Memories of Traveling with Steve and Mike Fisher
Florida

We took two trips to DisneyWorld. Once we went as part of a conference Dad had for work. We flew 
into Tampa (presumably because the flight for all of us was cheaper). On the flight to Dallas,
I was air-sicker than I had ever been. I remember one of your coworkers was on the flight, but
they went straight to Orlando. I remember it being very, very rainy on our drive from Tampa 
to Orlando. We stayed at the Buena Vista Palace. There was a kids club there, but Stephen and
I didn't really like it. I remember seeing Disney World attractions while Dad was at some meetings.
We rode around on the monorail quite a bit. I remember going to the Mexico ride at Epcot with mom
and loving it. Then Norway, but it was a boat ride of a Viking hell, and it really scared me.
We went back to Mexico. 


 
On another trip to DisneyWorld, we went to Daytona Beach Marriott and stayed. There was a bungee jump
station next to the peir, and dad went to buy gyros once. There were lots of cars that drove up
and down the beach. It's now a Hilton. There are a lot of slingshot vidoes of people's reactions
on YouTube, and you can still see the hotel in the background.

 
 
On that trip, then we drove to Orlando and stayed at what the time was the Travelodge hotel. It was
built in the triangular style that a lot of Travelodge hotels were built in many years ago 
(they have one in Salt Lake that was built in the late 60s in Salt Lake too). It's now the Drury
Hotel and they built a new tower. The original hotel seen in the red square here. It was the fist
time I leared what a "mezzanine" is, what they called their second floor. I remember Stephen drank
too much cream soda and got nauseated. We went to visit Pleasure Island but left before the adult 
only party began (they had this thing where every night was New Years' Eve. We also visited Universal
Studios where we say a Murder She Wrote presentation and rode in an ET ride. We were seated in chairs
that looked like bicycles that flew over a miniature city. I screamed and cried the whole time.

 

We left right from Unversal Studios down the Beeline Expressway which was a toll road that we kept
stopping at to pay to Melbourne. I believe this was the time that mom made reservaotins at the Holiday
Inn suites, which was pretty nice, but she didn't like it so we went to stay at the Radisson Suites
in Melbourne Beach (techincially in a town called Indiatlantic). We had stayed there before, perhaps 
the first time we went to Orlando. Amazingly, it's still a Radisson. There were a lot of nice
shells on the beach, and there were cats running around outside. One of the times we were there,
the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. We also went to Cape Canavral each time we went
here. The first time, there was a great restaurant called the "Lunch Pad" it was a circular building
that had some sort of conveyor belt where you picked up you food or something. The next time we went,
a different eatery was called the Lunch Pad, and the original was renamed the Orbit Café. This
second time I believe was when  we saw a rocket lauch from the hotel (It's about an hour south of
the space station). I remember it being completely silent from where we watched. We had missed
the space shuttle by about a week.


 
We went down the east coast of Florida on a different trip. On that one, we flew into Tampa. The rental
car place ran out of cars, so they gave us a Cadillac. Stayed the first night in a horrible Motel 6,
then south and stayed at the Marco Island Marriott and the "La Playa" hotel in Naples. We stayed in
Clearwater Beach on the way back, in a hotel next to a drawbridge.
 
We went through Alabama on the way to the panhandle on two other trips. Each time, we flew into 
New Orleans, drove to Mobile (stayed at the Stoffers which overlooked the Bay). The first time, we
visited dad's godmother in her old home. Then we drove to the Edgewater Beach Resort in Panama City
Beach. We went on this same path twice. We stayed in the same model of condo, once the two beds were
in the larger master bedroom, and the second time the two beds for us kids were in the smaller bedroom.
But they were the same floorplan. The pool was huge, and they had different color flags to warn of the
tide/undertow conditions. 


 
On at least one of these trips, we went and stayed at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach/Gulf Shores,
Alabama. We were there on my birthday. Ther was an indoor/outdoor pool, and the hotel was offset from 
the beach by quote a distance.


 
On the other trip back to New Orleans, we stayed in Pensacola at the Residence Inn. The radio in the car
was playing the emergency alert tone because there were tornados in the area. On the first trip back 
to New Orleans, we stayed in the Sheraton and went ot the French Quarter. I got a sore throat and was
miserable. On the second trip we stayed out last night at the Hyatt Regency next to the Superdome.
That hotel was damaged very badly in Katrina and stayed closed for several years 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_New_Orleans). On this second trip, I had brought the
Nintendo and couldn't stop talking about Kirby. 
 
That was 5 times in total I believe that we went to Florida. Twice to Orlando and the east coast,
once to the west coast and Naples, and tiwce from New Orleans to the Gulf coast in the panhandle.  

Hawaii
 

The first trip to Hawaii I fully remember was in 1988. We went to Maui. We stayed at the Kamole Sands
(we threw the puppets up in the ceiling fan). We went to a place where they did cliff diving. Stephen
fell and skinned his knee. We stayed near Lahaina (the city that burned down recently) at the
Kaanapali Beach Hotel and at a place called the Paki Maui (where the power went out all day).
Dad and Stephen must have eaten something bad and were sick on the return flight. Mom and I felt
fine. This was a trip that you had written something about and shared with us a few years ago.
 
The last time we went to Hawaii was summer 1990. We did two nights at the Waikiki Banyan, two nights
at the Turtle Bay Hilton on the north shore and the last night at the Waikiki Beachcomber in Honolulu.
This time was not our first time at the Banyan nor the Turtle Beach Hilton, so I know we must have
gone before. I must have been too young…..maybe about 5 or 6? The only thing I remember about that
first trip was that mom was already there, and Grandma Fisher drove us guys to the airport where
we walked up the airstairs. I remember being outside, and she was waving goodbye on the tarmac.
That was before they built the newer terminal with the ramps into the plane.
 
This is the Waikiki Banyan: two giant condo buldings, and there was astroturf next to the pool what
was situatied on the roof of a parking garage. Dad brought an etch-a-sketch and checkers to play and 
keep us busy. We used to wake up real early before the sun, and I remember once there was a 
firetruck across the street. The walk to the beach was several blocks.
 

 
The Beachcomber was across the street from the beach, and we could see the famous Royal Hawaiian 
pink building) built in the 20s and the even older Mona Surfrider Hotel….like the first two hotels 
on the islands. One day we were eating breakfast, and dad asked us what would be left if he squeezed
all the water out of a piece of ice. I couldn't believe nothing would be left.


 
I do remember both times we went to Oahu, we must have driven up the east side, up past the Polynesian
Cultural Center and Chinaman's hat to the north shore. There's a lot of Mormons up there, so I've
met a lot of people who have lived on that side of the island. But the non the way back, we drove down
the center of the island where there was the Dole plantation and got pineapple ice cream.
 
California

We were on a boat only one or two times. We went to the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose on Long Beach, CA.
We also were on a glass bottom boat (?). I think that was also in Long Beach. That trip we stayed at
the Newport Beach Marriott. Mom was thinking about staying in Laguna Beach, but I think we decided
against it because it wasn't too nice. That might have been the same trip we took to Disneyland.
We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott and then Inn at the Park which is also in the same area next
to the convention center.

 
The Queen Mary has been docked in the harbor for decades. It's a hotel and museum. It's very old…
like 1930s. They had some cabins on display, and I remember being on deck. The Spruce Goose was 
in that huge dome, but they ended up moving it to Oregon. I remember there was one of mom's 
favorite style coffee cups that had QueenMary-SpruceGoose on it, and she ended up going back to
buy it at a gift shop while we stood waiting near the exit of their little theme park here.



 

Some Final Memories

Both kids remember there a storm not that far away when we were in Alabama or somewhere else
along the way before getting to Florida that year?

It was a tornado that touched down near Pensacola when we were there and a was a hurricane
near Hawaii I think when we were on the North Shore. I remember dad talking about it
(from a newspaper) while I looked outside and saw the palm trees and wind turbines blowing,
but you guys said it wasn't going to hit us. I also remember part of Black Sands were destroyed
on the Big Island when we were at the Turtle Bay as well.



Turtle Bay Resort (no longer a Hilton) on the north shore. The beach was choked with seaweed.
I can sometimes imagine and smell the dewy sweetness in the air. I remember we took a lot of walks
around the area. There were lots of trees and other condo buildings on the golf course. We once
got on the elevator here, and Stephen said something like "oh, are they the Japanese that are
taking over Hawaii?" Also, one of the handles broke on the big grey suitcases when dad went to pick
it up.

Once when we came back, someone had run over our mailbox or the stop sign in front of the house
on Riverview. Another time we came back from Hawaii, the bosque was on fire, and we had to drive
over fire hoses that they were using to get in the driveway. The last time we went to Hawaii was
a few months before ewe moved (I think that's the year dad got a big promotion). I believe all
out trips to Florida were in the 90s. The last time I flew anywhere was October 1994 to
Aunt Margie's wedding.