Before we get rolling back full speed, let me take a moment to give a shout out to Orlando, the city where I spent this past weekend. Besides not being able to bet, I have nothing but high marks for Orlando, and honestly, Florida in general.
Let’s just start with the weather. It was 80 degrees on Sunday; my son and I were in the pool… outside! Living in California for a handful of years, I saw how they were spoiled out there; I imagine it’s similar in Florida. For all the love I have for the 4 seasons here in Chicago, I sure was loving that 80 degrees in November, let me tell you. I should have packed shorts, but we had to dress up for the weekend’s activities, which was the reason we were down there in the first place. It was back to back parties on Saturday and Sunday. A wedding followed the next day by an 87th birthday party; those were both a lot of fun. Family, food, drinks, and even a cigar thrown in there… all good.
We were able to sneak a few more things before we headed back to the Chi. On Saturday we visited Central Florida University; we were staying literally 5 minutes from there. We have visited a few universities with my son, about as many high schools as we’ve seen thus far… haha… he’s still only in 6th grade! Yes, but he likes stuff from different colleges; most of the time, a hat. Sure enough, he picked another hat from UCF. It was a really nice campus. Lush was the way I described it. Lots of green, including a nature walk, where they maintained part of the original swamp land where the University was built; it was very cool. Somewhere else we HAD to go was the Waffle House. I know we were getting free breakfast at the hotel, but with the nearest Waffle House to Chicago about 3 hours away, we couldn’t miss visiting one of our favorite spots. It was delicious, and reasonably priced, and no, no drama at 9 in the morning at this Waffle House outside of Orlando.
On the last evening, we decided to take a drive; we headed towards downtown Orlando. Just got in the car and started driving; it wasn’t that far. We ended up driving past where the Magic play; there was a Pink concert going on. Didn’t seem like too much was going on other than that on a Sunday night, until we passed by this one street; it caught our attention. We ended up looping around and driving down this street; it was really cool. A number of restaurants, shops… certainly looked like a rich area; it was… we were in Winter Park, Florida. Yes, there was another college there also; Rollins College was at the end of that street. We ended up getting some chocolates, and eating at a cool little pizza place, watching Sunday night football. Glad we took that last ride; nice way to end our quick little vacay. It was better than how we started it… at a restaurant Friday night, watching the Orlando Magic kick the Bulls’ ass… too bad they weren’t playing down there; we would have definitely been in the house, although the result would have probably been the same.
Anyways, OK… let’s get rolling again. Catch up mode after being away for a few days, plus having a week off, plus getting ready for the holiday. Next up is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving; have I talked about that day before?
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