In the past several weeks, there's been some interesting experiences for sure. One day I was at Epcot; the main reason for returning there was that for the time being as part of Disney the company celebrating its 100th anniversary (believe me, they are making it a big deal), the Soarin' attraction brought back its original gimmick of Soarin' Over California, where they only show footage from that state instead of around the world. I shouldn't say “nostalgia” but that's what it was as it's been around 8 years since I had that experience. Otherwise, a lot of my time was returning to various locations, restaurants or otherwise. People likely don't want to hear about me having dinner at a Hooters one night so I won't dwell on that. Instead, I'll first discuss movies.
One long event was spent w/ Killers of the Flower Moon. It certainly was long and by the end my body was a little restless. Otherwise, it's a great movie about a topic I knew hardly anything about; as everyone else says, Holy Cow, what a performance from Lily Gladstone. Another night I was at Pointe Orlando. I had dinner at a British pub creatively named The Pub; I'd been to their Tampa location years ago and the food was pretty good. After that I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas in 4DX. That's a wacky gimmick where the seats move around and there are various effects all around you timed to the action on screen. There are reasons why I've rarely gone to it but it was fun to see the movie that way and in 3D to boot. One afternoon I was at an outlet mall—the Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets, to be exact. I hadn't been there in ages; afterwards I ate at the nearby Saltgrass Steak House, a place where I've always had tasty food.
A LONG night I had was on October 20th. For the first time since 2018 I was at the Silver Moon Drive-In, located in the outskirts of Lakeland. They showed 5 classic Universal Horror films in a row. They were:
The Bela Lugosi Dracula
Frankenstein
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
All but the last one I had viewed in the past. It was wild to see those movies in such a setting, where an employee was dressed as Claude Rains in The Invisible Man. I got there at 7 as the event began at 7:30. It did not end until 2:30 in the morning, so yes most left by the time the final movie ended and heck, a good amount left after Bride. It was a great experience.
Halloween itself wasn't too eventful, although Spooky Season is something I've grown to appreciate even more in recent years. The last event I'll mention is this past Saturday; it was only the previous weekend I even knew that's when the Central Florida International Auto Show was being held at the Orange County Convention Center. Various auto manufactures (although not all by any means) bring some-although not all-of their new models for people to look at. It was nice to sit briefly in some of them, like a Ford Mustang or a Ford Bronco, and for the hardcore auto fans, the one model BMW presented that wasn't an electric vehicle (I see what they're focusing on in the future) was an Alpina version of an SUV. Think of Alpina like their version of Mercedes/AMG... both were separate companies who mainly modified a particular brand then that brand purchased them.
I'll return... sometime. It may not be until December, but it will depend on how the rest of November goes.
