Monday, March 27, 2023

The One Time I Went to the Magic Kingdom on my 42nd Birthday

Now I am finally caught up on what I've done in almost the past two months. One thing I should have mentioned sometime earlier in the year: one evening I went to Winter Garden Village to try out an eatery from the West Coast which had just recently opened there: THE DOLLY LLAMA. What a name that is. They offer such treats as waffles, waffle cones, ice cream & shakes. While messy, what I had was still good; one day I'll make my return to try something else. Another place new to me was in the Western area of Kissimmee, known as Island Wing Company. The boneless wings I had were tasty, although not enough of them for the price. Note that the place adds in a gratuity automatically which serves as a tip for all the employees; curious, especially because I had to ask about it as they never clarified it beforehand.

February proved to be memorable and different from the norm as several people visited Florida from the Midwest. First was a great friend of Mom who has known my parents since before I was even born. Each year she visits various people in Florida and this includes me & Dad. Various restaurants were visited and while some were new to me (the small British pub known as Clermont Fish House) others were returns, such as Suncreek Brewery in Clermont or a place that me and Mom went to years ago. Randomly, while looking at Google Maps one day (what, don't you do that?) I saw that there was an eatery which sounded interesting, even if it was in a town known as Howey-In-The-Hills. Me and Mom liked JB Boondock's Bar & Grill so I don't know why we didn't return but that joint proved to be a BIG hit... I mean, bigger than I expected. I was glad to support a local establishment, even if at times some of my fellow customers were on the uncouth side. It's located right on a lake so there was great scenery. As always it was nice to see them.

More unique was that soon after they left, my sister who lives in Rockford, Illinois came down here for vacation with her beau and two small children. It was nice to see the nephew after all that time and I finally got to meet my niece. Time was spent at Disney Springs with them which included hot dogs & treats, and other trips included time spent with the aunt in The Villages and Romano's Macaroni Grill. However, the highlight was on my 42nd birthday on February 22nd where we went to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It was a LONG day as we were out of the house for a little more than 12 hours yet for two very small children they both acted as well as you'd expect for their age on a warm day in a theme park. It was a lot of fun as both familiar rides to me and ones I hadn't been on before were experienced. Heck, for the first time since I was a kid I was on a carousel period, no matter where it was located at.

While not everything went perfectly on that day, it's no big deal and that's more my neuroses than anything major; the important thing is that not only did everyone have a fun vacation, but both those little tykes liked me. I am very happy that all my nephews & niece feel that way. It was great seeing all of those relatives in the past few months as it not only added excitement, it was nice considering how the world has been the past three years & all the chaos that's happened.

I will return sometime in April, the first half of the month. Nothing is on my docket... yet.

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