End of Semester Updates....Disney, Breakers and more!
I am officially home for one month, taking in every moment of my very last winter break ever. It's a depressing thought, but my time at home has been great so far. Last Thursday Meredith, Laura, Karissa, Aynsley, Allison and I left for a quickie vacay at Disney World. We got tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and it was fabulous. I'm talking free hot chocolate and snickerdoodles, 5 minute or less wait times on EVERY ride and NO CROWDS! The only downside was that it rained most of the time, but our DZ jackets/anoraks/parkas/etc. came in handy! The six of us chipped in to buy the Splash Mountain photo because we thought it could come in handy for the recruitment video next year, what with us zipped up in matching jackets and making the DZ hand signals amidst our screaming faces. Quite the moment. Allison made a hysterical group on facebook with our top ten moments from the trip and I've got the great photos to remember it all by! (Meredith, I apologize, but you're going to have to wait till we're back in school to get the photos online. We have a dial-up connection here at the Ghetto Bill residence and when I tried to load the photos on Shutterfly, my computer kept freezing. If there is one picture in particular you want, I can send it to you through e-mail, but even that will take 10 minutes. SO SORRY!) Back to the trip. After spending nearly 7 hours in the park shopping, eating, going on every ride possible and seeing a pretty fireworks show, we headed back to the Port Orleans Riverside resort where we were staying. Unfortunately, we got put in the Alligator Bayou building which is not nearly as pretty as the southern plantation mansion style Magnolia Bend buildings. None the less, it was clean and comfortable and perfect for a one night stay when all we really needed was a place to sleep. The only downside to this was that there was apparently a cheerleading competition going on the weekend coming up (a little detail that the Disney reservation people neglected to mention). I don't know about the other room, but our room backed up against a bunch of noisy pre-teens who wouldn't shut up and stop playing music until I knocked on their door at 4 a.m. Not to mention the shouting, screaming and cheering that went on nearly 4 hours later at 8 a.m. right outside of our door. It was as if these cheerleaders were so stupid that they forgot that they were not the only people in the resort and that some people choose to sleep later than 8 a.m. Oh well! By 10:15 we were all dressed and ready and we headed to Boatwright's for a nice sit-down breakfast before perusing the gift shop and heading out. Overall, it was a nice fresh breath of air and a chance to really get to hang out with my closest friends. If only we were able to stay longer. It was most definitely too short!
Moving on, December 8th was my mom's birthday and December 10th her ex-boyfriend Ron came down to visit to celebrate. For her birthday present he made reservations for the three of us at the Breakers' fanciest restaurant, L'Escalier. I knew about this restaurant because I had to do research on it for a piece I wrote during my stint at Boca Raton Magazine. This place is so famous and ULTRA luxurious dining. When we arrived, there was someone to pull out each of our chairs and push us in, someone to lay out napkin on our lap and immediately a waitress offering Evian or sparkling water. We were shortly thereafter greeted by a waiter offering us bread from four loaves of the day: a chocolate, a rosemary, and I forget the other kinds. I ordered a Kahlua and cream (and got carded!!) and even though we declined appetizers, we were brought a small selection courtesy of the chef. Over the course of the night we were given four different sets of silverware, one for each course. I ordered a Sole but I couldn't tell you what it was served with because the ingredients were so fancy, they seemed foreign. The cuisine was French so it was very eclectic and they had quail, vennison and other strange options on the menu. I enjoyed the entree, albeit the midget portion, but the best part was the dessert. I had coffee (prepared personally for me in a one-cup French press) and the creme brulee, which was to die for. It was served with honey ice cream and almond bread and was absolutely decadent. I'm sure the dinner cost Ron close to $200, if not more. The restaurant was so expensive that the prices weren't even on the menu (Ron explained that at really fancy restaurants, they assume you can afford anything on the menu so they just leave the prices off!) For a not so rich girl, I really got to dine at the best of the best! It was absolutely wonderful and after the meal we spent some time walking around the resort looking at the holiday decorations and taking some pictures. Then we stumbled into a wedding party heading to the reception. We were able to sneak a peak at the chuppah and it was the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen in my life. The wedding must have had a winter wonderland theme or something because it was decorated in huge icicles and lights and it was just breathtaking. We snapped a photo for reference when my wedding comes along, LOL.
All right, well I'm off. I leave for New York in just a few days (Friday evening!!). I'm SO excited although I'm getting a little nervous because apparently there is supposed to be a transit strike later this week. I'm hoping not, because if that is the case, my plans will be supremely ruined!
Moving on, December 8th was my mom's birthday and December 10th her ex-boyfriend Ron came down to visit to celebrate. For her birthday present he made reservations for the three of us at the Breakers' fanciest restaurant, L'Escalier. I knew about this restaurant because I had to do research on it for a piece I wrote during my stint at Boca Raton Magazine. This place is so famous and ULTRA luxurious dining. When we arrived, there was someone to pull out each of our chairs and push us in, someone to lay out napkin on our lap and immediately a waitress offering Evian or sparkling water. We were shortly thereafter greeted by a waiter offering us bread from four loaves of the day: a chocolate, a rosemary, and I forget the other kinds. I ordered a Kahlua and cream (and got carded!!) and even though we declined appetizers, we were brought a small selection courtesy of the chef. Over the course of the night we were given four different sets of silverware, one for each course. I ordered a Sole but I couldn't tell you what it was served with because the ingredients were so fancy, they seemed foreign. The cuisine was French so it was very eclectic and they had quail, vennison and other strange options on the menu. I enjoyed the entree, albeit the midget portion, but the best part was the dessert. I had coffee (prepared personally for me in a one-cup French press) and the creme brulee, which was to die for. It was served with honey ice cream and almond bread and was absolutely decadent. I'm sure the dinner cost Ron close to $200, if not more. The restaurant was so expensive that the prices weren't even on the menu (Ron explained that at really fancy restaurants, they assume you can afford anything on the menu so they just leave the prices off!) For a not so rich girl, I really got to dine at the best of the best! It was absolutely wonderful and after the meal we spent some time walking around the resort looking at the holiday decorations and taking some pictures. Then we stumbled into a wedding party heading to the reception. We were able to sneak a peak at the chuppah and it was the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen in my life. The wedding must have had a winter wonderland theme or something because it was decorated in huge icicles and lights and it was just breathtaking. We snapped a photo for reference when my wedding comes along, LOL.
All right, well I'm off. I leave for New York in just a few days (Friday evening!!). I'm SO excited although I'm getting a little nervous because apparently there is supposed to be a transit strike later this week. I'm hoping not, because if that is the case, my plans will be supremely ruined!