What I Love About Orlando

Today marks a week since I’ve been back from Orlando. I’m so sorry about my erratic posting. This week has been full of make-up tests, catching up on school work, some exciting personal things that I’ll update you more on later, and some not so exciting personal things. My 92-year-old step-grandpa who lives with us has been in really good health until just before Christmas. His kidneys recently started failing and because of his age he doesn’t want to go on dialysis. Unfortunately that just means waiting and watching as his health gets worse and worse. Its been stressful and hard, most of all for Diane, so I’m just trying to spend as much time with my family as I can.

I do owe you guys some updates about Orlando though! It was such a fun trip and I thought it would be cool to share it with you guys in a post listing what I love about Orlando. What I love most about Orlando is Disney, which will be featured in its own post, but some close seconds include:

• Shopping

Ohmygoodness the shopping. Orlando has two Premium Outlet Centers, one on Vineland Ave and one on Premium Ave that have some outlet stores you can’t find anywhere else. I spent a day at each checking out all the deals and got some really great purchases!

I love Lululemon Athletica workout clothes but unfortunately on my college budget can’t afford to shop there very often. Their clothes are expensive! I was really excited to check out the outlet because there’s only three in the country. The shop was super adorable with a great selection of clothes and really nice employees. Most of the deals were similar to what you can find on their “We Made Too Much” section of their website but some things were on super sales.

I picked up the Toasty Toque hat that was on sale from $42 to $9. I’ve been wearing it practically every day since I got it, its so cute and so warm!

When I visited Orlando last year I was shocked to discover there was a Victoria’s Secret outlet. I didn’t even know those existed! Its seriously incredible. I’m used to paying $45-$60 for their bras and about $10 a piece for some of their underwear at their retail stores. At their outlet their bras average $9 and their underwear is between $1 and $3. Their shirts and sweatpants are $9 and all their purses and shoes and accessories are typically 75% off the lowest price. I stocked up and if you’re ever in Orlando I definitely recommend checking it out!

• Hotel Gyms

I was proud of myself for working out at the hotel gym. I never make use of these and it felt so good to workup a sweat on vacation. From now on I’ll be packing workout clothes on all of my vacations.

• Food

I was so excited when I saw Orlando Premium Outlets- Vineland had a Pinkberry. I was just talking on the phone with Josh the day before saying how much I was craving frozen yogurt.

I tried their new blood orange with mango, kiwi, pineapple, blueberry, and blood orange piece toppings. It was delicious and the perfect cold treat on an 80 degree day.

I was on the trip with a bunch of country guys that love their steaks and burgers. As such when we did group meals a lot of them were at sports bars. I had never been to a Buffalo Wild Wings before and wasn’t sure I was going to find something vegetarian that I could eat.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover they have a house made black bean burger. It was great! We had a lot of fun sitting out on the deck listening to the band and enjoying our food.

Another restaurant I was nervous about finding vegetarian friendly options was Delmonico’s Steakhouse. One of the advisers had eaten at the one in New York and raved about it so we decided to go there for our last meal.

I loved the decorations inside.

How cute is this martini glass? I got a belletini and it was great.

I loved my dinner. I ordered tortellini with fresh mushrooms, broccoli, and tomatoes in a butter and garlic sauce. It was so good I ate every last bite. An unexpected bonus of ordering vegetarian at a steakhouse is that I had a $20 bill while everyone else at the table spent over $50.

• Universal Drive

Our hotel was right next to Universal Drive and I love how many things there are to do there. There’s tons of stores, eateries, and random fun attractions such as Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and carnivals.

After dinner one night our group headed over to Magical Midway, a carnival-type attraction with lots of cool rides.

We all bought tickets to go on the go-karts and it was the best $7 I’ve ever spent on amusement rides. I thought it was going to be a regular drive around in a circle type deal until I realized the circles kept on going up and up in the air. It was a go-kart roller coaster ride that has you driving down huge hills screaming at the top of your lungs the entire time. (Okay maybe that last part was just me.) I hate roller coasters and I had the best time on this, it was so much fun!

Some of the guys decided to be super adventurous and go on this slingshot. Its the tallest in the world.

One of my teammates and our adviser getting strapped in. I watched safely from the sidelines and couldn’t believe how high they went. Even more surprising was watching the video back afterward with them and realizing not one of them screamed the entire time. I can’t even imagine.

• The International Builders Show

The whole reason we were in Orlando was for the International Builders Show. Its an annual conference that draws over 60,000 people interested in home building. They also sponsor a college competition that is judged by leaders in the home building industry at the show. I am not a home builder and have next to no interest in constructing but the construction management team at my school needed a marketer for the competition. My professor recommended me and so I signed up. I had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be a great experience. That’s why this was my second year doing it!

While this was my second year doing it it was my first year going to the actual trade show. Its huge with 1000’s of companies in attendance. I thought I would just check it out for an hour before heading back to the hotel but I ended up spending an entire day there. There was so much to do and so many fun things to check out. All the banks were there with games and food, Vitamix was whipping up smoothies, and Lowes was giving away iPads every hour on the hour.

I also got to test out my future kitchen sink. I love apron front sinks, they are so spacious and so pretty.

I’d love a waterfall shower while we’re adding to my list of dream home amenities. These were synced to an iPod and put on a light and water show. It was so cool.

Without a doubt the coolest part of the show for me was getting to see Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speak. I had no idea he was going to be giving a speech at the convention until we were registering for our competition. I’m a huge finance nerd so I had to go. I felt so lucky to get a seat! Not everyone in line made it in.

Oh hey Mr. Chairman. He was a great speaker and talked about the state of our country’s housing industry. While its not looking great he thinks it will get better, driven by increased loaning from the banks and increased investment from home builders. As someone who will be facing the prospect of buying a home within the next decade I’m crossing my fingers!

And that was my trip to Orlando! It was such a great time and the weather was perfect. I’ll be back tomorrow or Monday with my recap of Epcot. I got to check out Cat Cora’s restaurant!

Question of the Day: What do you love about Orlando?