Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Girl's weekend

Several months ago my friend SueG and I planned a weekend trip to Universal Studios. One by one the participants, starting with Darcy, dropped out for various reasons. By the time it was all said and done our family Universal trip became a girl's weekend with just the two of us. I had booked the Wyndham Reunion Resort for the weekend, and because of the way the timeshare points work, cancelling the trip was not beneficial to me financially and so we made the sacrifice to carry on. Sometimes it is hard work to keep up with this timeshare thing.

She drove because she thinks I drive like an old lady. I am an old lady so I'm not sure what that exactly means, but I enjoy having her chauffeur me around all of the time and so I just loaded up my things in her car and sat back for the ride. We stopped for a cocktail and some lunch a little before eleven just up from the exit to our Wyndham. I had never been to this restaurant before, and frankly can't remember the name now, but there were very few people there. We were seated across from the bar where one of the employees was training two newbies in the art of pouring drinks. Who knew there was so much detail in this?

We learned how to hold bottles, how to flip the wrist to pour, and how to measure correctly without a device. Each newbie had to pour the correct amount of liquor, which we guessed was really water in old bottles, which the employee tested by pouring into a measuring glass. One girl was an expert much to the employee's dismay, but luckily the second newbie girl wasn't and so we heard plenty of advice as she trained this girl.

Our waiter was very attentive, if not a tad different. He kept trying to get us to order obscure food items and when we would decline he would tap his heels together and say, "but of course". When we gave him a cash tip he actually took out his wallet and pocketed it right there at the table while glancing around to see if anyone else was looking. All very odd and frankly not worth the price.

We stayed at the Wyndham Reunion Resort as it was the only one available at booking. These resorts are all three bedroom and very spacious. I stayed there a year or so ago and SueG had rented one from a year ago. We both decided we would check out new things as the resort is huge. We did some grocery shopping, checked in, and had some more cocktails on our balcony.


SueG's older son who lives in the Orlando area joined us after work. He had made reservations for all of us for dinner at a nice restaurant at 8:00 pm. What? I reminded him that his mother and I were over the age of 50 and therefore practically in the early bird category and eating after 8:00 pm would give us reflux. He rolled his eyes. He's 28 and knows it all.



Everything in the resort was decorated for the holidays. It probably motivated me to get started at my own house since I was procrastinating the whole Christmas decorating after having my Halloween/Thanksgiving stuff up for two months. We took the shuttle to the main building to wander around and check out the rooftop swimming pool. We figured we could get a cocktail up there, but frankly having had two cocktails already had me wanting a nap.




The weekend we were there was our first "cold front" for winter. The rooftop was blustery with zero swimmers in the heated pool. The view really was incredible and it would have been a nice spot to sit and relax, but alas, the bar was not open for another hour. We hiked back downstairs and went next door to the pro shop's bar instead.



My drink, darn it, I can't remember the name of it, was delicious with amaretto and rum. I'm going to have to try to mix that concoction up at home. Of course, being that were in the golfing area the bartender didn't know what he was doing since mostly what he serves is beer and the occasional wine. He had to get a stool to climb into a cabinet high over his head to mix Santosh's drink, but nevertheless we enjoyed the view on the balcony with our drinks.

Dinner that night was delicious. We ate at Seasons 52 and I can honestly say that my filet was the best steak I have ever eaten and that's saying something because I'm from Indiana. It really truly melted in my mouth. By the time we got seated and ordered I was ready to eat. All that liquor in my poor body was taking over. I needed food. Santosh and his girlfriend recommended a flatbread appetizer since this was the specialty here. We had the garlic pesto chicken and we gobbled that sucker right up. Delicious. Three of us had steak and one of us had shrimp and grits. While the food was quite dandy, the portions were tiny. My filet was tiny, the mashed potatoes were three bites, and I had seven green beans. The deserts are in tiny shot glasses that are brought to the table. We picked several and shared them; key lime pie, Belgian chocolate s'more, mocha macchiato, chocolate peanut butter torte, carrot cake with cinnamon honey, and blueberries with lemon curd. All in all, it was a very nice night despite Santosh making me shower and change out of my tennis shoes.


Santosh stayed with us that night and left late in the morning. He had college football to watch. We hung around the room and took our time getting up and motivated. From there we went shopping, but decided after two shops that the mall was way too crowded and we were way too tired. We called Santosh and met him for an early dinner at a little hole in the wall place with tons of screens for watching football.



Again the food was delicious! I had a cilantro cashew salad and SueG had sliders. I skipped on the beer. I had met my limit. We ended the night wrapped up in blankets watching Christmas movies on Hallmark and Lifetime. It was truly a girls' night there.



The next morning we watched more movies and slowly packed up. We shopped on the way home and agreed that this was something we should try to do more often. Maybe I'll make a girls' night every two months as one of my new year's resolutions. It is a nice way to re-charge although I will admit to not feeling so hot on Sunday. Luckily for me, I just watched football all day. Here's to a girls getaway!!

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