[klee]

Day 1: Saturday, September 22, 2001

Travelers: Kristy Lee (25) and Bryan Lee (27)

We started our trip with McDonald’s hotcakes. It was about 6:30 in the morning so there were two senior men in dining room with us. This made for a pleasant dining experience because it was nice and quiet and we could talk about what we were going to do on our trip. After my wake-up juice (coffee), I was ready to get going so we hit the highway. We left around 7:00 AM so we had a beautiful view of the sunrise as we were traveling.
We stopped for lunch at a rest area on I-75 somewhere after the Florida border at about 11:00 AM. We were starving by this time and ready for a stretch. The rest area was really nice and there weren’t too many insects to spoil our little excursion. I forgot to pack the Pringle’s chips so we had to make use of the vending machine. While we were there, I noticed they had so graciously supplied bags of miniature Reese’s cups for $1.00 a pop. Of course we had to have a bag because we’re both chocoholics. You’ll notice this more as the story continues. Anyway, we had a nice little lunch stop and were ready to press on so back in the car we go.
We arrived in Lake Buena Vista around 2:15 PM and started the search for our first-night hotel. We had directions, but they were terrible as the hotel is located in this business area full of offices and other hotels. We finally figured out which street was the right one to turn down and after winding back and forth on a long road, we finally found the Comfort Inn on Palm Parkway. We went to check into the hotel and were pleasantly surprised. The lady at the desk told us that our room wasn’t ready but she would check to see if there was another one available. Ta Da! There was one other that was ready, so she let us have it so we wouldn’t have to wait. I thought that was really sweet. We put our stuff in the room and headed out to the Hard Rock Café at Universal Studios City Walk.
The Hard Rock is my favorite place. We go there every trip we make no matter where we go. I have to say that the Hard Rock in Orlando is the greatest. It is the biggest one with the best stuff. The waiters are excellent. As a matter of fact, I have never eaten there without leaving at least a $10 tip. That’s a lot for me because I am a stickler about tips and only leave as much as I think they deserve. I usually don’t go by the 15% rule. I go by the service. Back to the meal: Bryan had a hamburger and fries as usual. He really picky and doesn’t try new stuff unless he has to. I had the New York Strip Steak with some kind of bourbon sauce. It was the best steak I have ever had. I didn’t even ask for A1 steak sauce because the sauce they cooked it in was so good. I bought a pin bag to put all of my Hard Rock pins in. I didn’t get any pins this time, but the bag came with one. I don’t know if that counts.
After our meal, we headed to Downtown Disney. I found the license plate frame that I was looking for at an outside stand there. I almost passed by it, but Bryan saw it and called me over to it. Major thanks to him for finding it. We then went to the World of Disney store to look around and came out with two bags full of stuff and a charge of $100 on my credit card. That was with the 10% discount from my Disney Club card. I vowed to slow down the rest of the trip and we headed back to the hotel for an early night’s rest so we could wake bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the first day of our Disney package.