I went to the Tech Ed conference this week in Orlando. I left snow (YES, AGAIN!!!) and arrived in humidity and wind. At least it was warm, but I forgot how windy central Florida can be. It's certainly greener there than in the Midwest right now, but some trees still haven't leafed out yet. Several trees were covered in Spanish moss, but with no leaves and the wind blowing, they looked like they were covered in furry cat tails.
I stayed at the Caribe Royale Resort Hotel. Every hotel in Orlando seems to have the word "resort" tacked onto the name, even the lesser chains like Days Inn Resort and Motel 6 Resort. I'm not sure what classifies it as a resort unless it's the mini fridge, swimming pool, and sleeper sofa so you can house a family of 5 in one room. Our resort had 3 swimming pools. This one had a big water slide on the other side of the waterfall.
The Caribe Royale is right next to Disney World. My hotel had a shuttle that carried guests over to the park early in the morning and late in the evening, but I arrived around noon. The hotel literature said they were only 1.5 miles away from Downtown Disney, so I decided to walk over and check it out. But the literature must have meant as the crow flies, because when I walked over there via sidewalks (which incidentally there aren't that many in Orlando), my Fitbit registered 5 miles, not 1-1/2.
Downtown Disney has a couple rides (a carousel and a train), but they were geared toward very young kids. Most people go to Downtown Disney to shop and/or eat. I had lunch at Fulton's Crabhouse - an odd name, since the restaurant was housed in an old paddle boat. But the oyster po'boy was delicious.
I looked around a few stores afterwards. There was a Lego store with giant figures of cartoon characters made entirely out of Legos. Even the serpeant in the lake was made of Legos and he was huge. Another store was selling Mr Potato Heads. There were bins and bins of different parts you could use to design your own Mr Potato Head. I thought about making one for Baby Violet, but the way she eats small objects these days, I thought I'd better wait until she's a little older.
But the warmth of the Florida sun was short-lived. I spent the next 3 days freezing to death in the windowless convention center. They had the air conditioning up full blast even though it's still March. Sam set up a hands-free water fountain for our booth display. When someone walked past it, the pump would automatically turn on. Most people didn't really notice it though, because they were always looking down at their cell phones.
We had a great booth location, right across from the robotics contest. They had some really great robots that could move around very quickly pushing and picking up balls (both large and small). But the one thing that gave most of them trouble was the "speed bump" in the middle of the court. Many of the robots were so low to the ground, that they got hung up trying to cross over.
They had a unique twist to their robotics contest (maybe because we were in Florida). They had an underwater robot contest out by the swimming pool. The only thing that was a little weird about it was that some of the robots were tethered to their battery packs by long wires across the water. I think they could have come up with a waterproof case for the batteries, but I'm wondering if all that additional weight would have sunk the robot.
On the last day, we got finished a little bit early, so I walked over to the mini golf course. I haven't played mini golf in years, but ended up only 6 over par. I even made a hole in one on the 18th hole.
