Walt Disney World, The Boardwalk Inn, special events for adults

Who would have thought that a stay at the Boardwalk Inn at Walt Disney World in Florida would put you face to face with Bernie Williams, Mark Langston, and the blond is Jeff Juden (I'm not sure I have that last one right.)? Now I'm not a big sports fan, although I do enjoy an occasional baseball, basketball or ice hockey game. I think I like the ambiance at a game as much as the game. But I have a son who shares a big interest in sports with his wife and they really love baseball. So you can imagine that when my son stumbled on these guys playing in a band on the boardwalk at Disney World that it was camera time. If you click on the picture it will get bigger, so you can see their faces.

But let me begin at the beginning. This was the trip to Florida for the family reunion that encompassed The Kennedy Space Center and Disney World. I choose The Boardwalk Inn because of it's location - close to Epcot center and the international restaurants there, and right on the water which is a quick and enjoyable way to get around that huge complex. But it just so happened that right around the corner from our hotel was a sports themed restaurant and look at what was going on outside it one night!

From the Boardwalk Inn you could also walk over a bridge to Epcot and the International restaurants - the German Pavillion, The Japan Pavillion and all the other countries pavillions and restaurants. Or you could walk right out to the boardwalk and catch a boat to so many places in the park. The boardwalk is pictured above at night, and then below here is a shot from our room's balcony. The Boardwalk Inn was lovely. This one was newer than some - built in late 1990s and older than some. Even though I l'd go back to the Boardwalk Inn in a heartbeat, I'd try another too - there's just so much to do and some of the other resorts might be closer to an activity that was my focus for the next trip.

The most important things that I took home in the way of planning for a trip to DisneyWorld were to check on special events before you go if you don't have to go at a certain time, and to buy the tickets that let you enter all the parks whenever you want - not the tickets that allow you one park a day unless the parks are a small part of what you're doing. For us the flexibility was wonderful. We found that we didn't all want to spend the same amount of time in each park and because our time was limited we split up for a half a day at a time too. I wanted to spend more time in the Hollywood park and go to the wild bird sanctuary. A couple of us wanted to to the Animal Kingdom and someone else didn't. Then one night we went to eat in a park in the evening that we hadn't been in that day.

There is a great guide book series that you can buy before you go to help you sort out all the entertainment and activities because you just can't do it all. We stayed three days I think, and could have stayed longer of course. The book I found so helpful, as have others I know, was Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Without Kids 2005 : Expert Advice for Fun-Loving Adults. I bought the book and woud buy a current edition before the next trip. While an older edition has much good information in it, you might need to check prices, those special events, and even additions to the park on the Disney site before going, because things do change. Birnbaum's got a book for people with children, one just about dining at Walt Disney World and several others too. I would hate to go only to learn after the trip that there is an activiity that I would have put as number one on my list had I only known it was there. It's growing yearly - probably make it a county in Florida of it's own. A brief note about special events - they have a wine and food festival toward the end of Oct. that I'd like to go back for and there are so many other themed special events depending on what your interests are. We have friends who took their children and grandchildren and went at Thanksgiving so that they could be there for the Thanksgiving decorations and then got up the day after Thanksgiving to see the Christmas decorations. And yes, they had Thanksgiving dinner right there at Disney World. Isn't it amazing what money can do! But do check on special events.Those are just two examples -there are scads and can really add to a vacation or even be the focus of one. You can find the Walt Disney World website without my help, so I'll leave that one off. You know what to do.

Here are a couple more pictures from the animal Kingdom.

Isn't that Gorilla's back magnificent. You know these are my pictures and not a professional's don't you. Oh well, I have fun. I love to do this and love to take pictures.

I am so grateful to be an American for many more serious reasons than travel. But the beauty of our country whether natural or man made, the tremendous fun we can have in travel, is just delightful.

I promised recipes and haven't posted any in a while. I'll see if I can stop with the travel chatter and post a few more slightly different and not to time consuming recipes in the very near future. Stay tuned.

Take care of you,

Maggiegladyoucame