Univeral - Islands of Adventure
October 22, 1999

Flew into Tampa on October 21 and was greeted at the airport by Emily, Scott and Mom. Headed home and after a bite to eat, headed for bed.The next morning we got up early and drove to Orlando for Universal - Islands of Adventure, a new theme park with lots of big roller coasters.

This is a view of most of the park. It was originally 10 separate pictures. If you look really closely at the lower right hand side, you can see Dena, Mom and Scott standing at the railing.

This is "The Incredible Hulk". Lots of loops, and a really cool lift hill where you are accelerated up the last half, shooting out of the tunnel towards the left of the picture.

  
This is all of us right after getting off the "Hulk" roller coaster. It was very intense.

  
More shots of the four of us (three at a time, of course, someone had to hold the camera). After this we went on the Spiderman 3-D ride (fantastic), and Dr. Doom's Drop of Terror, which was also fun.

  
Then we headed off through one of the many themed areas of the park. Notice the Large bird guarding this section.

 
Then we had lunch at a very nice place called "Mythos". We sat in the sun so Mom could warm up and had a very tasty lunch. Afterward we stood in line for "Poseidon's Fury", a really silly 'ride' that wasn't worth the wait.

  
Randy and Scott went on a couple of water rides. The second one ("Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges") got us really wet. Fortunately we brought along extra shirts.We decided to go back to the 3-D Spiderman ride, since it had been so much fun the first time.
Outside Randy got a chance to pose with Spidey (nice outfit!).

I didn't know that Stephen was so famous! Isn't that guy from the Cat in the Hat spelled differently?

 
The picture on the left is from the "Fire and Ice", a pair of dueling rolloer coasters. This picture is from a section where the two cars rocket towards each other, and then at the last minute, loop up and away from each other. Sitting in the front car was great, since we got to see the other car coming towards us at something like 120 MPH. The picture on the right is from the log flume ride that got Randy and Scott wet.