It's finally here! Sister's Retreat 2017. Nadine scored big this year for us. She traded tickets like nobody's business so we didn't have to pay for much of anything. The extravaganza began with a buddy pass for Beth and I on Southwest. I hadn't flown standby before so I wasn't sure how it worked. Nadine said get to the airport 2 hours before the flight. I was tentatively booked for the 5:45 am flight to we arrived at 4. The gate attendant didn't even arrive until 5 but it all worked out because I was first on the standby list. As you can see the first flight was pretty empty. I tried to catch some sleep. I went through Milwaukee with no problems and arrived in Orlando as planned.
 |
| We had our first complimentary dinner at Rocco's Tacos. |
We got started with our thank you gift bag to Nadine. We even did our gift exchange. We brought out all our snacks and Nadine had made us Carol Freda Pearl Squares too. It was a glorious spread and we feasted for days.
After we had our free breakfast in our free hotel we went to the Hilton for our beauty treatments at the Spa. Carolyn, Nadine and I got massages and Beth got a manicure. They had a cool eucalyptus steam room that we absolutely loved. After our treatments and steams etc we laid around in our robes for ages. We noticed no one else was there with us after awhile so we got permission to order lunch delivered by room service in the spa as well. It was pouring outside so we bagged the pool and just hung around the spa for a couple of hours and laughed and visited. We finally left and had to go get ready for our next complimentary meal. The Melting Pot!!
But first some how we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Charming Charlie's at the mall before dinner. We needed accessories!
Fondue is now mandatory!
Off we went to Universal Studies the next day for Harry Potter!
We put in lots of hours and had a ball.
We had lunch there and it was entertaining just watching everyone around us because we were all so very well behaved. As usual.
Nadine had planned a surprise treat for us that night. A Hall & Oates concert at the Amway Center in a suite. It was amazing. There was free food there and everything. It was so fun.
Tears for Fears was the warm up band and I might have even like them better. It was great fun. It was so loud we just texted each other so we could communicate while we mocked all those around us. Then Nadine took us on a fab tour of the place. We met some of her friends and tried not to embarrass her too bad. We got to go everywhere and it was so awesome.
Saturday we had our free breakfast and rushed to our facials at the Hand and Stone. It was fabulous. I could totally get used to this. We arrived late so we lost out on some time but we did the best we could. After that we showered and prepared for the event we had been dreaming about that day...High Tea at the Grand Floridian. Even though this was not free by any means and actually cost us a small fortune it was worth every dollar. I can't wait to do it all over again someday. (I want to take my girls)
It was so great. We teaed for a long time. We didn't feel rushed at all and just had so much fun. We were just giddy with excitement. Afterwards we walked around the hotel and shopped and just took it all in. It was glorious. That was our last big planned event of the retreat. We had to get up bright and early and be at the airport before the sun came up. If you have a couple of hours ask me about the trip home. I made it but it was touch and go for a minute lol
