AECT 2008 - After Workshop Wandering Tuesday

Thinking of my nieces, I took a walk around the grounds and across the street to Downtown Disney. The hotel is called the Buena Vista Palace, and all the conference rooms have names like Knight and Squire and Hampton Court. My workshops this morning were in the Windsor room, and the Second Life presentations Thursday are in the Ireland room.

My own room really does have the best view in the hotel, on the top floor, looking out over a small lake with swans. There are shops and restaurants in the hotel. The Outback Steakhouse has three big colorful fish tanks, and then a waterfall into a pool full of very big goldfish. There are three outdoor swimming pools, tennis and beach volleyball courts and lots of nice places to walk, surrounded by tropical plants. I heard some pleasant frog calls.

Downtown Disney is a short walk from the hotel. It is a shopping area. There is a huge toy store with many interesting displays. I saw very big characters from various Disney movies, and Monopoly cards about as tall as I am, and a Tinkertoy windmill the size of a real windmill. There is a Lego store with many lego sculptures, including a tyrannosaurus (about half life size) which looks like it is made from giant Legos, but when you look at the giant Legos, they are made from jillions of regular sized Legos. (Jillions is a word that means "a very large number but I don't really know how many".)

There is a Disney Store that makes all the Disney Stores in all the shopping malls look small and dark and quiet in comparison. There are stores selling pins and crystal and clothes and pearls and lots and lots of other things. I saw a glass Cinderella's carriage that sparkles wonderfully and a surprisingly large magic castle and a very fine crystal Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore that cost too much to mention.

There are also many places to eat. There is a Rainforest Cafe, and a restaurant full of dinosaurs which was so loud you could not hear a baby scream. Down on the dock, kind of out of the way, there is a Margarita Bar where you can drink and smoke a cigar by the waterside. Not for the nieces. There is a MacDonalds, of course. The place I really want to eat is Fulton's Crab House which looks like a full size riverboat. But I noticed that local employees were eating at the Earl of Sandwich, a sure sign of good food.

Since I was alone, and eating alone in a restaurant is always kind of odd, I came home and bought a tuna sandwich in the little market in the hotel and ate it on the balcony in my room. So, I really do wish you were here. If you were, I would take you out to dinner.