Florida Day 1: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

After getting up at 4:30 a.m., we were off to a rocky start when we were waiting for the light rail to BWI and MFP had to go back to the house to get his long pants, which he had forgotten to pack. But we made it to the airport by 7:10 for our 9:00 flight. The lines were not long, but, since I am such a genius, I accidentally packed my Coppertone Oil-Free sunblock in our one carry-on, causing it to be searched and the sunblock confiscated. (At least we had more sunblock in our checked baggage.) Our flight was on time and wonderfully uneventful.

Upon landing in Orlando, we picked up our bags, took the shuttle to the rental car place, and were "upgraded" from an economy car to a "standard" Dodge Stratus. It was silver and a nice car, but MFP, who was the assigned driver, didn't like it because the roof of the car hit just above his head. I guess the Dodge Stratus is for short people. We then stopped by the guest "welcome center" at the rental car place for directions to our assigned accomodations in Kissimmee. A pushy representative there offered us hugely discounted Disney tickets if we would only go to a timeshare presentation at his company the next morning. We naively took the bait (who can resist discounted Disney tickets?) and set off in the Stratus, stopping at Wendy's for lunch.

We made it to the office where we were supposed to go, and had to wait half an hour for them to come back from lunch. We walked around and explored. It was quite hot, and I took note of the cute little newts that made often appearances on the sidewalk. Finally we checked in, drove down the street to our condo, and unpacked. The condo was gorgeous, and made for about six people! And it had TWO bathrooms, a luxury our house does not have!

We showered, relaxed at the clubhouse pool and took a dip for a while, and then showered a second time. We located Universal CityWalk on the map and drove out there so that we could eat here. Universal CityWalk is so cool! So many restaurants, shops, a huge Starbucks, some dance clubs, and of course Margaritaville. Margaritaville is like the Hard Rock Cafe crossed with Don Pablo's on speed. Lots of tropical decorations, and Jimmy Buffett and other related videos constantly shown on the walls. And the food was really good! We were able to take some leftovers home for lunch the next day. They also had a live band that came on, sadly, just before we paid the check and it was time to leave.

We walked around CityWalk some, and then headed back to the condo to sleep.

(P.S. Route 192 in Kissimmee looks like Breezewood, PA with palm trees!) ;)