Boss Hogg
<font color=green>It's 5 o'clock somewhere<br><fon
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,528
We awake, at what time Ive no idea I did warn you there were no notes!
We lie in bed for a while trying to decide what to do with ourselves. There are a number of options. We need to do a last little bit of shopping, we quite fancy going up to Universal as we have not yet been into IoA.
We conclude that Disney is out, as we feel we have done the parks to death already.
Then from out of nowhere Deb has a eureka moment I could play golf at the hotel! She is a wonderful, wonderful woman and I love her dearly, especially when she suggests I play golf.
I do feel a little guilty of playing again though, and we so we discuss for a while before formulating our plan.
We need to go to an Abercrombie and Fitch to get some things for DD, and as such need to got to Florida Mall as this is the nearest. Albeit, that there has always been one at Pointe Orlando on I Drive. So we decide to take a trip to Pointe Orlando, which we know is being renovated in the hope that said shop is open, and conclude if it is not we can nip over to the Florida Mall. I book a tee time of 2.45pm which is the twilight rate as I will not get all the way round before darkness falls.
We ready ourselves, call for the car and depart for Pointe Orlando. A road sign states that it is 2 miles away. Which could be about right as we are not that far away. However, we are easily more than 2 miles away Im not sure who does the road signs but he must be an idiot!
Having parked the car we discover just how much development is under-way. I would say that around half of the shopping area is closed and the remaining units are nowhere near full. Clearly a trip to Florida Mall is on the cards! I do feel that once complete Pointe Orlando will be very good and will draw people in. There are to be a number of new shops and restaurants, including a Tommy Bahama restaurant, which interests me greatly. It looks as though it won't be too much longer before it's ready to open and, indeed, there is a recruitment weekend being hosted in one of the vacated units.
Also, there is already a nice looking restaurant called The Capital Grille, which we conclude, may be worth a visit later in the day (as we have yet to decide where we are eating tonight):
We leave the car park, where the attendant in the booth barely interrupts her mobile phone conversation to take our money and let us out. Sorry to disturb you madam!! Deb, in a moment of exceptional memory, recalls that the last time we were here in January the same thing happened with the same girl that is one long conversation!
We arrive at Florida Mall and it is busy! I suppose it is a Saturday, and we park outside JC Penney, which has a massive sale on. We have a wander round the shops, getting what we wanted for DD and a few other bits and pieces.
The next dilemma now raises its head what to do for lunch! We go backwards and forwards for a few minutes and cannot really decide. Deb fancies Capital Grille at Pointe Orlando, which we could do this evening, albeit we might not feel like it later after playing golf, yes we are that lazy! However, we do not know whether it is open for lunch, so do we take the chance or go somewhere like Orlando Ale House which is on our doorstep at Florida Mall.
In the end we plump for Capital Grille and if it is not open well go back to the hotel and eat there. Needless to say it is shut, so we return to the hotel and eat at the buffet restaurant. We are 2 of about 6 people in the restaurant, which amazes me when you look at the food on offer, there is everything one can imagine from salads, sandwich making ingredients and hot items. We have a very pleasant lunch accompanied by SOFT drinks, which is the first time Ive eaten a meal other than breakfast without alcohol for as long as I can remember!!
We have plenty of time, so go to have a look around the outside of hotel and walk off some of our lunch:
We pop back to the room to allow me to change and collect my clubs. Before heading down to the pro-shop and the range before my tee time. The starter, who informs me that 16 of the 18 holes have water on them, and that they have 96 bunkers, cordially greets us. 16 out of 18! OH MY GOD! Could be time to give up now as I have a very bad record with water the water always wins!
Matters are not helped by the fact that the wind is getting up making some of the holes very tricky indeed. However, despite this we really enjoy ourselves, I play relatively well and Deb enjoyed driving the buggy and taking pictures also the weather is reasonable so you probably couldnt ask for much more. It's a nice enough course, but nowhere near as immaculate as those at Reunion or as picturesque as Osprey Ridge and Eagle Pines at Disney, but it is still an enjoyable round.
There is one Hitchcock-esque moment when we are surrounded by birds on a green, which is a little scary!!
Slowly but surely the sun starts to dip and there is a lovely sunset which lights the course in a lovely orange glow;
As it gets progressively chillier and darker we conclude that it is time to call it a day. There are enough things wrong with my game, so as soon as I can see the moon it is time to call it a day!
Once back at the clubhouse we decide that a drink is in order, and go into the clubhouse. This place is just plain weird for a clubhouse. The bar itself is pleasant enough in dark wood, but the room is huge and soul-less. There are partitions between the bar and the rest of the room, which looks as it is designed for conferences or seminars. We seat ourselves at the bar as the same time as four American guys, who it transpires are here early to play golf before a conference on Monday its a hard life!
We partake of a few very tasty cocktails and chat on and off with our American friends who are definitely enjoying themselves, so much so in fact that one feels honour-bound to start plying us with drinks. Good boy I say, be as loud as you want!!
Feeling somewhat merry from our drinks we decide that food may well be in order. We ask the bar tender if she has eaten at the Capital Grille. It turns out that her friend works there and she is full of praise for it. It sounds right up our street, but, as predicted, we can't be bothered to go out, so plan to eat somewhere in the hotel. Having eaten at the Italian the night before, a bar snack seems appropriate. So we stagger back to the room, shower, change and head down to the bar for a few more and some grub. There are definitely more people around tonight and the bar is quite buzzing which definitely enhances it. From memory we have a pizza and something else (not sure what though), along with some more drinks. We are joined briefly and purely coincidentally, by one of the golfers from earlier on they are heading out somewhere for fun and frolics!
Some time later, who knows when, we stagger off to bed, having concluded that we have had a most enjoyable and relaxing day and evening.
We lie in bed for a while trying to decide what to do with ourselves. There are a number of options. We need to do a last little bit of shopping, we quite fancy going up to Universal as we have not yet been into IoA.
We conclude that Disney is out, as we feel we have done the parks to death already.
Then from out of nowhere Deb has a eureka moment I could play golf at the hotel! She is a wonderful, wonderful woman and I love her dearly, especially when she suggests I play golf.
I do feel a little guilty of playing again though, and we so we discuss for a while before formulating our plan.
We need to go to an Abercrombie and Fitch to get some things for DD, and as such need to got to Florida Mall as this is the nearest. Albeit, that there has always been one at Pointe Orlando on I Drive. So we decide to take a trip to Pointe Orlando, which we know is being renovated in the hope that said shop is open, and conclude if it is not we can nip over to the Florida Mall. I book a tee time of 2.45pm which is the twilight rate as I will not get all the way round before darkness falls.
We ready ourselves, call for the car and depart for Pointe Orlando. A road sign states that it is 2 miles away. Which could be about right as we are not that far away. However, we are easily more than 2 miles away Im not sure who does the road signs but he must be an idiot!
Having parked the car we discover just how much development is under-way. I would say that around half of the shopping area is closed and the remaining units are nowhere near full. Clearly a trip to Florida Mall is on the cards! I do feel that once complete Pointe Orlando will be very good and will draw people in. There are to be a number of new shops and restaurants, including a Tommy Bahama restaurant, which interests me greatly. It looks as though it won't be too much longer before it's ready to open and, indeed, there is a recruitment weekend being hosted in one of the vacated units.
Also, there is already a nice looking restaurant called The Capital Grille, which we conclude, may be worth a visit later in the day (as we have yet to decide where we are eating tonight):
We leave the car park, where the attendant in the booth barely interrupts her mobile phone conversation to take our money and let us out. Sorry to disturb you madam!! Deb, in a moment of exceptional memory, recalls that the last time we were here in January the same thing happened with the same girl that is one long conversation!
We arrive at Florida Mall and it is busy! I suppose it is a Saturday, and we park outside JC Penney, which has a massive sale on. We have a wander round the shops, getting what we wanted for DD and a few other bits and pieces.
The next dilemma now raises its head what to do for lunch! We go backwards and forwards for a few minutes and cannot really decide. Deb fancies Capital Grille at Pointe Orlando, which we could do this evening, albeit we might not feel like it later after playing golf, yes we are that lazy! However, we do not know whether it is open for lunch, so do we take the chance or go somewhere like Orlando Ale House which is on our doorstep at Florida Mall.
In the end we plump for Capital Grille and if it is not open well go back to the hotel and eat there. Needless to say it is shut, so we return to the hotel and eat at the buffet restaurant. We are 2 of about 6 people in the restaurant, which amazes me when you look at the food on offer, there is everything one can imagine from salads, sandwich making ingredients and hot items. We have a very pleasant lunch accompanied by SOFT drinks, which is the first time Ive eaten a meal other than breakfast without alcohol for as long as I can remember!!
We have plenty of time, so go to have a look around the outside of hotel and walk off some of our lunch:
We pop back to the room to allow me to change and collect my clubs. Before heading down to the pro-shop and the range before my tee time. The starter, who informs me that 16 of the 18 holes have water on them, and that they have 96 bunkers, cordially greets us. 16 out of 18! OH MY GOD! Could be time to give up now as I have a very bad record with water the water always wins!
Matters are not helped by the fact that the wind is getting up making some of the holes very tricky indeed. However, despite this we really enjoy ourselves, I play relatively well and Deb enjoyed driving the buggy and taking pictures also the weather is reasonable so you probably couldnt ask for much more. It's a nice enough course, but nowhere near as immaculate as those at Reunion or as picturesque as Osprey Ridge and Eagle Pines at Disney, but it is still an enjoyable round.
There is one Hitchcock-esque moment when we are surrounded by birds on a green, which is a little scary!!
Slowly but surely the sun starts to dip and there is a lovely sunset which lights the course in a lovely orange glow;
As it gets progressively chillier and darker we conclude that it is time to call it a day. There are enough things wrong with my game, so as soon as I can see the moon it is time to call it a day!
Once back at the clubhouse we decide that a drink is in order, and go into the clubhouse. This place is just plain weird for a clubhouse. The bar itself is pleasant enough in dark wood, but the room is huge and soul-less. There are partitions between the bar and the rest of the room, which looks as it is designed for conferences or seminars. We seat ourselves at the bar as the same time as four American guys, who it transpires are here early to play golf before a conference on Monday its a hard life!
We partake of a few very tasty cocktails and chat on and off with our American friends who are definitely enjoying themselves, so much so in fact that one feels honour-bound to start plying us with drinks. Good boy I say, be as loud as you want!!
Feeling somewhat merry from our drinks we decide that food may well be in order. We ask the bar tender if she has eaten at the Capital Grille. It turns out that her friend works there and she is full of praise for it. It sounds right up our street, but, as predicted, we can't be bothered to go out, so plan to eat somewhere in the hotel. Having eaten at the Italian the night before, a bar snack seems appropriate. So we stagger back to the room, shower, change and head down to the bar for a few more and some grub. There are definitely more people around tonight and the bar is quite buzzing which definitely enhances it. From memory we have a pizza and something else (not sure what though), along with some more drinks. We are joined briefly and purely coincidentally, by one of the golfers from earlier on they are heading out somewhere for fun and frolics!
Some time later, who knows when, we stagger off to bed, having concluded that we have had a most enjoyable and relaxing day and evening.
They sound like the kind of friends I like to meet !!
How is it that you always manage to find these guys at bars to buy you drinks???? 
