Word: orlandos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...used to be a Satanist priest and a fundamentalist minister whom God cured of being gay. He talks with born-again truckers, and some evangelists who make a plush living off the generous contributions of their cash-strapped communicants. He visits the Creation Museum and an Orlando theme park called the Holy Land Experience, where the actor playing Jesus flunks Maher's quiz on some of Christianity's knottier conundrums. On the plus side, he finds two Catholic priests with liberal takes on evolution and Vatican theology, and a couple of members of a very lonely minority: gay Muslim activists...
...Orlando, FLA.: You're thinking roving packs of sunburned children who let their ice cream drip on your toes as you wait to ride Space Mountain. You're thinking overpriced hot dogs and hotel pools crammed with little kids leaving warm spots. All true, but the city has also quietly become a favored destination for adults traveling without kids. Some 54% of adults who visit the city now do so without children--66% if you include convention attendees, according to travel researcher D.K. Shifflet & Associates...
Sure, a lot of adults go to Orlando to indulge in creepy Disney nostalgia. (Grown men should not wear Mickey ears.) But there's another side to Orlando, a city with an opera company, two excellent museums and a busy, quirky nightlife. In an era when only the wealthy can afford an overseas plane ticket, when New York City is too expensive and "the new Vegas" now feels old, consider Orlando. This perpetual adolescent of a city is finally growing...
After the bustle of the theme parks, take a person you'd like to kiss to Leu Gardens ($7), a 50-acre (20 hectare) botanical garden in downtown Orlando. Make your way back to the Reba Tennessee Varnes bench and sit under the Spanish moss that hangs from a weeping Chinese elm. This must be the most romantic spot in Florida. Not far away is the Orlando Museum of Art ($8), which focuses on works by Americans. Don't miss Dennis Oppenheim's majestically disturbing 1996 installation Products from the Snowman Factory, a collection of faceless fiberglass snowmen leaning...
...perhaps the most startling and rewarding of Orlando experiences is the nightlife. While the clientele at Parliament House is mostly gay, its renowned drag shows draw hundreds of customers of all orientations. People line up 20 deep to give the drag queens cash, which they toss in crumpled piles behind them on the stage. I was there on a recent Monday morning at 2 a.m., and as revelers danced their way through I Kissed a Girl, I couldn't quite believe I was in the home of Disney World. Orlando, it turns out, isn't G-rated after...