Florida - Day 1 - Travel

Our drive down to Florida was uneventful. We left Knoxville around 7:30 am on Saturday (Feb 20th) and made it to Orlando in just over 10 hours. The drive felt short - I think Brian and I both just enjoyed sitting in one place for awhile! Carter did really well too. He would get pretty fussy when he was tired and had trouble falling asleep. But he eventually took 3 short naps. It was a beautiful, sunny day and just kept getting warmer and warmer as we headed south. We've had such a cold and cloudy winter that the weather put us in such a good mood.

When we arrived in Orlando, we checked into our first of two hotels down there. Brian had a lot of points from traveling for work so we split our trip between a Homewood Suites (using Hilton points) and a Staybridge Suites (using Holiday Inn points). We got 3 free nights at the Homewood and 2 free nights at the Staybridge (we paid for 2 additional nights at the Staybridge). We wanted suites with separate bedrooms (which require a lot more points) because it is so much easier when we can put Carter's playyard in the living room area and then go into the bedroom once he's asleep around his normal bedtime. Then we don't have to keep Carter up too late or go to bed at the same time as him.

We were staying on International Drive by all the convention centers so there were a ton of chain restaurants all around us. We decided to try Olive Garden across from our hotel because it didn't look too crowded. It was already 6:30 pm and past time for Carter to have dinner. We were told there was a 20 minute wait and decided he could make it that long. After 45 minutes we finally left. Tons of people that got there after us were being seated but we were eventually told we had to wait for a table instead of a booth because a high chair at a booth is a fire hazard. That's the first time we've ever heard that. Has anyone else run into this? We eat at booths most of the time when we go out (it's easier than finding a place to put the displaced extra chair). Anyway, I was mad because I didn't want to get Carter to bed too late on our first night and pregnancy emotions decided to kick in. Poor Brian. Brian dropped Carter and me off at the hotel so I could feed Carter and get him ready for bed, and Brian found a Chili's and ordered carry-out for us.

We finally got Carter to bed around 8:45 pm. Unfortunately I had noticed his nose starting to run on the drive and I could tell by bedtime that he had a cold. Perfect timing for our trip!