A New Interest

I love it when I stumble upon a new interest!

Olá amigos! Eu quero aprender a falar português.

Translation: Hello Friends! I want to learn how to speak Portugese. Earlier this week, I encountered an issue with a service that a client had ordered. I realized that I was not equipped to handle the language barrier. However, I wanted to ensure the best possible service to the client. I decided upon utilizing the Google Translate to try to email the client. Much to my surprise, the email was successful. The client contacted me and we are handling the issue and nipping a possible negative situation in the bud.

I was really excited about the possibility of completing this international business deal. It felt great to help the client. Over the last two days, it seems that I have had portugese clients. Over the telephone, my company partners with a translation service. I was able to successfully complete a transaction with a portugese client in Brazil.

I came home from work yesterday and was thinking about the portugese clients. I wanted to learn more about the portugese culture, language and history. I was not aware that portugese was a commonly spoken language in Brazil. I decided to read about the history of the language in Brazil. I had previously thought that Spanish was spoken in Brazil and perhaps the majority if not all of South America . Obviously I was wrong. I'm now interested in learning more about South American cultures including the portugese language and Brazil. I was even surprised to learn that there was originally a Royal Portuguese Family in Brazil.

I love finding new and intriguing interest.  Although it is still a distance, every since I was a little girl, I have wanted to visit The Galapagos Islands. My favorite book shared animals from around the world such as Pigeons in Paris for instance and the Giant Galapagos Tortoise. Oh how I loved (love) Turtles. I would love to tour the Galapagos and make my way to Brazil. I'd love to visit and write about my experiences in Travel. Travel writing would be awesome. I have written about family travel as a freelance writer, It would be intriguing to write about Brazil and the Galapagos to name a few.

Anyway, I would like to learn portugese to help my clients at work and to enrich my life and knowledge as well.

Dress Up Disney Days Polynesian Resort

We have a large family. Summer finds our family spread out in all directions. We still want to spend fun quality time together. We thought it would be nice to begin our Disney Dress Up Days project.

With Dad working and three children away, four of us set out to explore Walt Disney World's Polynesian Resort!

We planned our trip including a special dress up day. We thought it would be fun to wear summer dresses for the ladies and a Disney Hawaiian shirt for the young master.

We found the resort to be nicely themed, fun and it smells incredible. The aromatic lobby is filled with the wonderful scent of the Polynesian restaurants. Oh it smells so incredible.

We walked around and took a few snapshots of our visits. We were sure to swing by the front desk to request a lei for each of us. We may even wear hula skirts next time! We had a great time! We especially love the lit torches in the evening and the food!

Dress Up Disney Days

We are a Disney loving family! There's really something special about crossing the threshold of a Disney theme park or resort. Set free the everyday stress and worry.

Visiting Disney has been a family favorite destination since before our family was established. We love to have fun, enjoy family quality time and just let loose.

As we tend to visit Disney, dream of Disney vacations and simply enjoy a fun, family friendly environment, we thought of a fun vacation idea.

I love that when you visit Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, many guest tend to dress for the occasion. It is common to see individuals wearing khaki shorts and similar "Safari" style clothing.

We decided that we would enjoy dressing up to visit not only the theme parks but perhaps the resorts and BEYOND!

Over the course of our visits,  we shall plan fun family dress up days! We are looking forward to Disney Dress Up Days!

The Grand Floridian Resort Photo Tour

The Grand Floridian Resort located at The Walt Disney World Resort in Kissimmee, Florida!

The theme of the resort is turn of the century Florida.

Walt Disney World's 1900 Park Fare Review

I was surprised with dinner reservations at Walt Disney Worlds's 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian Resort by my husband to celebrate my birthday! I was aware that he planned to take us to WDW for dinner. I thought that we were going to a restaurant in Epcot. I do enjoy the Epcot location. However, I've wanted to try the restaurant at the grand floridian resort for a long time! I was really excited by the surprise of having a special dinner at the Grand Floridian Resort. The resort is an exquisite and beautifully themed Resort. Picture it, turn of the century Florida in all of it's grand appeal. The resort and the restaurant are shaded in hues of white and ivory. Even the costumes the cast members wear are themed and elegantly feature a light white linen springtime couture style.

 the restaurant is beautiful and would remind you of the Disney motion picture Mary Poppins. The décor includes carousel horses,carousel rabbits,carousel seahorses and even carousel camels. Although the restaurant is a buffet style meal, it is definitely an upscale restaurant. I felt like I was going to a royal ball. Upon entrance of the resort restaurant, guest are given a slip paper to represent an invitation to the Royal Ball. Guest then move into a small line to have your picture taken by photographer to capture the memories at the moment. The backdrop for the picture is an absolutely beautiful Walt Disney World mural with Cinderella's castle. At this time the guest choose to have a photograph taken or continue to make your way to the entrance of the dining room. once inside of the dining room guests are seated to the reserved table and presented a story book menu offering specialty drinks and alcohol. Although we decided to skip the menu, another server pleasantly greeted us with the menu. Don't let the name of the menu fool you, there were some really interesting drinks including non alcohol specialties on the menu. We opted for a simple Coca Cola. We then met our server, Michael, a 42 year member of the Walt Disney World Resort. We enjoyed his company, his service, and a few wonderful stories that he shared about his own family and experiences at the Walt Disney World Resort . He was was a pure pleasure to meet and have the honor of being served by.

When we reached our table, our table was already set with fancy eco-friendly reusable napkins,silver and sea salted butter. The dinner buffet included an array of colorful salads,seafood,sushi,vegetables,carved meets including a New York strip style beef which can be accompanied by a creamy horseradish sauce and also a beautifully baked ham with the accompaniment of a cherry chutney. The buffet included a specialty area for small children at their level featuring child friendly foods such as pizza,macaroni and cheese,chicken strips and fresh green beans . The items that I recall on the buffet were salads including a basil mozzarella ball tomato salad, Asian salad, an interesting grilled vegetable salad including squash and zucchini, peel and eat shrimp, fresh sushi, jasmina rice, mashed potatoes,potato casserole,baked breads and rolls, A salmon that featured a mango chutney salsa topped with fried plantain strip, new items on the buffet included potstickers and Asian ribs, there were still several casseroles and soups like the signature chilled strawberry soup, a Guinness stew additional casseroles including root vegetable casserole, potato casserole and the list goes on.

Every single item that we tasted was so good. We were quickly, might I add too quickly, filled to continue sampling the offering. Eventually we did make it to the buffet to sample dessert. There was a lovely bread pudding with a cool vanilla sauce and fun items like cookies and gummy bears,I believe cobbler and a highlight for me, a seperate bar of petite pastries with beautiful fruit tarts, miniature chocolate mousse with chocolate shells, cheesecake, carrot cake and all kinds of little pretty treats.

 It was really really neat. As far as the dinner, my only disappointment was that my dinner roll was on the hard side. Similar to chicago style, but a little too hard for my preference. However, I will add that the dinner roll had a very nice taste and that salted butter was really interesting. Our service was great, our dinner was great, the dessert buffet was great, and even the characters that visited our table were a lot of fun. It was truly a magical evening at Cinderella's ball.

At one point, characters dance as music begins to play and Prince Charming and Cinderella begin to dance the waltz. Guests are even offered the opportunity to dance with the characters and with one another. The characters were great. Cinderella of course with stunning,Prince Charming was indeed charming and handsome, even Cinderella's evil stepsisters and stepmother were a joy. Although we were only a table with two adults, the characters definitely stayed in character. we truly enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner, we took a stroll along the Grand Floridian Resort grounds including viewing a 1929 Cadillac, Cinderella's carriage, the wedding pavilion, studio for wedding planning, the pool had a wonderful play area for children. One section of the pool, featured a play area for children with all kinds of springing water fountains and even had a huge Mad Hatter's hat filling with water and the Hat turns over and pours many gallons of water on to the waiting children.

 It was a wonderful birthday present!  l highly recommend taking your family to the Grand Floridian Resort to see the beautiful grounds,dining at the wonderful restaurants and enjoy the splendor that only Disney world class service can bring to a magical Disney vacation. I truly cannot wait to go back again and to bring my children to enjoy all of the fun and wonderful offerings of the restaurant.