I just got back from five days in Florida with my girlfriend. That's why there's been silence from Glowing Face Man for the past few days. We took off from Columbus on a Thursday (I had another teacher cover for me at my calculus class) and made a connecting flight in Atlanta, Georgia. Actually, we nearly missed the departure from Columbus. I had left my ID card and credit card in my office, and we didn't realize that until we were at the airport! We had to turn around and go all the way back to campus to get the cards, then drive back to the airport, but we still made the flight. That's the sort of thing which injects a little adventure into a trip ;)
From Atlanta we flew to Orlando and picked up a rental car. We had reserved a compact, but they didn't have any compacts in the lot, so we got a free upgrade to a Subaru Legacy. "Subaru" (昴) is the Japanese name for a certain constellation, but it sounds like it could be a Japanese verb, so I joked with my girlfriend by saying "subarou ze!" (something like "Let's Subaru!" in a cool accent... basically it's impossible to translate but if you know Japanese you'll get it). The first night, we stayed at the Hilton on Hotel Avenue (the Hilton Orlando Resort Lake Buena Vista). A top-notch hotel, with three built-in restaurants including a Japanese one, the Benihana Steakhouse And Sushi. We ate at the Italian restaurant, the Andiamo Italian Bistro. It was totally awesome, one of the best restaurants I've ever been to.
On the following Friday, we went to Disney Land's Magic Kingdom. I was a little jaded, expecting to say "oh, this is just a corporation trying to get money out of us", but actually I was surprised to actually feel a lot of magic there. Maybe it has to do with being there with a girlfriend and making out with each other constantly. We went on Dumbo's Flight, Pooh's Adventure, the Liberty Belle, Space Mountain, It's A Small World Afterall, and Big Thunder Mountain. We had a totally awesome time. I'd recommend the theme park to any couple, with the proviso that we were about the only couple making out there. If you like to make out and display affection openly, you'll have to have balls to do it at Magic Kingdom since the place is full of family and kids. But if you have the courage, or even enjoy turning some heads with your making out, it's great.
The second night, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort. A considerable downgrade in luxury, but that's in part because we only booked the first night in advance. After that, we were winging it. We chose the Holiday Inn based on its location to nearby restaurants. It turned out to be a poor choice, because all those restaurants had the audacity to close by midnight! We ended up just buying some drinks from a liquor shop; I introduced my girlfriend to Mike's Hard Lemonade. (We accidentally left a couple bottles behind in Florida; some cleaning staff will be very pleased to find those!)
On Saturday, we drove to St. Petersburg, a small city by the Gulf of Mexico. We basically got the idea by googling "beaches near Orlando" and reading the following discussion; it turned out to be fate or something. St. Petersburg freakin OWNS. It's small enough and obscure enough that it's not full of tourists, but it's simply the most awesome little town ever. The downtown area is packed to the gills with great bars and restaurants, and some clubs too. It's a great place for Hashigo, the Japanese art of bar-hopping (which I plan on writing an article about soon). A few of the restaurants we ate at include the Thai restaurant Ratchada, Louisianan food at Chappy's, and the waterfront Parkshore Grill. We also went shopping at the Tyrone Square Mall (I bought my GF a matching set of locket necklaces for her birthday) and went drinking at quite a few bars and went dancing at a very happening little nightclub.
In St. Petersburg, we stayed at the Ponce De Leon, a freakin awesome little hotel with a ton of personality and character. It's a very historic hotel, they boast that President Nixon used to stay there (which was a turnoff to me since Nixon was a monster, but I'm glad I chose the hotel anyway). Everything in the hotel was breaking or broken, but always in a cute way. You could hear the street outside our fourth floor window, but it was actually cool because it was the happy sounds of revelers, with very little traffic noises. As I told my girlfriend, the Ponce de Leon is not a "cookie cutter" hotel. It has tons of personality and we fell so much in love with it that we reserved it a second night after the first night, breaking our normal adventurous pattern of moving every day.
The warm Florida nights were perfect for a nighttime walk along the beach. When we sat together on a bench in the park, it reminded my girlfriend of her undergraduate days back in Japan, where couples often make out in the parks after sunset.
We flew back to Columbus late Monday, Martin Luther King's day, making a transfer in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you're ever at the Charlotte airport, check out the Nature's Basket Bistro (or whatever it's called) in the food court where the path forks just before Terminal C. The food is absolutely awesome (with both vegetarian and meatatarian selections), so much that I actually went back for more, something I almost never do.
BECOMING A RESTAURANT CONNOISSEUR
More and more, I'm becoming a restaurant connoisseur. That really came out during this Florida trip, and now Columbus might be hard-pressed to satisfy my appetite. Life is short, and I want to experience everything it has to offer, with all five senses. Becoming a restaurant connoisseur and sampling all sorts of exotic new cuisine is just another example of reality expansion.
URBAN EXPLORATION
We did some very light urban exploration. We found a way onto the roof of the Ponce De Leon and got a great rooftop view of St. Petersburg. We broke into the backyard of a house that was for sale. And we did some making out in the chapels at a couple airports. BTW, most airports have chapels or meditation rooms, and if you have a long connection between flights, it's usually worthwhile to find yours, at least if it's on the right side of the security checkpoint. If you have to sleep in an airport, the chapel is often the best place. It's the quietest part of any airport generally accessible to the public. By the way, I wrote a whole article about Urban Exploration, check it out.
PHOTOS
My GF and I both took lots of photos, and I'll probably publish some of them in a later article. That includes photos from the roof of the Ponce De Leon. Note to self: when going on a trip, always remember to bring your camera's charger cord.
WEATHER IN FLORIDA VS. WEATHER IN OHIO
My girlfriend says she can't believe Ohio and Florida are in the same country. In Florida we were walking around without jackets, enjoying the sun and walking along the beach. Then we came back to a balmy 8 degrees Fahrenheit in Ohio. As the Japanese say, Tadaima!
THE GULF OF MEXICO VS. THE PACIFIC OCEAN
I had seen the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean before, but only from a distance and in passing. In a sentence, I'm a Pacific kinda man. What struck me most about the Gulf was how clear the water was. You can literally stand on the edge of a pier and look down at the ocean floor below, as easily as looking at the bottom of a glass of water. The other interesting thing was the total absence of any waves.
FURTHER READING
I really enjoyed this trip. It was only my second "real" vacation, i.e. a vacation I took as my own independent person instead of as a member of my immediate family. My first vacation was a 30-day trip to Japan. While this trip was obviously less mind-blowing, it was still a very cool experience and I learned a lot from it and really had fun.
To read more about the positive effects of travel, check out my article Things I Gained From Traveling, which I wrote after the Japan trip.
When you go on a vacation together with a loved one, it's very important not to fall into the old trap of "Where do you wanna go?" "I dunno, where do you wanna go?" "I dunno, where do you wanna go?" Don't be afraid to be a little assertive; it'll make the difference between a dull vacation spent thinking of what to do, and an awesome vacation packed with cool stuff. Read more in my article, Leadership In Relationships.
While I was on this vacation, I totally neglected my Japanese and French studies. I just pulled open Mnemosyne and I see I have 524 Japanese sentence cards scheduled. Sigh. Well, I've been through this flashcard jam situation before, and with a much bigger jam, like over 4000 scheduled cards when I came back from 30 days in Japan with no flashcard study. Read more in my article, Dealing With A Neglected SRS Deck.
From Atlanta we flew to Orlando and picked up a rental car. We had reserved a compact, but they didn't have any compacts in the lot, so we got a free upgrade to a Subaru Legacy. "Subaru" (昴) is the Japanese name for a certain constellation, but it sounds like it could be a Japanese verb, so I joked with my girlfriend by saying "subarou ze!" (something like "Let's Subaru!" in a cool accent... basically it's impossible to translate but if you know Japanese you'll get it). The first night, we stayed at the Hilton on Hotel Avenue (the Hilton Orlando Resort Lake Buena Vista). A top-notch hotel, with three built-in restaurants including a Japanese one, the Benihana Steakhouse And Sushi. We ate at the Italian restaurant, the Andiamo Italian Bistro. It was totally awesome, one of the best restaurants I've ever been to.
On the following Friday, we went to Disney Land's Magic Kingdom. I was a little jaded, expecting to say "oh, this is just a corporation trying to get money out of us", but actually I was surprised to actually feel a lot of magic there. Maybe it has to do with being there with a girlfriend and making out with each other constantly. We went on Dumbo's Flight, Pooh's Adventure, the Liberty Belle, Space Mountain, It's A Small World Afterall, and Big Thunder Mountain. We had a totally awesome time. I'd recommend the theme park to any couple, with the proviso that we were about the only couple making out there. If you like to make out and display affection openly, you'll have to have balls to do it at Magic Kingdom since the place is full of family and kids. But if you have the courage, or even enjoy turning some heads with your making out, it's great.
The second night, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort. A considerable downgrade in luxury, but that's in part because we only booked the first night in advance. After that, we were winging it. We chose the Holiday Inn based on its location to nearby restaurants. It turned out to be a poor choice, because all those restaurants had the audacity to close by midnight! We ended up just buying some drinks from a liquor shop; I introduced my girlfriend to Mike's Hard Lemonade. (We accidentally left a couple bottles behind in Florida; some cleaning staff will be very pleased to find those!)
On Saturday, we drove to St. Petersburg, a small city by the Gulf of Mexico. We basically got the idea by googling "beaches near Orlando" and reading the following discussion; it turned out to be fate or something. St. Petersburg freakin OWNS. It's small enough and obscure enough that it's not full of tourists, but it's simply the most awesome little town ever. The downtown area is packed to the gills with great bars and restaurants, and some clubs too. It's a great place for Hashigo, the Japanese art of bar-hopping (which I plan on writing an article about soon). A few of the restaurants we ate at include the Thai restaurant Ratchada, Louisianan food at Chappy's, and the waterfront Parkshore Grill. We also went shopping at the Tyrone Square Mall (I bought my GF a matching set of locket necklaces for her birthday) and went drinking at quite a few bars and went dancing at a very happening little nightclub.
In St. Petersburg, we stayed at the Ponce De Leon, a freakin awesome little hotel with a ton of personality and character. It's a very historic hotel, they boast that President Nixon used to stay there (which was a turnoff to me since Nixon was a monster, but I'm glad I chose the hotel anyway). Everything in the hotel was breaking or broken, but always in a cute way. You could hear the street outside our fourth floor window, but it was actually cool because it was the happy sounds of revelers, with very little traffic noises. As I told my girlfriend, the Ponce de Leon is not a "cookie cutter" hotel. It has tons of personality and we fell so much in love with it that we reserved it a second night after the first night, breaking our normal adventurous pattern of moving every day.
The warm Florida nights were perfect for a nighttime walk along the beach. When we sat together on a bench in the park, it reminded my girlfriend of her undergraduate days back in Japan, where couples often make out in the parks after sunset.
We flew back to Columbus late Monday, Martin Luther King's day, making a transfer in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you're ever at the Charlotte airport, check out the Nature's Basket Bistro (or whatever it's called) in the food court where the path forks just before Terminal C. The food is absolutely awesome (with both vegetarian and meatatarian selections), so much that I actually went back for more, something I almost never do.
BECOMING A RESTAURANT CONNOISSEUR
More and more, I'm becoming a restaurant connoisseur. That really came out during this Florida trip, and now Columbus might be hard-pressed to satisfy my appetite. Life is short, and I want to experience everything it has to offer, with all five senses. Becoming a restaurant connoisseur and sampling all sorts of exotic new cuisine is just another example of reality expansion.
URBAN EXPLORATION
We did some very light urban exploration. We found a way onto the roof of the Ponce De Leon and got a great rooftop view of St. Petersburg. We broke into the backyard of a house that was for sale. And we did some making out in the chapels at a couple airports. BTW, most airports have chapels or meditation rooms, and if you have a long connection between flights, it's usually worthwhile to find yours, at least if it's on the right side of the security checkpoint. If you have to sleep in an airport, the chapel is often the best place. It's the quietest part of any airport generally accessible to the public. By the way, I wrote a whole article about Urban Exploration, check it out.
PHOTOS
My GF and I both took lots of photos, and I'll probably publish some of them in a later article. That includes photos from the roof of the Ponce De Leon. Note to self: when going on a trip, always remember to bring your camera's charger cord.
WEATHER IN FLORIDA VS. WEATHER IN OHIO
My girlfriend says she can't believe Ohio and Florida are in the same country. In Florida we were walking around without jackets, enjoying the sun and walking along the beach. Then we came back to a balmy 8 degrees Fahrenheit in Ohio. As the Japanese say, Tadaima!
THE GULF OF MEXICO VS. THE PACIFIC OCEAN
I had seen the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean before, but only from a distance and in passing. In a sentence, I'm a Pacific kinda man. What struck me most about the Gulf was how clear the water was. You can literally stand on the edge of a pier and look down at the ocean floor below, as easily as looking at the bottom of a glass of water. The other interesting thing was the total absence of any waves.
FURTHER READING
I really enjoyed this trip. It was only my second "real" vacation, i.e. a vacation I took as my own independent person instead of as a member of my immediate family. My first vacation was a 30-day trip to Japan. While this trip was obviously less mind-blowing, it was still a very cool experience and I learned a lot from it and really had fun.
To read more about the positive effects of travel, check out my article Things I Gained From Traveling, which I wrote after the Japan trip.
When you go on a vacation together with a loved one, it's very important not to fall into the old trap of "Where do you wanna go?" "I dunno, where do you wanna go?" "I dunno, where do you wanna go?" Don't be afraid to be a little assertive; it'll make the difference between a dull vacation spent thinking of what to do, and an awesome vacation packed with cool stuff. Read more in my article, Leadership In Relationships.
While I was on this vacation, I totally neglected my Japanese and French studies. I just pulled open Mnemosyne and I see I have 524 Japanese sentence cards scheduled. Sigh. Well, I've been through this flashcard jam situation before, and with a much bigger jam, like over 4000 scheduled cards when I came back from 30 days in Japan with no flashcard study. Read more in my article, Dealing With A Neglected SRS Deck.
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1 comments:
Sounds like a great trip! I wish I were daring enough to just wander around and discover things.
However, a restaurateur is a restaurant owner... perhaps you meant gourmand?
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