Hello, strangers.
As mentioned in my last post, I had quite a busy few weeks, so I've been a bit absent from here.
I hope your holidays were filled with good food, loving family, and fun-loving friends. Mine were quite magical.
I started my vacation with a trip to my favorite place on Earth: Walt Disney World. I hadn't been there since 2007, and in 2006, I did an 8 month internship there, where I met an enormous amount of amazing people. So, it's an understatement when I say that I was happy to be back.
I went with my boyfriend, and his friend flew in the same day that we got there. His plan was to spend the first weekend there, then the bf and I would have the rest of the week to ourselves. It was much needed couple time, in my opinion. :)
The first park we went to was Epcot. It's my absolute favorite place to be. For those of you who haven't been, the park is split into 2 parts: Future World and then World Showcase, which is a tour of countries from around the world, positioned around a reflective lagoon. The second part is my favorite. Nothing beats walking around a beautiful body of water, trying different food and drink from around the world! We started our trip in Mexico, then headed to Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, and Morocco. After Morocco, we arrived in France, but since we wanted to take pictures in all of the countries and the sun at this point was in a less than desirable position to get a good photo of their version of the Eiffel Tower, we decided to go to the United Kingdom and Canada first. This plan also worked because we had reservations for Le Bistro de Paris later in the evening.
France was always my favorite pavilion. I've had a strong desire to visit the real France ever since I can remember, and for now, this is the closest I'll get. However, little did I know, after this trip, I'd love this pavilion even more!
When we got to France, we (boyfriend and I) sat down on the fountain, with their version of the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was the perfect backdrop for a picture. Our friend who was taking the photos gave us a thumbs up, and I assumed that meant he had taken the photo. I soon realized that the thumbs up was not for me but for my boyfriend. I found out later that this was the sign they had planned so that my boyfriend would know that our friend had started video taping our interaction. Just then, my boyfriend got down on one knee (I had to watch the video to confirm this because at this moment, I was completely shocked!) and proposed! The ring was absolutely beautiful! Before he could put it on my hand though, I had to remove a ring that I had on that finger already. It was a stubborn little sucker, but we were sitting next to a fountain.. and the water helped! Haha! At that point, we had drawn a crowd, so when he put the ring on my finger and we kissed, we had a cheering audience. I have never been so embarrassed and happy at the same time! Being that I met my boyfriend while we were both working there and I had always wanted to get engaged in either Paris OR Disney World, this proposal was PERFECT! It incorporated everything that I ever wanted! I was in awe with his planning of it.
After calling/texting/facebooking all of my family and friends, we had dinner at Le Bistro de Paris, and it was one of the best meals of my life. They even brought us a little plate that had "Congratulations" written in chocolate and little flowers made out of fresh fruit. After this meal, we caught IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, my favorite firework show. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. :)
The rest of the time there, we wore "Just Engaged" buttons that they provide and got to skip a few lines and even got a free photo from Splash Mountain (my most favorite ride.. in Magic Kingdom.)! It was a perfect vacation.
After our Disney trip, we got to see my family for Christmas and then my now fiance's family for New Years! They were all excited to see the ring and about our news.
So, throughout this vacation, we traveled 2615 miles through all of the Gulf Coast states, went to Disney World, and got to see all of our family and friends. My 2011 holidays were definitely the best yet! ;)
