Frolicking in Florida: a story of Miller Mishaps (Part 4)

Thursday we spent the first part of the day at Sea World.  Since the one in Ohio closed, it has been years since I've been to one.

We discovered that Heathen #3 is a little fountain of knowledge about Manatees.  He spent the entire time with them spouting off about boats hitting them and special hospitals.  It was really cute - and surprising!  I didn't realize he even knew what they were!  Hurray for Animal Planet!

Heathen #3 and his manatees

Of course, we saw Shamu!  And just as the show was getting ready to start - my camera battery died.  I remembered to empty the memory card but not to charge the battery.

Since we were returning the next day, we left Sea World a little early that afternoon.  The Asst. Zookeeper surprised us with tickets to Medieval Times!  I wanted to stop at a camera store to see about a camera grip and battery adapter.

We stopped at two camera stores, both run by Indian men.  The first store didn't have the right grip for my camera, so I simply bought a new battery.  While we were there, the man asked if I had any filters for my camera.  He showed me a filter that I really liked.  But I saw the price on the box ($250) and didn't want to spend that while on vacation.  When I declined the filter, the man told me it was only $125.  I thanked him, declined again, and paid for my battery.

As we were getting ready to walk out of the store, he said, "You got cash on you? I sell you filter for cost. $99 for you."  One of the other men in the store questioned him about the drastic price reduction.  His response was, "It going to rain.  We have do inventory.  I sell $99."

We declined and headed for the van and the next camera shop.  They had the grip for my camera.  We paid and were heading for the door.  The man behind us called after us, "You have filter for camera?"  We replied YES and kept walking, trying not to laugh until we were out of his hearing!

We were headed for Medieval Times!  I couldn't wait to see it!  I had loved Arabian Nights and the Asst. Zookeeper has spent years telling me about Medieval Times.  According to the GPS, we were only 5 minutes away, just one exit up on the highway.

Item #4 of the Miller Mishaps: the van dies!

We took our exit ramp and entered the middle lane of 5 on the ramp.  At the end of the ramp, the light was red, so we stopped.  AND SO DID THE VAN!!!!  And it wouldn't restart.  It was rush hour traffic in Orlando and we were stuck in the middle of the ramp!

The Asst. Zookeeper got out to push it to the side of the road.  In PA, people stop and ask if you need help.  Really OLD men will stop and help push a can.  In FL, they simply honk horns and make rude gestures.  Did I mention the Asst. Zookeeper was pushing a CONVERSION VAN by himself?  We tied up quite a bit of traffic!

Once along the side of the road, the Asst. Zookeeper (bless his heart!) walked over to the closest hotel and arranged for a taxi to take the Heathens and I to Medieval Times.  He also arranged for a tow truck to take him and the van back to the condo.

I'm worried about abandoning my husband on the side of the road, and the Heathens are ECSTATIC that they are going for their FIRST ride in a taxi!

Medieval Times was fantastic once we got there.  The Asst. Zookeeper called ahead to let them know we would be a few minutes late and the people there took care of us.  Once the Heathens got over the fact that they were SUPPOSED to eat with their fingers, they promptly FORGOT to eat as they were busy watching the jousting and sword play in front of us.  To my delight and Heathen #1's dismay, one of the characters in the show was "Prince Tristan" and he was married to a very pretty lady.  The other two Heathens kept calling him "Prince" for the rest of the evening.

Touring the Village

NO UTENSILS!

We took another taxi back to the condo at the end of the show.  The Asst. Zookeeper had spent the evening with the tow truck guy deciding what was wrong with the van.  By the time we arrived "home," he knew what was wrong and what parts he needed to fix it!  Being married to an electrician/mechanic is REALLY handy!

The rest of the vacation was spent fixing the van (the Asst. Zookeeper) or swimming at the condo (me and the Heathens).  We did run back over to Sea World for Friday afternoon to see the shows we hadn't the day before.  Then it was a 16 hour drive home the next day.

Despite the mishaps over the course of the week, I couldn't have asked for a better week with the Zoo. I already wish we could go back and do it again!

The Entire Zoo!