Christmas In Orlando Update

Sunday==>Yes, your favorite blogger has been remiss in posting to this blog over the Christmas Holidays but he is now back in the warm and cozy confines of his apartment, PHC, on West 42nd Street in The Big Apple, The Greatest City In The World, and is ready to bring you loyal and faithful readers and followers up-to-date ... so ... let’s get underway ...

I had a simply wonderful time down in warm and balmy Orlando, FL, with my son Bill III aka The Bill, his friends and then my grandson Alex Falletta, his wife Gina, and their darling daughters, Saylor and Finley. It was AWESOME!!

Unfortunately, my daughter Kathi Bendeck and her husband, Dr. John, of Columbia, SC, were unable to join us in Orlando due to scheduling conflicts etc. Maybe next year ... 

And, of course, we all deeply missed having Chris with us in person. I felt that he was with us in spirit.

Anyway ... on Wednesday the flight down to Orlando left on time, ahead of the bad weather, and arrived in Orlando on schedule. The Norris Travel Curse was nowhere to be seen, thankfully.

The Bill and I spent the day in some father/son bonding and also visiting the Winter Park area, specifically Winter Park Village. Why Winter Park? Well, I will provide you with more details on this at a later date (maybe).

For the evening we had an awesome dinner at a posh restaurant called Waffle House. Actually, not kidding ... when we were ready to head out to eat on Christmas Eve we found that every place we were interested in had closed early. Waffle House was the only place open. Oh well ... the meal was actually pretty good.

Christmas Day was highlighted by dinner at Golden Corral with 3 of The Bill’s longtime friends: 

Renzy Hanshaw (left) a former neighbor who is retired from the NYC Fire Department and Kenny Baboolal, a golfing buddy; and,

Ken Hall, who teaches math with Bill at Lake Howell High School; and, of course ...

The Bill.

Dinner was great and to say that we stuffed ourselves is a major understatement. This is actually the second consecutive year that we have had Christmas Day Dinner at Golden Carrol.

The day after Christmas was actually our Christmas Day because in mid afternoon Alex, Gina, Saylor and Finley arrived. Man, Saylor, who will be 3 on January 7th, is a total bundle of energy and the love and affection between she and her younger sister, Finley, who will be 1 on April 16th, is obvious.

These are just a few of the pictures we took ...

We opened our presents and I was delighted to find out that Alex, Gina and Bill had honored my request for 18 bottles of Pat’s Ho-Made BBQ Sauce. Now Bill has to take the next step to wrap them in bubble-wrap and ship them to me here in The Big Apple.

After we opened our presents it was time for dinner, prepared by Bill, an AWESOME tenderloin. It was great and a terrific way to end our Christmas Day. 

Now, moving on ...

Yesterday, Bill dropped me off at the airport at 2:00pm, as requested, for my originally scheduled 4:00pm flight back to LGA. Well, the flight was delayed for almost an hour due to heavy air traffic in the Orlando area (whatever that means). The terminal was teaming with families, some leaving after Christmas, others arriving for New Year's in Orlando.

The flight left as delayed and the flight up was OK even though there was a lot of baby crying going on. We landed at the projected time, 7:00pm ... and ... then ... The Norris Travel Curse appeared.

What do I mean? Well, first, it took 30 minutes from the time we landed until we were able to get to the gate. I had volunteered to have my carry on checked ... and ... it took forever for the luggage to arrive at the carousel.

It was 8:00pm when I boarded the shuttle bus to The Port Authority Bus Terminal. The Delta Terminal is the first pickup point so ... it took forever for us to make the stops at the other terminals. Then, just as we were pulling into the last pickup spot a piece of luggage fell out of the overhead bin and hit a 70s woman on her arm. She screamed and cried etc. Long story short it took 30+ minutes to get her help and to do the preliminary investigation. Bummer.

When we finally headed into Manhattan the roads were jammed and when we actually got into The City the cross town traffic was moving at less than a snail’s pace ... and that is giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Bottom line ... when I finally opened the door to PHC it was 9:25pm. Yes, it had taken longer to get from LGA to PHC than it had taken to fly from Orlando to LGA. Oh well ... at least I was back home.

Read some of the accumulated newspapers and mail, had some pizza and watched some college football. 

I crashed at the usual 2:00am, thus officially ending Billi Pod’s 2014 Christmas In Orlando Adventure, which was totally AWESOME!!

THANK YOU BILL FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT HOST!!

Moving on ...

I have nothing scheduled for today and my plans are to do some major grocery shopping and then spend the remainder of the day/evening watching pro-football.

In closing ... I am happy to report that while in Orlando I was able to do some major walking and the stats are:

Wednesday==>2.00 miles

Thursday - 4.58 miles

Friday - 5.18 miles

Saturday - 5.48 miles

So ... 

HAVE A GREAT REST OF THE WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

Yesterday’s Pedometer mileage==>5.48 miles (or, 11,974 steps)

Total mileage for 2014==>1,445.35 miles (average 4.00 miles per day)

GO GATORS!!

Billi Pod

“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”