Part 12
Last Day, Dec 19: The five of us woke up early, packed up our things and said good-bye to our WDW home at the BCV. We were all sad. But we had one more thing to do before our flight back to Buffalo at 4:20pm. We were heading to Downtown Disney to do some Christmas shopping and have lunch. DH warned me not to buy much, and definitely nothing very large, as we BARELY got everything in our rental car. And, it was a 4-door Jeep Grand Cherokee, for goshsake! Hello, my name is 1000thhappyhaunt and I'm a life-long overpacker. I had to giggle as DH cursed me, under his breath, as he had to partly disassemble the stroller to get it to fit in the back on top of all the luggage. "Hurry up, my love, I have to buy more stuff for you to try to fit in the bags!" DH speaks to me telepathically with his eyes... and I tell him to watch his language! I realized, as I was packing, that there was NO WAY I was going to fit anything from Downtown Disney in, at all... unless I threw away some laundry...shhhhhhh, don't tell DH! I just chucked some of Calvin's stuff, anyway. So... we hit Downtown Disney and the place is hopping. We check out a few stores en mass and then decide to find a place for lunch before we split up to do some shopping. DH was to take Calvin and Beth... I was to go with Tommy. I suggest the Earl of Sandwich(A) as I'd heard so much about it on these boards. Everyone else knows better than to argue, although I saw a few furtive glances(three, exactly) towards the McDonald's. No WAY, people! We can get that at home... ok, not 10 dips or anything, but still, basically, the same. We wander into the Earl and it seems pretty busy. Luckily, Calvin spies a family just finishing up with their booth and goes over to claim it telling me quietly, thank the Lord, that "There's four of them, Mommy, and they're all pretty big. Five of us will fit in there for sure!" I sigh, "Calvin, CALVIN... at least let them FINISH chewing before you start helping them clear the table! CALVIN!"... and to the family of four, "Sorry, I'm sorry!" Thankfully, the husband says no problem they were finished, anyway, and we were welcome to their table and, yes, it's fine that our young son is already sitting down with them. Which was just as good because, just as we staked our claim to this table, a massive crush of humanity entered The Earl looking for tables, too. It was like The Hall of Presidents letting out on a hot summer day. I grabbed Beth and dashed into the line not yet knowing what everyone wanted to eat. We checked out the menu and I sent Beth back to the table to find out what DH and Calvin wanted. I was pretty sure of Tommy's order. My turn. I ordered the Beef n' Bleu for DH, a large green salad with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and ranch dressing on the side for Calvin, two kids' peanut butter and jellies for Beth and Tommy, a side of coleslaw, a side of potato salad, two little bags of chips, two cokes and two chocolate milks. Then I was stuck. I COULD NOT decide what to have, myself. Everything sounded too good! I hummed and hawed... I HATE people like me in lines. I started to really feel the pressure of fifty people in line behind me, staring at the back of my head, urging me to hurry, so I just said "Ok... the Special. The one that's a whole Thanksgiving Dinner on one bun. Good." Whew! We pick up our salads, chips and drinks and sat down to wait for our order to be called. Our orders come up surprisingly quickly and are handed to us in a take-out bag. The place is, by now, as crazy busy as Chef Mickey's and twice as loud. DH comments that the place sure is popular. No?! We start to eat and we see why... the food is good... and it's reasonably priced... WOW... a Disney miracle! The sandwiches are warm and big. The bread is almost english muffinish... but not. But good. DH is very much as fan of his Beef n' Blue... he doesn't offer me a bite. I don't ask for one either. After the packing fiasco, I don't imagine I'm in DH's top ten list of favourite things at the moment. Beth and Tommy really like their warm pbandj's but they are the same size as the adult sandwiches so they just split one with chips and milk and they are full. Calvin has a very, very large salad for one little boy. After he loads it up with TWO side cups of ranch dressing, he guarantees that no one else wants it, either. It's all his. Luckily, I'm sitting beside him so I don't have to watch him eat the thing. DH is priviledged to be sitting directly across from him with the best view of it all. Ick. There have been less messy homebirths. He says it's GREAT, though. My sandwich is a warm roll with turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce on it. It's good, really good. But I suffer from buyer's remorse and decide while I'm eating it that I should have had The Caprese... what WAS I thinking? It was the pressure. DH took the side of coleslaw and I took the potato salad. Must say, it was very good, too... and a great deal for 99 cents. It tasted mustardy and dilly. Pretty much like homemade. The potatoes were firm, too, which is a plus in potato salad. We were all full and guess what? NO DESSERT. AND...we have one pbandj left over for the plane. We finish up, offer our table to the small crowd that has gathered, staring at us, waiting for us to finish and head out to spend MORE money at Disney. And so we come finally, mercifully, to the end of The Endless Review.
Sadly, I have decided to write an entire trip report. It will be called "The happyhaunts go south...the endless trip report!" Stay tuned.