First Time – September 1987
Connie had a friend that had move to Florida when they were in high school. They had been friends since kindergarten. Her name was Miriam and her and her husband lived in around Fort Lauderdale if my memory is correct.
In the spring of that year, Miriam, her husband, and their youngest child came to Plano Texas to play in a soccer tournament. She was good and had scholarship offers to several universities. I remember she was a pretty tough kid and played goalie. Miriam then asked us to come and visit them.
In September of that year, we decide to go to Disney World. On a Friday afternoon, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale and rent a car and drove over to spend a couple of night with Connie’s friend Miriam.
We got to Miriam’s house around 4 pm. They had a nice house with a pool out back overlooking a golf course. She was telling about the number of times alligators had come and were laying around her pool. Needless to say, we did not want to go swimming. They prepared us a nice dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning. For lunch, they took us to a restaurant on the coast where Miriam’s husband had his boat docked but we did not go out on the boat while we were there.
It was late that evening around 9 pm when they decide we should go out for dinner. They selected a Chinese restaurant. I was not crazy about Chinese food back then but try some lemon chicken that night which I really enjoyed. On Sunday morning they provide donuts and around 11 am we left for Orlando. I remember it was a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride. We were staying at a place off the Disney World Properties to save money. We got there about 4 that afternoon and went to the grocery store to buy some soda and snacks.
We were so excited the next morning, and arriver at the park around 8:30 am. I do not remember much else about the week, but I think on Wednesday we drove over to Tampa, and then one day we drove into the city of Orlando. I know we enjoyed the week their especially Epcot. We had such a great time. We flew back to Dallas on Friday.
Second Time – October 1992
I had to really think about the year for this visit. I knew we had gone in October. I had an album for pictures that they gave us went we went, and it said Disney, 20th, anniversary. I looked online and that would have been in October of 1991. I knew we had gone on a cruise that year and could not imagine do two big vacations in one year. I finally figured it out, as Disney’s 20th anniversary was in October of 1991, but they celebrated it from August of 1991 through October of 1992.
We flew from Dallas to Orlando late on a Friday morning and got into Orlando early afternoon. I had rent a car, so Connie and I drove straight to Port Orleans where we would stay for the next 8 days. There was nothing unusual about this trip as we did what almost all people do when they visit Disney World. That Friday night we took the car to a shopping area and had a nice dinner. Our room was on the first floor and was clean and nice. There was a place just a few feet from our room. We got up early every morning to catch the bus to either Epcot or Magic Kingdom. The breakfast they served was ok and by getting there early we missed the crowds. We did have dinner there a few times but enjoyed going to other places. Sometimes we would take a bus and sometimes we would drive. Epcot was Connie’s favorite place and she loved to stay late and see the fireworks. I cannot tell you all the things we did at Epcot and she loved it so much more than the Magic Kingdom. One day we spent just driving around Orlando. They had been a group form the division I was in looking at an Insurance Company in Orlando and hoping to sign a contract with them. Connie and I found the Insurance Company and then visited several housing areas around there. We had just about decided if EDS got the contract and they asked me to move we would. Unfortunately, we did not get the contract.
We had a marvelous time and only Saturday morning we took off to the airport. We had a noon flight, so we got to enjoy one last breakfast at Port of Orleans and checkout was easy as there were not many people checking out that morning.
My only regret is that we did not get to go back as that is one of the places Connie loved to go to.