Blues, Booze, and A Wizarding World

Yesterday I told you that I took a little mini vacation to Orlando but I didn’t give you details.  Another thing I wanted to make sure that I did this year was experience things that I hadn’t done already.   I travel a lot but most of the time even though I go places, I don’t really go anywhere.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone from airport to hotel to convention center, barely even seeing the light of day.   It wasn’t until last April when a work trip to Phoenix turned into a road trip to Sedona that I realized that the chance to visit all these amazing destinations will not come around every day so I should take advantage of it now.

That’s where the mini vacation comes in.  It was a last minute decision to send me to Orlando and when I found out I would be going, I couldn’t help but think about my last trip there.  It was about a year ago and I had a meeting at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  I was there two days before anyone else from my company arrived and although I was working, I did have some down time.  Maybe it was all the Mickey paraphernalia or that the Contemporary Resort brought back a lot of memories because it was where I stayed when I was a kid, but I felt drawn to Cinderella’s castle every time I saw it from my hotel window.   So I went for it.  I bought a Disney pass and walked around the Magic Kingdom by myself.  Well let me tell you, Disney by yourself equals zero fun.  I felt almost sad being there all alone.  My walk lasted only a little over an hour but I just didn’t know what to do with myself.  There is only so much shopping in souvenir stores that one person can do!

Well this time when the plane ticket said Orlando, I was determined to make it better than my last trip.  I grabbed my cousin Sean who has nothing to do until he goes back to school at the end of the month and decided to have a Disney do over.  I spent a week planning my ultimate Orlando trip and tried to figure out how to do it all in two days but I have to say that it exceeded all my expectations.

Friday was a night out where we stumbled upon BB King’s Bar and Grille just in time to get some fried pickles and take in a blues concert.  There were margaritas and tagging money at a Mexican bar and a stop at Cuba Libre.  Saturday was my Disney redo, which included an eating and drinking tour of Epcot complete with pictures of me representing the ugly hats of the different countries.  Finally Sunday was a visit to Harry Potter World, which allowed me to check another thing off the list of unexpected adventures. 

Overall, I did a lot on this trip but most importantly, I stepped outside of my comfort zones.  I’ve never seen blues before and eating fried pickles was a first.  At the margarita bar, I crossed off the OSU Buckeyes that was written on the bar and wrote PSU over it, which is something I would normally talk about doing but then get too afraid to do.  Even though I’ve done Disney before, I did it like I never have and tried on a lot of funny hats along the way without worrying about making a fool of myself.  I went to Universal Studios for the first time and saw one of my all time favorite books come to life plus checked another thing off my to do list.  And the bonus was I got to all this with one of my favorite people.

You have to take advantage of the all the opportunities you are given in life.  I want to let the experiences and the adventures challenge and define me as I go along.  Hopefully this trip will inspire me to continue to go for things rather than just sit back and wait for them to come to me.   My weekend adventure may have been filled with small steps but small steps or big steps are all steps and steps keep you moving forward.  I want to see everything I can and I will just have to do it, one blues, booze and Wizarding World trip at a time.

"We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experiences and character." - Henry David Thoreau