Quest to Florida

Anindya Das

The sun was rising and it was time to go for vacation. I quickly got ready and sat in the car. My dad loaded the luggage as my mom sat in with me. When my dad finished, we were on the road for fun. We were just half way to the end of our block, my mom was not sure whether the garage door was closed or not. So we went back to see. The garage was closed, I groaned. Then we drove off. It took more than nine hours to go to our next stop: Mobile, Alabama. When we got there, got settled and looked around a little bit. The next day, we went to a museum. This museum is about a battleship, the USS Alabama. It was not like an ordinary museum, it was in the battleship. As soon as we entered the area, we saw tanks and warplanes. They were interesting, because they were machines. When we went on the battleship’s deck, the first thing I did was to stare at the enormous height of the ten-story killer. In the front, there were some massive cannons. The sides had single barreled guns, pictures and army suites. We saw most of the rooms too. The higher we went up, the more fun it was to look down. When we were finished, we went to the vehicle storage center. We saw airplanes and small cars called “pack mules”. After we got out of the center, we saw a huge killer submarine. It was then time to go to Orlando.

We were driving and driving for several endless hours. Finally, we reached Orlando in the evening .We stayed in the hotel for a few minutes and then we went for the Universal Studios. The first thing we did was to see the show call “Twister”. It was about the movie Twister. It showed special effects of the movie. In the show, a twister comes and destroys everything like trees, houses, cars, plants, etc. Next I went o n “Earthquake”. The host talked about special effects. He also showed us about stunts and the blue screen. The blue screen is a special where anything blue will not appear on camera. The host asked for four volunteers to participate at the show. Once volunteer jumped off a roof, two got to play with the blue screen and one pulled a lever and water dumped on him. We then went on an earthquake ride. We were all sitting in a subway train moving under ground. When an 8.6 earthquake hit us, water was splashing, the concrete was cracking, a gas tank was about to hit us when clang it crashed to the metal and exploded. A standing pillar stopped the truck. Then the ride was over. It was truly scary. It was like surviving from a big disaster. The host greeted us and said you just survived an 8.6 earthquake.

Next, we went to another show, which was a boat ride and it is called “Jaws”. The line was long and boring, but there were some TVs broadcasting extremely bogus shark shows. It was time to go on the ride; a fast talking tour guide greeted us. We were going on a peaceful boat through the Amenity River. Then these guys warned us about the jaws and asked us where the last boat is. When we turned at the corner, we saw a wrecked boat. The tour guide goes “Oh..No... I do not have survivors “! The keep on going and we finally met jaws. “Oh! No, let’s get out of here”. Jaws then came and hit the boat. The guide started shooting the shark with a Rocket Propel Grenade (RPG) lancer and kept on missing the mutant fish. Every time we move, we can see its fin. We went into a building on the water used to keep boat sink. We stayed there for a while. “Now that nasty” said the tour guide pointing to some rotting fish. Then we saw jaws. We shoot at the jaws and accidentally missed and hit a gas pipe and se of hot flames. The first melted the insulator of electric wires and then it happened like dominoes. Fire dies down; electricity gets unleashed and made the jaws into fish fry. Nice, isn’t it? Clicking on a remote the tour guide helped to get us out. After we got our the boat, the guide told us to say we did it and everyone did.

My parents and I went to another show “Men in Black (MIB): alien attack”. Just like the last ride, this one had a long and boring line. It did not even have bogus shark shows on TV. When I went inside, they said something like the universe and you. We went further inside and I saw aliens were drinking coffee. Little further, I saw to aliens were typing and an MIB agent was lecturing in a screen. We went on a six passenger’s car for the ride. They also had laser guns. Aliens made out of cardboard. Then siren went off and an MIB agent said that aliens, real ones landed. The aliens were strange. Some people in clothes made me feel really suspicious. I could beady eyes too. They were orange, red, blue, green, purple and grey. There were some stands with illegal weapons and a set beady eye. We were competing with another team too. We went through a sensor to see if the others were aliens in human skin. They were. Suddenly a gigantic alien showed up. We and the other team went into its mouth. We decided to go on another ride called “Back to the future”. We just simply explored time. It was quite exciting ride. Afterwards, we watched some fireworks. We were very tired and exhausted. So went back to the hotel.

The next day, we went to “Universal’s Island of Adventure”. First I wanted to go on “Jurassic Park River Adventure”. I thought the name was cool too. When we got in front of the line, I saw some boats. We went on to the boat ride. At the beginning of the ride, it was slow; where I saw plant eater dinosaurs like Apatosaurus, and Stegosaurus. When we went to the meat eating section of the dinosaur class, the siren went on. We could see the blood stained shirt an eaten park ranger. Above us, there was screaming velcorapter. It was quite scary. In between the boat was going up, down and high. I could see a raptor breaking the deactivated electric cage. We then saw several raptors on boxes looking at us angrily and hungrily. More raptors. There was a T-Rex ! It was blocking the passage to get out. When we came close to the T-Rex, it lunged towards us. We suddenly plunged under it and went down fast. I liked it. Next, I went to “Dudley Do – Rights Ripsaw Falls”. It was the steepest ride in the park. My dad and I went on a log with four seats while my mom was so scared to think about the ride. First, we saw screens showing cartoons. Then we went down, we saw some robotic cartoons yelling at each other and throwing dynamite at each other. We went down and up. The last down was very scary. It just suddenly dropped us from very high into the water.

We then went to the “Jurassic Park Discovery Center”. It was boring. Next to a show called “Poseidon Show”. We went inside and saw a guide who kept on stuttering and saying many ums on purpose. He led to a room that locked behind us. He then found a trident, a golden one too. A passage opened with water swirling around. The guide took is through the passage. I touched the walls. Water squirted out. The room we went had a giant screen. There were two people fighting for the trident. One was Poseidon and the other I do not know. Water splashes and fire erupted out of the ground. The winner is Poseidon. Then we went to a show called “Sinbad”. Sinbad and his friend Kebab were fighting these monsters hired by a witch. They wanted to get the treasure and the sultan’s ruby. A read piece of plastic stuck on a stick. Sinbad keeps on hitting the humanoid monster, which just roars. One time Kebab insulted one and it roared. After it roared Kebab said, “Whazzup ?” They finally got the Sultan’s ruby.

The next day, we went to a “Horror Show”. It was quite nice. This is about how horror scenes are created in movies. They were showing live on stage. Once person came out calling for another person to come. He was not coming. The first person called again.  Finally the other person came. Say the first person is A and the second one is B.  B came groaning with a knife in his chest. The first person said “Hey B gets up”. B farts away his problem and got up. On make up he told us, how the van Helsing make Frankestein. He said they put green rubber and silicon and put it all over him. They picked a volunteer named Pat. The were going to cut her arm off. They started doing that and the blood was coming out. Pat screamed. They wiped off the fake blood and show u s the knife. He explained that the blade was a retractable blade. When he opened it, I saw a half circle in the blade. He also told that once he pressed a button on the knife, blood came out. Fake blood. They showed many other wonderful effects that they do in the movies. It was my most fun forty-five minutes.

Next we went to see “Terminator 3-D”. This was a 3-D, it was not like a pup-up book. It was 20 minutes form the original 200 minutes film. At the beginning, they were talking about cyberdyne’s plan of the sky net was created. Then a 3-D person came. She was in 3-D with out the glasses because she showed a presentation about the sky net. After the presentation, we saw the terminator 3-D. It was quite entertaining show. Then we saw a rock show called “Graveyard Fever”. I could not understand anything. We went to an E.T ride. I was in line waiting for my patents, and my parents came after about 8 minutes. We got on to a 6-passenger bike like thing through a maze of cops and scientists. At the end of the ride, I saw a talking mushroom. We went to the MIB ride again. Next we went to a “Jimmy Neutron” ride. It was one of those 4-D rides. Afterwards we went to the hotel, packed and headed for Ft. Lauderdale at night.

We were gong on cruise. After breakfast, we went to the Ft. Lauderdale port for cruise. I saw a huge cruise ship on the port. We had gone through custom and immigration to go the ship. There were lots to eat in the ship. There were some shows. First time when I got there, I lay down on the bed. I was tired. Afterwards we ate lunch. Then I walked around the ship looking around to see. I saw Disco and Bars, all which I avoided. I went into a lounge where I saw people were singing. I decided to go back to our room .After we had dinner, we went to the back of the ship and stood over the rail. I saw waves, filthy yellow seaweed, and Swear I saw to silkily glowing red eyes and some tentacles poking out of the water. This ship was going to Nassau, Bahamas. The Bahamas was surrounded by the Bermuda triangle. I soon forgot about the thing. I also had fun at the swimming pool with kids. Then we went to sleep that night. I had nightmares of drowning the staring into the red eyes. I was happy when I woke up the ship stop moving. We were at Nassau, the capital of Bahamas. We ate the breakfast and departed for the welcome center. When we got there I was surprised. I thought I would see Native American like people. Instead I saw black like people. I don not know what exactly. When my dad was trying to hire a tour guide my mom and I were on a bench. I saw several rats that looked as if they had 

the message “leave me alone or I will gnaw y our face off” nice. Then may dad took us to our tour guide. We went in his van. He slowed us poor neighborhoods, and rich neighborhoods. He also showed us Eddie Murphy Island. He dropped us off at a place to shop. I was not in for something extremely boring like that. Mom was having fun with shopping. After limitless boredom, I mean shopping; we paid 50 cents to go to the top of an old water tower. We went up using the elevator. A kid operated the elevator was of my age. We just went up and looked around form the tower. We saw whole city from the top. I was not that big. We went back to the tour guide. We were hungry so we ate Bahamian food. It tasted like all mostly our food. After we ate, we went to the beach. The water was very clean. I swan a little. Then our tour guide dropped us off at the same place where we started. We went for shopping again. Next, we went on a horse tour. This tour guide showed us different things. He once told me to drive the horse. The horse was hard to control though. Afterwards, we went back to the cruise ship. We ate dinner. After that I went to the room while my parent’s were on the deck. I went in the bunk bed and watched T.V. My eyelids were getting heavy. I blinked and then did not remember anything. When I woke up, I was angry. May dad forced me to get up early. Today, we were going back to Ft. Lauderdale’s port. It was quite fun and new experience.

We spent another day at Ft. Lauderdale. We went to the beach. Ft. Lauderdale beach was very good. Next, we headed for Key West. This is the southern most point of USA. On the way we stopped by the Everglades National Park. I saw lizard, grasshoppers and cranes herons, fish, ducks, deer rabbit and lots of alligators. The place was very nice. Next, we went through all the keys to go to the last key, Key West. I was asleep during most of it. When we got to the Key West it was nighttime. We got our good and went to bed. The next day, we saw places. My mom and I went to see the Key West aquarium. The aquarium had lots of fish and odd things. There was a fish with extremely bid eyes, a smiling iguana, crabs with tails, blue lobsters, gigantic conches and a sea urchin. There were other fish and creatures too. But these were most unusual and most interesting creatures. Then we went to the famous Ernest Hemingway house. It was a nice house. This became a museum. The tour guide took us and showed all the rooms. The Hemingway man had taxidermy heads. That thing gave me creeps. He also had photo pictures of his safari adventure and statue made by African natives. I saw one very interesting thing. There is a book in Bengali by a Bengali author inside Hemingway’s book self. The tour guide showed us the backyard. It was a jungle. He had plant from nay places. The back has a big pool too. The tour guide showed us the cats. The one I thought was interesting cat, they called Charlie Chaplin. He was named that because of some black furs under his nose. Then the tour guide took us to the gift shop. My parents and I went to see rest of the backyard. There was a pond, a cant’s cemetery and some forest trees or banyans. Then we left. We went all around the Key West. It’s not hard because it’s a 2-mile long island. We were thinking snorkeling, glass bottom boat or any other high speed ride. My mom was not very happy about snorkeling. Finally, we decided to go for snorkeling. We went on a boat to the bay. First, it was kind of scary. Water was everywhere. My mom was thinking to stay on the boat. Little later, she agreed to come to the water. We put the snorkeling dress and then we went in the water. I saw red snappers. When we went closer to the corals, I saw a parrotfish, angle fist and all kinds of fish. My parents saw a turtle and a stingray. We stopped at a second place in the ocean for snorkeling. It was very fun. Not only me, my mom also liked it very much. After that we went around the place again.

The next day, we went around again and headed for Tampa. We were going to my dad’s friend Gautam Kaku’s house. My parents were talking with them. I was watching T.V. The next day we went to the Kennedy Space center. We saw several nice shows. I saw launching pad for the space shuttle. I also met an astronaut and asked him couple of questions. We went back to Gautam kaku’s place. Next day, Gautam kaku showed us downtown Tampa, beach and a big pond, huge St. Petersburg Bridge. We stopped at the bridge and saw some crabs by the rocks. The next morning, we started for New Orleans. On the way, we stopped at Tallahassee for lunch. We reached New Orleans in the evening. We went round to see few places. It is a good city. We started for home. Finally, we reached home at night after two weeks. I was very happy. It was good to be home. I enjoyed the quest for Florida. Summer was getting over,. It was almost the time for school.