Sunburn, not windburn : WDW and Universal in September

[nancy drew]

I see it too .

I am really enjoying the Epcot report. We're going there for the first time since DD was 3, and we are all very excited! The KP missions look so fun. I have no idea how we are going to manage that and Future World in one day, but darn it we are going to try. It will be our first day, so we'll be fresh and full of energy.

I hope DS gets to try the slide at BW. He learned to love water slides at DLR (Paradise Pier was his first, DLH was his second and third) so he said he would do the clown slide. DD will not do it, no matter what. She will need to work her way up to something like that. I wish she had done the easier slide at DLH, but she would only go if I could go with her, and they wouldn't let me.

 

[bumbershoot]

I saw kids his age going on the slide by themselves, so if he's brave enough to go up and wait on his own, he should be allowed.

You definitely do not have to do all of the missions in one day. I recommend that you NOT do that! it was exhausting.

If the kids work together well, just one mission might do it for them. If not, and they can take turns, maybe have one do the first and then the other do a second. Or switch back and forth with each clue. They often ask you, during slow times, if there is a country you have in mind, and you could always pick the country that YOU want to explore the most. They don't have a mission, as far as I could tell, in Canada or morocco.

E just loves Epcot, so he would definitely be happy that other kids are going there!

 

[bumbershoot]

As long as this trip has felt for me, at least I didn't have to spend all last night, his time, at the Frankfurt airport, sleeping on the ground. For whatever heinous reason, no one thought to get Robert a hotel room for the last night, because it was his travel day. Yeah, he left at 6pm his time on the 7th, got to Germany around 9pm his time same day, and his flight home leaves in two hours, at 11am on the 8th his time. With no hotel scheduled. Having that gap (not having him leave mega early to hit the airport in time to catch the flight home) saved them fifteen hundred bucks...someone should have thought about throwing some of it towards a hotel. By the time I figured it out he was on the plane, and when he landed I was trying to sell him on a hotel basically out of our pocket when he was already mentally sleeping on the floor.

Silly man! He also had thought he could hang out in the snooty lounge but it closes. as does quite a lot of the airport, leaving only a small area where peole can wait and snooze. Good to know, in my opinion!

He is finally heading through to his gate, and I hope he is so exhausted that he sleeps nearly the whole way. That way he might be human when he gets in! And if he's human maybe I can stop stressing and maybe, just maybe, kick this insomnia to the curb!!!!!

E and I are also both so bored because we can't do anything because of this cold.... He made a mask as part of a study about china, and I used some of my old belly cast plaster stuff for it. Because I was thinking of it, and buying him supplies anyway, I've started working on my cast again. It has just sat there in my closet all these years, and I'm glad I'm doing something with it now! Still haven't decided how I will decorate it, as it is hard to remember much from the good parts of the pregnancy. I could, though, decorate it with Tums, lol. And arnica gel for aching back? I could do a big, real, miserable thing, but that doesn't sound like fun. Once Robert is back we will brainstorm to remember the good stuff from during that time.

Though making a dye based out of Tums would be incredibly creative, but maybe a bit too pastel.

I got to rewrite history a bit, though, as I trimmed it. Funny how much cuter it looks without all the messy bits of plaster hanging off the sides.


If there's a next time, I'm having pictures taken, no matter how ugly I might be or how huge I might get. Pictures are a lot easier to deal with!
Just go and have a makeup person glam me up, get my hair done, and snap snap snap, done.


OK, I should try for sleep. Will probably end up reading a book, but at least I will have tried.

 

[kaoden39]

I have the something good possibly. To me there were things that just stood out for me. Like the first time I heard their heart beats or when they would move. Kody kicking a book off of my stomach. Kacy liking music and how she would react to different types. Loren loved to be read to and hear his sisters voices. Little things like that.

 

[bumbershoot]

E loved music...alas it was Britney Spears! And the biggest movements I remember are when he ran some round body part up towards the top of my belly and FREAKED me out. Also, he had his hands above his head towards the end, and used to twiddle his fingers, and you can imagine just WHERE that tickled me.

If only I could have gotten more sleep, maybe I would have held onto the better memories?



I do, however, remember the cherry blossoms outside our kitchen window, and the other trees on the other side of our high apartment, so I think I've found a theme.

 

[kaoden39]

I am glad you found your theme.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Your pictures aren't showing up for me - but DH has been fiddling with the router the last couple of days - so I'm blaming him!

I'll come back later and re-read and see the pictures.

 

[bumbershoot]

They are just photobucket pix, so it might be an issue there...

 

[Brady's Mom]

Yay! I had a chance to see the pictures and can I just tell you - the text makes a LOT more sense when there are pictures to go with it! They looked really great.

I can hardly wait to try Epcot when we finally make our way to WDW. DS 7 was telling me we should go. I told him maybe when he's ten. Then we'll have an 18, 12 and 10 yr old. We should definitely be able to commando as much (or as little) as we like! And, we won't have to worry about anyone missing school like we do now since DS 15 is in 10th grade and absolutely refuses to miss any school if he can possibly help it.

 

[princessmarie]

I am LOVING your TR! Your little guy is adorable too!

I will have to check out your last TR when I get some time.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yay, a new reader and an established reader, both commenting! Makes me happy.

We still have no computer solution, because i do not like spending money on myself when keeping that money for travel would be more fun. But I have a funny feeling that everyone will be a lot happier once we do choose something!


****************************

September 20!


We awoke bright and early as this was our Chef Mickey's breakfast day. Reservation was set for 8:05. Eek.

I love the moon, but I wish I didn't have to see it in the mornings.

The drive in was straight forward. For those who don't know, you have to go through the main gate for Magic Kingdom to get to the MK resorts. Just tell them that you are dining and it's simple, the get to the right and follow the signs to whatever resort you need.

People talk a lot about how immersed you get at WDW in theme, and how you don't have the outside world intruding, but I don't get it. There are gas stations, a fire station, the roads are like highways, and even though we were going to the Contemporary and it's a Disney hotel, it's still a boring parking lot and not that much different than, say the HoJo Anaheim's parking lot. And this just hits me wrong...I just don't wanna see it from the mundane spots.

Some day we will go where we own! Well, unless we sell and buy a bunch of resale points at Boardwalk first. Yah, sure that'll happen!

Ooh, the upside of being up so early.

We were there early, I was tired, and I knew I was not going to be drinking the regular Disney coffee, so we snagged lattes at the Joffrey stand in the lobby. Finished them and went on up...yay for cool escalators.

 

[bumbershoot]

This was E, re-enacting his moment of bliss as he tried whatever it was he was loving so much.

The family behind us was funny. There were so many of them, and with each character we had to wait AGES for them to be done. We were patient and just waited our turn, focusing for those moments on eating.

But with Donald, the ONE character who came to us first, they were photobombing! I don't know why, but they did not seem to have their patient pants on, and it was just odd. We had ONE person at our table doing the meet n greet thing, versus their who knows how many, and we were very aware of the need to be brief.


The food was basically decent, and e had fun but I wouldn't feel the need to eat there again. Even Robert was semi disappointed, because the whole reason he wanted to eat there was because he wanted to sit under the monorail. But they sat us in an area away from that area, more protected.

But it was good for the experience, at least!




Up next, we go somewhere unexpected and take back our vacation! But I can't do it tonight.

 

[kaoden39]

Yeah I noticed the photo bombing. I just don't get it. I am so conscious of not doing that to other people. And what is a few minutes waiting for one child when you have an army.


Decisions, decisions......I hope you like whatever you end up with.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We had the photo bombing happen to us on our first family trip to DLR. We were getting a picture out front with the Mickey Floral and this woman just kept edging closer and closer and kept getting in our pictures!
So now we have pics with this random woman in them.

 

[bumbershoot]

My computer is pretending to work right now, and I'm going to take advantage.

Oh, a keyboard I can feel, and no computer brain changing my words as I type them.... And if there's any way to make you think a not-huge laptop's screen is nice and big, use an ipad for awhile! Oh joy, I can type it with a lowercase p! No autocorrecting here!

The boss man is hinting at needing the ipad back, and when the boss man stops hinting it will be needed the very next day, so I've got to get on the ball with choosing something.

Happily though I figured out the basic problem with the computer. It's all about moisture (no surprise since it was a beer spill that started it all) and the Shift key. If it gets steamy under the keyboard, something goes hinky with the inner workings of the key that is Shift, and as I'm sure you all know, the Shift key does a lot. Biggest problem, that I figured out by googling while everyone else was confused, is that hitting Shift while logging in puts you into Safe Boot mode. Which hides the computer's knowledge of the AirPort, which means ya gotta be wired to the wall. Which makes you think the computer has died a whole lot more than it actually has.

Intriguingly, we are also having weird moisture issues with our microwave; when it gets too damp inside (because of pasta boiling below it), the fan turns on and stays on when the door is closed.


So anyway, let me get prepared, let's all hope the inner workings of the Shift key stay like they are right now, and I'll try to get some report in!

 

[bumbershoot]

Yay! I had a chance to see the pictures and can I just tell you - the text makes a LOT more sense when there are pictures to go with it! They looked really great.

I was just fixing up my links in the first post, and got a chance to quickly review those pictures and the little descriptions, and I can see why it really wouldn't make much sense!

"and fish!"

 

[bumbershoot]

September 20, The Park Edition.



We had previously planned to make this a MK day. Makes sense, right? But when that was planned, we had NO idea that we wouldn't have been to AK yet. Because, if you recall, we thought we'd either be going alone to parks in the mornings then meeting with family later for swim and food and no parks at all, or they would just go with us.

So here it was, day million (or so it felt), and no AK. This would not do, not at all! And that's why we drove to breakfast, because we were going to drive to AK. And so we did!

This is yet another imperfect memory day (the good news is that Robert isn't traveling and will be home soon, and might be able to fill in some gaps in this report).

At 11:30 am we were seeing this!

Basically, today we started in Asia, since before we had started in Africa. Eamon wanted to try Expedition Everest again. He had been too surprised by it in December to enjoy it, and was willing. Sniffle sniffle, growing up!

He liked the ride this time!

Weird plant.

So pretty...so hot.


Things I remember from this day. Hot. Cranky. Robert and I having tantrums while waiting outside the Kali entrance for it to be time to get new FPs so we could get them for Kali (cannot recall what we had them for already, though maybe it was EE b/c I recall the guys going more than once that day), me stomping off with some excuse to put my feet in water that was splashing in a kid area....ugh. Who knows why those things happen? I blame the stinkin' heat.

I mean, not to quote Biloxi Blues or anything, and it's not correct since we were in "Asia" after all, but seriously, it was hot...Africa hot.

Finally we went on Kali. We had FPs in our pockets...for later. So there we were, in a stand by line from Hades. The thought of 2 minutes of refreshing water was worth it. At the time.

But not by the time we reached the front.

The line was far longer than the line said it was. Which we should have known, as we had sat there watching the wait get longer and longer before we got in the line. But omg.

The line is HOT when it's warm outside. Sure, it's inside, or at least under shelter, but there's no air conditioning. There are *some* fans, but the time spent in between them is way too long.

Making it all so much worse was the group behind us. As we entered the main part of the line, where the path is a bit wide, I knew they wanted to pass us. But we were moving steadily, though a little slower than usual (I had blisters, have I mentioned that? and it was HOT), but because of the steady progress I just didn't think they should go in front of us. We were getting enough people passing because they had FPs (a righteous pass, because the left line is for FPs but it wasn't roped off all the time) or because they didn't know you were supposed to have FPs for that side (a failure on Disney's part to not rope it all the way off OR have CMs along the way....but it was really amusing to watch those people have to go back to the END of the line, making the walk of shame past everyone they'd just passed in such a "those people are such suckers for waiting in THAT line" sort of way), and I just couldn't deal with this large family getting their way by being rude. If I'm taking pictures at Mr Potato Head and there is a vast empty space between me and the next person in front of me, YES, GO, go ahead, pass me. But not when we're all just making our way to wherever the line was clumped up ahead.

So we were thoroughly punished for this.

This large family of people who were either from elsewhere, or who were getting their money's worth out of Rosetta Stone, if RS sells a Brazilian Portuguese set, were just obnoxious in every way we could have imagined. The whole line long.

Between setting the children free to roam around in line, to letting a boy who was darned well old enough to know better go OUT of the temple and onto the themed "grounds" of the temple where no one is supposed to be, to the women of the group standing THISCLOSE to Robert.... It was just thoroughly annoying. The standing thing was the absolute worst. I am not exaggerating when I tell you they kept standing so close to his back I'm surprised they didn't just put his shirt on. It was so weird! And I can't say "it's a cultural thing, personal space is differently defined there" because they weren't standing that close to me, to Eamon, to each other, to anyone. Just to Robert.

So...ya know...90 degrees outside, 100 in the temple line, 130 in Robert's general vicinity because of the people taking turns immediately behind him.

While all of this was going on, I was realizing I wasn't feeling so great. Not quite enough water yet, we were running out of Vitamin Waters (brilliant creations, the Power C and Revive formulas are, brilliant!). Woozy.

We're approaching the end of the line and our patience, I'm getting out the ponchos, and then there's mass confusion because the head of the family in the next FP-holding family thinks he just gets to go into the line willy nilly and he's getting stressy because he's not allowed and we're getting stressy because it's OUR turn to go not the FP dude's, and I'm getting stressy because I really WANT MY PONCHO NOW but the idea of putting it on at any point earlier than I absolutely have to put it on is sickening to me as I am worried I will melt into a puddle from the heat.

OK I'll back up and tell you that the ponchos we have are nylon, definitely non-disposable, and not really hot, apart from the concept of how it will trap heat under it.

But I couldn't reason it out. I'd been plunked down in Asia in monsoon season but without the monsoon and I was annoyed!

Of course, R&E weren't having these problems, they just put on their ponchos. But I barely got mine on before we got to the boat.

And then we were put in the boat with the family in *front* of us. The family behind was so difficult I haven't described the front people, but they were basically back-people Lite. I would have thought that they were together (and if they had made ANY indication that they were indeed together I would have let them join up but they did not) but they never once spoke a word to each other.

So we were with the front family, and they did NOT know that they would be joined, and had spread themselves out in the boat.

Let's just say...the system had to slow down for our boat, and if that family had not spread themselves out it wouldn't have had to slow down. Now if Robert and I were teensy we could have squeezed by, and so it wouldn't have slowed down...but "not being teensy" isn't against the rules of the ride, but "not giving others room to sit" kinda is.

The ride was wet, I got drenched, especially on my bum, because I hadn't gotten the poncho down enough, and never got the chance to fix it. I was NOT happy.

In fact, by the time we got back to the dock, I was VERY not happy. By the time we got to the bridge where there's room to put yourself back together, I was VERY VERY not happy. And by the time we got a few steps after that, and I realized how damned wet my bottom had gotten, and that I was peeved with myself for not buying the "wicking" underpants made for runners, I, yes, I started to cry. At that moment, I felt that the world was just ruined for me. I mean, sad moments of Lord of the Rings sort of sad. Aw man I was a mess.

So let's let me get myself back together, and I'll post on this embarrassing note.

 

[bumbershoot]

More September 20.


We were standing there, trying to deal with my silliness. And I notice that we are right near the entrance to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Although I wasn't looking forward to walking in thoroughly wet cotton, what other choice did I have? I'd either be walking there or to rides. And I'd wanted to do the trail anyway, so I suggested it. The guys agreed.

Here kitty kitty....

It's like you are walking through a big temple, a ruined one, and there are tigers roaming. Thankfully the ancient Hindus who built the temple knew to put plexiglas in the big holes, because otherwise it wouldn't be fun to walk through there at all!

I started to feel better, though not the cotton-swathed parts of me, LOL. I'd made this big deal about getting "duo dry" shirts from Target, like 6 of them in different colors, so I wouldn't have my upper half drenched during our days...but the bottom part of me was just cotton, cotton, and more cotton. Ugh. This is not recommended. Buy some running clothes and some easy-dry shorts. This is what I recommend.

But the point is, my mind threw off the tantrum. And that is good.


I can't remember what sort of cow this is.

But she was sitting rather far away. There weren't many animals in her area. The CM in that area mentioned that the animals start moving away from the guest parts when they sense "weather". And...these animals were doing that...ruh roh.

We didn't even make it out of that little part before the rain started to fall!

We sat on a bench in this little area that was surrounded by bamboo. And we discovered that bamboo is AMAZING in a rainstorm! The leaves are so close together that it just catches the drops and you don't get the full measure of rain. I actually took OFF my poncho for this storm, and people who had been out of the bamboo were passing by, more drenched than I had been after Kali. We just sat on a bench under the bamboo, thought thoughts of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and waited it out.


On our way out of the trail, once the storm was done...

I was feeling a bit more myself, but not enough to deal with EE. Plus I wanted to sneak a Mickey Bar. So I sent the boys off, with promises that I'd buy them a chocolate dipped banana for when they were done.

So I stood in a tiny bit of shade and ate my Mickey Bar and people-watched. While I people-watched, I noticed that the frozen bananas don't act like the ones in Anaheim. In Anaheim, you have to wait awhile before you try to eat them, because they are SO frozen. But people were actually taking bites, and not holding their mouths in pain after, even just a few steps beyond the cart. So...I decided I would not buy them ahead of time. The Mickey Bar was melting fast enough already!

They came off the ride, found me, and got in line...and got Haagen Dasz bars instead! Glad I didn't get 'em bananas.


Thoroughly refreshed (now I see how people eat frozen snacks all day, it's just an attempt to cool their innards down), we went back past EE into Dinoland.

Dinosaur was rejected again by E, and the adults didn't ride it either this time.

I do believe we rode Primeval Whirl. Again with the longish line, but that was OK. There were fans in this ride, and no one crawling up Robert's...shirt. This ride was just as fun as on the last trip, and it's certainly safer since the safety people had their way with it over the summer.

R&E went on Triceratops Spin (I wasn't feeling the go around in circles thing), then E went to play in The Boneyard.

Before he went off, we made sure that we were allowed in as well, and were glad to know that there's just one exit. Kids can nearly disappear in the place, but if you station yourself near the exit, you can be as sure as you can be that they aren't going to sneak out and *actually* get lost. Whew!

We sat in the shadiest spot possible, and rested our weary bones. Eamon played Indiana Jones above us.

He played for as long as he could, which was actually awhile, and then we started hearing thunder, and the place was closing. We called it a day at that point, and slowly made our way out of the park and to our car.

 

[bumbershoot]

We went on back to the resort. Relaxation is good.

But then hunger hit. Decided to go to Olivia's, the Table Service place at OKW, and then to Publix after that.

You see, way back last December, I bought some cheapie basket coffee filters for our trip. Took them back home and stored them in my Disney drawer (cheaper than Owners Locker, LOL). Brought them back. Everyone was unpacking on the 13th, and from the bedroom I heard "hey mom, where are the coffee filters?" "I don't know"...and I snagged mine and went into the kitchen, meaning to have a "ta dah!" moment. However, by the time I got out there the kitchen was empty. So I just put them on the counter.

Fast forwarding to unpacking at OKW 1 bedroom...no coffee filters. I'd made do, and that's how I found that the Revive Vitamin Water is very good. But I needed some coffee.... And once I got some coffee, I realized that my "ta dah" moment was understood as "oh, mom/daughter found the filters, yay her!" and they never knew that they came from me. So then they packed 'em up.

Ok that's a long sidenote.



Since we were going to the store after, we drove to the restaurant/checkin area of OKW and parked up there.

E was pretty excited for some reason, and was being really goofy. As we walked across the parking lot, he was skipping or something, a foot caught on the ground, and he tripped.

Backing up again to the first family day of the December trip, we were walking up to the building, saw the family for the first time, E sped up, and just biffed it on the sidewalk. I scooped him up and took him into the restroom at Olivia's.

So here we were again....Eamon was falling to the ground.

But...he's had months of more advanced Aikido since then, and they've been practicing falls. I can't even describe *now* what happened and what he did, but while watching it I was amazed. He managed to gently catch most of himself, then relaxed his arms and did a bit of a shoulder roll, easing himself from a full-on fall. SO cool to watch!

Now he still get a nasty little scrape on his knee, again. And he had a bit of a scrape on his hand. But compared to what it was *going* to be, before he slowed it down and rolled, it was nothing.

Still required some modified scooping up (he's nearly 60 pounds people, I can't destroy my spine for a *scrape*!) and cleaning up in the restroom at Olivia's. After cleaning him up we went into the store; I was hoping that they had a little first aid kit and could hand me a bandaid...sadly, no, I had to buy a bandaid kit.

OK so anyway, that was all worked out, and we met up with Robert, who had gone to be seated.

Our server was *fantastic*, the food was good, it was a very nice cozy place to be. We watched the sun setting from the window, we relaxed....it was nice.



Went to Publix, went back "home", prepared for the next day.

 

[bumbershoot]

September 21.

We went to Hollywood Studios. We were there for rope drop, but not *early* for rope drop, so we waited for it inside the park. An interesting thing you notice once you're done with strollers. People leave huge holes between each other, even at rope drop. Not "I'm saving this for my grandma" type of holes, but "this is where the elephant goes" holes. If you can walk single file, just head through and snake up. None of the jerky moves, but seriously, anyone could have moved up, and they were not, and I just don't know why not. So we filled in the gaps. Oh, and i'm not even talking about being right up at the front, but halfway back! Just odd.

Once it was time for rope drop, we headed straight for the Sounds Dangerous area, because that's where the Jedi signups were being held. Got there to a line! We were inside the building, but still...a line. How?

It turns out that we had missed the *very* early Jedi Training Academy sign-ups. Since we didn't see it, I don't know how they are doing it, but...there we were, there as soon as a person could be there (well, there *were* people in front of us, but not many), and when R&E finally got to the front of the line, they were able to sign up for the 2pm show.

By the way, we had a 1:05 ADR for Brown Derby.

Oh well, let's enjoy ourselves.

While they were in line, I went off to get FPs for TSMM, and I also talked with my aunt. She was considering bringing boy-cousin out that day, but it turned out that she had a flare-up of her knee problems (some vein thing) and couldn't sleep all night. So that was off the line-up. Didn't the same thing happen in December?

We met back up and rode Star Tours. Again. I was a skeptic, as I might have mentioned, but it was good! The lines were *nothing* for it while we were there, I'm talking 5 minutes, so we took advantage.

Since we were there, since Eamon was committed to doing the Academy, since he's bigger now...we surprised him by getting him a Build Your Own saber. (again) It doesn't look as big next to a 7 year old as it does next to a 4 year old!

TSMM was as fun as always, and afterwards I bought the cute R2D2 popcorn bucket that we had seen before. The guys were off somewhere (bathroom?) after I ordered 3 cups of water and the popcorn (and I was carrying other things). I had to wait for fresh popcorn to be made, and the CM and I had a chance to talk. I was wondering how I was going to carry it all, and she told me she had confidence that I could do it, as I was a woman and a mother (there's a theme of womanhood in this trip...). She then got it all out for me, I managed to wrangle it all, and was amazed! She told me she knew I could do it.

For whatever reason, though, we didn't really get into the popcorn at that time. Too full, really, to open unless you were sitting, and we weren't interested in sitting. Mainly interested in drinking that glorious ice water.


The other thing that kept us from eating it was that we went to Animation Academy. And while waiting for the next show, E waited (with R) to meet Pooh.

We drew Chip. I did NOT like the Animation CM, she was really ineffective, wasted WAY too much time with everyone giving input on who to draw, and kept giggling at herself. The important stuff, how to draw and WHEN to draw it...got pushed aside from her personality stuff.


**************
While moving along *at some point* before noon, we passed by Brown Derby, and ran into the manager (assistant manager?), checking things over outside. Being a talkative person (hubby tells me I need to stop chatting like crazy while telling people I tend towards hermit-tude, because they won't believe me, but both people are me!) I felt the strong need to ask/tell her to NOT change the coconut tofu dish. That everyone else was taking their interesting vegetarian entrees off the menu and replacing them with dreck or Yet Another Veggie Burger. And that those things are negative.

She told us to come by when the restaurant opened and they'd seat us asap so we wouldn't miss Jedi.

So that's what we did!

OK it wasn't perfect, it wasn't fantastic. DH and I decided to share the Cobb salad without meat, and the coconut tofu meal. DS got the grilled cheese. We got the same great server we got in December, so that was fun. We were nearly in the center of the restaurant instead of in a booth. The Derby is one of the only places where booths are comfy for DH, so that was kind of a bummer. Next time we won't have a conflict and we'll be willing to wait for a booth.

Because I felt very much on display. Especially when DS, whose belly wasn't quite full after his grilled cheese and carrots&celery with mustard, and while waiting for us to order dessert, decided to get into the still full popcorn bucket and spilled it. How embarrassing.

Anyway, the Cobb salad without meat was...how can I put this...disgusting. I mean...slime. I know that the Brown Derby, the real one, supposedly invented the thing...but YUCK. They chop it so so so small, it's more like slurry than salad. We were hungry so we ate it, but...bleah.

The coconut tofu, however...just delish! Same as in December. Different from December...the way they presented it. The first time they split it into two bowls and it was more like two servings. This time it was just one serving, and we had to ration it. Next time we'll spend the BIG bucks and get two.

We got dessert, too. One of the few we got! Tasty again!


We left basically happy, having had lots of water and ready to face the heat again.


E had to go sign in for Jedi stuff (you know those Jedis, having to do all that paperwork) and R went with him. So I went to go survive the heat and wait on them and the show.

Lovebugs were back, and the heat was tremendous. I decided to poach a seat at the CS place despite not eating there. If it had been full I wouldn't have, but it wasn't. Ohhh was it warm.

Jedi outfits showed up...