Each year Nathan's work provides him with a stipend to attend conferences. His airfare, hotel, and food are paid for. A couple of months ago Nathan mentioned that there was a conference in Orlando that he was interested in. When I heard Orlando, all I could think was...DISNEYWORLD! Because the bulk of the expenses were paid through his job (hotel, transportation to/from airport) we were able to do the trip for much cheaper than any other family could do it (and I don't know how people do it because it is a very expensive place to visit). Our hotel was the Dolphin hotel. It was a gorgeous hotel with 5 pools, a beach, a playground, a ferry that traveled to Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center (two Disney parks), and several restaurants from take-out casual to fine dining. The hotel was next to a boardwalk that had souvenir shops, fashion shops, a general store (the perfect place to pick up some easy groceries like fruit, bread, milk, and cream), a sportsbar, ice cream parlor, dance hall, and several miscellaneous restaurants. There were tables to sit and eat at (or just watch the sunset), or you could be entertained by the buskers that are hired by Disney to perform (magicians, jugglers, etc.)
Allison loved the pool, especially the waterslide and the waterfall. The weather was very hot (30-35 each day) so we used the pool a lot. Besides travel days, we had 5 full days at the resort. Three were for the parks, and two were to relax at our resort.
My favorite boardwalk stop was the ice cream parlor. We decided to get a special desert on the second night we were at the resort but none of us could decide which flavor to get. Instead, we got a "flight" of ice cream. It was 6 kinds of ice cream (one very large scoop of each). We each got to pick two, then we all shared. It was fun and delicious.
The boardwalk connected four hotels and it was so relaxing to go for long walks each night.
Nathan had long days at his critical care conference each day. He left the room by 6am but didn't have to go far. The conference was held in the hotel. Nathan's meals were provided so Allison and I were on our own for the mornings. Since we had a lot of extra suitcase space, I packed cereal, jam and peanut butter, and enough snacks to get us through a week. I also baked muffins and some morning goodies so that we didn't have to buy all our meals.
One 2 of the 4 days, Nathan was able to have a break from 1-4pm and he was able to come swimming with us and tell us about his day. Allison was very curious, so one night after dinner, we went to the conference room so Allison could see where Nathan was going each day.
No comments:
Post a Comment