Our Conference Hotel

My conference is at the Gaylord Palms Hotel near Disneyworld.

The Gaylord has a very large interior atrium and this is the view from our 7th floor balcony. There is a mock spanish fort in the middle with a wedding chapel and many live palm trees.  The hotel is huge and it took us quite a while to find our way around.  They have "you are here" maps at various places to help you navigate.
The conference facility is attached via a bridge to the hotel so I can easily go to and from the conference sessions with ease -  about a 5 minute walk.

One other interesting feature is the live alligators in the atrium area!  They have a feeding Tuesday and Saturday at 6:30 pm so we got to experience one feeding.  The 'gators are about 4' long so they did not pose much of a threat to their feeder, but he was still rather careful to keep his hands at a safe distance.
It made for a very enjoyable show as he dropped a piece of meat to each gator.  

The Gaylord has a magnificent outdoor pool as you can see in this picture.  It's 4' deep for its entire length, perfect for swimming.  This is the Adults only pool.  They also have a very large Family pool with water slides, water canons, and many family and kid friendly playscapes.   One guy I talked to at the conference sent a picture back to his wife who immediately  responded that he should sign up for this conference for next year so she and their 3 kids could come along and enjoy this wonderful facility.

The conference ends tomorrow, then one more day and it's back home and time to prepare my report-out of what I've learned at this very good and informative conference.

An Epcot Anniversary

Mary and I spent the day at EPCOT today in celebration of our 39th anniversary.

We had a great time and saw everything we wanted to in the park.  We especially enjoyed the Soaring ride, but also went to the Space and Imagination pavilions before heading to the Countries in the World Showcase. We enjoyed the updated Canada movie, had a bratwurst and beer lunch in Germany before enjoying the rides and shows in the US, Norway, Mexico, and French pavilions.
The park was quite un-crowded today so we hardly had any lines at all!  But it was very hot and humid which seemed all the worse after spending 30+ minutes in an air conditioned pavilion!  We did get some rain late in the day which, thankfully, cooled things off a bit.  On a positive note, the heat sure made the Italian gelato taste great!!!!

We celebrated our anniversary dinner at the Rose and Crown restaurant in the England pavilion.  Love those English entrees!  Mary had Fish and Chips while I had Cottage Pie (a dish very much like Shepherd's pie) with a side of mashed peas. YUM! We topped it off by sharing an excellent sticky toffee pudding.
After a long day, we headed for our final ride of the day, Spaceship Earth, before heading back to our motel.

Tomorrow we move to the Gaylord Palms where my conference is being held.  So the fun is over - time to get to work!  8-)

Back Home from Florida

We had a very nice extended weekend in Orlando, even if it was unseasonably hot and humid here. We roasted Sunday at Epcot, moving in and out of the air conditioned areas. We did just about everything we wanted, saving the movies at Canada and France for Tuesday night.
My conference was very informative and the move to the Dolphin on Tuesday went well although I must admit driving around Disneyworld can be very confusing. It was nice to be able to take a short boat ride to Epcot Tuesday evening. We saw the Canada movie - featuring Martin Short - then decided to see the France movie after we ate dinner. Dinner at the Italy pavilion was superb! And just as we left the restaurant, the fireworks show started; great "Disney": timing for them to wait for us. After the show we found the show at France was closed, but that's how it goes. We caught a boat back to our hotel and called it a night.
Today the conference wrapped up, we said "good bye" to the Dolphin, had a now-traditional Waffle House lunch and headed for the airport. So now we are waiting for our flight back home where a few hectic days await us.
But we have great anniversary memories to fall back on...

Off to Orlando

Last Monday I was approved for a 3 day Gartner conference in Orlando so this week has been a flurry of travel arrangements. Fortunately I was able to still get a great airfare so Mary can come along. The conference hotel could only book us Saturday - Monday so on Tuesday we move over to the Dolphin hotel just outside of Disneyworld! That works out great - we get to stay there for our anniversary and plan to eat at the Italian pavilion that evening. Works out great!
So we're sitting at DTW now, having volunteered to be bumped to a 3:30 flight. Since there's a pretty good chance we'll be traveling on Delta in the next year, the vouchers will certainly come in handy.
We plan to spend Sunday at Epcot and I'll be busy with my conference 8am - 5 pm Monday and Tuesday, then until noon on Wednesday. We return Wednesday evening.
And we have a few more trips in the works for this summer so stay tuned.