Sunday, October 22nd - When All Else Fails, Purchasing Your Freedom Isn't Such A Bad Option...
Alcoholic Update: Remember the creme brulee martini I mentioned last week? We finally got around to trying it last night (had to buy some butterscotch schnapps first) and it was ever-so-yummy! I only had one - that was plenty since the drink is nothing but booze, but on my personal beverage rating scale I'd say that it ranks in the "glass-licking good" category, surpassed only by those drinks I classify as "speaking-in-tongues tasty."
Well, now that Bittersweet Sundays is finished whatever are we to do? Jay and I were ready to walk off the calories and the sugar and suggested a leisurely stroll around the World Showcase to give the parents a glimpse into some of the Food and Wine Festival's tasty offerings. Jon was gung-ho for this idea but the Grimace said it was too hot and she was too full to wander around outdoors. In her defense, it was a pretty warm day - the last day of summertime heat we would experience during our stay - but what else are you supposed to do at WDW if not walk around outdoors, especially if you don't like to lounge by the pool and you think mini-golf is silly?
Think, Brenda....think think think...
OK!
Why don't we go over to Innoventions West and check out the Festival Welcome Center? You can look at the overpriced, awkwardly shaped, impossible to ship home merchandise, check out the wine celler, and pick up a Festival Guide, which should become your version of the Gutenberg Bible for the week.
This suggestion met with general approval and in just a few short minutes we found ourselves in the dim, cool, air conditioned comfort of the F&W welcome center.
As expected, Jay and I gravitated to the wine celler. We noticed something that we thought was kind of cool...some of the selections we looked at on Thursday were gone and had been replaced by others. I don't know if it had something to do with certain wineries that were being featured in a given week, but it seemed like a nice way to provide some additional selection for those lucky people who could drive home with their alcoholic prizes.
Jon's attention was primarily taken up with the Festival cookbook, but he seemed a bit put off by the price - $11. Jay and I were a bit surprised at first by the cookbook price, too, because the last time we bought one (way back in 2004) it only cost $5. However, that cookbook was more like a pamphlet and it did not include a recipe for every item being offered at the food booths. This new cookbook was sleek and showy and redeemed itself by providing a recipe for all the food samples being offered for sale. We are agreed - this will be a "must-purchase" later in the week.
Grimace was bored, although she did like the wine bottles that were shaped like cats. She wanted to go back to the villa. Jay and I exchanged one of those looks, but went along with her request in the interests of keeping the peace - at least for a while. We decided that once we returned to the villa it might be a good time to acquaint Grimace with our good behavior incentive plan.
In an earlier segment I mentioned my disappointment with the F&W topiaries this year...I found some pictures from 2004 so I'd like to offer you some photographic evidence of what prompted my disappoinment. The Grimace would have loved these and as we walked back to the BCV I was a little sad that they weren't on display - seeing them might have lightened her mood...for about five minutes.
Here are the EPCOT F&W topiaries from 2004:
Aren't those great? What happened in the two years since we'd last visited EPCOT during the F&W Festival? Surely it wasn't a money issue considering that Disney's been raising prices on everything they can get their hands on. Maybe it was a weather issue since Florida was in a "droughty" period at that time.
The only topiary we saw at EPCOT in 2006 was Beauty and the Beast up at the front entrance:
Sorry about re-posting a picture some of you have already had the misfortune to look at once, but I wanted to reinforce my point about the topiaries. They're such a charming touch and it was a shame not to see more of them on this visit.
Anyway, once we reached the room it was time for that unfortunate conversation that comes whenever you make the potentially disastrous decision to share a vacation with other people.
"So, what are we doing now?"
The smart-aleck in me couldn't resist. "Well, right now we're sitting around the villa."
Grimace rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. What are we going to do now?"
"I dunno - Jay and I usually wing it. We were thinking about heading over to MGM for a while and then coming back to hang out at the pool. You wanna come with?"
Grimace doesn't really like vacation spontaneity - she wants to know exactly where she's going on a given day and there she will stay. In her world, one does not hop aimlessly from park to park, one does not interrupt a theme park visit to go back to the room for a nap or a dip in the pool, and one most certainly does not stop for a sit-down meal that requires silverware.
With this vacation we were really trying to get her to relax a bit - to take a look around and appreciate all the changes that have taken place around the resort in the last 10 years and realize that she could take a trip to WDW without physically exhausting herself or the rest of us (see previous trips:
Four Parks in Four Days; I Can't Feel My Feet; and the best-selling: Your Mom is a Vacation-Nazi.)
I decided this was as good a time as any for a preemptive strike.
But first I must explain what that means in regard to the Grimace. As I have previously explained, she wasn't too keen on the idea of spending an entire week in Florida - it cut into her casino time. So, as a way to prevent the disagreeable side-effects of gambling cold turkey, Jason and I came up with a brilliant, if we do say so ourselves, idea. We created seven "good behavior" packets - one for each day - plus two additional bonus packets, all of which contained anywhere between $5 and $10 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets.
Each day, at a completely random time, we would award a prize to the Grimace as a way of making the trip more palatable and as a way of thanking her for agreeing to come along in the first place.
Here's a picture of me giving her the first award; we like to call this shot:
This is deadly serious
With that first envelope she won $7 and even cracked a real smile!
I'm telling you - Sheer Brilliance!!
And at this point she decided that she and Jon were going to go over to Downtown Disney and poke around in the shops rather than visit MGM with us. I reminded them that we had dinner reservations over at the MK at 7PM so that they could allow themselves enough travel time to come back to the room and meet up with us, and then, like magic (or monetary manipulation) the separation was accomplished!
Coming soon - Magic at MGM, Hurricane Hannahs, the pool, and The Cheesesteak Incident!!
I LOVE the pic of you and your mom before the sweet Sunday thing. That is classic! 
I know you can type and watch ice skating at the same time. We women are multi-taskers, aren't we?
I'll be looking for an update from you sometime this weekend, I hope!
