Florida

      This past week I had the opportunity to go to Orlando, Florida for a convention for my work. It was filled with grueling work hours and sleep deprivation but it was also lots of fun because Travis was able to come out for the weekend and spend time with me, well okay we got to see each other for about 5 hours at night but still that's better than a phone call across the country. We had never been a part since we had been married and I cried when I said goodbye to him and couldn't sleep for the two nights we were apart. I am obviously just a mildly emotional person. I always blame it on birth control. I feel better about myself that way.
       I was nervous about the weather because I had heard how humid it can get in the summer but I actually liked it for the most part. The humidity reminded me of getting a nice facial or taking a steam shower which strangely I enjoyed. The mid-day storms every afternoon were pretty as well, but I am not sure I would love to live in those every day of my life. The only thing no one prepared me for or had ever mentioned to me was the water that comes out of the facets and showers. I stayed at three separate hotels and all the water smells like a swamp. Like I was brushing my teeth in swamp water and showering in a swamp. Swamp shower for 6 days does not smell that good in your hair, trust me. I don't know if that is common every where in Florida or just coincidentally in all three of my hotels, but that alone was enough for me to be dreaming of going home to Provo to my clean smelling water. Maybe its time Florida invests in the Kangen water filtration system or something because it needs help!
     Travis and I got to sneak away a couple of nights to do some touristy things. One night we went to some delightful outlets where I was so excited to find a Burberry outlet! However Burberry Outlet does not translate into cheap Burberry like I was hoping it did, so we didn't get anything there. JCrew however did fill the void.

     Our last night we decided to go to Universal Studios because we had heard that Harry Potter World had just opened and Travis really wanted to go get the butter beer so we went and had a blast! I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, but I do have to say they did an amazing job recreating the HogMeade town and Hogwarts school. I felt like I was in the movie and it was really fun to browse all of the shops and try all of the treats there. Butter beer tastes like a delicious root beer float on crack and I could have had 5 more glasses of that stuff!

To my utter delight, Emeril's Orlando Restaurant was also at the Universal Studios boardwalk and when I saw it on the way into Harry Potter World I made Travis promise to take me there for dinner if it was still open when we got out. Needless to say, we made it to Emeril's for a late dinner and me oh my it was one tasty meal! I just kept saying "Bam!" through out the whole experience!