Florida Recap

Last week we traveled to Orlando for some time away from work. We had planned to kill a few birds with one stone as my annual marketing conference was back in Orlando, I'm approaching the last time I can fly and our new Hilton Grand Vacation Club just opened three weeks ago. After several flight changes thanks to AirTran, we left on Saturday afternoon from the new Indy airport and made it to our beautiful resort by about 7pm. The hotel is brand new and they only have one of the seven towers in operation. There may have only been one tower of rooms open but they made sure the bar, two pools and five hot tubs were fully functioning so we knew we were in good shape. Sunday we made plans to drive to Tampa for the Rays vs. Nationals game and to have dinner with our friend Chris. We had a tiny little box with no power doors or windows but it got us there with no problems. The game was fun and we had great seats thanks to stubhub- 7th row right behind the visiting team dugout. This was my first indoor baseball game so it was very interesting to check out all of the facility features and it was also family day so they had a ton of promotions going on. With my job its hard to enjoy any sporting event because I find myself watching the video board messages, paying attention to the announcements, and everything other than the game itself. This was our second MLB game in a week but I was happy this one was indoors as it was 90 and so humid outside. After the game we met Chris for dinner and to catch up on his new life and work since he moved from Indy last month. He drove 4 hours from his new home in Miami just to see us! The next few days we relaxed by the pool and just enjoyed some of the shopping and restaurants in the area. Since I can't ride any rides or do much of anything fun, we decided that SeaWorld was our best bet of the theme parks. Karl had never been there and its been at least 10 years since I was there last so we made a day of it on Tuesday. It was really hot but they have a lot of indoor exhibits and the shows had covered seating so not as bad as I expected. Let's just say that carrying around a big baby belly in 95 degree heat at 100% humidity is a lot harder than I expected! On Wednesday I had to go to an NCAA meeting in the afternoon so the vacation was pretty much over at that point. We picked up my boss from the airport that night and the conference started on Thursday. We decided to stay at our hotel (Hilton) since its on a point system by weeks but Karl was able to get a great deal on golf at the conference hotel (Marriott) so he stayed the full week with me and played a round every day while I was in meetings. I actually really love our marketing conference and this year I was asked to present during one of the breakout sessions. The Big Ten marketers are a close-knit bunch so anytime we get together its more fun than work and Katy from Michigan even organized a little baby shower/lunch for me during one of the breaks. The one negative about the conference this year was that I was not able to defend my title as the best women's basketball marketer in the country. I've won the past two years and this year they combined the "best attendance promotion" award categories into one. Rather than giving separate awards for football, men's basketball, women's basketball, olympic sport- they just did one overall award and I didn't make the top 3. I was disappointed that we came away empty handed but I got a few good ideas to take back with me and made some new connections. The conference wrapped up on Saturday afternoon and we were back in Indiana Sunday afternoon. Looking back, had this week been less crazy for both of us I think it would have been better to do the conference first and then vacation but with Miss Indiana week and Karl's work schedule it just couldn't work that way. I like combining business with pleasure but going right from meetings in Florida to meetings at the office makes you feel like you didn't have any time off at all. Anyway, that's the last trip that we have planned (other than going home to WI) before the baby comes so all in all, I would say the Kraebber Babymoon was a success!

Our room with a view of one of the pools complete with water slide!













Rays game at Tropicana Field














Happy family at SeaWorld with Shamu