My Christmas Present to You
For those that made it here to this blog entry, Merry Christmas!!!
2020 has been a very difficult year for nearly all of us. Between the political turmoil, the polarization of current American politics, the pandemic, and the consequences from said pandemic being wildly out of control, there’s been a lot of anger, a lot of loss, and a giant wave of depression and uncertainty that has swept us all out of our feet. So I wanted to do something wild as not only a Christmas present, but a goodbye present to a lot of you.
Because of the way things have become in the past few years, there’s a need to hit a reset button on everything. And in order to truly accomplish this, I’m going to cut off a slew of connections and parts of social media from my life for the time being, maybe longer. What they are, time will tell because I haven’t fully decided. Either way, I’m definitely not going to be as active on social media as I have been for the past decade. You’ll see me update this website of course, and I’ll probably be embedded in the terrors of the Twitterverse. But everything else socially is at risk of being permanently eliminated. It’s time to let go of some things, and of some people. But enough talk, here’s your Christmas gift:
Click on the map of Florida
Inside that picture of Florida is my entire list of every single local restaurant and place that has ever been recommended to me, mixed in with places I’ve already been to that I strongly approve of. There are more than 350 places to visit throughout the state of Florida on that list, and they range from places close to Alabama, all the way down towards a national park that is within striking distance of Cuba. Since I’ve lived my life in Orlando, a majority of the recommendations (mine and from others) are in Central Florida, but thanks to my failed blog, my conversations during my time in Disney, and my diverse IHOP guests, I have also been able to discover spots scattered throughout the state.
To make this more of an adventure, I won’t reveal which spots I’ve actually been to and enjoyed as they are mixed in with the spots I have yet to visit, but if you pay enough attention to the list you’ll see which places I’ve actually been to. My recommendation is that you save this document, print it, staple it, and place it inside your car or a secure place so when you are feeling adventurous post-pandemic (or now as long as you are willing to be safe about it), you have local options.
This list has existed and has expanded exponentially in the last decade because of my previous blog aspirations, and because I wanted to expand my horizons and learn more about the crazy state I live in. All of these places are local restaurants or part of local chains of restaurants that originated in Florida. As an extreme supporter of local business, this list was a way to ensure that my money goes to Floridians and remains in Florida.
So Merry Christmas to you all. Be safe, be kind, and may you all (well…almost all of you) have a wonderful and better 2021.