We got an upgrade!!!!!
I couldn't believe it! We had such a fantastic time.
We arrived at The Rainforest Cafe in time for lunch. Since dh and I are appetizer people we split the cocoanut shrimp and the crabmeat dip. I also had a Mongo Mai Tai - delicious! I didn't upgrade to the free glass - didn't want that much of a Mai Tai that early. We bought RFC drinking glasses for ds and his wife. I also talked dh into buying a tee shirt.
Then we headed over to The Titanic with our
AAA tix. The exhibit itself was interesting. The "tour guides" knew their stuff. I love those Irish accents. We spent about an hour at the exhibit. Younger ds is a Titanic fan so we bought him a drinking glass as well as a re-created newspaper featuring stories on the disaster. The Mercado shopping center is sad - really really sad. 90% of it is closed. We had about a 20 minute wait until our tour started and we couldn't find an indoor place to sit and wait. The entire food court was closed and locked up tight. It was hot so I ended up getting a Pina Colada that I couldn't finish. I should have just gotten a bottle of water. I ended up with a headache about an hour after I drank the pina colada. Those drinks definately aren't for drinking in a hurry.
Next, we headed over to the Gaylord Palms. Dh and I got into a "discussion" on the way. I wanted him to valet the car. He wanted to self park. Upon arrival, he won. I went into check in. While checking in, I was offered an upgrade for $75 to a suite that normally sells for $850. I thought for about 3 seconds and took it! After registering and getting our keys dh was still not in the resort. I phoned him. He was still driving around looking for self parking. I talked him into valeting the car.
http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordpalms/tour/photos-staugustine.cfm
(The first pic shows the view from our room.)
The room was wonderful. Upon entering, there was a dining table, couch, chairs, leather ottomon, entertainment center with tv and dvd, wet bar with a mini fridge. We had TWO balconies, a nice sized bathroom with a tiled shower, a king size bed, french doors opposite the bed that led to our second balcony, and a computer with free internet access.
On our balcony we heard a guitar player singing. For dinner we decided to find out where he was entertaining and go there. It led us to a seafood place - the one that has the bar on the boat. We had the best appetizers - the Three Tiered Appetizer for Two. It had everything from lobster tail, crab salad, cigar shrimp, shrimp cocktail, conch fritters, grilled pinapple, ahi tuna tartar (dh ate all of the tuna), udon noodles and vegetable toss. It was all portioned for two people - just right for dinner. We also split a bottle of white zin. Our dinner was leisurely - we enjoyed the guitarist, the fire eater, and the guy on stilts!
http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordpalms/tour/photos-keywest.cfm (This is where we ate dinner - Sunset Sams.)
After dinner we strolled around the atrium. Of course, I had to visit the Godiva shop - we bought a brownie and some chocolate. We also bought a muffin top at the Java shop. We put these in our room to save for eating at 2am. (The choc bars we took home with us - and didn't eat that night.)
Later, we went to the dueling piano bar. Hardly anyone was there - we felt like we had our own private entertainment. They played every one of our requests from The Allman Bros to Billy Joel to some one hit wonders. I was surprised that they did not know Daniel Powters - You Had a Bad Day. What kind of piano players don't know that song!?!
We splurged and requested room service for breakfast. We split eggs benedict (with mushroom and asparagus - dh got all of my mushrooms) and cinamon roll french toast, oj, and dh made coffee. (The room came with a cd player.) We played our Billy Joel cds while eating and reading the poker article in USA today. (We love watching poker & reading about it we just can't play it!)
We took another stroll around the grounds, noticing the baby gators, turtley, fish etc. Then we were all out of money so it was time to get home. After eating at Victoria and Alberts at the Grand Floridian last year I didn't think anything could ever top it - but the whole experience at the Gaylord Palms was very casual - but very fun. We had a blast.
We arrived home to cat problems - which I won't go into now. After handling those problems I was exhauted from everything! I ended up feeling mean, grouchy and tearful so I went to bed at 8pm. I don't remember what I ate.
I decided to treat the weekend as a continuation of our vacation since we're not going to take a vacation this year. Saturday we slept in until 11:30am. Dh brought home ribs for dinner. Then we opened up the Mango Champagne - I had 3 glasses -that stuff is excellent!
This morning I woke up at 10am, threw on my clothes and made a McD's run. We had cinamon rolls and breakfast burritos. We opened up ANOTHER bottle of champgane - (regular champagne - Rotari) and I made mimosas. We stayed in bed all day eating, drinking and watching cheesy movies. For dinner dh made a Panini Bread run. They didn't have my Chicken Frontega for some reason. I haven't eaten there in ages and ages because their food is so darn high in fat and when I finally get to splurge - they don't have my favorite sandwich!!! When they first opened we used to order their sandwiches twice a month - until I saw the fat gram count. I think its been about a year since I've been there. Dh had the guy make me up a chix panini but it wasn't the same. I also had two cokes with my sandwich - which is why I'm posting this now. I can't sleep - I'm not used to drinking cokes and two put me over!
I did a ton of walking for our trip and ate horribly. Now its really time to settle down, calm down and do the right thing!
Thanks, Amy, Anna and Kate! Our actual anniversary is the 28th; however, for our schedule the 27th and 28th worked better than the 28th and 29th. I heard that our resort was only 35% filled that may be why we got the upgrade. Apparently, not many conventions are held in Florida in July! Kate, happy birthday to your ds!!
