went to bed far too late in our parents opinion but not ours. 

[Benjamin:] Off to Boston

The next day we got on the tube to get onto the overground train. Which we took to Boston. We played a bit on the NEXUS, watched dad play on his phone, a bit of Harry Potter and a bit of looking out of windows, with a small break for lunch. 

     

Then we  got into Gemma's mini and somehow managed to get the luggage in as well. 

      

When we got to Gemma's house we left it immediately to have a kick around with a ball we had carried all the way from New York. But after three kicks a dog deflated it. Then Gemma made burgers for tea and we enjoyed them very much. 

[Benjamin:] Moo-burgers!

The first thing we did was go to the park we went to on our first day again. Then we started a football match which ended when Amelie got hurt. Then we played against the wall.

After that we had lunch then we went to the water lab. We played in there for a while. Next we went geocaching, we found the geocache after a surprisingly short amount of time. We also spotted a cormorant eating a fish. Then we attempted to find two more geoches but tried in vain, for we onely found one out of two. 

       

Then for tea we went to the best cafe ever, that makes the best hotdogs ever for tea!!

   

 Guess what flavour milkshake Dad had?

 

[Benjamin:] How Tall

We spent the whole of the morning playing charades. Then we went to the Rockefeller centre. We went all the way to the top, by elevator. We had a great view. We could see: The Empire State Building,  Citigroup Centre, Chrysler building, Met Life and one world trade centre. We had a bite of lunch on the top floor, well second top, because we were not allowed on the top floor. When we were in the elevator both going up and down we felt our ears pop. Dad bought a magnet souvenir.

Then I had a rum and raisin ice-cream for a snack before going to the holiday home.

[Benjamin:] Madagascar Day

After lunch we visited central park. There was a pond there, at first all we could see were ducks but then we saw some terrapins. 

     Next we went to Central Park Zoo. Where we saw the sealions jumping, and one on a rock showing off too. Then dad got us some sourvenir stamped stretched coin. 

After that we went to Grand Central Station. We saw the clock that Melman got his head stuck in. We also saw some brilliant chandaliers. 

Then we bought a New York cheese cake, and caught the subway back to the holiday home.

     Where we had multi-coloured bagels.

I had tuna in mine, on a different day I went to the loo, and discovered my poo was green.