The Reason I Was in Orlando

While Nicole and I did manage to squeeze in a totally awesome whirlwind two-day cousin retreat in sunny Orlando in January, the reason I was in Orlando was for a fantastic education technology conference for teachers, which started up the day Nicole left.

It was a really awesome tech conference!

The pictures from the conference are mostly of slides from presentations I attended, so I'll show you pictures "around" the conference.

Nicole and Shannon Take Orlando: Day 2, Conquering The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal Like Champions!

The main draw to make this whirlwind trip to Orlando, for Nicole -- aside from me, of course -- was the fact that we could visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure.

For us Harry Potter nerds, nothing could be more wonderful!

Nicole and Shannon take Orlando: Day 1, SeaWorld

Nicole and I spent our first full day in Orlando at SeaWorld.

Our major goal was to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and we decided to do SeaWorld as a second choice, and are we ever happy we did!

It was the BEST DAY EVER.  Seriously.  After our respective weddings and the respective births of our children, I think SeaWorld is next!

From -40 to +30

Through some fantastic luck, a great professional development fund, awesome encouraging husbands and more luck again, I spent the end of January in sunny Orlando enjoying a technology and education conference in January, which also means that I am getting a wonderful break from the arctic temperatures and short days.

My cousin Nicole met me here for my first weekend, but to chronicle our adventures, I will need a few blog posts.

This post is about my flight and meeting my week long home away from home in Orlando, the Hard Rock Hotel. I love you, Hard Rock!

Eli brought me to the airport for my afternoon flight south.