In my last post I mentioned breaking a toe while I was on Amelia Island.  After another night of bumping it on absolutely everything in my truck, I gave up and decided to splurge on a couple of nights in a hotel to let it heal a bit.  Orlando was only a few hours away, and you often find inexpensive hotels in resort towns, so I decided to go there.  But here’s the problem with being in Orlando with a broken toe… you have to walk to almost everything that’s interesting or amusing.  The Disney parks are huge, but you need to be prepared to spend an entire day on your feet, so that was out of the question for me.  While I contemplated the best way to heal without walking much, I treated myself to a seafood dinner.  It couldn’t hurt, and might help, you never know.  At first I though that the lobster bib was a bit excessive…

But when they brought my meal I was glad that I had it.  This was fantastic tasting, and fantastically messy to eat.  But it made me feel better, so I’m going to call that a win.

The next day I tried going to some of the many local outlet malls, with the thought that I could walk a little, sit down whenever I wanted to, and at least have something to look at.  It was a moderate success, although I discovered that even a small amount of walking was still too much… and there’s not much interesting to look at if you stay in one place in an outlet mall.

Ok, so I needed more movement, and more to look at, with less walking.  I saw just the solution… the Orlando Eye.

One trip around takes about 25 minutes, and I had a car all to myself since it wasn’t very busy.

I’ve been on the London Eye before, and that was spectacular, with lots of interesting sites to see.  The scene from the Orlando Eye was very nice, with a view of the city, and the nearby lakes.  It was worth the ride, and it was a beautiful warm day to be outside.

I got a bit fascinated with the ride itself, though, and I think I actually took more pictures of the structure than of the scenery.

After the ride, I discovered something called Adventure Golf, which seems to be miniature golf on steroids.  Maybe this is old news to other people, but it was new to me, and I was suitably impressed.

I also found this diner, that looks like an original building, not a modern reproduction.  Why don’t we still make places like this?  This is cool.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with my last day in Orlando, but my foot was doing a bit better, so I decided to go a little farther afield.  I started heading for someplace called Disney Boardwalk, but was turned away because of a conference (or something..?), and ended up at a place called Disney Springs, that may also be called Downtown Disney according to a friend of mine.  In any case, it turned out to be a pleasant place to spend the day.  Especially when I found the Lego motherlode!!

This is the biggest Lego store I’ve ever seen (although, granted, I’m no Lego expert), complete with a slightly ecstatic Lego sea monster in the bay outside.

Inside there were bins and bins of every shape and color of Lego you could possibly want, including all the little people.  If you’re ever missing that one important piece, without a doubt you could find it here.

The other side of the store was full of lots of different kits, some of them quite elaborate, like this Porsche 911 GT3 RS kit… not quite as slick as the original perhaps.

But you could also have a model of the Death Star, or this one of the Disney Castle, plus Lego coffee mugs, key chains, ice cube molds… whatever.

As with most Disney parks, the real goal is to get you to spend money, and there were plenty of shops there to do that.  This is probably the largest Disney store I’ve ever been in.  It had whole rooms dedicated to plush toys, jewelry, bags, shirts, etc.  And a wall of mouse ears.

If you’re not completely over Frozen by now, you can even get an oil painting of your favorite scene.

As I was eating my lunch by the water, when this car casually drove by…  I found it really disconcerting..

But it turned out that there was a whole fleet of them.  I checked, and the cost of a tour was $125 per car.  That might be ok for a group, but for just me alone it was a bit pricey, so I passed.  But I found this about the Amphicar on Wikipedia: “The Amphicar Model 770 is an amphibious automobile, launched at the 1961 New York Auto Show, manufactured in West Germany and marketed in the United States from 1961-1967, with production having ended in 1965.  Designed by Hanns Trippel, the amphibious vehicle was manufactured by the Quandt Group at Lübeck and at Berlin-Borsigwalde, with a total of 3,878 manufactured in a single generation.  A descendant of the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, the Amphicar offered only modest performance compared to most contemporary boats or cars, featured navigation lights and flag as mandated by Coast Guard — and after operation in water, required greasing at 13 points, one of which required removal of the rear seat.”

Ok, after reading that, I sat here for five minutes saying “Schwimmwagen” to myself and giggling…

I was also amused to find a poutine stand in the center of the shopping district.  Apparently we’re getting all multicultural with Canadian junk food now.

I wore myself out for the rest of the day wandering in and out of the many shops there, enjoying the window shopping, but buying nothing.  Except ice cream, I did get ice cream.  But that doesn’t count, it’s ice cream.

I could tell that I was tired and ready to leave when I saw this sign referring to the T-Rex entrance, and got very confused, because I was parked in the “watermelon” lot.  I eventually realized my mistake…

But yes, although I can’t call myself a huge fan of the Disney parks (except Epcot, which I love), I had an enjoyable day here, and my foot wasn’t too much the worse for all the walking I did.  So yes, it was fun.  No bones about it.