Esther Chilton

I’d known my friend, Jackie, since I was four years old; we met on our first day at primary school. I’d been all tearful, and scared to leave my mum, when she took my hand and off we ran in to school. Fast forward forty years and here Jackie was, asking if I’d like to go to Florida for her wedding. Would I? Too right I would!

Now, Florida is well-known for its theme parks – Universal Studios, SeaWorld and Disney, being the most popular. We spent many an hour enjoying those usual touristy trips, and there are plenty of memorable moments from them to cherish. But those aren’t the highlights from my stay. The wedding, of course, was special – seeing my oldest (don’t tell Jackie) friend walk down the aisle, in a glorious setting, looking utterly stunning, was wonderful. And simply having time together, relaxing and chatting was a real treat.

But it has to be the pie that stands out the most. I think Jackie would agree!

We stayed at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel, which was fantastic, but the breakfast was a little pricey and wasn’t a patch on the mountain of delectable delights offered first thing in the morning across the road at the Village Inn: pancakes; waffles, burritos; omelettes; French toast…the list was endless. We usually skipped lunch after that titanic feast.

One Wednesday evening we decided to try dinner there. And that’s when we fell in love with the pies. We had to walk past where they were displayed to get to our table. Our eyes were out on stalks. They had the usual cherry and lemon meringue pies, bursting with fruit and cream, in the most luscious-looking pastry cases, but it was the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough pie, crammed with chocolate creations and other tantalising treats that had me drooling. And, on a Wednesday, the pie was free! Well, as long as you purchased dinner there, which seemed fair enough.  

The only problem was, the dinners were so filling, it was impossible to squeeze even a flake of pastry in. My heart sank at the thought of missing out on a sumptuous pie. But the waitress came to our rescue and let us take a slice of pie away to eat later.

The verdict? Heaven!       

   Cocktails before the wedding 🙂