Food, Friends & France
We left Hollywood Studios and got onto a Friendship boat, which we took all the way to EPCOT.
We were pretty hungry by the time we arrived and we wanted a little more than the sample-size tidbits from the Food & Wine booths.
We returned to a place (sort-of) that was a memorable part of the first trip to Disney for Mark and me:
Flashback…
My first trip to Disney was on our high school class trip in April 1983. I was dating Mark at the time- he had been to the World a couple of years before with family. At the time of the class trip, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT were the only two parks.
The trip was arranged by a travel company. We were pretty loosely supervised on this trip. I can’t remember if there were chaperones, but I do know that a couple of the kids on the trip were of legal drinking age. On one night of the trip, the boys were drinking. Mark was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, the next morning, he was feeling less good. We dragged ourselves around EPCOT that day and when it was time for lunch, we tried “Yakatori House” in Japan. Emphasis on the “Yak”
In all of our subsequent trips, we avoided eating at Yakatori House, but the location has since undergone a renovation and has become “Katsura Grill”
It was time to give it another try.
The menu there is interesting- sushi selections, tempura, teriyaki, udon, ramen and other Japanese favorites.
YUM!!!
While we were eating, I got in touch with Nannette.
We had booked the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise for the next night (Thursday) and we also changed our dining reservation from Yak & Yeti to one of our favorite restaurants: Boma.
Mark suggested that I invite Nannette to join us for dinner and/or the fireworks cruise since she would be solo at that point. Janet was flying out on Thursday afternoon.
I extended the invitation, and initially Nannette accepted to join us at dinner, but subsequently decided she wanted to head into Animal Kingdom that night and take pictures instead.
Nannette and Janet were in the World Showcase as well so after lunch we met up with them as they were finishing a snack at the Brazil booth.
Mark had not seen Impressions de France in over 20 years, since before the boys were born. Nannette and Janet were interested in joining us for that.
My last time seeing the movie was more recent, but surreal. It was during the August 2015 Beach Club meet trip. Nannette, Rebecca, ~Ninja, and I watched the movie when we were in EPCOT, on the day Teena’s husband Bob passed away. I remember being in the waiting area, sad, exhausted and in shock from the news.
After the movie, we took a moment to let one of our friends know she was in our thoughts:
With that, we parted ways and Mark and I returned to the Yacht Club for a swim and our afternoon break.
Next Up: La Hacienda