Working Vacation

I am in Orlando today. It is nice and warm and sunny and so much better than the cold rainy weather we were supposed to have in NC this week. I am here for the CIPTUG (Cisco User's Group) trade show. The hotel we are staying at is amazing. It is called the Gaylord Palms. It is like a city unto itself. It has multiple pools, a whole little village with shops and restaurants, and even a putt-putt course. It kind of feels like Vegas without the smoke and slot machine craziness! They have a lake with a boat in the middle that features a Key West themed restaurant. They have a castle and they even have alligators somewhere around here I hear! It is really, really amazing!

They are advertising right now for this big event they have called "ICE". It is "an incredible winter wonderland hand carved from nearly TWO MILLION pounds of ICE!" This event is chilled to a frosty 9 degrees! They give you winter parkas when you enter the event. The theme is Santa's Arctic Blast. They even have a Hidden Holiday Gnome Hunt! The brochure features Santa sliding down a big slide made completely of ICE! It looks AWESOME! But sadly it doesn't start until November 17th.

I will be here until Thursday night, so expect my posts to be short and sweet for the next few days. I did see they had a spa and fitness center downstairs, so maybe I can get back on my 5K training while I am here. In fact as motivation I think I am going to challenge myself to run at least 5 miles over the next 2 days and if I meet that goal I will reward myself with a pedicure!