We did not go back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner. I LOVE reading similar sentences on Trip Reports
."back to the hotel for a nap would = 4 and a ½ HOURS for us!!! or...
back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner would =2 hours and 45 minutes for us!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, UtahMama??
JUST getting all 6 of us and our gear (strolller, diaper bag, cooler, 3 misty fans, mugs, tri-pod, fanny pack, camera bag, purse, gift shop purchases
) ON the bus is a minor undertaking! Perhaps a small-ish miracle of sorts.
We took the bus directly to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We take up a lot of room on any bus! It is a MAJOR PAIN, if you haven't figured that out!
The Animal Kingdom Lodge is spectacular!!! There are clever details in every nook and cranny. Carvings! Statues! Disney Architects and Designers were showing off when they did Animal Kingdom Lodge!
We got a little lost but ended up early for our Dinner reservation at BOMA A Taste of Africa.
Africa!? What do they EAT in Africa. Hope its nothing weird or Fear Factorish!
SoRuL82? (AKA: Slate) had told me about Zebra Domes and I was anxious to try them.
We were seated after a short wait and briefed as to what to do at this buffet. At least I think our hostess was TRYING to tell us what to do
Norah decided it was a grand time to start up
(sigh).
Here is your BIRTH CONTROL for the week
.
Fascinating side note
a tantrum erupts every single time our darling, princess is remotely expected to behave like a good girl. I even prep her for minutes before a meal."OK, sweetheart. We are in a NICE restaurant and there are lots of other people here trying to eat their nice dinners
who dont want to listen to a cute little girl scream while they are eating
so be a good girl and mama will give you lip gloss or a million dollars
whatever you want
I cant be sure, but I think this is processed as Scream REALLY loud and I will love you even more! In fact, the louder you scream the more mama will pay attention to you! (which is probably true).
For some reason, the other diners find it odd we take pictures of our tantruming toddler. We do it because, a) it instantly shuts her up
, and 2) we show her the image of herself which makes her laugh c) causing the other diners to high five each other and marvel at our parenting expertise! Or something like that.
The boys go first to the buffet. My little boys come back with their plates mounded with chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese
I roll my eyes. The daddy samples a little of everything. Little spoonfuls of un-familiar foods. Well, its my turn to go get-em! And I am hungry.
I also chose the taste-everything-then-go-back-for-my-favorites-later technique.
Heres a little smackerel of my choices:
Nut-crusted salmon with boma mustard drizzled artfully zig-zaggedy
Crusted prime rib
Slow roasted pork ribs
Potatoes with "afritude" (yes, thats what its really called!)
Bobotie beef and lamb with green bean and tofu cury
Cous cous marakesh
Kokonut rice
Lentil and hearts of palm salad
Avocado/papaya/ grapefruit salad
Lavosh (flat bread) with sundried tomato humus
Banana bread pudding
AND Zebra Domes (not noticing the alcohol added sign)
Wow! I have a great memory! No, I had an official looking notebook I kept writing in! Id take a bite of something and then jot something down
take another bite and write some more. Then I strolled up over to the buffet and jotted more down
like I owned the place! I thought about every bite before writing my opinion. I made a chef nervous or maybe just curious because she came out to me and asked me what in the "sam hill" I was doing. Actually, she was very sweet. I told her I was doing a dining report on BOMA and I have a readership of 107,000 (members of the DISboards if every single member reads
IT COULD HAPPEN! Stop rolling your eyes at me, theyll stick!)
I think I figured out what my dream job is! Food critique! But Im not that picky so Im a Food Eater and Teller! She didnt have to know THAT detail. She asked me nice questions about what I thought of this or that. So Id ask questions like I knew what I was doing like, Is that a hint of ginger in the Cous Cous Marakesh? Miss Smarty Pants. She offered to e-mail me some recipes. HOT DANG!!! I mean, That would be lovely. I got some good ones.
Zebra Domes. One of my very best DISpeeps (S'latey) told me about these little mouth-fulls of lovin. My honest first impression was the spongey texture was weird. Then the taste hit me. And it is rich! What is that weird zing to them??? I didnt know but I kept eating them to try to peg the taste. I gave my baby girl 2 of them before we realized it was ALCOHOL!!!!! Probably not enough to harm her, hopefully. But she was REALLY good after that!
Overall, the flavors were familiar, yet unique. Nothing was TOO weird. I didnt care for the pork ribs because they were too spicy.Grow hair on your chest, spicy! And the avocado, papaya, and grapefruit salad was a mix of flavors I didnt think went together. But this was one meal we would have gladly paid for! It was my favorite of this vacation, by far.
Since this was a resort, we had to go to the nearest park which was Downtown Disney to bus back to our resort. "Bus Back" meaning the folding and unfolding of the stroller and each of us lugging our fair share of luggage. BUT, since we were there, I wanted to hurry and check out the Mr. Potato Head parts I had heard about on the DISboards!
For a pittance $18.00 you can wedge as many pieces and parts into an over-sized Chinese take-out container (only ONE side has to close, FYI!) I gathered the parts I wanted and DH expertly puzzeled together a staggering amount of parts into our container! We didnt need to waste the space in the container for the actual potato because we had bought some at
Walmart for less than $5.00. Although we got a TON in that box, there was a lot more to be had
Cruella, Malificent, Mr. Incredible, Ariel, Peter Pan, Pirates, Cinderella,Buzz, Minnie, etc. I had a feeling
wed be back for more! So then we HOPPED back onto a bus to take us back to the resort
by hopped, I mean, folded the stroller, gathered the camera bag, purchases, cooler with 4 inches of warm water floating in it with warm dietPepsi unhappily not being drunk, diaper bag, purse, tri-pod, etc! AND our now sleeping sweet angel in my arms and shoved the whole kit and kaboodle down the 7 inch wide bus isles to the very back were theres enough room for 2 people yet 6 occupy that space as we shove back even further for 18 more hot sticky pissy standing room only passengers to board! Ya know why I have the sleeping angel in MY arms? Because EVERY bus has one or two sweet gentlemen who nicely offer their primo seats to a overburdened mama with a sleeping baby
which I decline
but they insist
so I graciously thank them and secretly love the perks of being a mama!
When we got back to are air-conditioned sub arctic temperature room (I like it that way)...
My little red phone message light is blinking. Hmmm? I listened to the message and it said theres a packeage at the front desk for me. A PACKAGE???? So I grabbed my refillable mug and dashed to the front desk with plans of filling my "muggy" on the way back. I stood in the short line impatiently and finally received the box from the front desk. IT WAS FROM TWINKIEMAMA!!!!! I high-tailed it to the soda station on the way to my room and tore my present open! YAY!!!! It was SO COOL! It contained lots of cool trip reporting things like a notebook to write in (good because mine was hashed!) and a lime colored receipt file
ended up being SOOO handy, and some stickers and DVC coasters (so I can pretend! Hey, Im STILL using them!) And a cute hair ribbon thingy for Norah with a note saying it will add a couple inches of height to her so she can go one more rides!!!! I was SOOO happy! I felt so loved!!!!! Twinkie, that really did mean the world to me and Im tearing up just thinking about it! THANK YOU again, infinity!
I re-organized my TR into my new nice notebook
and noticed some funny details like a barf bag for Mission Space (just in case) and instructions to ride the orange side! She had also included some funny TR writing advice..including end each chapter with a cliff hanger which I havent quite gotten the hang of! I filed my receipts as my boys put their PJs on and brushed their teeth. Norah just slept through her diaper change and tucking in!
I collapsed into bed and slept
dreaming of MGM day tomarrow!
Stay tuned for my mild-mannered DHs major FLIPPY FIT
!
.(hows that?)
Havent' they caught those pesky poachers by now?! 
It's a whole different perspective. It makes me want to go back and do it again just to see it the way you did! 
I too am 39, so maybe I should go for the longish bangs. 
With all seriousness I hope the next one is soon 
i love utahmama she is the best she has blessed my life in so many ways .i would say i am fun when i'm not stressed out with my kids.. 
