TWIMO Goes South

Wait! What? Georgia isn't the South you ask? Well, it is, but I recently as in I'm still there had the chance to go even father South to Vero Beach, Florida to visit the lovely TWIMOer and good friend of mine, Alison. So here is a rundown of my absolutely wonderful trip visiting absolutely wonderful people.

Saturday afternoon I arrived in West Palm Beach. Now I've been to Florida before (Orlando, Tallahassee, etc.) but I've not really ventured into South Florida. So as I stepped off of the plane I quickly realized I'd forgotten to wear my stiletto heels and bring my Louis Vuitton bag. Darn! I also realized Florida is much warmer than say Northern Georgia. My lovely friends Ann and Alison then picked me up and we jetted into West Palm Beach where we had a lovely meal at a French bakery (it was really French too, as in the many of the staff spoke French and they had a French radio station playing.). I got a roast beef sandwich with goat cheese on crusty, warm French bread. YUM. Then we drove to Palm Beach (the really rich area) and checked out the giant VACATION home estates of the rich (and probably some famous). Now the interesting thing about Palm Beach that Alison pointed out is that residents are not allowed to build walls more than 4' or so high to protect their mansions from the prying eyes of the plebeian likes of oh... Me. So to keep my gwaking looks out they build instead giant walls of neatly manicured shrubs.

Giant manicured shrubs to keep me from looking at fancy houses. Boo.

After my tour of the West Palm Beach neighborhoods we ventured to the Breakers Hotel (you know, the famous one) where we proceeded to look for the back entrance to the hotel because we decided we did not look fancy enough. Once finding said entrance (we were slowed down by the immaculate croquet course near the entrance with perfect, carpet like green grass that we had to a) admire b) take our shoes off and see if it felt as great as it looked. Verdict: Not so much.

Fake Carpet Grass at the Breakers

We prefer middle class grass). So finally we make it inside the beautiful turn of the century hotel modeled after an Italian palazzo and made our way to the Seafood Bar (the bar has fish swimming in it) and enjoyed a highly overpriced cocktail while looking out over the crashing waves of the Atlantic.

The view of the ocean from the Breakers Promenade

After I snapped out of my dreams of wearing 1920s attire and sashaying about the Breakers with my Vanderbilt boyfriend we headed back to Vero Beach to see The Social Network, the film about Facebook that everyone is raving about. Verdict: What's all the commotion?

As we headed to bed Saturday night my hostesses with the most-esses gave me some options for the following day's activities a) Miami b) Disney World c) See the wonders of Vero Beach.

Sunday morning we wake up bright and early and I revealed my pick for the day's activity. Duh... Disney World. So we pack up the car and head to Disney World where we have decided to spend the day at my favorite park: Epcot. For those of you unfamiliar with the Disney empire, Epcot is kinda like the nerd's park. All of the rides and exhibits are there to teach you something whether it is how they test cars for market via Test Track a high speed car ride or take you around the world in the World Showcase, a mini world's fair if you would.

My home land: Germany at the Epcot World Showcase

Now I LOVE the world showcase, as I love travelling, so we spent most of the day walking around it and sampling the delightful morsels they were selling for the 15th annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Here's a run down of my menu: Crab Cake with Slaw (America), Sausage in a Pretzel Roll (Germany), Riesling (Germany), Purple Haze Beer (they had 15 beers you could sample to celebrate their 15th year), and to top it all off a chocolate lava cake with bailey's Irish cream ganache. Can we say YUM.

I was trying to get a date at the Norwegian pavilion by showing them how good I looked in a Viking helmet and how much I love moose.

After this very exhausting yet extremely wonderful foray back to my childhood visits to Disney we headed back to Vero Beach.

Today my hostesses have to work, because obviously Florida does not care about Columbus and his mistaken landing in America, I have been having a great time hanging out with my dog Clair's frienemy Bear.

Bear the Chihuahua and hostess with the most-ess

We took a walk on the beach, bought some local orange juice and had a delightful lunch staring out at the ocean. What a perfect little holiday to take my mind off my unemployment woes...