After getting up early in the morning, I boarded my flight from DFW to Orlando. As usual I flew American Airlines, but for the first time they had WiFi on the plane. So I was able to stay connected even on the flight, keeping track of how all my friends and contacts in the Lotus community were arriving to Orlando as well, from all over the world. Some had already arrived on Friday, and they shared weather info and other tidbits with the rest of us. During the approach to Orlando, I was even able to get a picture of Dolphin and Swan from the airplane.
After taking the shuttle to Dolphin, I checked in, and #occupyswandolphin (as Andy Donaldson once called it on Twitter) could start. The official twitter hash tag is #ls12, though.
After picking up my badge at registration, I headed over to Big River Brewhouse and the traditional BALD, which stands for Bloggers (and friends) Annual Lotusphere Dinner. There I met many of my friends, and we had some beer, food, and Kitty Elsmore's excellent toffee.
Spankford Blogmonkey also made an appearance, and he even brought some friends.
The plan was to head over to ESPN Zone after BALD, but because a couple of football teams decided to play each other, so the line was ridiculously long. A number of us went to Kimono's and had some drinks and some food.
After Kimono's we moved over to the Dolphin Bar to continue socializing. I had brought some "apple cake" (or perhaps it should be called "apple pie"), a drink that is popular in Sweden. It was a big hit with everyone that tried it. I will post the recipe soon, for anyone that want to make it themselves.