My favorite Florida event

I can't wait! This coming weekend, Beloved and I will be going to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival with Lliba, Mis, and their husbands. Lliba, Mis and I all went to grade school, middle school and high school together. So this will be a reunion of sorts. It is also my fifth wedding anniversary. So there's a lot to celebrate.

If you've never attended the Epcot Food and Wine Fest, plan to go. It started this past weekend and runs through the middle of November. My favorite part is working my way "around the world" and sampling all the different foods, wines, and beers from the kiosks set up in each country. There are also wine tasting events, seminars, celebrity chef appearances, and grande tasting events. Maybe one day we'll attend one of those but for now, we're just happy to taste our way around the world.

I've already mapped out some of the items I'm looking forward to trying. Africa's bobotie with mango chutney, Shanghai's ginger ice cream, Louisiana's crawfish etouffee, New England lobster roll, Irish cheese selection, and the French champagne selections. The first year we attended, Florida had a special booth set up featuring Florida shrimp. It was excellent. Which reminds me of another reason I love this event.

The Epcot Food and Wine fest attracts mostly Floridians. Usually, as we work our way around the world, we end up getting to know the other visitors as we're all traveling in the same direction and stopping to sample along the way. We've met people from all over Florida and most of the people we've met are attending the event for the sixth, seventh, or twelfth consecutive year.

A word of caution, this is not an event for kids even though it takes place at a Disney theme park. You can certainly take the kids, but it's not a lot of fun for them. Standing in line, tasting strange foods and mingling with lots of adults is just not so entertaining for the under 16 age group. And who can blame them. But for adults, this is heaven!

Another tip, pace yourself. Otherwise, you can find yourself a little overbeveraged after only a few countries. I pace myself by shopping in each of the individual countries' gift shops. It's a great place to find unusual stocking stuffers, gift items, etc with the holiday season approaching. I usually buy my kids candies from all the different countries. They love receiving these in their Christmas stockings.

So, my recommendation, take some time to attend the Epcot Food and Wine fest. It's a great big Florida party!