I didn't take any real time off during the holidays, so once everyone got back to work and my team started back into the normal schedule, I figured it was time for a vacation! Actually...Cin and I headed down to Orlando to complete Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge, where we would run the Disney Half Marathon on Saturday and then the full Disney Marathon on Sunday, totaling 39.3mi over two days. Yep, it's pretty goofy. :) Anyway, on with the show.
We worked on Thursday and had our friend Danny pick us up in the afternoon to go to BWI. A quick trip through the ticket counter to drop off our luggage and a no-hassels trip through security and we ended up at Obryckis for a late-lunch/early-dinner. The original location of this place is in Baltimore and is well known for the crabcakes and assorted dishes; that location closed earlier in 2011 so the airport location is the only one remaining (their webpage is here). I had a crabcake and Cin had crab sliders, all of which was awesome. We then boarded our flight and ended up in the very last row with another girl who was going down for her first marathon. We chatted for a bit and I did some reading (REAMDE by Neal Stephenson) and the flight passed very quickly. After landing, we headed to Disney's Magical Express, the free bus service from the airport to our Disney resort. This is a great service and includes luggage service so you don't even need to pick up your bags from the baggage claim; they are intercepted and sent directly to your room. A quick and relaxing bus ride and we were at our resort, Disney's Port Orleans Riverside.
This was our first time at Port Orleans Riverside (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). We usually stay at Disney's Beach Club resort but went with this one this time to save some money. Port Orleans is a middle-range Disney resort while the Beach Club is a high-end one (more about the tiers and the differences between them will be coming in a later entry...stay tuned!). It's a nice place. We checked in with no issues and then walked to our room. Riverside is a sprawling resort and we wandered around, following the signs to our room number for quite some time before finding it and realizing a much easier and quicker route. :) The room was pretty basic but functional...and had two double beds. Ugh...not ideal for two married folks who needed relaxing sleep due to the races! Oh well.
After getting settled, we walked to the boat stop and headed out to Downtown Disney. Riverside runs a boat down to the Downtown area that takes about 20min or so. In the very dark (as it was by this time), you really cannot see a thing and we were very impressed with our boat driver (and wondering what it was we were floating past!). Once at Downtown, we found the Rainforest Cafe (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner. They used to have one of these in Towson, Maryland, that we enjoyed quite a bit but that closed a few years back. I had a burger and Cin had a soup and salad combo, both of which were tasty but somewhat overpriced compared to other Rainforest Cafes (gotta love the Disney price bump!). I also ordered a Sam Adams but that ended up being the seasonal...and they were serving Noble Pils early (it's usually not out until the end of January). This is one of the favorite beers so that was an excellent find! After eating, we stolled around a bit and then caught the bus back to Riverside, tired and ready for bed...eager to hit the race expo the next morning!
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