The long and winding road

The long and straight road, I should say.

How boring - driving from Orlando to Miami takes you straight through the Sunshine state on a toll road. On your left - flat land with some shrubs, on your right - more flat land with shrubs, and an occasional grove of orange trees (got me excited!).

But upon arrival at the hotel, my mood lifted and I was pleasantly surprised to find a Tiger-proof (as in Tiger Woods...) golf course on the same premises as the the conference hotel! Rooms were big, clean and had a colonial feel to them. A nice change from the jungle print... Had a nice walk around the extensive grounds and made it to the Health Spa. It was a quick visit, as the prices made me move on to admire the 3 outdoor pools instead.

Reason for traveling this way: an Editor's conference. The way to exposé what Elsevier does and is developing for a mixed group of Journal Editors. Admittedly, it was a lot of fun!

The last night found us on a custom-built boat, the "Venetian Lady", that made me think of Miami Vice - a big, white sleek thing. The thing was pretty steady, allowing all guests to enjoy their meal - just the once. Someone insisted on taking a picture of Ursula, Jeroen and I.

Wolfgang's at Walts

After finally tearing ourselves away from Editors and the mammoth conference hotel, Jagna, Scott and I made our retreat and headed for the Magic Kingdom once again.

Finding a place to eat proved to be a challenge... We headed for Capt'n Jack's, found that the place was fully booked for the remainder of the night, and decided to take a steamboat towards Pleasure Island (as suggested by the friendly girl-pirate, argh, argh).

Ended up passing by House of Blues (the line was simply not worth it) and finally got a seat at Wolfgang Puck's exclusive upstairs seating. Now I can finally associate the Disney parks with good food - the filet mignon was really worth mentioning, as were the beautiful starters and great service! Proved to be a very enjoyable dinner in a memorable setting.

In the jungle...

(The title was suggested by a good friend of mine.) Here I am, in Orlando, FL. Officially for a conference, but it hasn't started yet. Seems that the program read that sessions wouldn't start until the Thursday, NOT the Wednesday...

I managed to get lost in the Magic Kingdom yesterday night. Trying to get back to the hotel, I took one wrong turn and had to take a quick spin through the acres of Walt Disney's land (pardon the pun).

And then there's the hotel: granted it's called the Sheraton Safari, and so the title should speak for itself... I shall let the photo speak on behalf of me. Just a piece of trivia: the hotel boasts the longest python water slide in the World (I read the sign wrong the first time, and got a little scared, as you can imagine).

What immediately made my day, was my chance to play Dr. Doolittle once again. I met a very pretty little green bird on my way to the car, which just sat on the sidewalk looking at me. I could pick it up, hold it, unfold its wings, everything. Being an avid viewer of shows on Animal Planet, I checked it for injuries, carried it over to a piece of grass and set it down. When returning to the hotel this afternoon, the bird was gone. It must have flown off, after being carefully tended to by moi (or eaten by a rhodent, cat, etc. - but let's not think about that!)