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Grand Floridian
Mouse ears and everything!After the chaos and expense of moving across the country, Mark and I decided to take it easy and spend Christmas in Orlando. My sister, Jennifer, determined to spend the holidays together, would brook no refusal and spent Christmas week with us. During her visit, we all enjoyed a few adventures around central Florida.
My Gift to You is Disney Visiting a theme park during Christmas week is madness – and despite my sister’s pleas to go, I was firm that there would be no theme park visits. Jennifer made her disappointment known. How could we be so close to the Magic Kingdom and NOT visit? I offered a to visit the Grand Floridian hotel instead, where we could dress up and get our photo in front of the giant Christmas tree that would be in the hotel lobby and later watch the fireworks. But I also had a surprise planned.
As we wandered the property, taking in the glamorous decorations and imagining that we could afford to stay at such a luxurious hotel, I handed my sister a folded paper, claiming it was a list of restaurants and she could pick where we were going
Grand Floridian
The best Christmas tree in town! to have dinner. The paper was actually a certificate inviting her and a guest to attend Cinderella’s character greeting dinner at 1900 Park Fare. It took a couple minutes for the magnitude of this to sink in. We were going to have dinner… at a Disney hotel… with character greetings from Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother... !!! It wasn’t a theme park visit, but it was close enough that Jen’s eyes welled with tears.
The character greeting did not disappoint. Once seated, wearing our Minnie ears, we ordered fancy chocolate martinis and got our autograph books ready. Cinderella, followed by her Stepmother and two lady mice, made the rounds at all the tables. Like all villains, the Stepmother was my favorite to interact with. Their quips and retorts are so sharp, but most of the time I am too Disney-struck to respond in multi-syllable words. The buffet was so-so (Las Vegas ruined me for buffets), but we were still full at the end of the evening.
After dinner we explored the hotel and window shopped. I could live in the Grand Floridian, or at least a house decorated like it. Finally, we made our way down to the
Grand Floridian
Jen's dinner certificate waterfront and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks while drinking a cup of hot cocoa. The electric boat parade was next. Any other time, it might have been hokey or too corny to spend time watching. But this evening it was perfectly magical. And to top off the whole evening, we drove home under the glow of the Universal Studios fireworks.
Calling all Astronauts My work regularly has me driving across the state to Melbourne, but I have never actually been to anything touristy. The day after Christmas would be my day. The three of us piled into the car and headed east toward the Kennedy Space Center and the Atlantic Ocean.
The visitor’s center was very well put together. If you’re not a space or science nerd, nothing here will impress you. Luckily, everyone in my group was a big nerd and we enjoyed poking around the facility. The big show stopper for me was the space shuttle Atlantis. The video intro was fantastic; at the end of the film the screen becomes transparent and the shuttle appears. So cool! I could have spent more time admiring all the engineering details, but that’s where my
enthusiasm exceeded my traveling companions, so we headed out. On a whim, we zig-zagged through a little beach neighborhood and found the Atlantic Ocean. Neither Jennifer nor I had been to the Atlantic before, and seldom get to enjoy a beach that isn’t rocky. We kicked off our shoes, hiked up our pants and skirts, and waded in the water. It was very warm compared to the Pacific. Mark dutifully held our shoes as we navigated the small waves. We stayed out until sunset, and then headed home.
Art, or is it? To help Jennifer with her quest to understand art better, we visited the Orlando Art Museum. Maybe it was Jen’s expectations that suddenly she would become an art critic, or the fact that the exhibits were kind of weird, but her interest waned pretty quickly. Mark and I enjoyed the guided tour, which gave a little bit more insight for the exhibits. My favorite piece was, of course, a floor-to-ceiling Chihuly statue. Admittedly, there is a bit of Northwest pride in my sentiment.
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