Richard and I were in Orlando to attend a conference and had planned to catch up with Mandeep, who met in Boston last month. He lives in Orlando, but works in Syracruse, so he flies up on Monday morning and returns on Thursday/Friday. I had arrived in Orlando last night and Richard had just arrived, but since Mandeep flies out tomorrow morning, tonight was the only time to meet.
Since we don't know much about Orlando and did not have a rental car to move around, we thought it best for Mandeep to meet us at the hotel and we'll go out from there. He arrived and told us that when we last met, Boston was a dead city (Wednesday night), he'll take us out to a really good bar and show us the Orlando nightlife. He chose a place called the Blue Martini.
We get onto the freeway and after a while, he decides that we are going the wrong way, so we take a U-turn and start driving in the opposite direction. After 30 mins, he decides we are again going the wrong way and we take the next exit, drive for another 10 minutes looking for a way to take a U-turn and eventually start driving back towards our hotel and where we were going previously. Another while later, still not sure of where we were going, and we were starting to feel very hungry by now, decided to scrap the whole plan and just find a place to eat near the hotel.
By now it was past 11 PM and most places were closed. The only open place that we found was a brewery, so that had to do. The night was spent just catching up and chatting and promises that the next time we are in Orlando, he will make sure he has directions handy.
Going back to the hotel, we asked the concierge where this place was and it turns out that if we had taken the exit where we took the U-turn the first time round, we would have been there. Apparently, the place is also one of the better places in Orlando and is supposed to be very good on Thursday and Friday nights. Maybe, we'll have a chance to check it out still.
Crazyguy.org
http://www.crazyguy.org/article.php?story=20070629144230432