our vacation - part two - pictures!

our vacation - part one

Our Florida vacation was wonderful! Exactly what we needed. Mostly in the interest of supplementing my own memories, I'm going to describe a little bit of our experience. I don't expect that everyone would want to read all this detail, but if you are one of the few who do, here you go.

The first three nights, we stayed at the Westin Imagine Orlando, a four star hotel which we were fortunate enough to get for half price on priceline.com. The hotel is specifically designed to be restful, from the “Heavenly Bed” and “Heavenly Shower” to the signature scent – white tea and aloe - that is in the lobby as well as in the “Heavenly Spa” toiletries provided in the bathroom. The room we stayed in has a king size bed and kitchenette (the rooms with two queen size beds do not have the kitchenette). The "Heavenly Bed" consists of a thick pillow top mattress covered with high quality sheets, a light down comforter, another flat sheet on top of that, and finally a fluffy fiber-fill comforter. There were four thick feather pillows, two long king size and two regular size for each of us, plus a long bolster pillow. The “Heavenly Shower” consists of two shower heads, one above the other, each with a choice of massage or regular spray. The rooms are decorated in sage, aqua, ecru, and beige – again, designed to be restful. The kitchenette has a sink, microwave, small fridge, and cabinets and drawers equipped with a few essential dishes, utensils, and small appliances. We certainly enjoyed having access to it for our late night bowls of cereal and chilled pop and frappaucinos. The counter and furniture tops are all a solid surface and the bathroom floor and shower walls are tiled. The hotel has a nice pool surrounded by padded lounge chairs, big umbrellas, and glass-top tables, with a poolside bar offering outrageously priced drinks. (Heath thoroughly enjoyed two $10 margaritas.) I had forgotten how relaxing it could be to float in the water, simply to relax and cool off, with no one else to watch over. Finally, the hotel has valet parking, which I thought was silly at first, but a necessary expense in order to stay here, but which turned out to be a luxury we have really enjoyed.

Our meals were wonderful. We looked up restaurants ahead of time, to see what other travelers rated as their top picks. Le Coq au Vin is a small French place, not very busy for our Friday late lunch, but absolutely delicious. Heath had a corn and crab chowder that was very smooth and buttery – it tasted like comfort feels. I had rabbit for the first time, which was covered in a lovely prune sauce and served with fresh green beans and carrots and macaroni and cheese unlike any macaroni and cheese I'd had before. The cheese was something rich and textured and the sauce was accented with some kind of spice or small vegetables – I couldn't tell exactly what. Heath had the coq au vin, which was also covered in a wonderful sauce and served with the fresh green beans and carrots, but with egg noodles instead of macaroni. His sauce was more like a rich, wine-flavored, thin brown gravy, whereas mine was a bit thicker and sweeter. We shared a glass of the house Cabernet Sauvignon, which was quite good. It was from a winery in France whose name escapes me, nothing I'd heard of before. If we lived in Orlando, I could see this becoming our favorite date restaurant. As we left, we read the signed pictures and plaques from congressmen and Presidents for whom the chef had cooked, and made note of the many awards the restaurant had received.

For dinner Friday, we went to Roy's, a Hawaiian restaurant. We had a sushi roll to start, which was wrapped in salmon and some other kind of fish and had spicy tuna in the middle. There was also rice coating the outside of the roll and thin slices of avocado on top. It was quite interesting and not what I expected. I can see how you could develop a taste for sushi, but I don't see myself going out of my way to have it again. I am glad we tried one of their sushi rolls, though, since I think I would have regretted it if we hadn't. They also served complimentary steamed edame with a special seasoning sprinkled on it, like other restaurants would serve bread before your meal. It was crunchy and sort of addictive, cracking open the shells like peanuts and popping the beans into one's mouth. For our meal, I had salmon coated with some sort of cheese – I can't remember what it was called now - served with barley accented with almonds and a mustard vinaigrette on the side. Heath had the hibachi-grilled salmon, which had a sweet soy sauce mixture on it, and was served with a strange little cake of white rice, shaped into a triangle and rolled on the outside edges in some spices. There were also thinly sliced cucumbers and carrots in some sort of vinaigrette served with his salmon. It was all very good and very unique. Not a place we would want to go all the time since it was just so strange and different to us, and pretty expensive, but an interesting place to go for special occasions.

For lunch Saturday, we went to a highly rated local place for sandwiches (after two rich meals in a row, I craved something light!). Pompoms Tea House and Sandwiches was small and out of the way, but the relaxed atmosphere, warm and upbeat staff, and the creative menu were just what we needed. We both had the Cobb sandwich, which was turkey with melted blue cheese, bacon, avocado, watercress, and red onions (which we both left off), on your choice of bread and pressed like a panini sandwich, only without the grill lines. Very tasty and filling, and also very affordable. I had the Chai, which included free refills, much to my surprise. Heath tried a local beer, Orange Blossom Pilsner, which contained orange blossom honey. No beer tastes good to me, but Heath says this one was good. We admired the photos displayed on the walls from a local artist before leaving.

After another afternoon lounging by the pool, we lazily got around and decided to pick a top rated Italian restaurant for dinner Saturday evening. Magianno's Little Italy was the best Italian restaurant I have been to so far. The atmosphere was delightful – 1940's theme, with many old painting and photographs all over the walls, old music, curtains, furniture – everything the way it would have been back then. The stuffed mushroom appetizer and the Lobster ravioli were fantastic. Heath had the special, Chicken Florentine (covered in Parmesan cheese and pan fried), with creamed spinach and buttered potatoes on the side. He had the house Merlot and I had coffee with cream, both of which were quite good accompaniments to our meal.

Sunday, we checked out of the Westin and moved to the resort where Heath's conference was Sunday night through Wednesday noon. Our room at the JW Marriot was very similar to our room at the Westin - similar size and luxuries, except lacking a kitchenette and having a larger bathroom with separate shower and bath instead. But the hotel which contained our room and the conference center and grounds adjacent to it were just amazing. Grand is the word that comes to mind. Tall ceilings, floors and walls made of marble, enormous paintings on the walls, sculptures and pottery on tables, huge chandeliers, and a huge fountain in the center of the lobby. There was a golf course, lazy river swimming pool, spa, playgrounds, sand volleyball court - I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Of course, we didn't actually have time to enjoy any of that (and even if we had the time, I think we still would have spent it lying by the pool, like we did at the Westin!). It was impressive that there was access to it, though. There were also little overpriced clothing shops and salons off the lobby and even a Starbucks. We had access to, I think, six restaurants at this resort. We ate at Citron after Heath finished his session Sunday evening, because they were offering a special for attendees of his conference and the menu looked interesting. It was good food, but I think I would have preferred it not to be a buffet. It was a fancy sort of restaurant where you would not expect a buffet, and I found I didn't know what to try and what to put together for a meal. I did like getting to try all the miniature desserts, though.

I have pictures that I will download and post later. To sum it up - we basically slept and slept and laid around by the pool and read books and talked and ate at really good places. It was perfect. :-)

this week

I am really sick.

That's the first thing that had been hard this week.

I woke up at 4 am Tuesday morning thinking, "Oh, my throat!", took ibuprofen, went back to sleep for a few hours, and managed to make it through the day. Each day the pain in my throat and ears and the vicinity has gotten worse, but I've had to keep doing day care and taking care of my own kids because...

Tuesday morning, the email server for Heath's department's customers went down. He told me he would be at the office "until further notice," and it's pretty much been true. He's come home to sleep for a few hours here and there, and yesterday he actually got home shortly after 6 pm and stayed until 8 am this morning (taking work calls and messages from here). Not that I noticed, since I went straight to bed when he got here.

So I've done daycare from 6:30 am - 5:50 pm each day, taken him dinner, then put the kids to bed - except for last night, I pointed him to the leftovers in the fridge and let him put the kids to bed, while I went straight to my own bed.

This morning, my throat and the vicinity were even worse, and I thought, "There is no way I can do this again today." I called all my day care parents and told them, except for one, the little girl who comes at 6:30 am, who I couldn't reach in time (and I don't think they would have had any other options, anyway). Then we tried to call the teenage babysitters we sometimes use to see if one of them could come over and help for the day. No luck. So I've been trying to plow through by myself. It has not been pretty.

I finally got the two two-year-olds down for naps now, so I only have Ethan to keep happy for the next hour and a half (probably just an hour now). Heath says he will be home at a normal time again, so I might get a welcome break, until tomorrow morning at least. He'll have to leave work in time for church tomorrow, because he is doing the teaching since Paul will be gone.

Part of me is amazed that I've made it through this week so far, but part of me is just disgusted with my weakness, i.e., the fact that I have now given in to feeling really angry and nagging Heath to give me the support and help I desperately need, rather than being "supportive" and happily bringing him meals and such, blah blah blah. I come back around to thinking over and over that I just wasn't not cut out to be an adult.

Stupid week.