Florida 2020: Kissimmee Airbnb

We returned from my August birthday trip to Florida and got the crazy idea to look for a second home in Orlando. The idea quickly picked up steam, and within a few weeks, we returned to Orlando for a two-week trip. This time our focus was not on vacationing. We kept our regular work schedules and during the weekends/evenings, we looked at homes with our realtor.

The Tampa International Airport has become a new favorite, so we opted to fly into Tampa, rather than Orlando. The airport experience was still great with low crowds and stringent covid precautions. A hiccup came from our timing. We screwed up and had to drive during rush hour, which took about three hours, especially due to a heavy summer rainstorm.

The traffic was so terrible, that we stopped off at a Burger King for dinner. I thought this covid sign was hilarious. I know marketing is playing with the whole idea of “Kings,” but thrones are usually a bathroom reference, not for tables.

As we were trying to simulate “real life” in Florida, we decided to rent a house on Airbnb. I’m not a fan of house rentals. Generally, I find them to be a bit creepy. Being in a stranger’s home feels to personal, even if the home is strictly a rental property. I also worry that the cleanliness standards might not be to my liking. Dan was really keen to have a private pool, which I can’t deny, was awesome. A rental home also seemed like the safer bet during Covid and it gave us room to spread out while we had to work. I used the desk in the master bedroom, while Dan worked from the dining table.

Our rental was a bit off-the-beaten path in the suburbs of Kissimmee. We were surrounded by actual people living in the neighborhood, rather than other renters. At our last home in Big Bear Lake, California, we were the only full-timers in a neighborhood full of rentals! It was a quiet neighborhood that was about 15-20 minutes from restaurants and grocery stores, maybe 25-30 min from Disney. It suited our needs, but I wouldn’t want to stay here for a theme park vacation. It’s a little too far from the action.

We were in a subdivision called Orchid Edge on a street called Violet Lane. Lovely.

We only had written communication with our host, but she was quick to respond. We were given a code to enter the property and the house had everything we needed to make our stay comfortable. The house was clean, well-appointed, and fun. Also, it had speedy internet, which was very important for us!

A few of the special touches included a mini pool table/air hockey combo, two slot machines, and a bubble swing. The swing had a crack in the plastic, so I very gingerly sat on it for a quick picture. I think it’s a bit of a liability issue, but a cute touch nevertheless. I imagine kids loving it.

I got a kick out of the eclectic book collection, including a Swedish offering!

The kitchen had all of the gear that we needed and we cooked a majority of our meals at “home.” Dan even made a full-english breakfast! We learned that Florida has quite a huge British community and it is easy to find British import products in the stores. We might need to start making regular trips to Orlando for our Cadbury and Heinz fixes.

I love doing laundry.

Seriously. Zero sarcasm.

I get a huge amount of satisfaction from clean clothes and folded laundry. A two-week trip means we need the ability to do the wash and having a laundry room was a big bonus.

In addition to our master, the home had two additional bedrooms with a shared bathroom. One room had a queen bed, and the other was set up for kids with a twin over full bunk. The house would be perfect for two small families traveling together, with privacy for two sets of parents and a room for three kids.

Our master had a slider for direct pool access, a walk-in closet, and en suite bathroom. It was tastefully decorated in shades of purple.

The pool was definitely the best part of the house. It had beautiful lake views and we even saw neighbors fishing in the lake. A family of birds ( cranes?) visited daily and the patio was filled with adorable lizards. We used the pool nearly every day of our trip, sometimes more than once a day.

Our rental on Violet Lane was perfect for these two weeks, but I’m still a hotel girl. I like the escape from reality and spoiling that happens at hotels. I don’t want to cook or clean on vacation!

We nearly purchased our own rental property, but the deal fell through after the inspection. Honestly, I’m relieved that we set the idea aside, but I hope that we have many Florida vacations in our near future.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week 32

The big news this week has been the Colorado wildfires. Even though the election is less than a week away, the wildfires have been at the top of the news and it is devastating. We are not close enough to be evacuated or to really worry, but the clouds of smoke that we could see from our neighborhood were apocalyptic.

Luckily, a heavy snow storm came a few days later, which really helped the fire fighting efforts.

It was a cozy Sunday, as we stayed inside and watched the falling snow. I baked my first layer cake with homemade icing. It was Nigella Lawson’s Coffee Layer Cake and I was thrilled when Nigella commented on my Instagram picture!

Dan made a Dutch Baby pancake. He loves the Dutch Babies from The Original Pancake House, so it was great that he figured out how to recreate it at home. His were even better than the restaurant. It looks like our weekend tradition of breakfast at the pancake house will end. We now need to figure out how to make their tropical syrup that I love!

We watched the latest Borat film :”Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” I’m exhausted from typing that title! Sacha Baron Cohen certainly knows how to push buttons and this will not be everyone’s taste, but as with the first film, the reactions of the unsuspecting American public are the most shocking. Thankfully there are a few really good people in the film, but that doesn’t make up for the genuine racist/sexist/lack of humanity responses that some people gave. The film is timely with stunts involving Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani. It was of course, released to tie-in with the election. I enjoyed it and I was impressed that Baron Cohen put himself in risky situations to pull this off. Maria Bakalova who plays his daughter, absolutely steals every scene. It wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the first Borat, but I don’t feel that it was supposed to be. These are seriously times and the film reflects the tone of the United States. It’s the type of film that I’ve continued to think about five days later, so to that end, it was very effective.

We also finally broke down and paid to see “Bill and Ted Face the Music.” OMG…this might just be the worst film that I’ve ever seen. Not only was it bad, it was boring. BORING!!! I love Keanu Reeves, but it hurt to watch this. I had high hopes from a nostalgia perspective, but it missed the mark in every way.

We played Top Golf with our friends on Saturday night. I played worse than my first time, but I still had fun. I’d love to go again. I did notice that the employees at Top Golf seemed to be less rigid about the covid protocols. For example, there were more than six people in some of the bays, and there were a few big parties happening. This made me nervous. The covid cases are really on the rise, and I think we will need to revert to being even more cautious. I’m anticipating locking down like last spring.

The field near our house was full of cows and we saw a gorgeous hawk.

To end, a few cute pictures of Tom. He enjoyed the snow too, and wondered why he couldn’t catch the snowflakes. The window glass is full of paw prints from his furious attempts to catch snowflakes.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Weeks 30 & 31

I can’t believe that it has been more than half a year since we have been dealing with Covid. That said, the days still feel mostly normal. We are being careful, but we also have done some socializing in the last few weeks.

We invited our neighbors, Chloe and Marcus, over for dinner. This was long over-due, as they are our direct neighbors and we have been to their backyard for a few parties. We actually share a fence with them and when we installed our fence, we placed a gate between our backyards, which has been great. They have a gate with our other neighbors, so we can all easily socialize between our yards. It was wonderful to really get to know Marcus and Chloe. We hit the neighbor jackpot by moving to Sterling Ranch.

The next morning, I was quite hung-over, but I crawled out of bed to go with a bunch of women in the neighborhood for a Sunday brunch at Cafe Terracotta in downtown Littleton. This was so much fun. I met new people and had a delicious veggie omelette. Dan had gone golfing with several of the guys in the neighborhood on the previous Friday, so this was the women getting their time out of the house. I couldn’t have imagined that I would have been able to do this during Covid, but our strict state measures have made it feel somewhat safe ( not completely risk free, of course) to have small gatherings and dine out. I appreciate this normalcy, especially as I see that my home state of California is still struggling.

That same day, we were expecting our friends Valerie and Bryan from California for a three-night stay at our house. I had taken Friday off to clean the house and by the time Sunday rolled around, I was frantically doing last minute prep. Since this is Colorado, they got stuck in a snow storm near the ski resorts and didn’t arrive until dinner time. With the house clean, we looked for a “new-to-us” coffee place near our house for a much needed latte break. We discovered Lost Coffee in nearby Castle Rock. It was the perfect fall afternoon treat.

Here I am, waiting for Valerie and Bryan to give us an update. I was a zombie at this point. I can’t remember the last time that I did so much cleaning, so much drinking, or so much socializing.

Valerie and Bryan were here to help their daughter Stephanie move from California to Colorado to live with her boyfriend. They crashed at our house with their dog, Shely. Shely and our cats had a few encounters, but everyone stayed safe. We kept to our work routine, but had dinners together in the evenings, including two meals out- sushi and Italian. On the final night of their trip, they cooked a delicious mac and cheese with the cheese coming from a special creamery in Utah.

We had mentioned wanting to decorate for the fall season with bales of hay. Bryan and Val surprised us with two bales of hay, some decorative dried corn stalks, and a pair of perfect winter gloves for me. It was such a surprise and so nice of them! We have added a few more bales of hay, but we still trying to figure out our fall decor scheme. Here’s a picture of our hay and of the cows in the nearby field.

Tom is cow watching.

And a pretty picture that Dan took of the new houses going up in our neighborhood. The houses are built so quickly that the neighborhood is constantly changing.

We were Boozed! This is a game that has been going around our neighborhood, where you secretly drop a bucket of alcohol on your neighbor’s doorstep and they pay-it-forward. We are 99.9% certain who Boozed us and they created a perfect bucket, with my favorite Swedish cider and even toys for the cats. It was very thoughtful and fun.

I proudly voted for Biden and Harris! Colorado makes voting a breeze with ballots sent by mail and a secure drop box in my neighborhood. I actually noticed a second drop box not more than a few miles from my house. It boggles my mind that some states make it so difficult for people to vote and I’m grateful to live in a state that makes the process simple. Now, I anxiously await the arrival of November 3rd and what follows. I have a terrible feeling that no matter which way the election goes, there will be violence. 2020 has not been easy.

To end on a happy note, here is a cute picture of Tom. Slinky continues to do well, but I haven’t captured any pictures of him in the last few weeks. As you can see, Tom has decided that a wine cork is the best toy. You know he likes a toy when he gives it a wash in his water bowl.