Orlando Food Truck Bazaar

Once a month for nearly a year, I have spent a Sunday evening in a parking lot between Anthem College and Fashion Square Mall enjoying a dinner of gourmet food served from a truck. I get so excited when I'm driving down Maguire Blvd towards Baldwin Park and see the signs on the side of the road screaming "FOOD TRUCKS! 6-9pm!".  I make it a point to go as often as I can (the event comes to the Fashion Square Mall parking lot every 2nd Sunday of the month), and every time I go I get to try something new and delicious.  Everyone there is always so friendly and relaxed, and it's amazing to have such a huge variety of foods in one location.  From BBQ to fish & chips, chicken and waffles to crepes, or lobster rolls to pork tacos, the Orlando Food Truck Bazaar has something for everyone.  There's even a truck with treats for your dog!  Oh, and don't forget to save room for dessert...cupcakes, ice cream, popsicles, and much much more.  Bring a lawn chair, sit on the curb, find a spot at a nearby table, or take your food to go.  No matter how you eat it, it's sure to be a fun and delicious experience!

If you can't make it to this location, don't worry!  The Food Truck Bazaar travels to cities all over Central Florida, including Deland, Deltona, Mt Dora, Kissimmee, Sanford, Longwood, DeBary, Casselberry, Orange City, Titusville, and more!  Check out www.TheFoodTruckBazaar.com for more info and schedule of their upcoming stops.  You can also follow them on Twitter @FoodTruckBazaar. Oh, and don't worry if you don't have a lot of cash on you when you show up...most of the trucks accept credit cards!

All of the pictures in today's post are from my most recent visit to the Food Truck Bazaar 

at Fashion Square Mall on Sunday, Oct. 14th, 2012.

my dinner! Filipino chicken with garlic white rice from the Curbside Chef truck, $8

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

In case you missed the photos I posted on Twitter a week or so ago, I went to Disney's Coronado Springs Resort for a work conference and took a few pictures around the property.  I was there early in the morning, and wanted to look around for my first visit to the hotel.  I liked it!  The conference area was nice too, and I especially like the free wi-fi.  Our conference included lunch, and we were served a nice chicken Caesar salad with a soup appetizer and tiramisu for dessert. 

The Three Caballeros topiary

main lobby for check-in

'Dig Site' pool

I enjoy walking around hotels and looking at all the decor, gift shops, landscaping, etc., and hope to get the chance to explore other Disney hotels in the future!  Which Disney hotel is your favorite??

Halloween Horror Nights, Daytime Visit

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios is a big deal. Held every year from late September through October 31st, it attracts both tourists and locals alike. Thing is, I've never actually been to Halloween Horror Nights myself. I've never been a fan of horror movies, and I really don't like being scared. Therefore I definitely am NOT interested in attending. However, I am interested in how Universal Studios decorates their park for this special event. So I go during the day and check out the scary scenes that are set up all around the park. Click here to check out the photos on my Facebook page from Halloween Horror Nights 20. If you're interested in checking out the haunted houses during the day (not just the random scare zones scattered around), Universal offers a 'Unmasking the Horror Tour' for $55 per person. I'd love to go on that some day, just to see all the awesome details that go into creating every haunted house.

So if you're going to Halloween Horror Nights this year, enjoy! If not, here are some of my pics from this year to get you in the Halloween spirit.

 

So What Have I Been Doing the Last 12 Months?

I hadn't updated my blog in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been having fun in Orlando! Here's some of what I've been up to:

Played games at Dave & Buster's on I-Drive, went to a car show at Downtown Disney, watched movies at CityWalk, visited the Orlando Museum of Art, went to the beach at Cocoa Beach, watched a water sports show at Lake Eola, ate lunch at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, drank during happy hour at numerous bars, joined in with karaoke at Rising Star and dancing at Latin Quarter in CityWalk, played Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom at Disney, ate at the Orlando Food Truck Bazaar, shopped at the outlets, drove go-karts in Kissimmee, visited Shamu at Sea World, celebrated Cinco de Mayo at Wall Street Plaza in downtown Orlando, went to a dine-in movie at the Enzian Theater, saw 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, and much much more. So sorry that I didn't document it all for you! Click on the links above to find out more about all these great places. There are of course still plenty of things left for me to do in Orlando, so I'll do my best to keep you updated from now on. Thanks for reading!

Cinco de Mayo party at Wall Street, downtown

pelicans on the Cocoa Beach pier

Lake Eola park

the outlets!

poster for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

Anonymity

You may (or may not) have noticed that I don't put much personal information about myself on this blog. I don't share my name, and there is no photo of me anywhere to be found. Is it because I'm shy and am afraid of becoming too famous? Partly, yes. But my main reason for remaining anonymous is to protect myself from my employers. We have a strict rule about communicating with our clients over the Internet, and I would hate to jeopardize this blog just because one of my clients happened to find me on here and wanted to engage in a non-professional relationship. Those of you who know me personally probably know what I mean by 'clients'.  I don't want to put myself at risk of having to shut down my blog because of a conflict of interest. Therefore I do not include photos of myself or my family, no real names are used, and I won't even tell you what I do for a living. Despite this, I hope you are still able to enjoy reading my blog and following me on Twitter (@FunLifeOrlando)! My anonymity should in no way affect my descriptions of what I'm doing or where I'm going in Orlando. My goal remains the same - have fun living in Orlando and share all the info with you! 

P.S.  If you follow me on Twitter and see that we're hanging out at the same event, feel free to send me a tweet and maybe we'll have a chance to meet in person! 

All Work and No Play?

Judging by the fact that it has been almost exactly 1 year since my last blog post, one might think that I haven't been having any fun in Orlando. But, no, it's not true! I always find time to have fun in Orlando...the hard thing is finding the time to sit down and write about it! As much I as would love to document my wanderings full-time, I (unfortunately) have a real job (yuck) that commands 50+ hours of my time each week. But no pity party here! Having a job is what pays for all my fun in Orlando (duh!). I love sharing all the fun and interesting things that one can experience here in O-town, and I am saddened by the cobwebs that have formed on my blog. So I have resolved to start anew and work harder to update my blog more often. I can't promise that every post will be riveting or heartwarming or über-informative, but at least I'm going back to doing what made me start this blog in the first place - sharing the variety and unexpected pleasures of living in Orlando. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave any comments about what you think I should write about next!

P.S.  I've still been active on Twitter! Follow me @FunLifeOrlando

Cee Lo Green, Samsung AT&T Summer Krush

I love free concerts! Most of the "free" concerts I attend are actually "included with theme park admission", like the concerts at Universal Studios' Mardi Gras or Summer Concert Series, and Epcot's Eat to the Beat Concert Series. Since I have annual passes to all of the parks, it feels like free to me! I've seen Sugar Ray, Boyz II Men, The Roots, Parramore, Katy Perry, Train, Third Eye Blind, Sean Paul, and more! Having access to all of these shows is definitely a great benefit of my theme park annual passes. 

The Samsung AT&T Summer Krush Concert is different from these shows because it does not take place in a theme park. It really is a free concert, open to anyone who wants to go. This year's Orlando performer was Cee Lo Green. I registered online a couple weeks in advance, printed out my free tickets, stood in line for nearly 2 hours outside Hard Rock Live at Universal CityWalk, and finally got to enjoy the free show. Since the concert was sponsored by Samsung, there was a lot of heavy promotion of their latest products...including booths set up inside the venue where you could play games on their newest phones. They were also giving away a lot of free stuff, including water bottles, t-shirts, light-up mugs, and tote bags. Cee Lo Green's actual performance only lasted about an hour, but it was a fun show! I'm already looking forward to seeing who the Summer Krush Concert will bring to Orlando next year.

my free swag

To see videos from some of the theme park concerts I've been to,
visit www.facebook.com/funlifeorlando
or click around my blog!
Boyz II Men at Epcot
Sugar Ray at Epcot
The Roots at Universal Studios