Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to be in the town that my Mouse Man built. Ryan and I have just spent seven beautiful days in Florida celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. We ended up here as the result of an invitation that I received from Sheraton Vacations to visit their Vistana Resort in Orlando . "No strings attached," they said. Yet, when we got here, they invited us to do a 90-minute timeshare presentation with a $175 cash gift at the end. "What the heck?" we thought. "We're here on their dime. An hour and a half doesn't sound too bad."
So, the next morning we spent five hours previewing their program. We spent those five hours saying, "No thank you. Not for us. Not interested. We don't want it!" We were finally released and sent on our way with our $175 and a 50% off coupon for our next visit to a Starwood Preferred Hotel. Whew! We agreed that while the invitation saved us a bundle ($169 for 4-nights and 4-days in Orlando in a 2-bedroom villa), we'll consider wisely the next time. We did save a bundle on our airline tickets as well. I was able to get us two roundtrip coach tickets on US Airways using my frequently flyer miles for only $15. So, this trip was just meant to be.
I am Mickey's number one fan. I have a room in my house called the Mickey Room. I love this space! It is a happy space filled with Mickey memorabilia. So, naturally when friends and family heard I was going to Orlando, the first question was, "Which parks are you going to visit?" No parks this trip. We did do Downtown Disney, we ate at the House of Blues, we went to the movies in Celebration, Florida to see Mr. Beans Holiday, just to name a few things we did in Orlando.
The majority of our time was spent traveling across Florida. We visited R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries in Lake Mary, Florida. Then off to the Tampa Bay Aquarium. Then we just rode around Tampa and through the University of Tampa.
Laura Allen came from Ocala to hang out with us on Friday. Then Saturday we drove to her home, and met Jeff, what a cuddly bear. For the weekend they hosted us! We did more sightseeing: visited St. Augustine and Jacksonville.
Ryan and I have one major vacation a year to celebrate our anniversary. Very little relaxing is done on vacation. Ryan is like a junkie tourist. Every minute has to be filled with doing something. I go on vacation to relax. He goes on vacation and speeds up. Oh brother, what a pair we make. I'm complaining to just sit still for a minute; he's hyper and can't stand still for a second. It's hysterical to observe. I always threaten to divorce him mid-way through our anniversary celebration; yet, we always seem to make up before the end of the trip!
Well, all in all, we had a great 10th anniversary trip. We saved a boatload of money and we got to spend some very good quality time together. We loved what we saw of Florida and have put it high on our list of warm places to consider for relocation. But first we need to check out San Antonio, San Diego, and my choice, because Franni
lives there, is Albuquerque.
AA,
ABQ is the best! We lived there for 9 years and we still go back to visit. :-)
Perhaps when you plan your ABQ trip we should all plan on getting together to see Franni!
Posted by: Cindy Hillsey | Tuesday, September 04, 2007 at 07:01 PM
How cool, Cindy! My husband is really looking for a warm (hot actually) place to relocate to. He's getting tired of the cold.
I say we should make that happen next September! Franni, we're coming to see you!
xoxo
AA :)
Posted by: Antonette Artiz | Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 06:53 AM