Now Entering Intercourse, or Pudge's Vacation Killtacular Tour Completed

Hey,

I'm finally back from Vacation, and now that I gained a few levels on H2 (21 in Slayer and yes I know I suck), watched all the good new stuff on my TiVo (the season finale of Robot Chicken was a stinker), and shipped off my mom to the hospital (some kinda stomach thing, I'm not worried she's always sick like this), I have time to right about my Vacation. HERE WE GO!

Our first stop was Nashville, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Although that might have to do with the fact that we didn't actually see any Nashville sights. I'm not sad though. There was a HUGE mall connected to our hotel and we were there 75% of the time. The day we weren't there, we were at a zoo. Zoo was okay, but the mall was awesome. I saw Batman Begins as promised, only better. I saw it on IMAX. AWESOME EXPERIENCE. I was so amazing that my mom got nightmares from the Scarecrow. She woke up in the middle of the night and screamed SCARECROW into my dad's face. Anyway, the Imax Experience is beyond words, you just have to see it to believe it. Otherwise here are some other less notable things.

• Paying way too much for a Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich at the BK at the mall. It was like three dollars more and I STILL had to take it back because it wasn't plain. (I almost always eat chicken sandwiches plain. Unless of course there is Spicy Buffalo sauce. One of my many quirks)
• I scored both Twisted Metal 3 (PS1) and the Clone Wars/Tetris Worlds disc that came with Xboxs a long time ago for less than $10!
• I also got an Xbox Memory Unit for $25 bucks. Total Ripoff. I can't even save all my H2 Custom Gametypes on it. (I have a lot)
• Finally, you remember that my dad was on a business conference which is why we were in Nashville. He promised that we could go to the Rainforest Cafe on the last day at Nashville. We didn't get to go because he told all his teacher friends that he was going to go to a concert that was the same night. His principal tells him that she will be going to the Cafe that night. Long story short, we didn't go and he got Rainforest Cafe pamphlets in the steering wheel the rest of the trip.

We then made a quick stop in Asheville, Bill was still annoying (ex. When he was driving us to a restaurant, he stopped at a grocery store just to point out that this is where my Aunt Paula does all her shopping). Nothing really interesting beyond that.

Our second stop on the Killtacular Tour is Philadelphia. We stayed in a really fancy Hilton Hotel with free Wi-Fi for my laptop. We had a whole lot of fun there, took a couple of walking tours (including a nice night tour where they project images on buildings and re-enact key events of the [American, Not Nintendo] Revolution. Awesome High-Tech Nerd stuff) I also tried a Philly CheeseSteak (tastes really good with mozzarella and Maranara) Highlights include-

• Watching a concert by the Philly Pops and seeing independence Hall lit up for the first time in, like 5 years. You had to be there, but we were all singing and dancing on the lawn by the time it was done.
• Doing all the requisite Tourist stuff like seeing the Liberty Bell. I was very impressed at just how state of the art all the museum stuff was. I heard later that it was installed only a year ago but still, it was very cool.
• Speaking of state of the art, if you're ever in Phillie, check out the National Constitution Center. I guess it was installed with all the other exhibits a year ago but it was awesome. Not the kind of museum that anyone would get bored at. It had interactive exhibits all about the Constitution and at the end you could sign the Constitution digitally surrounded by life-size statues off all the original signers.
• Meeting Ben Franklin. Really. Someone that lives in Phillie is so good at being a Franklin look alike, that it's his job. He provided the voice of Ben on the night tour mentioned earlier and I even shook his hand as he strolled down the street dressed in the part and carrying a plush Bald Eagle. (Guess he changed his mind about the Turkey thing)

I should also note that Live 8 was in town the day I got there. Lot of crowds for that, so we didn't really see downtown. Linkin Park was across a bridge, and I couldn't go. That was a little bit of a bummer.

Edit just for the Dark Elf-It's been way too long, so I'm gonna post from memory the other things I wanted to say in this post.

We went to Hershey PA, or Chocolate Town USA as they call it around the nation. We did all the usual touristy stuff (toured the factory, made a tin of kisses that we didn't buy cause it was a rip-off). But the best part was going to Hershey Park. I really didn't want to go to Hershey Park as it seemed like a Six-Flags kinda place, and I don't really like roller coasters. Well, it sorta is that and for most of the day I was bored. But then I got to the back of the park, which is dedicated to Water rides. They are some the best water rides in the country. I spent 3 hours in that section getting soaking wet, and I had a better time than I had ever had at a water dedicated park. The highlight was the Roller-Soaker, a small roller coaster with people squirting water at you from the ground out of giant cannons. To retaliate, you have a huge bucket of water attached to your car that you can dump at any time. A lot of people used theirs for the helpless people waiting on line, so this is a water ride experience the whole time through. If you ever get a chance, definitely check this place out.

We also went to Amish Country and did more tourist stuff like tour an old Amish town and a house. But there was even something good in Amish Country. A place called Intercourse PA. Yep, a town named after sexual relations. It was an Amish town through and through, but all the signs were funny. I have pictures at http://www.gamezionfl.com/gamezionflforum/viewtopic.php?t=193 for anyone interested. As a side note I got some awesome cheap comics at that pretzel factory, which is probably why it's my favorite.

The final stop on my tour is the requisite Orlando visit, and this year we went to MGM Studios and Disney Quest. We were gonna go to Blizzard Beach, but it was raining again. It's almost like a joke in our family, cause we've had rain check tickets that don't expire for this place since I was 6. My parents keep saying that they will be a family heirloom, but I expect we'll use them eventually. MGM was the usual stuff, but Disney Quest had been much improved since last I encountered it. Last time I went, there were a lot of VR rides, but it was over quick and you got bored easily. Disney realized it, tore out the worst ride, and filled the space with 100 arcade machines on Free Play. Not crappy ones either. Marvel vs Capcom 2, Tekken 5, Soul Calibur 2, Crazy Taxi, a wall of Pinball Machines, a room full of retro games like Galaga and Tron, the list goes on. I'm a big theme park buff, and now that I know what kinda place Disney Quest is, I'll go there every chance I get, and I recommend it to any gamers looking to relive the arcade experience.

That's it for the Killtacular Tour, and I hoped you like it Darwin.

-May I write about next year's summer before December 06

Pudge