Today was a full day... we had the Geocaching activity at 11 and it was fun. They had 6 caches hidden around the resort and had the lat/lon already plugged in for each one. We had an hour to find the 6 caches, answer Disney trivia questions that were contained in each cache and return for a prize if we got them all right.
We had a good time with finding all but one of the caches - turns out one of the other participants retrieved the cache and brought it back to the starting point rather than leaving it there for someone else to find. Our girls still earned their reward - a free Pirates of the Carribbean watch for each. I'm sure they were overstock items - and were only worth about $5.00 when new, but a pretty nice prize for a free activity.
After the caching, we went for a bike ride - we exchanged the bike for our little one for a tow-behind wagon for her and we all had much more fun. The giggles of excitement from the wagon were priceless in and of themselves.
Back to the room for lunch, and then off to the pool for a swim... what we won't do for the kids. We checked the thermometer outside Broad Creek mercantile before we got in the pool - 58 degrees!!
What we won't do for our kids. After about an hour in the pool it was time for the dragonfly activity for DW and DD6. I took DD3 back to the room for a much needed nap.
After the nap, it was time to head to the Beach House for the Lowcountry Boil. My overall review of this is mixed. The food was good... the attentiveness of the staff was excellent as usual... the activities for the kids were underwhelming, but fun nonetheless... the biggest problem was in the organization (or lack thereof). We arrived at the beach house right at the stated 6PM starting time. We were shown where our table was and shown to the line where we had to pay and get our wristbands for dinner.
The problem was that the line for the wristbands was also the bar at the beach house - so people in line just to pay for the dinner had to wait while the bartenders made mixed and/or frozen drinks for other patrons also in the same line... it was really frustrating and took about 20 minutes just to get through the line and be able to get our wristbands... not what I expect from a Disney run event.
Once that was past, everything was fine - the facepainting line took a long time, but DD6 and her friend had a good time just waiting in line and talking - it actually gave us parents a chance to eat our dinner before she needed help finding food that she wanted to eat. The food itself was VERY good. The shrinp and smoked sausage boil (with corn on the cob and red potatoes) was the obvious star - and it was very well done - the shrimp especially was very yummy. I also sampled the shrimp gumbo (yummy), apple cider marinated pork tenderloin (a bit overcooked by tasty - but I like my pork rare anyway, so you can't necessarily go by me), fried catfish and hush puppies (yummy).
All the while we were eating , B'Lou Crabbe was playing banjo and singing - at one point he invited all the kids up to join him by playing simple percussion instruments - tambourine, rhythm sticks, washboard, etc. - it was a lot of fun... our girls were too shy to go up then, but later just before we left, they had wandered over to see him still playing and he invited them to play along and this time they took him up on it. I got some great video of just them playing with him.
Overall, I liked the Low Country Boil, and it was a nice way to spend a night out of the room and quite a good meal for the money.
After dinner, we headed back to community hall for Goofy Bingo - both of our daughters won a game and had a great time. Finally after Goofy bingo, we grabbed the bikes again for an evening ride around the resort - the wind had died down and the evening was the most pleasant part of today from a weather standpoint.
I still haven't downloaded pictures - that might have to wait until this weekend, but I did get some good twilight/sunset photos of the resort tonight as I took a walk around during Goofy Bingo.
A full day and night - the kids practically passed out when we got them to bed - hopefully they'll sleep in a bit in the morning.
