Orange you glad?
We are back from sunny Florida. The trip was very nice and we packed a whole lot of stuff into those 5 days.
Right before the Florida adventure began, we played bingo at the Hippo in Baltimore with a couple friends. I was very close to winning a couple times, but as we know from the never-ending (losing) games of bingo on the cruise ship, close is never enough. theblackdog2071 won $80 though so we were happy for him (and jealous) ;)
The winner!
The losers!
A GIANT bingo marker and our friend J smiling in the background
After a drink
The next morning we got up early and arrived in Florida at 3:30pm after a smooth flight. We went directly to my parents' house to have the Thanksgiving feast. There were only 6 of us (my parents, my sister, my sister's friend, and us) but the meal and the company were very nice.
The spread (who did I catch picking at the green beans??)
The table (my sister, dad, and S)
My mom finishing up her mousse cups for dessert and pointing out what a terrible job my sister did with the whipped cream ;)
Thanksgiving is not complete without turkey cookies
The next day, we all went to Lake Eola in downtown Orlando to watch the pet parade! It was by chance that we found out this event was happening, and we were glad we went- doggy galore! And crazy, crazy owners.
In front of Lake Eola
Dogs with big tushes
Dogs dressed up like reindeer
Dogs that made us miss Hazel
Dogs with curly hair
Dogs looking for the yellow brick road
Dogs with fab outfits
And finally, dogs that we could not resist!
After that, we went to play miniature golf with my parents. Sadly, I lost, though only by 3 points. My mom and S were tied for first. I think we all did pretty well.
Seriously, I wasn't trying to distract her ;)
The suspense is killing them
I um...find a friend...
That evening we had dinner at Toojay's which has the best black & white cookies, even in miniature size. S & I did some shopping at the humongous Waterford Lakes town center...playing with a chihuahua puppy at the pet shop and trying on several shades of sparkly nail polish at Ulta.
On Saturday, we went to Lake Ridge Winery. We tried 6 wines and were not very impressed. Most were made from the Muscadine grape, which is musky and...just not very tasty overall. They're suited to the humidity of the South and disease-resistant, but personally I don't think they make great wine (or grape juice, which we also tried). The winery was nice though and had a large gift shop. We sat outside eating cheese and crackers and wondered where the mountains my parents had mentioned were.
We then took a short drive to Lake Louisa state park. The park was huge and encompassed lots of lakes and hiking trails. We hiked for a bit and then went down to the lake area which was a really unique landscape for us to see.
Ready?
My reaction to S telling me to get off the path and into the woods
We find orange trees!
It was actually pretty sour, but hey, at least we found it!
Down by the lake...unfortunately we didn't see any alligators
The trees grew right in the lake water, which was dark with tannins
On our drive back, we stopped at a local citrus stand. The nice man there let us sample red navals, yellow navals, page oranges, pummellos, kumquats, boiled peanuts and freshly-squeezed orange juice. The kumquat was weird and sour and the boiled peanuts tasted like hot dogs to me. Everything else was delicious. We bought some to take home.
Find this stand if you're in Orlando!
That evening (long day!) we went to the Disney marketplace for shopping and a sundae at Ghirardelli (mmmm!)
The marketplace has a huge LEGO store with lego sculptures set up- can you find the real boy?
Lego window display of NY
Lego window display of Moscow
In one of the shops
Yo ho, yo ho
So that's half our trip so far. I'll finish up tonight or tomorrow with the second half :)
Right before the Florida adventure began, we played bingo at the Hippo in Baltimore with a couple friends. I was very close to winning a couple times, but as we know from the never-ending (losing) games of bingo on the cruise ship, close is never enough. theblackdog2071 won $80 though so we were happy for him (and jealous) ;)
The winner!
The losers!
A GIANT bingo marker and our friend J smiling in the background
After a drink
The next morning we got up early and arrived in Florida at 3:30pm after a smooth flight. We went directly to my parents' house to have the Thanksgiving feast. There were only 6 of us (my parents, my sister, my sister's friend, and us) but the meal and the company were very nice.
The spread (who did I catch picking at the green beans??)
The table (my sister, dad, and S)
My mom finishing up her mousse cups for dessert and pointing out what a terrible job my sister did with the whipped cream ;)
Thanksgiving is not complete without turkey cookies
The next day, we all went to Lake Eola in downtown Orlando to watch the pet parade! It was by chance that we found out this event was happening, and we were glad we went- doggy galore! And crazy, crazy owners.
In front of Lake Eola
Dogs with big tushes
Dogs dressed up like reindeer
Dogs that made us miss Hazel
Dogs with curly hair
Dogs looking for the yellow brick road
Dogs with fab outfits
And finally, dogs that we could not resist!
After that, we went to play miniature golf with my parents. Sadly, I lost, though only by 3 points. My mom and S were tied for first. I think we all did pretty well.
Seriously, I wasn't trying to distract her ;)
The suspense is killing them
I um...find a friend...
That evening we had dinner at Toojay's which has the best black & white cookies, even in miniature size. S & I did some shopping at the humongous Waterford Lakes town center...playing with a chihuahua puppy at the pet shop and trying on several shades of sparkly nail polish at Ulta.
On Saturday, we went to Lake Ridge Winery. We tried 6 wines and were not very impressed. Most were made from the Muscadine grape, which is musky and...just not very tasty overall. They're suited to the humidity of the South and disease-resistant, but personally I don't think they make great wine (or grape juice, which we also tried). The winery was nice though and had a large gift shop. We sat outside eating cheese and crackers and wondered where the mountains my parents had mentioned were.
We then took a short drive to Lake Louisa state park. The park was huge and encompassed lots of lakes and hiking trails. We hiked for a bit and then went down to the lake area which was a really unique landscape for us to see.
Ready?
My reaction to S telling me to get off the path and into the woods
We find orange trees!
It was actually pretty sour, but hey, at least we found it!
Down by the lake...unfortunately we didn't see any alligators
The trees grew right in the lake water, which was dark with tannins
On our drive back, we stopped at a local citrus stand. The nice man there let us sample red navals, yellow navals, page oranges, pummellos, kumquats, boiled peanuts and freshly-squeezed orange juice. The kumquat was weird and sour and the boiled peanuts tasted like hot dogs to me. Everything else was delicious. We bought some to take home.
Find this stand if you're in Orlando!
That evening (long day!) we went to the Disney marketplace for shopping and a sundae at Ghirardelli (mmmm!)
The marketplace has a huge LEGO store with lego sculptures set up- can you find the real boy?
Lego window display of NY
Lego window display of Moscow
In one of the shops
Yo ho, yo ho
So that's half our trip so far. I'll finish up tonight or tomorrow with the second half :)