Forest City, NC to Orlando, FL

September 12, 2009
Forest City, NC to Orlando, FL

Last year while traveling in Bocas del Toro, Panama I met a friend who lived in Orlando. Since then he's been telling me about how awesome this city is and how I should come visit. A few weeks back my friend D'Ann mentioned that she would be in Orlando for a conference and invited me to join her; coincidentally another ASU alum named Parker suddenly popped up in Mickey's hometown and I called JetBlue to figure out the fastest way down now that the moon had aligned for me to visit the Sunshine State.

Landing at the Orlando airport I was met by statuettes of Disney characters in each direction. Passing them by I walked out of the terminal and was greeted by my friend Tim holding up a sign that read "Jenifer Bubenik, Author." He is so funny! Tim drove me over to meet up with D'Ann, at the JW Marriot. As soon as I walked in I was in awe. The JW Marriot was covered in waterfalls and chandeliers and all it needed was a casino to be Vegas. D'Ann greeted me, got me settled in, and the two of us got cozy by a firepit outside, underneath an umbrella as rain came down. I was very happy she had asked me to join her in the paradise known as Orlando.

September 13, 2009
Orlando, FL

Tim decided to show me his hometown by taking me to SeaWorld. I know some people will think it's funny that I flew from SeaWorld San Diego to SeaWorld Orlando, but all in a days fun. Tim's dad has been a SeaWorld employee for 20+ years so he handed me a free pass and in the entrance we went. I was met by a huge lake and a tower painted with Shamu. Bypassing all the kiddies we headed towards the manatees and stingrays where we got a plate of dead minnows to feed the slimy animals. I placed my hand down in the water and two seconds later I was met by stingrays fighting each other to lick my fingers. It was more scary than snorkeling with the little fellows. Continuing on we visited the Antartic and saw pengiuns and polar bears before catching the dolphin show where trapeeze artist were involved and riding Atlantis where Tim pushed us into the front row, causing buckets of water to fall into the seat and my cotton pants to be soaked for the rest of the day. Before the day was over we also hit up the ever scary roller coaster Manta where I found myself screaming for dear life and I noticed that you could follow Shamu on twitter.

Back at the JW Marriot D'Ann and I were joined by my ASU alum friend Parker. Such a randomness that the three of us were in Orlando, yet none of us live here, we lived it up in the restaurant downstairs. An afternoon rainstorm had left the patio drenched, but D'Ann wanted to sit out in the Florida air, so the nice busboy cleaned off the table and sat tablecloths on the chairs for us. Two minutes after we sat down a baby rattlesnake joined us and the server told us "We must move inside, there is a snake." We told her it's just a baby and all of us are from the country, it'd be okay. Another two minutes later rain poured down and we were forced inside anyway. But, thanks for all of their hard work and determination.

September 14, 2009
Orlando, FL

I had found that it rained every afternoon in Orlando. Like Hawaii, but without the beach. Before the rain kicked in I headed out around the JW Marriot for a run. Built on a lake there was a great 1 mile running path that I enjoyed and found a butterly garden and organic garden on property during my morning workout. I highly recommend the Orlando JW to anyone in the area and soooo many thanks to D'Ann for letting me tag along. After D'Ann finished up with her work we enjoyed the sunshine by grabbing some inner tubes and lounging around the lazy river. The pool was huge and the lifeguard told us that there were 900 chairs on property! We were blessed yesterday that the rain held off and at 5:00 PM we left the sun to get ready for Monday Night Football.

In the lobby bar we watched Del Potro win the US Open before cheering on the Chargers during MNF. Parker joined up with us again and laugher continued in Orlando throughout the night. I was so happy that I finally made it down to this town and thankful that I got to see everyone. What a great time!