The Happiest Place on Earth

Not very many people fly through Orlando on their way to Tokyo, but I did. My husband had to make an appearance at the ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) which was holding its annual convention at the Marriott World Resort in Orlando. We didn't have time to fly back home, so we packed for Orlando, Tokyo, Taipei, Jakarta, Bali and Cambodia and left home on January 2^nd for a month-long trip. If you read my blog about the Suitcase Sheriff, you will know that packing was not easy. Half of those countries will be warm in January and half will be cool….but nothing like Washington, PA.

Since my husband had meetings all day, I considered going to Disney World all by myself. It was bad enough that I didn't have my children with me, but going alone…I wasn't convinced that I could. When I texted my daughter and asked if it sounded sad that I was thinking of going to the park alone, her quick reply was "Of course not, it is the happiest place on earth!"

I ended up waiting until the next day when my husband could spare a few hours. Together we walked around Epcot enjoying the beautiful weather and stopping to watch and listen to live entertainment in each of the countries. We had lunch in Germany where we sat family-style and enjoyed the Bavarian food and music. That evening, our good friends the Devlins traveled from Jacksonville to meet us for dinner at Raglan Road, a wonderful Irish pub in downtown Disney. You just can't help having a good time in Orlando, and Disney sure goes out of its way to make you feel like you are in the happiest place on earth.

Speaking of Disney, we were fortunate to have some time with our former neighbor, Allie, who is an engineer that was recently hired by Disney to work on analytics. She lives in downtown Orlando so we took a drive to that part of town where we walked around the lake filled with swans. I had never been to this neighborhood and enjoyed seeing another part of Orlando. Allie suggested a new restaurant, SoCo, which serves Southern Contemporary Cuisine. She had never been to SoCo either, so we all took our server's suggestions for things like chicken dumplings, fried green tomatoes, deviled duck eggs, etc.

The best part was some unusually warm weather for Florida in January. I have been swimming almost daily and love to dive into an outdoor pool whenever I have the chance. One of my coolest Christmas gifts was a waterproof Ipod with waterproof headphones so I can listen to music while I swim laps. This all makes me one happy lady in The Happiest Place on Earth.