Wine and Dine Weekend

This past weekend, my boyfriend (Ray), roommate (Austin), and I headed down to Orlando for the Wine and Dine weekend!

Here's a recap of before and after the race, and I'll get to the race next!

We arrived Friday night and checked in.  We were staying at Port Orleans Riverside, and it was GORGEOUS! I'm absolutely in love with this resort, and hopefully we can stay here again sometime.  It was a little pricier than the value resorts we normally stay in, but I loved every second of being there.  It was a great atmosphere, and all the Disney details were perfect!

This is actually Saturday morning, shhhhh

After getting settled into the room, we headed off to the Polynesian.  We have a #runnerslove meet-up, where I got to see Meg, Lauren, and Kristy again (so exciting!) and a few other bloggers I hadn't met before.  I so wish I got to spend more time with all of these lovely ladies, but there was so much to do!



After that, we headed up to Kona Cafe for dinner.  Here you can see my #runnerslove headband, and my lovely pineapple.  It's the Lapu Lapu, and I've been wanting to try one since Princess weekend.  They're expensive, but this time I decided I was having it!  We also had lots of great sushi and food.  I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it, but I think it was a good day/night before the race dinner.  Nothing fried or heavy.




Saturday morning we woke up early to get to the expo before it opened.  We went to the food court at POR for breakfast.  I had a ham and cheese croissant, chocolate milk, and got a pain au chocolat for later!  We were able to get in to the expo early, which was super exciting.  There was no line at all to get my bib.  The official Disney merchandise was cleared out of the Field House by that time, it was just bib pick up and a photo opportunity.

We headed over to the Josten center, and truly got into expo mode.  I headed straight for the official merchandise, before too many people got to it!  The maroon jacket I really wanted was only left in XL's, which was kind of sad.  I did end up getting a grey I Did It shirt, a purple hoodie, and a magnet for my car.  Ray was sweet and bought me a purple tech shirt as well.

Austin was able to get a few things for his girlfriend, who was back at home, so that was sweet of him!

I also got 3 SweatyBands, 2 SparkleSkirts (one for my costume that night), one of Jeff Galloway's books (now signed by him), an orange hat for my costume, and probably a couple of other things I can't remember now.  Everything is in various states of being unpacked, so no pictures for now!





After the expo, we dropped everything back off at the hotel, then hopped on the boat to Downtown Disney.  I think this was a really calm and relaxing way to get there, even if it took a little longer!

We went to Raglan Road for lunch.  We got parmesan garlic truffle fries as an appetizer, which is one of my favorite Disney foods.  I had a grilled chicken breast sandwich (I don't remember what else was on it), and ended up bringing half of it back to the room as my pre-race food.

After lunch, we did a little bit of shopping.  I got a couple of presents for friends at home, and a Disney Vera Bradley backpack and matching wallet.  So, I'm no longer using my matching wristlet in my Disney Dooney purse, but my OCD will just have to live with that, since now I get an actual wallet with card slots, etc.

We hopped back on the boat and went to the resort to rest for a bit.  I was going to try to nap, but that didn't end up happening.  I hydrated as much as I could, rested, and tried to stay calm!  That didn't go very well, but I tried my very best.

I ate the other half of my sandwich around 4:30, I think, which ended up working well for me.

Around 6:30 I started getting ready, and was on a bus around 7:15.

The rest of the race will come in another post, but for now we're going to time travel to Sunday morning!

We woke up way earlier than I wanted to, but we had to check out and get back over to the Polynesian.  Side note, the Polynesian has now become the Pomeranian in our apartment, thanks to a forgetful roommate!  I had made reservations at O'hana, because I'd heard so many good things about it!  Let me tell you - nothing disappointed!! I'm absolutely in love with this place, and I got to have Mickey waffles for the first time ever!  Everything was perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious!! And I loved seeing the characters.

We stopped at the Florida mall on the way home so I could stop at Lush, and that sadly ended our wonderful weekend!






Have you been to O'hana? Were you at Wine and Dine?
Lauren

Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend: The Expo

So, as most people in the blog-world know, this past weekend was Princess Half Marathon Weekend!  Ray and I arrived on Thursday night and left Sunday afternoon.  I got an opportunity (ok, and illegal one...) to run the 5k, but didn't end up doing so because I didn't get the paperwork on time.  Which is probably better, since I'm not usually a rule breaker.  But at any rate, we ended up going to the expo about an hour before closing on Thursday night, which was a wonderful and empty time to go! We picked up my packet and briefly looked around, mostly just at the official RunDisney merchandise because I know that sells out the fastest.  I still managed to miss some of the things I wanted, like one of the headbands (not just the ones that say RunDisney, the cute ones they had!).  We also looked at the Dooneys but they had already completely sold out!  And crazily enough, Ray was even thinking about buying me one as a late Valentine's Day present!  Ok, and so he could buy gun parts without feeling guilty, but I like to focus on the romantic part.  However, he did end up getting me a Dooney, just not a PHM one, and I absolutely love it!  It has so many Alice related charms and it's perfect!  Thursday night we ordered dinner in to the hotel room.  Just a warning, we ordered the Four Meat, and I think there was more meat than pizza!  

Friday morning we woke up and went back to the expo, and I did all of the buying I needed to.  A SparkleSkirt (my first medium, down from larges!), a SparkleAthletic sparkly visor with a tiara to attach to it, a Handana, and other things I'm sure but I can't remember right now.  We also got our body fat percentage/body composition info from the hospital that was at the expo - WOW what a wake-up call!  I knew I needed to lose weight but...it stung a bit to see the info!  We also met Jeff Galloway, which was such an honor.  Without him "legitimizing" the run/walk method, I would never have gotten this far!  It's seriously been a life saver and is the only way I can run.  We also watched a bit of Braves spring training, which apparently you're not supposed to do without a season pass - whoops!  But Ray is a Braves fan, so it was super exciting for him, especially after all the glitter of the expo!  

After the expo we went to Downtown Disney, and stopped in at the Earl of Sandwich for lunch.  It was delicious, quick, and cheap for Disney!  We got there about 11:20, and the line looked longer when we left, but it moves quickly.  I would definitely recommend it!  For dessert we stopped at the Ghiradelli store and both got Nob Hill Chills.  It was absolutely heavenly, and I definitely had a chocolate high!  Then we headed out to the Poly resort for the #runnerslove meet up held by Meg and Kristy.  I was so excited to be able to meet both of them, especially after reading their blogs for so long!  I also saw a few other bloggers who I follow, but being my shy self didn't say anything.  Take a look at all of the loot we won!  It was so amazing the sponsors they had gotten, and I heard of a few new great companies to take a look at.  Unfortunately it did start to rain during the meet up, which made it slightly chaotic.  I was sad that Rachel didn't make it in time due to delayed transportation, but luckily we saw her on the way back up from the beach!  It was great to catch up with her for a little while before dinner.  Dinner was at the Kona Cafe, and we actually got in about an hour before our reservation which was great, because we were both starving!  We started out with some amazing sushi (and the bread, oh my the bread!) and then I had Pan Asian noodles and Ray had a tuna dish.  Everything was so delicious and I definitely recommend this as well!  After dinner was a very exciting time - Ray's first monorail ride!  He'd seen a documentary about it when he was younger and was adorably excited to ride on it, whether he wanted to show it or not.  It was nice to just sit and ride it all the way around, and see the castle and Epcot ball all lit up from afar.  Finally we got back to the resort and went to bed not quite early enough!

Thursday and Friday were both great days, and I have a bunch of photos below!  They should be in order with my ramblings above =)

What did you think of the expo?  Have you been to Earl of Sandwich or Kona Cafe?
Lauren