Yesterday was fun. I checked in with our trade show crew, made sure all of our boxes arrived and left the convention center around noon for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

I started off with IOA because I wanted to be sure that since they were only opened until 8 p.m. that I had enough time to ride all of the coasters.

I started with Dueling Dragons. Kind of a short ride. The second time through I met up with a mom and her two sons. The boys were about 8 or 9 years old and loved to talk so we chatted through the line and when we arrived to get on our seats the roller coaster operator wouldn't let the mom ride because she had left her flip flop shoes with her husband and the rule was that you had to have shoes on to wear. (even if flip flops are the stupidest shoes to wear on a roller coaster.) Anyhow the boys looked at me and looked at their mom and said "she'll take care of us!" we don't want to leave...so I promised to take care of them and off we went.

Off to The Hulk - So the wait time was a HEFTY 45 minutes but this was the roller coaster I had come to the park for and so I put my stuff in a locker which was interesting...the way they prove you rented the locker or purchased the tickets for that matter was all done by fingerprint, you stick your thumb on the identifyer and wa-la you get a free locker for an hour and a half.

Anyhow, back to the HULK - The line broke off with front row and rear cars and the front row indicated that the wait would be an extra 1/2 hour however you couldn't really tell how long the line was so I tossed caution to the wind and headed for the front...why not? I am so glad I did - it was so worth it. I'll post a photo of the roller coaster when I get back.

I then went on all of the other rides and while it was a fun way to spend an afternoon I'd say I don't really need to go back to universal or IOA anytime soon...just kind of boring compared to Disney.

I totally had to laugh - there was a guy who had to be about 50 who rode the Men In Black Ride with me. It's one of those rides where you have this laser gun and try and shoot the aliens and you get a score at the end. My score was what I thought was a respectable 150,000 but when I looked at the guys score card he had over 400,000 and at the end of the ride ended up "tilting" the bonus meter. I guess he really really likes the ride...or maybe more probably he actually works for Universal.

Okay since I was totally reckless, I decided to go to Emerils for dinner and did the tasting menu which was kind of fun but way too expensive...but in one of those once in a lifetime "vacation" adventures I ventured ahead:

And because I had to adopt the Charlie Trotter/foodie attitude while eating these perfect morsels, I can't even spell half the things the waiter explained but I will say most of them were good but not quite worth the money.

However with Emeril's entrees I figured why not spend $20.00 more and get dessert and try something different?

The amuse buche was a smoked salmon with dill creme. Then there was a salad with a mustard vinegarette, a roasted sea scallop with this tasty tomato and serano ham (which tasted amazingly similar to that ham we used in the mystery dinner meal) a small piece of veal on this bean sauce with a sweet potato sauce, a small filet with guryere mashed potato and a worchester wine reducation and the finale - a peanut butter pie with homemade marshmellos that sort of tasted like a smore combined with peanut butter pie.

The sea scallop was probably the best thing of the meal and I really enjoyed sitting at the bar and talking to the bartenders.

Today, trade show world was terrible. Waited ALL DAY for the crew to show up. I don't mind it when the installation people need to go away awhile and help other booths however NO ONE showed up until at least 3 p.m. and there was a LOT still left to do. So tomorrow is going to be a JOY.