Cover Story

Florida Fun!

By GWN Founder Diane Zhou

Florida was really fun! It was actually my first time going there. It's exciting because my family doesn't travel a lot. The only other states I have been to (and played at) are Nevada, Illinois, Texas, and of course, California. Now add Florida to the list! It wasn't too hot in Florida, but it rained a lot...

My dad was actually on a business trip so he arrived in Florida on Monday, June 23rd. My mom, brother, and I got to Florida on Wednesday.

On Thursday, my dad had one more day of meetings in Orlando, so just my mom, Alex, and I went to play. We went to Disneyworld! We chose to go to Magic Kingdom on the first day because it's the main Disneyworld park. My mom got discount tickets from her work, IBM, so we didn't need to buy those expensive tickets. After we parked our rented Kia car, a tram took us to a place where we could ride a ferry or a monorail to the park. We decided to ride the ferry. Magic Kingdom is like a copycat of the Disneyland in Los Angeles. In fact, Orlando is the same as southern California! There's Disney, Seaworld, and even Universal Studios! Except in a much bigger version! Oh well...back to Magic Kingdom. We got some fast passes so the line would be much shorter. It's boring if I go into the details, I just went on tons of fun rides! About 5 of them. My favorite is Space Mountain. It's super fast and has many turns and drops. If you didn't know, I LOVE roller coasters! I rode Space Mountain with the other GWN Founder, my friend, Amanda Chang. She knows how fun it is too! Very sadly, it started raining around five o'clock. Then Alex just had to start complaining about his soaking shoes and blah blah blah. We bought a rain jacket so I could still go on indoor rides, but Alex just ruined my day. We went back to the parking lot by monorail, and that was the end of the first disastrous day of Florida...

By GWN Writer Alex Zhou

On Friday, June 27 Alex and his family went to Epcot. There, they went to the world center. They went on a ride that showed history. Then, they went on a ride in a clam that moves while watching Nemo. After they finished, they saw animals that live in the sea. Alex's sister saw a big turtle. Alex saw a stingray at the top of the water. How unusual of having a stingray at the surface of the water. Next, Alex's family went to eat lunch. Alex ate Macaroni and Cheese. Later, Diane and Alex went on a simulator ride. You're supposed to go on a mission to go to Mars. Alex had to be pilot and engineer because they were missing one person. Then, they went to a movie ride. It was about energy. There was a person named Ellen who didn't care about energy. She was watching Jeopardy when she fell asleep. She dreamed that she was in Jeopardy and there was a person named Judy who knew all about energy. The categories were all about energy so Judy got them all right in the lead with $17,800 in points. Albert Einstein was there and had $0 and Ellen had -$100. Later, Bill Nye comes and takes Ellen through time and they talk about energy. After that, they go back through time back to Jeopardy and Ellen won with a score of $35,600! Then, we watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was very boring. Next, we went on a fast and fun ride, Test Track. It was fast! Later, we went around the world. First up, was Canada. We watched a movie named O'Canada. It was a good movie. Next was United Kingdom We did a Narnia Quiz. Later we went to France. We watched a show there. Next up, Morocco. We didn't do anything there. Then we went to Japan. We saw pokeplushies there. Alex wanted Chimchar and Diane got Turtwig. Next was USA. We only took a picture there. At china, we only looked around the shops. Next up Norway. We went on a ride there. The ride was fun. Later we went to Mexico. We didn't do anything there because we had to go on a ride called Soar'in. Soar'in was very fun. After that, we went all the way back to Japan and bought PokePlushies. After that we watched fireworks. It was a fun day!

(By GWN Founder Diane Zhou):

Our third day was spent at the John F. Kennedy Space Center. They still launch space shuttles there! We took a tour. We learned a lot of things! The first stop was just about America's beginning of space travel. Very unsuccessful. Russia was very successful at the time. Next was fun! We saw the exact control center of the first successful orbit around the moon by Americans. We also took a cool picture! All of the people in my family took individual pictures with poses like we were floating. Even the PokePlushies and Gingy (Yay! GWN's Gingy!) took pictures. We saw how the person put our poses together. We looked like we were floating in a spaceship! We ate lunch at this stop. The third and final stop was about the International Space Station orbiting around Earth. NASA is constantly sending people up there. After the tour, we rode a space shuttle simulator and went back to our hotel.
On our final full day in Florida, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios! Fun! We went on rides and blah blah blah, but the best ride was the Tower of Terror! There's tons of drops, and I LOVE those! The second best was the fastest roller coaster in the whole Disneyworld. SUPER FAST, and with upside downs. Well, that was our trip to Florida, and back to Home Sweet Home!