We got a late start on Saturday to head down to Florida, due to the fact that is what happens when you have two procastinators under one roof. We headed to drop Mollie off at Spa Mammie for the week and headed south around 1 PM. We stopped along the way for our first gourmet meal of the trip at McDonalds.

The amazing and sobering part of the trip for me was the signs of the economy. The number of empty billboards that were available was numbing. Laila and I stopped at an outlet mall we had stopped at two and a half years earlier. Then it was 60 stores all rented and thriving with a full parking lot. We wanted to stop at the Big Dog outlet and pick up some T-shirts for me as I am starting to run low. Now there were only14 stores open, no Big Dog. We stopped at the Bass Outlet store and picked up a nice pair of leather sandals originally $74 for 80% off. Laila also got a pair of shorts and 2 tops. We were out of there for less than $25.

With how well my company is doing and the daily visits to all my stores with cash registers humming I sometime forget how blessed we are.

Arrived at the Royal plaza in Disney a little bit after 9 PM and let the valet take the car. He also insisted on taking our bags all the way to the room.

What a room it was, the bathroom turned out to be slightly larger than our cabin on the ship,

Being hungry and thirsty we decided to hike the half mile to Downtown Disney. We couldn’t find a decent restaurant to eat at (read that as we didn’t want to pay what they were asking) so we stopped at the Raglan Road pub for a couple of beverages. We both decided after our earlier feast we weren’t that hungry so we decided to order a scallop appetizer for $13.50. It was a good thing we weren’t hungry as it was six scallops, skewered on forks vertically and jammed into a little metal box. Sometimes I just don’t understand fancy food.

Waking up the next day starving we headed out for a little drive around International Drive in Orlando in search of deep dish pizza. I stumbled across a Pizzeria Uno before I found a Giordanos, We ordered a three meat, onion and mater pie. It was tasty or we were just starving. I was surprised how quickly it came and dissapointed that it was only luke warm in the center. Of course I later discovered the Giordano’s less than a half mile from the hotel.

After a nap we decided to head out to Joe’s Crab Shack. As is our custom we had valet call us a cab. A nice Moroccan man in a Lincoln Continental took us over. We ordered a small beverage to start.

For appetizers we ordered the crab cakes and great balls of fire.  The crab cakes were small but there was three of them, much better than the great scallop incident from the night before. The fire balls were deep fried crab and cheese stuffed jalapenos. Now usually when you stuff a large jalapeno the tend to not be very spicy. Not in this case, I broke out in a serious head sweat. Very tasty though. For dinner Laila got the bean town bake pot and I got the Orleans. Wow, what a bunch of food. Now I like seafood but I have not been given a bib before supper, since long before I quit crapping myself. Then there were all the tools they give you. Cracking and pulling, cracking and pulling, shells flying everywhere, oh the humanity. It was a little too personal of an experience with the food for my taste, but I left full and Laila left with a smile. I picked up a “My waitress gave me crabs”  T- shirt and we called the cab company back. A nice Moroccan lady in a Ford Expedition took us back to the hotel.

Over all we relaxed and we enjoyed ourselves and left us with only an hour drive over to Port Canaveral.