Okay, before I dig in, I have a confession:
I was about to abandon this TR.
Life has gotten busier, and honestly - I was feeling pretty burned out on the whole TR-writing thing. But I'm no quitter. So I'm going to try hard to at least wrap up the August trip. No promises for anything more than that, but many, many thanks for hanging in there with me!
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I awoke mostly refreshed from my short nap. Leo was still awake, but also seemed a bit more perky after some down-time.
I forget sometimes, (okay, a lot of times), that Leo
needs down time at WDW. Quite a bit of it, in fact. And, contrary to how it seems like things should go, the older he gets, the more of it he seems to need. So his quiet movie time did the trick and he was ready
ready for our Mommy & Son dinner!
Id originally booked us at Narcoosees, but later reconsidered. It seemed kind of silly to drop that much money on dinner with a 6 year-old. So I deleted Narcoosees from The Plan. But didnt cancel the ADR. I just had a feeling.
Sure enough, with all the rain and stuff, a nice dinner with my boy sounded pretty darned good by the time that day came. So he and I dressed up in our Florida finest (this involves the fancy leather flip flops - an upgrade from the rubber,
Crocs flip flops, TFI) and we headed out, just the three of us.
Yes,
three. Of us.
We needed to reunite Belle the doll with her girl, Miss Maddie. I tried to get Leo to carry her, but it was a no-go; I had the privileged honor of carrying Belle. Picture us, if you will mother and son
Handing the keys to the GF valet, Belle tucked under my arm.
Strolling through the grandiose GF lobby, Belle tucked under my arm.
Taking a look at the GF pool, Belle tucked under my arm.
Checking in at Narcoosees podium, Belle tucked under my arm.
Being seated at our lovely table by a window, Belle tucked under my arm.
As Im sure youve imagined, I got some pretty interesting looks from passers-by! Truly, I didnt care. Even if it were Leos doll, I wouldnt care. It was sort of fun to mess with peoples minds.
We had a great table, just inside the entrance and overlooking the lake. We both enjoyed watching the ferries carry people back and forth from the MK and the monorails whisking guests through the Contemporary. It was a nice way to start!
I ordered me a lovely glass of Fairy Tale Cuvée, based on the recommendation of my DIS friend Mel. I was a little apprehensive, because our AWESOME server described it as a bit sweet and Im not a fan of sweet. I like my champagne very, very, VERY dry. Im happy to say that our AWESOME server was wrong about this one; the Fairy Tale Cuvée was superb!
And our AWESOME server was absolutely right-on in her suggestions and descriptions of everything else. Additionally, her attention to detail was fantastic. Really, the best service Ive had at WDW in a long time. I went for the Grilled Scallops
. YUM! They were tender, but not soggy. Sweet, and not at all grainy. The risotto was filling, but not overly weighty. Leo had the mac & cheese, THE mac & cheese proclaimed by our buddy Michael to be the BEST mac & cheese EVER
and was he ever right! OMG, it was amazing so rich and creamy and cheesy and ooy-gooy good!
While we ate, I saw Tracy and family arrive and waved. She and Maddie came to visit and Belle was reunited with her girl. T also got this lovely shot of me and Leo:
Ugh, I look like Im twelve!
I was pretty full, but I couldnt resist finishing my sparkling wine with a side of chocolate. I had to try the Warm Chocolate Almond Gateau
and it was phenomenal! Just the perfect ending to a perfect dinner. I enjoyed my one-on-one time with Leo so much; we talked about our trip some, but spent some time in quiet contemplation, too, sharing a ridiculous amount of smiles across the table.
After dinner, we stopped by Tracys table, then headed for the monorail. Why the monorail, and not the valet? Because it was time for yet another Fockerfest gathering. Back to where it all began. The Scene of the Crime, if you will. We had an appointment at the Tambu Lounge for a Focker convergence.
I wish I could describe each moment of this fun gathering, but its mostly a blur to me now. Here are my random memories of the evening
~ I got to meet some new people in real life, and spent some time catching up with those Id met before. What was really neat was realizing that, while Id met most of the group before, most of them had never before met each other; I took a few moments here and there to sit back, look around, and enjoy watching friends Id enjoyed getting to knoe get to know each other.
~ Ditto this for the kids. It was great to see our families come together, making new friends and reconnecting with old. It was particularly heart-warming to see the eldest of our offspring keeping a sharp eye on, yet having an enormous amount of fun with, the youngest of our tribe. I also have a note here reminding me that, on one occasion, I admonished Leo not to be mean because girls dont like mean.
~ Drinks; what a fantastical array of drinks we had! There were plenty of Lapu Lapus, of course, but also some tall, skinny glasses, some squatty, full glasses, and some bottles of beer. There were no, to my knowledge, Champagne Mojitos.
Once again, we Fockers drank the Poly out of pineapples. Amazing! Youd think their inventory system would have alerted them to the need for quadruple the quantity of pineapples in late August, based on the previous years use.
All in all, it was a FUN night! As you can clearly see through the pics
There was only one black spot (NODavy Jones) to darken my night: something was seriously wrong with my stomach. Within about 10-15 minutes of arriving at Tambu, my digestive organs began a little dance, full of twisting, turning and random jerks. There was a mosh pit in my tummy and it did not feel good. I did my best to muscle through, but by the time we left, I had the pedal to the metal, hoping Id make it back to our room before
well, before whatever was going to happen happened.
I did make it back, but it was close. Ill leave out the more intimate details, but suffice it to say the bathroom and I got to know each other VERY well that night.
In between rounds, Leo got ready for and went to bed. And I sucked down an Imodium or three. Things did calm down after about an hour or so, but I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what went wrong
Just based on the timing, one might suspect something wrong with dinner. But I just wasnt buying it. Maybe I was in denial, but Narcoosees had been far too yummy to have poisoned me so. Hmmm
I started having symptoms shortly after starting in on a Mojito
T had similar, yet opposite, symptoms after her Mojito the previous night
Yet, we got them in entirely different bars, at entirely different resorts. AH! But, what if Disney got one giant batch of mint leaves to supply
all the resorts? Mint leaves are raw. They could have had anything on them when they were mushed up into our drinks.
I later shared all of this with a few others who were at WDW with us none of whom suffered any illness and none of whom had downed any Mojitos.
I think we found the culprit.
Coming, although perhaps not soon-ish: It Takes a Village, Baybee!
They did great with Kelly and Andrew, but not on their own. Sigh.
Now I return you to your regullary scheduled program...thank you 9 days!!!
Sorry, but it's so funny now.
).
