what an excellent four days! wednesday i drove down to orlando to meet jenn! :) i am so lucky to have friends who make it so easy to pick up where we left off, even after two years not seeing each other. the "hotel room" we were staying in courtesy of her company was really a timeshare -- two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and two patios. so nice! we drank on the patio when i got there and then woke up the next morning for breakfast by the lake.
i love introducing people to florida. all the lizards and birds gave her a fit and i enjoyed pointing out the likelihood of snakes and alligators in the lake thirty feet away. :) then someone picked us up to do site visits at the contemporary, the nicest hotel at disney, and epcot. we got into the food and wine festival fo free! a flight of beers in germany, some griddled cheese and spanakopita in greece, then we walked back to the beach and yacht club to take a taxi back to our hotel. the rest of the afternoon was spent exploring winter park, which was unfamiliar to me but so much nicer than i expected. i have visions of the entire orlando area as being trashy and touristy but it's the town where rollins college is located. i wouldn't mind spending more time there. we day drank a bit and then headed to this famous restaurant, the ravenous pig, where i made the ill-fated decision to order foie gras. their "cornbread" was more like cheese straws and the bacon jam was tiny dollops on the plate, but our waiter was mad cute and they played "night moves" when they brought me my artisanal chicken biscuits and pork empanadas. :)
then we went to an ice bar! the whole bar, with the exception of the ceiling and the floor, it is all made of ice! they gave us faux fur parkas to wear and gloves so that our cups, made of ice, wouldn't freeze our hands. we had so much fun! and after 89 degrees and 95% humidity all day, it did wonders for our hair!
friday morning we parted ways after some panera. i drove up to my cousin's house outside of macon for my aunt and uncle's surprise 50th anniversary party. we went to my cousins' football game (one plays, two are cheerleaders). i realized i don't think i had ever been to a high school football game before! it was very fun, even though they lost terribly. on saturday during the day we went to the state fair, which was in town like ten minutes away. let me tell you -- the georgia state fair is AWESOME. we didn't even get to any rides, just wandered around the ag areas. it's ENORMOUS. we saw the shortest furriest little cows, draft horses pulling carriages, a pig show, some sheep and bunnies, and walked through the georgia grown building, which i assumed would have a ton of locally grown vendors but was basically just a place for the georgia department of agriculture to shill.
the party was super sweet. my cousins made their grandparents a slide show of photos from throughout their marriage. it's really fun to see the young hot versions of people you've only ever known as old.
it's crazy how different my life is from my cousins', though. they live across the street from an honest to God cotton field. so fascinating.
now i am back in jacksonville getting ready for the week ahead. drinking the last of the gin i got at my favorite liquor store from my favorite hipster boys (i'm working on them to put my cheerwine, gin, and lime juice on the menu permanently) and i can't stop listening to this rihanna song i heard on the radio on my way to orlando that apparently came out in 2010. :/ wishing you all a happy week!
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