2015 Oct. Orlando

2015 Oct. Food and Wine Festival in Epcot

Our good friends, the Schneiderjans, from St. Louis, are always inviting me to join them in Orlando.  So I finally decided to do that.  After all, I've never been to the Food and Wine festival!  Plus Ken won't go to Disney anymore.  So I booked 3 nights in the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort and Ken and I enjoyed a short vacation in Kissimmee---Ken hanging out at the resort a lot of the time and me running around with friends!

Oct. 26---On to Orlando

Oct. 27 --- Epcot Wine and Food Festival 

Oct. 28 -- pool time and dixie Landings 

Oct. 29 --- back to S Florida and Ken to STL 

 

 
I really enjoyed the fact that it only took us about 3 hours to drive to  Orlando now instead of the 15 from St. Louis.  I was even able to get a great fare to STL from there and sent Ken home to STL from Orlando for a couple weeks.  Then I drove back to South Florida.  Hopefully we'll do more of these short fun trips.

2014 Oregon Sept. (continuation from Utah), Crater Lake, Clear Lake, waterfalls, Coast

After our busy, but wonderful week in Utah, we were off to Oregon for another 2 weeks.  This was a trip to show some friends as much of Oregon as we could in the 10 days they were with us.  Although day 1 for them was a travel day to Las Vegas where they met up with us.  Having lived in Oregon as a kid and vacationed there for over 40 years as an adult, I put together a pretty intensive itinerary for them: Kennedy School Restaurant; Voodoo doughnuts; Columbia River Gorge; Mt. Hood; Cascade Lakes byway; Crater Lake; row boating on Clear Lake; Silver Falls; Oregon Gardens; Frank Loyd Wright's Gordon House; Ugo's in Dallas (my nephew's pizza place); 2 days on the coast (lots of whales!); Garibaldi scenic train ride; Tillamook Cheese Factory; Rogue Brewery; Portland Rose Garden; Portland Japanese Garden---then our company went home and we spent 5 more nights on the coast in Lincoln City.

Aug. 30, 2014 --- to Portland:

Aug. 31, 2014 --- Columbia River Gorge; Mt. Hood; Bend:

Sept. 1, 2014 (Labor Day) --- lava tube; Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway:

Sept. 2, 2014 --- Crater Lake:

Sept. 3, 2014 -- Dee Wright Observatory; Clear Lake:

Sept. 4, 2014 --- Silver Falls; Oregon Gardens; Gordon House; Depoe Bay Worldmark:

Sept. 5, 2014 --- heading south along the coast:

Sept. 6, 2014 --- heading north to Tillamook and Garibaldi train ride:

Sept. 7, 2014 --- Portland Rose Garden, Portland Japanese Garden, good bye to our friends:

Sept. 8, 2014 --- north to Seaside for the night:

Sept. 9, 2014  --- Seaside to Dallas:

Sept. 10, 2014 --- South along the beach to Newport:

Sept. 11, 2014 --- South from Newport Bay:

Sept. 12, 2014 --- Dallas and Portland:

When asked if I was ready to go home, I had to admit---not really! 
Link to my UTAH BLOG:

2012 -April trip to Orlando with a Disney fanatic

Yes, I'm a fan of Disney, but I wouldn't call myself a Disney fanatic.  But a good friend of mine is.  Even living in St. Louis she and her family have managed to have season passes many years.  To them, the 15 hour drive from St. Louis to Orlando is nothing.  I'm more the fly there, stay in a timeshare off property, spend 1 or 2 days at Disney, explore other areas, and enjoy the sunshine and pool type of person.   But I was fascinated at the idea of seeing Disney through her eyes.   So we decided on 5 nights in April (I have wanted to see the Flower Festival at Epcot) and I booked us the time in a 2 bedroom unit at Wyndham Bonnett Creek, we got fairly inexpensive flights on Southwest airlines, I booked a car, and off we went. 

Bonnett Creek is, or is practically, on Disney property, right across from Downtown Disney.   We managed to stay there before they started instituting a mandatory daily fee to cover things like their shuttle (which we didn't use).  (next time we went they had eliminated the daily fee.  I guess they realized charging that wasn't a good idea) But the property was very nice.  This time we were in building T2.
My room--- the master bedroom

 I don't know how they got this sheet on the bed, but needless to say, it wouldn't stay on.  I even called housekeeping and had another sheet brought to me.  It was the same.  No way is this a king sized sheet!  Other than that, the unit was very nice.  I ended up just using the flat sheet as a bottom sheet.

 Coni's room.  Her daughter happened to be managing a restaurant in Tampa at the time so she got some time off and joined us for most of the time.  So they shared the 2nd bedroom.

 Our diningroom and kitchen.

 View towards the check in building and great heated lazy river from our deck in building T2.

 from the lanai doors --- couch on right, 2nd bedroom behind couch; master bedroom to the left; front door with blue bag on door knob; 2nd bathroom and laundry to the right of front door (looking at door)---that bathroom was also attached to the 2nd bedroom making it a suite, too. 

2012 Feb. 16-March 2 Kauai--- (Schneide trip): Na' Anina Kai garden; Just Live Ziip line tour; Smith's luau; Coffee plantation; Waimea canyon; Polihale;

 2012 Kauai---Feb. 16-March 2 (Schneide trip): Na' Anina Kai garden; Just Live Zip line tour; Smith's luau; Coffee plantation; Waimea canyon; Polihale;

Finally, another year has flown by and we are in Kauai again!  This makes Kauai trip # 11 for us.   For 1 of our 2+ weeks we are excited to have good friends Coni and John Schneiderjans join us. It was their first time to Hawaii, so we were anxious to show off "our" Hawaii!

Feb. 16, 2012:  Travel day from St. Louis

Feb. 17, 2012 : Lydgate

Feb. 18, 2012: East side and Lawai

Feb. 19, 2012:  East side and Poipu

Feb. 20, 2012: Anini

Feb. 21, 2012: Lydgate, then to the airport to pick up the Schneides

 Feb. 22, 2012: kee, Kilauea Lighthouse, Hanalei

Feb. 23, 2012: Kilauea, Na 'aina Kai sculpture garden, Anini

Feb. 24, 2012: Just Live Zip Line, Smith's Luau

Feb. 25, 2012: Sicker then a dog today!

Feb. 26, 2012: South Kauai, Kauai Coffee Plantation

Feb. 27, 2012:  Waimea Canyon, Polihale, Poipu

Feb. 28, 2012: Anini

Feb. 29, 2012---Leap day! Tunnels and Kee

March 1, 2012: Tunnels, again

March 2, 2012:  Lawai and Poipu

We had an interesting time at the Lihue airport, too.  Between the time we checked in and printed our boarding passes and the time we got to the airport, they changed the type of plane they were bringing in and everyone's seats were reassigned---and mostly not together.  

  Another great Kauai vacation!  Loved sharing it with friends.  Can't wait to come back!