Off and Away
You may have gathered we like to travel.
I especially love traveling with Seven, as I feel like I am doing something good, exposing him to new things, new places, new foods. He loves hotels (as do I), and he’s a very good passenger.
On Friday, we are leaving for Florida.
That’s a loooong way. So, we are stopping to stay in South Carolina with friends, get my hair done, visit, and play before heading the rest of the way to Orlando on Saturday. Thanks to Jon’s job, he has quite the collection of hotel points through Choice Hotels, and we found that we could stay at the Clarion Resort Waterpark in Orlando on Saturday and Sunday for a very minimal amount of points. Yesssss. That’s always good news. Free is free. And I’m cheap, so, free always gets my attention.
I imagine we will just recover, hanging out at the resort most of the day on Sunday. It looks like a lot of fun, considering it has its own water attractions. For dinner, I found a place called Matteos in Orlando. Not sure we will actually go, but it looked promising. If you are from the area, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
On Monday, we are heading to Seaworld.
I have to admit, I am super excited about it. So is Seven. I went there when I was 8. I still remember the waterskiing, the dolphins, and Shamu. It looks like they have really expanded in the past, oh, 30 years, so I am anxious to see all of these things again. Sev is kind of freakishly excited about seeing the dolphins…I wonder if he’ll decide to be a marine biologist and go to UC Berkeley like I did at one point?
He best not, I would miss him all the way over there on the Left Coast.
We will check in later that day at the Hard Rock Hotel Universal, where we will be staying for 4 nights. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Hard Rock on a few events, and they are being very kind to me and my family this upcoming week. I’m so excited!
We will also be going to eat at the Pirates Dinner Adventure Theater on Monday night, in case we aren’t flat exhausted. We will be, I’m sure, but hey, a gal’s got to feed her family, right?
We’ll be heading to Universal Studios and islands of Adventure on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I bought meal deal passes for 2 of the days – it seems like a good deal. Have you been and used them? Any advice? Best places to use them, things to consider?
I didn’t buy them for Wednesday, as we are planning to go to one of the onsite Universal resorts for a character dinner. I am getting exhausted just typing all these things. No joke – it sounds like insanity.
On Friday we will head over to Disney and the Polynesian Resort, where we will be staying the next 3 days. We’ll collect our Hopper Passes then hit the parks.
Later that evening I’ll get to live it up at the Food Blog Forum with all my great girlfriend bloggers – many that I have met before and hopefully some new ones! The conference continues the next day, so that means Jon and Seven will have to play on their own. Think they can handle it? Hehe. I’ll bet Jon convinces Seven they just need to stay in the room all day and nap. Nahhhh.
On Sunday, we’ll play some more, conference some more, and then head back as far as we can that evening. I have no idea where we will stop, or if we will even make it out of Orlando.
Wish us luck!
Are YOU coming to Food Blog Forum? Please say hi! I am socially backward, so you may find me sitting in the corner shaking. Of course, my friend Paula of Bell’Alimento will be there, too, and she doesn’t allow me the shaking. Miss BranAppetit will likely not allow it either. Just say hi, okay? I want to meet you!
Oh – and a BIG thanks to Julie of The Little Kitchen for putting this awesome event together. I know she’s worked her toosh off!
