Back in Baltimore (End of Winter)

Lake Eola, and downtown Orlando behind it

We left Key West on the first of March. From there we went back to Orlando for a week and a half.

This time we stayed in the area of Lake Eola, which was sooooooo much different than our last location in December, Kissimmee. That area was very car-centric. You had to drive to go anywhere, be it groceries, eating, or shopping. All the roads are near freeway speed and size, and packed with cars all in a hurry to get somewhere. Nothing was in walking distance. Somethings were in biking distance but you had to be near or share the road with aforementioned speedy cars.

I dubbed the place Swan Lake. LOTS of swans.

Lake Eola was a neighborhood. While full of single family homes (there were some condos around) everything near a small urban center with groceries, boutique stores, and lots of restaurants which made for a more pleasant and relaxing stay. If we ever needed to go back to Orlando, that is the place we'll seek out first, and so should you.

The biggest reason we wanted to go back to Orland was, of course, Disney World. We'd bought unlimited passes and, while we think we broke even on that deal, thought we'd get a couple more days of use out of 'em. First we did Epcot, because we do like a bit of walking and that's a great place to do it. After Covid, injured shoulders, and nose-Mohs we needed to get back into 10,000 step goals. Epcot always delivers.

You can see Olaf and Sven, and, with the lights on,
the catwalks above. While there was no music or motion,
the animatronics did continue to blink.
I thought that was weird!

Side story: We thought we'd ride Frozen Ever After (or whatever it's called) which was the Frozen water ride in Norway. We didn't buy the lightning lane since we weren't interested in rides -- recall the walking thing -- but it was early. The wait was already 55 minutes, and it was over an hour before we stepped into the ride and were sent on our way. Took that first turn, spying a singing snowman and reindeer, when the car completely stopped. The interior stage lights came up followed by an announcement, "Please stay seated until a cast member escorts you from your car." Before they can help you out of the car the water needs to stop moving and the power needs to be shut off. This took about 20 - 25 minutes to do, then Alp-garbed folks helped us up and out of the boat.

Same scene. This is how it should look.

They did give us a "lightning lane" pass to ride it again, should it be fixed later in the day. We took that opportunity to get some walking in, making our way to Morocco where we had a wonderful lunch. Looking at the Disney app, the ride was up and running. So we completed the world tour, going round a 2nd time back to Norway where we indeed got to ride the ride.

We wanted to go back to Animal Kingdom because there was a ride we never, ever have ridden because it's a big water (read that "wet") ride. Not awesome in the winter. Now that it was warmer we put it on the list. We made the park reservation, and that morning, checked the ride times. However, the ride wasn't showing up. Turned out, it was closed for remodeling. (They couldn't close it during the winter when no one wanted to ride it... I'm just a bit disappointed about that). So. We didn't go.

From Orlando we made a quick stop back at The Villages to drop the "when we rent" stuff off in our storage unit, then headed north. We didn't need to get to our Baltimore rental until March 15, so we took a long saunter via highway 301, both more beautiful and less stressing than the interstate. We stayed the nights in Augusta, Georgia (not great), Greensboro, North Carolina (really cute), and Fredericksburg, Virginia (also really cute).

Downtown Greensboro, taken from an amazing taco place, Crafted.

Perhaps Greensboro is most famed from the Civil Rights "sit in" 
that happened at the local Woolworth in 1960. Now a museum,
they've kept the storefront just as it was.

First thing Russ did was take up the bubbler from 
under the boat. It was a total mess. We had secured
it with 2 lines, but one broke so the unit spun in
the water, twisting the power cord out of the 
socket and catching a bunch of trash. good thing
we didn't need it cuz it wasn't working!

Why a monthly rental? While we own a slip in Anchorage Marina they have a very weird rule about how many nights we can sleep on the boat (be live-aboards) for the first 2 years of ownership. After that, we can live aboard all year long. Combining that with the fact that Russ wants to do a bunch of work resulting in the boat becoming a garage, AND that it's still a bit chilly here in Baltimore, we decided to rent a townhouse for a month, from Mar 15 to April 15, close to the boat. Then we'll go back to trawler life.

With any luck we'll be underway mid-May or so.