A blog by Cameron and Shannon

Well hello there, everyone. First of all, I really have started writing this blog EIGHT TIMES, yet somehow manage to not succeed in actually finishing. This is mostly because I don’t know how to articulate the awesomeness of our visit (to my old) home, which, as always, started as a nice relaxing vacation and disentegrated into a whirlwind of trying to visit/do/see/eat as much as possible before leaving. As you may or may not know, I am from an extremely small town (Live Oak, Florida). As I’ve lived a few places since then, I’ve come to realize exactly how small it was - to give the short version, there are no chain restaurants (except for fast-food), we did not have a Wal-Mart or franchised video rental places until I was 16 years old, and, oh, yeah, we had a hamburger-eating horse as a celebrity. Also, we have stores called things like “Good Stuff” and “The Opportunity Store” and “McHale’s Specialty Store” (which apparently specializes in mystical figurines and 75% normal size suits of armor). And, also, this:

However. Up until this point I kind of thought, oh, these are all things about the town I am from, how quirky and funny, la-de-dah. And then I realized I AM EXACTLY LIKE THIS. Read More »

As you all may or may not know, Cameron and I are from Florida. Cameron is from wayyy on over in the panhandle in Pensacola, and I’m from Live Oak, in the north central part (ever heard “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River? I’m from there.) We’ve been planning our summer trip back to good old FL, and got the idea that perhaps a theme park would be a fun choice for our visit.

I get the impression that most American children are taken on several trips to the Orlando parks - for the typical Floridian child, that number is multiplied by about 3 to 5. It’s not because Floridian children are spoiled; it is because they live in Florida - weekend trip? Theme park. Day trip? Theme park. School trip? Theme park. When you go to a theme park so many times, you start to get used to things a certain way - you begin to pick favorites attractions, and so forth. So imagine my surprise as I perused the various theme park sites and began to see that things were not as I left them as a child - heck, things are not as I left them as a college student. When I cross referenced that information with Wikipedia and Google searches to find out what happened to some of my favorites over the years, I began to get really…ticked. So I’ve compiled a list - the top ten Florida attractions that should have never been altered/cancelled/shut down. I realize these incidents are the result of an accumulation of years, but these things are really starting to add up and I can’t take it anymore!!

As I began writing this, I realized if I listed all 10 at once, it would take me about 5 hours and would be quite lengthy, so I’ll list one a day, starting with ten and counting down. Reminisce with me!

10. Ghostbusters, Universal Studios Orlando.

Opened: 1990. Closed: 1996.

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