April 2011: One Year Ago Today- Part 1

My first ever solo trip began early on Thursday April 29th.  One year ago today.

We arrived at the airport which is closest to us, but which also never seems to have convenient flight times, at 5:00am.  What was super awesome about getting up and heading over so early is that 4/29/11 just also happened to be the date of the royal wedding so after we checked our bags and sat and watched Prince William wed the gorgeous Kate.  :)

We had a shuttle service with the conference (it may be a good time to mention that I was not technically solo as I was chaperoning a student) which was no where near DME quality but alas we made it to our hotel on International Blvd in no time.  We stayed at the Rosen Plaza Hotel which was adjacent to Orlando's Orange County Convention Center where the DECA conference we were attending would be held.

After checking in and dropping off our bags we hopped at cab right over to Epcot and were in the park around 10:00am.  This was my first time at Flower and Garden Festival and even though I have featured lots of my pics from last year already here is a little more eye candy:

We hit up a snack cart for ice cream and pretzels and rode all of my Future World favorites (Test Track, Soarin, Imagination, and we even did a walk through of Innoventions) before heading into World Showcase.  We did some more siteseeing of the topiaries here and rode Maelstrom and Gran Fiesta Tour. We also stopped for some shopping at Mouse Gears and in some of the pavilions.

It was around 5:00pm by now and we were both ready for dinner so we decided to head over to the Boardwalk.  The student I was with was very interested in checking it out as she had never been and I wanted to grab a souvenir refill mug (even though I wasn't staying on property the summer fun pool themed mugs had just been released and I was dying to have a mug with shoeless mickey on it).  We ended up having a quick meal at Boardwalk Bakery and sitting outside to people watch for a little while.

We got a call that the NY DECA chapters were going to have a meeting at 7:30 so we told them we would head right over (even though we had little hope of getting back before 8) and we hopped a cab back. After the meeting we mingled a little, and then headed back to our rooms.

I really had a fantastic view of Pointe Orlando from my room.  This trip really gave me a new love for the Orlando area.