April 21th

Road Trip! We head to Orlando, for a shorter stay than I had originally planned, but it's all good, the family is game. Mi Cariño, her mom, her dad and I eventually manage to leave the house to head to Orlando. It's over three hours away from Miami, and it's a trip the family has done before. (A lot.)

The drive wasn't bad though, it's nice to sit in the back seat and just fall asleep and not worry about directions and get to munch on great goodies. We were hungry by the time we arrived though, and so after dropping bags and things of the sort, we had a quick dinner at Pei Wei.

Pei Wei, I'm told, is the "fast" version of PF Changs, another of Mi Cariño's favorite. You order, they bring it to your table... good stuff. We shared all of this:

First some salty Edamame

Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls (these were only okay)

Mi Cariño's favorite, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, which were quite yummy.

Afterwards we made our way to what I think was Downtown Disney. I suck at names of things. We essentially spent a couple of hours walking through a Disney Store and seeing some Disney things before heading for "real" dinner. At the Store I purchased a whole lot of goodies: necklaces for Brichelle and Brianna, (and a little doll for Brianna, too); presents for myself and for Mi Cariño. The necklaces were super cute but I'm sorry to say very cheaply done. Brianna snapped hers off a couple of hours after she started wearing it... I assumed that it was because she's tiny and totally rough with things. But Brichelle's necklace also snapped, and Bricho certainly wasn't going around pulling on the necklace. Boo, Disney!

In Any case, to dinner. We went to a place called BJ's. Looked like a chain, but I've never heard of it, so maybe it's just a really big sports bar place. Food:

Stuffed Mushrooms.

Something fried. Probably crispy onions type deal. Don't remember. Can't say I really enjoyed them.

Angel hair pasta primavera with garlic toast and blackened chicken. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would've easily eaten the whole thing if allowed.

After dinner we made it to Mi Cariño's brother's place, since he and his wife were kindly putting us up. We relaxed, watched American Idol and chatted a bit before going to sleep. It was a good, if busy day. I think a lot can be said about traveling and what it says about people. As a "professional traveler" I definitely believe that the simple act of going from one place to another can sometimes bring out the worst in people... you're not in your usual space, you have to deal with circumstances you weren't expecting, you have to think quickly and there's a lot of pressure to get things right, right away. I'm not trying to be humble when I say I'm a good traveler - it really is what I DO. Everything with being okay with traffic to putting up with planes leaving late, to children screaming around you and to your "co-pilot" getting the directions wrong - I've dealt with it all. Bad weather is by far the worst, but the second is a person that does not know how to travel. In any case, this diatribe is to say that I put a lot of weight on traveling and how people interact when they do; it's when the real you comes out! So this was an important day for me.

Running


Testify 
circles
over


over
water
sleep


deeply
for you. 


© Yazcaminante, 2011