After five hectic days between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, strolling and shopping, we supplied the car and prepare for the second part of our trip, it would be a trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (a huge open air museum with specimens of all NASA projects) and Orlando, with its amazing hotels and theme parks. We got up early and take the Sunset Boulevard toward Interstate 95, a highway that cuts through the United States from north to south through its eastern coast.
The first thing to do was learn to drive on a U.S. highway, we have to take the right track, because the wrong track could lead us off the Interstate and need to keep an eye on the speedometer because the U.S. highway patrol is much more effective that our and a over-speeding for sure we would make a fine. After driving for several minutes, I gave the wheel to my friend, Rondon, who is younger and certainly runs better than me.
Since that time the GPS was not yet popularized, I was responsible for checking the road map and guide the driver, which I did for the rest of the trip. But in my mind what was written was the old Cape Canaveral and not the new Kennedy Space Center and I coached Rondon twelve miles out of our route. Thankfully, he realized and returned twelve miles that went wrong back in the correct path.
We were approaching NASA and saw something large, rounded appearance, and thought it was a very large water tank, was the Saturn V rocket (in nearly horizontal orientation), which is really impressive, with over one hundred and ten meters height when in the upright position. This visit to NASA was the realization of a childhood dream, to see the Saturn V, Apollo, Lunar Module and enter the Space Shuttle was simply amazing, an unforgettable morning for me, who launched rockets manned by small insects since I was twelve years old.
We left NASA and headed to Orlando, the expectation was even greater, because I would finally visit the Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom, another childhood dream, since seven years old, when I did not lose a single copy of the Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse magazines. We had lunch at a Mac Donalds near the intersection with Interstate 95 (have not seen any restaurant in this way) and we head to Orlando, with great anxiety.
Orlando is a beautiful city with wide avenues and modern buildings, whose images are reflected on Lake Eola, whose blue waters adorn the city. In addition to the major hotels and huge theme parks, Orlando is a great shopping center with shops offering everything for prices even lower than those of Miami. In the evening I entered a store to buy a Walkman for my son, and ask to the seller if there was a good restaurant nearby, he said (without knowing that we were Brazilians) that had a great Brazilian restaurant in that shopping center.
The indication of Vittorio's Restaurant was great, the restaurant is excellent, it was crowded and can come back to speak Portuguese for a few minutes was even better! We went to our hotel, Catalina Inn Hotel, thanking God for that perfect day, during which we made our trip through Florida without any problems, visit the Kennedy Space Center and met Orlando, ending the day with a golden key in a great Brazilian restaurant.
Our last day in Orlando was spent to visit Walt Disney World Resort, we take the highway to the park and at one point left the state highway and entered the Disney-1, a road with two lanes on each side, with a few miles extension, which connects the state highway to the park. Seeing this road I imagined the grandeur of Disney World, which is located in a vast area, all wooded and well cared for.
The best way to visit Disney Word is staying in one of their resorts and dedicate a day to each of its parks, like Epcot Center, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, but we only had one day to visit this immense park and wanted to know Orlando, so we decided to stay in the city. Within fifteen minutes we crossed the distance between the city center and the park and into the parking of the Magic Kingdom.
As we had only one day, we chose to visit the Magic Kingdom, which is what best symbolizes the dreams and the work of Walt Disney. Even as adults in a park designed for children, we love the tour, as well as hundreds of adults who were there that day. We left the car in the huge parking, take a little train to the modern elevated train station, crossed by a large area with some high resorts and landed in the Magic Kingdom's main station, right in front of Main Street USA! We dreamed about this since childhood.
It was a day simply incredible, we know every corner of the Magic Kingdom and, as it could not be, entered in each of the attractions of the park and watch the parades and theatrical performances. At the end of the day, exhausted but realized, we took the car to our apartment in Fort Lauderdale, was the final part of our trip, but we are not sad, because we enjoyed every second of this incredible and unforgettable journey. |
