Friday, October 16th
After a restful night’s sleep, we decided to kick off our day with a new restaurant experience: one that was recommended by a fellow Diser,
@dixonsontour , in her awesome post-trip dining reports. After showers and our morning Timmies, we hopped in the car and headed to First Watch Daytime Café, on Sand Lake Road (just off International Drive).
We had heard that they served some pretty awesome meals with nothing but fresh, quality ingredients, so we were eager to give them a try to see what all the fuss was about.
The restaurant itself is tucked away in a little strip mall in the Doctor Phillips area, away from the much more touristy I-Drive. There was ample parking in the large lot, and it was evident when we entered that this place served way more locals than it did vacationers. It was quiet and relaxed and very casual, with virtually all the patrons being young to middle-aged adults.
We ordered our beverages….orange juice for me (which I will add was fresh squeezed that morning and oooohhhhh soooo goooood
) and coffee for Steve……then perused their menu:
http://www.firstwatch.com/menu/breakfastbrunch/fresh-starts
After much consideration (such tough decisions to make so early in the morning!!), Steve selected “The Traditional”
(two fresh eggs any style with your choice of grilled ham steak, thick-sliced bacon, turkey sausage or sausage links. Served with an English muffin and fresh, seasoned potatoes).
I opted for the Farmhouse Hash (scrambled eggs on top of a potato/onion/bacon/sausauge-y mix all fried together on the grill) with a side of fruit and their signature artisan bread and housemade preserves:
The food was, without a doubt, as great as we had hoped. Super fresh, incredibly flavourful, and brought to our table super fast. I am not generally a fan of dark-style or wheaty breads, but this artisan bread was downright mouth-watering (and their homemade strawberry preserves was as good as my mom makes
). The fruit was Florida fresh (always makes me jealous that our southern neighbours can enjoy locally grown fruits and produce so late into the season) and a nice, light accompaniment to the heavier potatoes and eggs.
Portions were super big, though (its generally the American Way) so there was no way I could come close to finishing. Steve was
forced to help
….and fell in love with my scramble. He pledged to order that the next time we visited.
Our server, Victoria, was cordial (though not knock-your-socks-off friendly) but wonderfully efficient, so we had no complaints as far as service was concerned.
Before our trip, we had signed up for the e-club and received a voucher for a buy one, get one free entrée, so we presented that when it was time to pay. They had a bit of an issue keying it properly into their computer system, but eventually got it worked out with the help of a manager. With the coupon applied (which saved us $9.59), the total bill for two entrees and two beverages, with tax but excluding tip, was an incredibly reasonable $16.89.
We had some time to kill between the end of breakfast and the time we would have to be back at the villa to ready ourselves for
MNSSHP, so we took a few moments to debate what to in the interim. Tomorrow would be our final day in Orlando (with a late afternoon flight back to Buffalo), and crowd calendars were projecting the Universal parks to be busy. Being an HHN Saturday, we would be steering clear of the parks and avoiding those crowds, so we knew that our Universal time on this vacation was now limited at best. Since we were already more than half way there, we thought it was prudent to take an hour or two and enjoy some Universal time once more before getting all pirate-d up for the party
.
On the drive to the parking garage, we formulated a plan of action to maximize our limited time: enter at the Universal gates, do our final souvenir stop at the Universal Store, ride Shrek, ET, and Twirl ‘n Hurl en route to Kings Crossing, take the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade, stop to allow Steve to ride Jurassic Park River Adventure, tour through Toon Lagoon and Marvel one last time, then head back to Lake Buena Vista.
Believe it or not, we didn’t deviate from that plan whatsoever. Crowds were heavier than earlier in the week, but nothing insurmountable nor troublesome. We had minimal and manageable waits at each attraction, nothing more than 10 minutes except Jurassic Park (which was at a very reasonable 15). There was no rushing or dashing about……just a nice, relaxing final tour of the parks. The line for the Hogwarts Express appeared congested, but thanks to the large ride capacity, we were boarding for the short trip to Hogsmeade before we knew it.
We got some last-minute pictures of Jack the Clown at the Universal Store:
That smile seriously creeps me out. I’ve never liked clowns and now I like them less.
I didn’t even bother to have my camera out for the rest of the things we did, as I had captured a lot of photos on our previous visits earlier in the vacation. I figured I would leave it firmly tucked away and my hands delightfully free. And then, as we were on our way to the park exit, it happened:
I can justify this: I really can
. You see, I’m a 70’s girl by birth but a 60’s baby at heart. I totally missed my decade…..I adore tie-dye and flowers and long hair and the peace and love of the most wonderful era
(though there are, admittedly,
some aspects of the 60’s that I don’t care to see repeated …
). I would totally embrace the return of long flowy dresses, flowers in the hair, and the quest for world peace. So when I spotted tie-dye Stuart flashing me the peace sign with his dress sparkling in the sun, I may have just screamed a little
.
He had to come home with me.
He had to 
.
There was a young man with his girlfriend/wife already at the game, just paying for his turn for three swings with the hammer. As per usual, a few folks stopped to watch to see if he’d be able to win his leading lady the prize of her choice. She sweetly cheered encouragement from the sidelines, telling him enthusiastically
YOU CAN DO IT!! while letting him know she really, really wanted a big prize to take home
(lol, no pressure sweetheart).
Despite this poor fellow’s best efforts, and much to his wife’s disappointment, he couldn’t hit any higher than 90 (but he did give it a valiant try). He came out muttering about wasting $5 on a stupid game, she assured him that it was fine because
“no one ever wins at these silly games anyway….they’re fixed!”. There were murmurs of agreement from the folks who stopped to watch, as Steve whipped out his wallet and handed his $5 bill over to the game attendant.
He hands me his hat, his wallet, his lanyard and sweetly promises “I’ll get you your tie-dye minion, honey”. I am sure spectators thought he was a rather over-confident schmuck
.
First swing, DING!
He hits 100 and doesn’t even look like he tried (apparently practice makes perfect). The attendant lets up a big whoop in celebration and asks if he wants to use his other two swings just for fun: “Maybe you can hit 100 all three times!”. He accept the challenge, and sure enough….he rings that bell on both other attempts, as a couple of the people who were standing beside me remarked “well, I’ll be damned!”
. The attendant is having a ball, crying out “SEE HOW EASY THIS IS??” as people start whipping out their wallets. Steve was good for business
.
I don’t even want to talk about how we would get all of these home
.
We took our time strolling through a very quiet Citywalk, and admiring the views for the final time on this vacation. We would be back, soon, though!
With Stuart in tow, it was back to the car.
A quick lunch was on deck, then it was party time!
. Is it the Orlando ones that let you down, or locations closer to home?
He was pretty proud of himself. Until he got the bill to get them home.....
.
):
