We’re now in Orlando (feels like home) and the weather today has been gorgeous. Warm and sunny – definitely t-shirt weather and Paul even wore shorts. Its Tuesday evening right now, we’re just back from a top meal at Kobe and we’re settled with a cuppa in front of the TV (like I said, it feels like home!)
So, where did I leave you? Sunday evening I believe after that totally awesome US Grand Prix (nope, still not come back down to earth yet). We had a comparatively late night that night – a whopping 10pm!
Monday morning we were up about 8am. We’d set the alarm for after 9 but were both up by 8 easily. We’d packed most of our stuff the night before and succeeded with the miracle that was 49lbs for one case and 50 for the other – something the check-in lady was mightily impressed about at the airport but we felt pretty stupid as each passenger can have 2 bags of 50lbs free and we still had our other case inside the first – d’oh. We checked out about 9:45, printing our boarding cards in reception on the way. A stop for McDonalds breakfast was called for and as we had plenty of time we sat in – oooh, the luxury ? We then headed to the airport, briefly stopping for gas for the rental. We dropped the car back at Hertz ok (trusty tom tom again) and got the shuttle over to the airport. After security we grabbed a Starbucks and settled in at our gate. We had about an hour and a half before the flight. The airport was full of F1 fans and behind us were a family talking about the race. When asked how it was they replied “not bad but not good” I turned around and put them straight, telling them it was phenomenal.
We were flying Southwest where there are no assigned seats (a bit like EasyJet) but we’d paid extra to be the boarding group A. As boarding was called we queued in our assigned lot (there were numbered signs and we were A41). Most passengers did the same but 2 guys with A52 and 53 decided they were getting in front of us. We didn’t challenge them but in hindsight I wished I had. We boarded and got seats in the middle of the plane. The flight was full so we had a lone American guy sitting in the aisle set. The flight was equally full of F1 fans talking about the race. A lot of Americans seemed to attend because of it being the inaugural race at the Circuit of Americas but many of them clearly knew naff all about F1 – sacrilege.
The flight was about 2 hours 20 and we landed about 10 to 5. We’d added an hour on though as Orlando is only 5 hours behind. We got off the plane and made our way to baggage claim B and waited…. and waited…..and waited…and waited.. the bags took bloomin’ ages but eventually they turned up and we walked over to the parking lot. We were Hertz gold club again so headed straight for our assigned bay. This time was have a Kia Soul, a weird car cross small SUV with a big square back. It’s a little ugly to be honest but it’s new and Paul says its OK to drive.
We picked the keys up at the IPG offices and then went to Applebees for dinner. Paul had a beef French dip sandwich and I had chicken Caesar salad. We followed this with shot glass desserts; strawberry cheesecake for Paul and chocolate mousse for me. After dinner we did our shopping in Publix before making our way to the villa.
The villa is really nice. Exactly the same layout as the one we had last November but really nice décor and no locked away aircon. Paul had to fix the wireless but other than that we really have no complaints. We did see that someone was staying in 734 so considered telling them to get out of our house! We unpacked then had a cuppa whilst we caught up on the shocker that was X Factor. We eventually went to bed about 11pm.
Today we were up about 10am. It was a nice morning and we checked out the pool area. The villa is in really good condition all round. We had bagels for brekky before heading out about 11:30am. Our agenda today was Prime outlets and Millennia. First stop however was TJ Maxx, Nine West and Calvin Klein. I picked up a pair of skinny jeans, a studded T-shirt and some electric blue suede court shoes whilst Paul got some socks! It was getting really hot as we parked at ‘Last Call Neiman Marcus’ but there were no irresistible bargains so we moved on. We moved the car to the far end and had to park on scrub land as the car park was actually full. We wandered down to the Yankee Candle outlet. We got large jar candles for 14 bucks each so picked up 3.
After Prime we made our way to Millennia. I managed to get my Pandora wooden beads that I needed to complete my collection and we also picked up the first of some Christmas presents for folks. We browsed the Apple store (holding a new iPad mini) and various others including Swarovski, L’Occitane and Aldo. Paul had a look around the Sony store whilst I was disappointed to find that Jimmy Choo had no discounted section. We finally made our way to Tiffany’s where Paul bought my Christmas box – a Tiffany lock ring with diamonds and I also picked up the prezzie from my mum and bro – a Tiffany interlocking circles pendant (silver and yellow gold). We left Millennia and headed over to the ‘Off Broadway’ shoe store. Paul managed to pick up some work shoes whilst I picked up some boots for work.
We left the Millennia area and had to use back roads as Westbound I4 was closed. The traffic was really heavy as we’re in Thanks Giving week and everywhere is gonna be busy. We decided to head straight to Kobe and got there about 5:30. We were seated straight away at a table that had just begun serving. We’d missed he hot towels but joined as soup turned up. Paul had jumbo shrimp and I had the filet. The food was just as good as ever. Our chef was new, called Mickey – very un-Kobe! We came straight home after dinner and so here I am – watching America’s funniest videos between typing. Tomorrow is another shopping day and we really need to focus on Christmas presents.