meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

I went to opening night of the Food & Wine Festival. I got a stamp in my Food & Wine passport. If I attend three times as a pass holder, I get a commemorative wine glass.

I stopped by The Chew Lab. The morning talk show, The Chew, is doing something in conjunction with the Festival this year. I had a really good piece of salmon, but it was so small.

I noticed many of the same items as previous years, but there were a few differences. The Dominican Republic replaced Puerto Rico. There are more seating areas in one main area (the walkway where there is usually a playground). Where the butterfly exhibit it during the Flower & Garden Festival, The Chew Lab and the Sustainable Food areas are.

The lines were really long and it began to rain, so I didn’t stay too long. I left and went to Chipotle.

I am finally getting around to uploading pictures from Chicago.

We stayed in Itasca and took the train into Union Station. It was smart to stay out there at a Hyatt Place. I love the Hyatt Place. The downtown hotels were too expensive by the time we booked.

We went to the Iowa Club Watch Party, the pop-up marketplace for packet pick-up which was like .5 miles away from the Watch Party, Water Tower Place, Navy Pier. We ate at an Italian deli near our hotel. The next day we drove into downtown Chicago and ran the half-marathon. We ate at the Walnut Room at Macy’s. We also went to Chinatown. I also love Sweet Tomatoes and ate there in Schaumburg. On Labor Day, we went shopping.

I went to the Orlando Iowa Club last weekend to watch the Iowa – Iowa State game. They have tenderloins (though the Iowans were annoyed that Wing Shack cut them in half)!!

I attend a lot of events. I went to two major ones this week: the Simulation Summit and a Women’s Business Plan Final. Both were very interesting.

The Simulation Summit had an entertainment, medical, transportation, education, and emerging technology panel. It was at the convention center. I should have stayed for all the panels, but I didn’t. I only saw the entertainment and medical panels. It was so neat to see what others are doing with math and science. I really like the processes and efficiency of learning how Disney optimizes loading guests onto rides. Orlando is the capital of modeling and simulation. The medical panel was cool too. It was neat to see how students practice before real situations using simulations.

The entertainment panel mentioned industrial engineering a lot and I was kinda sad I didn’t do something like that, but then, the keynote speaker spoke how he had a Ph.D. in History!! I go to so many events where STEM seems to be only valued, so it was nice to hear that the speaker was using his history degree to make a valuable contribution to society.

The woman who won the Business plan competition last year has the heritage books in Epcot and now on Disney Cruise Lines. Basically, in 30 minutes, they create a book for children detailing their heritage. The parent just tells the creators up to 4 ancestral countries.

This project was created at UCF:

It is now called Limbitless Solutions or something.

It is getting a lot cooler, so that is good, but it continues to rain. I met Bev at Magic Kingdom on Wednesday night. I caught the ending of the rainy day parade.

Thanks to many gift cards for my birthday, I had the Nutella waffle sandwich and splurged on the shrimp platter at Columbia Harbor House. I did pretty well on Buzz Light Year – probably the best without a ride stoppage.

I flew up to Chicago for Labor Day weekend and met Andrea and Dad.

We were able to catch up with Amy from my college days at a Iowa Hawk Club Watch Party.

As you can tell, we did a lot. We ran a half-marathon. I will upload the rest of the pictures this weekend.

On Tuesday, we held a birthday party for Maryanne at work. Fun times.

I just wanted to add these pictures. There is a long long story that go with these pictures, but I am too tired to type it. Another day.

Basically, the King of Lagos stopped by today and it was due to me……but I didn’t really know he would be attending with the Nigerian delegation.

Thank you all for all the nice birthday gifts. They started to arrive on Wednesday with my first package from Andrea. Then, on Thursday, Andrea’s flowers grown on a volcano arrived. Then, Melissa’s flowers on Friday arrived. Soon people were just pointing to my office. I went to a great German restaurant with Kelly on Friday night. Due to Tropical Storm Erika, Andrea didn’t make it, but I still made an airport sign showing the storm blowing our plans away. I went to a birthday party for Kelly’s husband on Saturday. Bob’s edible arrangement arrived Sunday afternoon. On Monday, Jerry gave me a gift card to Olive Garden. I have been eating free the entire month. I had free meals at Noodles, First Watch, Denny’s, IHOP, Southwest Moe’s, Jason’s Deli, and Einstein’s mostly thanks to Andrea signing me up for free birthday deals. Another email mentioned “How to get rid of that muffin top.”

Today was very nice. It was my birthday celebration at work and they went all out. I got an Elsa balloon. A Disney lunchbox with Disney dollars in it. Kelly made two quiche dishes. We also had scones and fruit. Julie gave me tea and a chime for my porch. Rachel and Maryann made a great birthday card.

Tonight, I celebrated Bev’s birthday in China. We ate at Nine Dragons. The servers sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It is September which means the crowds are down, so we were able to ride Soarin’ with pretty much no wait!

The Food and Wine kiosks are already out at Epcot!

I spent last weekend at my dad’s cousin’s home. It is a retreat away from Orlando. It was fun and relaxing. We watched the various storms and birds pass by.

I think I have uploaded a lot of these pictures, but some of the pictures are new. It is the time from Melissa and Jonathan’s visit to last Friday night. I went to a few events this week. I went to a Visit Orlando event which was really neat. Three economists talked about the future of Orlando – tourism, etc. Steve Forbes was the keynote. Later that night, I went to another event and heard another economist! It was an interesting day. The last pictures are from the deck of Yanbin’s house. He moved and how his home is on Lake Jesup (known for over 10,000+ alligators).