Early Daze in Orlando

Am happily ensconced in my room at the Rosen Centre, a very 60s Florida looking hotel. The pool area looks white as Heaven might seem, the sun slowly annihilating the dermal layers of happy children. Learned an important lesson about Orlando and its airports. When Allegiant Air says they're taking you to Orlando, they mean Sanford-Orlando (SFB). That's a 90 dollar cab ride to the convention center here in Orlando proper. Carter has doped out shuttles (alas with a 24-hour minimum notice) for the trip back, but a freshman mistake nonetheless.

International Drive is the run of touristy places within Orlando. It is bordered on the north and south by two giant outlet malls. I got the day pass and hopped on to see the sights and got kicked off at the south end to wait for a northerly trolley. The tourist buses look like wood-paneled trolleys and they are staffed with really nice people.

While kicking around the not yet open outlet mall to the south, I got a powerful sense of being at a far-future museum of our culture. As you gaze down the miniature outdoor streets of it, it's all white quasi-mission quasi-deco stuff with only shingle signs to give you advance notice of what's down the path. I passed a few other people content merely to stare at closed mall stores and wonder what culture could produce such a thing.

Swinging north, I hit the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. Twenty bucks gets you a pretty good experience. I would have lost my mind in there when I was nine. It's a nerdy kid spot for sure. It even had a couple rooms designed to disorient you, one with the perspective all skewed and on the way out there was one of those rotating tunnels with a walkway. I'm not one for amusement rides, but I love a good bout of disorientation. Plus on display were penis sheaths and an "authentic" vampire hunting kit. Looked like everything you needed except a plane ticket out of Transylvania.

The heat creeps up on you here, like California. Although here it's humid so you get a warning sign or two. So I took the north trolley to the other outlet mall and wandered it a bit. By this time it was open and very very hot out. But if you keep a good pace you can penetrate puffs of arctic air from inside the stores as people leave.

I had intended to check out the Flea Market, but as the Trolley approached it didn't seem skeevy or promising enough. Poo.

Am now cooling my heels untiul after 2. Then I can go grab badges and get the lay of the land.

My hotel is full of the kind of people who say "brah." Usage: "Hold the elevator, brah!"
Turns out there's a surf convention in the same center. Will see if I can peek in there.