Jambo, Everybody! LET'S EAT!
After I got my Goofy medal I met up with my mom and aunt in the finisher area...they didn't actually see me finish, but it was nice that they were there. Unfortunately, I wasn't super great company. All I wanted was to be clean and dry and out of the sun, and now that I had stopped running I was moving at a snail's pace and was very aware of the pain in my quads and feet. I told them that I was pretty sure that our 1:30 lunch reservation at Kona was in jeopardy and thanked them for being there, but I had to GO. They were very understanding, congratulated me on finishing, and we headed our separate ways. This was the last time I saw them that weekend.
I texted Will that I was done and he said he was near the monorail, so I began the slow hobble to the station. I felt like I was in a fog and I truly don't think I have ever moved so slowly in my life. I wasn't fully paying attention to where I was going and suddenly found myself standing in front of a fence. I just kind of stared at it...where had it come from? Who had put it there? The station was just on the other side, but it looked like I had two options to get there: hop the fence or walk around it (about 50 feet away). Neither seemed appealing or possible at the point, and before I even realized what I was doing I found myself on the other side of the fence. I'd somehow climbed over the it, medals, bottled water, Powerade and weird runDisney snack box in hand. I'm not sure how I did it - probably the knowledge that I'd be off my feet sooner this way gave me the motivation.
I met up with Will and we headed through bag check at Epcot to get to the monorail station. The CM waived me right through ("Go on, Princess!"
) and we slowly climbed up the ramp to the monorail. I kept apologizing to Will for not moving faster and he said it was fine. We were at the front of the line for our car and against my better judgment I finally allowed myself to sit down. It was glorious
A monorail pulled up pretty quickly, but we weren't allowed to board just yet. It looked like an older passenger was having problems (not sure what happened, but by now it was 80 degrees out, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was dehydration or something else heat-related
). The CMs were helping her out and the platform was filling with people waiting to leave the station. A few minutes later we were allowed to board and I managed to pull myself up using the railings. I stood during both monorail rides so my legs wouldn't tighten up and we made it back to the resort by 1. Finally I accepted defeat and canceled our Kona lunch reservation...so sad.
Love that place for lunch.
We headed back to Conch Key and Will was kind enough to take one of the room's trash cans to the ice machine and fill it with ice. I finally took my shoes off (which didn't feel as good as I'd expected) and took a 10-minute ice bath...and it felt AMAZING. Sweet numbness. After that I finally took that shower I'd been craving all morning, and here I discovered I had some skin issues.
I was sunburned in a few weird strips on my back, which hurt a little bit, but overall my sunscreen had held up very well. Very impressive considering the fact that I'd applied it 10 hours earlier and then proceeded to get soaked in sweat. The bigger issue though was CHAFING. All over my...ahem...chest and rib cage area
, basically any spot that I had missed that morning when I was applying BodyGlide. It was so bad - in fact I still have marks from it one month later - that I don’t know how I hadn't felt it until then. I'm so glad I didn't...I can't imagine having felt that burning and still have been able to function on the race course. But I definitely felt it in the shower...yowza. Luckily it was only on my upper body and nowhere else.
After the shower (and lots of Neosporin that I'd brought from home on the chafed areas
) I felt a million times better. Will had gotten me another turkey club with those awesome chips from Gaspirlla Island while I was in the shower, so we ate lunch in the room and watched some classic Disney cartoons. It was lovely, and I really remember feeling such an overwhelming sense of relief. I was so incredibly happy to be done, which was kind of sad...it was the first time I remember feeling glad that a Disney race was over. I conked out pretty quickly afterward.
I think I woke up at about 4:15 or 4:30 and quickly got cleaned up for dinner. My quads were still killing me but my feet felt a LOT better. I rolled my quads with The Stick for a bit and we headed out of the room and back to the lobby to catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
We hopped on a bus to Animal Kingdom and got seated on time for our 5:30 ADR at JIKO...!!!
This is my favorite restaurant EVER. Anywhere. Not just in WDW. It holds lots of great memories for us and it's pretty-much perfect every time. Love it.
This time we were seated in the Wine Room.
We totally want one of these awesome wine trees for the house...I have no idea where we'd put it, but we'd figure something out!
Our server was Paula (only server of the weekend whose name I remember, oops!
) and she was super nice. We got the hot, rose-scented towels (love those) before our basket of bread came.
Then we both ordered drinks. I forget what kind of beer Will ordered, but I ordered the Three Cape Ladies...a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Syrah. This is the same wine I've gotten each time we've gone to Jiko and I was disappointed to see that they don't have it by the glass on the menu anymore. Luckily Paula let me know they had an open bottle, so I was able to get a glass! So yummy.
We put in our orders and I asked that my meat be prepared based on the chef's recommendations (something that I had never thought to do until I read about it in another trip report). Will followed suit.
Will's dish...Curry-rubbed Lamb Loin with cauliflower puree, eggplant-artichoke Zaalouk and olive-walnut tapenade:
He's so funny...every time we eat at Jiko he'll take a bite, close his eyes, sigh and say, "This is the best thing I have ever eaten!"
He LOVED this and was really surprised by how much he liked the cauliflower puree. Definitely a winner!
As for me...I went with my old stand-by. I'm so boring...this is the fourth time we've eaten and Jiko and the fourth time I've ordered the exact same wine and dinner. I know what I like.
The Filet. Now, this dish used to be listed on the menu as coming with red-wine sauce and macaroni and cheese, but for the past couple of years the mac and cheese hasn't been the side listed with the filet. When we were there, the dish was listed as coming with ancient grain pilaf, heirloom pole beans, Brussels sprouts and red wine sauce. I had heard that you can ask to have the mac and cheese instead, so I did, and it was no problem. In fact, I saw the same dish go to 3 other tables in the wine room alone while we were eating...so I'm not the only one that was being difficult.
You can see in the above picture that there were also some Brussels sprouts on my plate (they were good!).
Like I said, this was the 4th time I have had this dish, and this was actually the best it's tasted to me. I think having the meat cooked differently made all the difference: normally I'd ask that the steak be cooked medium, but the recommendation from the chef was medium-rare (same for Will's dish, if I remember correctly). It made a huge difference - the steak had so much more flavor. I won't attempt to describe it because if I try to sound like a sophisticated foodie I'll just embarrass myself...but it was just better than it had been in the past. The red wine sauce and mac and cheese were great, as usual. Perfect compliments to the meat. I could eat that mac and cheese for days. OMG, I want some now...*drools.*
Ahem. Anyway...
We got dessert to share. Chocolate and Tea Safari: Vanilla Rooibos-Tanzanian Chocolate Cake, Free Form "Kit Kat," and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (which they make in-house...Green Tea Ice Cream was listed on the menu but I asked for vanilla instead).
The Kit Kat had sort of a weird texture, but it was good - sort of flaky and nutty from what I remember. The ice cream and cake were delicious. I love getting these little dessert trios at Jiko...great chance to try lots of things.
We also got a coffee drink to share...I wanted caffeeeeeiiiiiine.
Keoke Coffee: Brandy, Kahlua, Crème de Cacao and Coffee topped with whipped cream.
Unfortunately I think this is when I learned that I don't like Brandy all that much.
If I did I think I would have enjoyed this more. Sadness.
So except for not particularly liking the coffee, Jiko hit another home run with us. Perfect service, perfect ambiance (loved the feel of the Wine Room), and excellent food. Can't wait to go back!
**WARNING: ZOMBIE-PERSON PHOTO BELOW.**
zzzzzzzz
Continued in Next Post
We took a lot of pictures. 
I hope he does because I really want to do Goofy that year. Just once! 
Of course that's probably because I stopped for the character photos at the finish...
So I think this is my one shot to try it out. I'm sure I will do a trip report - I love writing them and I really do like having everything written out for myself so that I can look back on it later. 
