Okay, okay, here it is. Part Sixteen.
Back by popular demand.
Note to self: Stop posting so much on that
other thread....
Thursday morning, we hop up out of bed ready and rarin to go.
The day is ours for the taking. The world is at our feet. We are pulling a solo outing today. Yep. Just the four of us. We can go anywhere we want. We can ride anything we want.
And we want us some more Epicot.
Because, after all, Maelstrom is there. And last I heard, it
was a fastpass.
The entire time we were getting ready that morning, we heard the sounds of workers laboring to make POR even more beautiful than it already was. We heard leaf blowers and lawnmowers and weedeaters oh my! We knew the place would be picture perfect that morning on our stroll to the bus stop.
We leave our hotel room and start our descent down the stairs from the Mansion Baby. As we all walk down the steps, we look around and marvel at the beauty of the freshly manicured grounds. There couldve been music playing in the background. It really was that pretty. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. It was an absolutely beautiful day.
All of a sudden, a swarm of wasps descend on DD. They come from out of nowhere and they are not playing around.
They are mad as heck at the leafblowers and lawnmowers and weedeaters and they have decided to take it out on my sweet little four year old daughter, oh my!
They are on her like white on rice. She cant shake em. She begins to run in place and hold her head. I try my best to shoo them off her but its too late. She never had a chance. They sting her head. They sting her leg. She screams bloody murder. I scream bloody murder. DS screams bloody murder and DH tells us all to keep it down.
There are lots of moments that as a parent, you would do anything in the world to be able to switch places with your child and take on the load that they are carrying. This was definitely one of those moments.
As my daughter screams in pain and grabs both her little leg and her head at the same time, I am in agony with her. I feel it.
In that instant I flashback to just a couple of weeks before that when I was stung by a ticked off giagantic red wasp outside MILs house the day after Katrina. The wasps and bees were out in full force then because lots of trees were down and their homes had been decimated. They were majorly ticked and they took it out on me. I had not been stung since childhood and had forgotten how excruciating it was. I thought I was gonna die, it hurt so bad. So as I watch DD in pain, I feel it with her and would give anything in the world to be able to take it on myself instead of her. I swoop her up in my arms and we run back up the steps to the room.
I take out my first aid bag that I overpacked and doctor up DD's second bobo of the trip.
Thank God for Benadryl is all I can say.
We hang out in the room for a while, watching DD to make sure she is okay. Im glad to announce her face did not swell up like Will Smiths in Hitch. After some cold compresses and a lot of pampering, DD felt better. She decided the one thing that might make her feel a lot better was a lil Test Track.
That's m'girl. Yep, shes a tough one. She has Girl Power.
You see, thats our thing. Girl Power. I dont even remember the first time DD said it or under what circumstance it was. But somewhere along the line, it just became our thing. It means buck up. Get tough. Girl Power. I whisper it in her ear as she is in the doctors office scared to death because she knows a shot is coming. She yells it across the room at me when DH and I are play wrestling. I tell it to her with a pumped fist when she is moping around the house in a sad mood because her brother and his friends are not interested in playing dollhouse. Yep. Girl Power.
Im proud to say that my daughter has more of it than she could ever imagine.
We head out the door again. DH carries his yet again injured little girl all the way to the bus stop. DS runs at full speed all the way to the bus stop. They all leave Mama behind in the dust to fend for herself. Thankfully, we encounter no wasps this go round.
We finally make it to Epicot. Because we are getting a late start, the park is already starting to get a little crowded.
We stop and take another look at our mugs at the Granite Garden.
Yep. There we are. Can you see us?
We then head over to Test Track. Yeah Baby.
Yep. There we are again. Can ya see us? No? Well sorry. It is microscopic, isn't it? I promise it's us. I just can't get the resizing down for this one. And tech support is out today with the hives. So sorry.
Anyway, after TT, we hop on Space Mountn again. For the girl. I always feel like I could go to sleep when the cars turn around and youre heading back down. The peaceful music and dim lights
its all very relaxing.
After our ride on the ball, we head over to the Land. I really want to ride Soarin again but we walk up to find there is already a
fifty minute wait. Yeah, thanks Georgia.
No way are we standing in line for fifty minutes to ride anything. Even if it
is Soarin. Besides, we have an ADR at Chefs de France for noon. Theres no way we can do both.
We are planning on coming back that night for Epcots EMH, so were not too upset. We can ride it again that night.
Because after all, the non resort rabble are
not allowed through the gates, so we envision being able to ride Soarin nonstop that night. Surely well ride Soarin at least 10 times that night. Back to back, even. With time to spare. So we plan on hopping on Test Track to kill some time. We figure we'll ride
it at
least a half dozen times, of that we are sure.
It
is Extra Magic Hours after all, right? So we just know well be feelin the Magic. Extra even.
We decide to head on over to the World Showcase and get a headstart on our ADR at Chefs des France.
We had never eaten there and we (I) had read some great reviews. It looked beautiful. Windows everywhere. White linens. It was a really beautiful, classy looking restaurant. We get to the podium and check in. Chefs doesnt open until noon and we were fifteen minutes early.
Mark the date. This is the first and only time we have been early for an ADR.
I give the French chick our name and we all have a seat on the bench with all the other peeps waitin for the restaurant to open.
I look around and notice something for the first time. Out of all the people waiting for a table, we are the only ones there with kids.
Seriously.
Not another single family with kids in tow. It was all either really young couples making googly eyes at each other or really old couples talking about their world travels.
Yeah, Ive been to Morocco too, big boy. Just a second ago, in fact.
There was one big French group. They kept chattin it up with French Podium Chick. Laughing. Hysterically. They kept telling their inside French jokes that none of us got. Theyd look at all of us, say something in French and then all laugh like banshees.
About that time, one of the chefs came out to greet the Frenchies. They yacked it up too. Forever. Come on. Enough is enough. I had a penpal from France in high school and thought I was cool back then because I could actually understand what he wrote. Wrote right back to him in French. We had it goin on. Lots of letters. Lots of convos. You see, if I see it on paper, Im good. I knew exactly what he was saying as long as he was writing.
And then he called me.
Big mistake.
I had no idea what the poor sap was saying. Heck, I couldnt even understand his
name. I ended up hanging up on him. Thought he was some freak. I felt really bad when he wrote to me and told me it was him. See, then I got it. I can read it, I just cant speak it.
Sitting there waiting for our table, I strain my ears, desperately trying to understand a smidgen of what they were talking about, but it was no use. They could have been making fun of all of us silly Americans and we were all perfectly just content to remain clueless.
They finally call our name. Or did they? It sounded really strange. We are shown to our table and Bernard tells us he will be waiting on us. I think. He has a very heavy accent so I'm not sure. The kids couldnt understand him and DH kept saying Huh? What was that? and looking to me to help him out.
Talk about Country Come to Town. If the Grand Floridian didnt make us feel like the Clampetts, this place sure did. The table next to us ordered wine. We ordered two chocolate milks and a couple a Cokes.
On Bernards suggestion, we order the Lunch special. It was a bowl of French (of course) Onion soup with Guyere cheese melted on top for the appetizer, a hot ham and cheese sandwich on crusty bread for the entree, which Bernard raves about BTW, and Crème Brulee for desert. It sounded wonderful. I love cheese. Big cheese lover here. Its even better melted. So I am stoked. DD wanted the kids pasta and DS got the fish.
Bernard brings out our meal. The soup is wonderful. Very cheesy. Extremely cheesy.
I almost choked on the cheese.
I couldnt finish the soup because it was sooooo rich. Then the sandwich came. I have to say the first few bites were very good. And then again with the cheese. Very cheesy. Very
thick
. and
.cheesy...
blech.
DH devoured his. The kids loved theirs as well. I, on the other hand, began to feel more and more lousy with each consecutive bite.
About that time, Bernard brought out the Crème Brulee.
In the middle of the day.
My belly said Hey
.whats up with today?
Sorry.
Anyway, even though I was starting to feel crummy, the Crème Brulee looked so good I just couldnt let it go to waste. Because that would be a crime, right? We are on the Dining Plan after all. I have to say this was the best part of the meal.
As we finish our desert, we notice a crowd building up just outside our window. They are watching a guy do a balancing act on a stack of about 10 chairs. He keeps stacking them on top of each other and hes really good.
We keep waiting for him to fall but no such luck.
Move it along, people. Nothin more to see here.
Before we leave Chefs, I pull DS to the side and whisper a couple of French words in his ear. I tell him to tell Bernard. DS tells him Au Revoir. Bernard was either a very good actor or very easily amused. He made such a big deal out of it. He started talking to DS in French and well, you know, that just threw him for a loop. All DS could do was giggle uncontrollably and repeat Bonjour, Oui Oui and Au Revoir over and over.
Yep, thats all I got.
For some reason he got stuck on Oui Oui. Then hed giggle uncontrollably. Thats his default. When he doesnt know what to do, he just giggles. It works for him though. Matter of fact, I think Ill try that at work tomorrow. If the boss asks me something I dont know, I think Ill just giggle uncontrollably and see how far it gets me.
We head outside into the blazing sun with our bellies stuffed full of cheese and soup.
Its really hot. Really, really hot. As we make our way around the World Showcase, I start to feel pretty bad. You know, like Ive had just a
little too much cheese and soup. And then, all of a sudden theres that feeling. I tell DH I need to find a bathroom quick. Or, you know, a fanny pack.
He says Are you serious? You gotta throw up? Here? Now?
I dont know. Maybe. Maybe I just need to sit down for a minute. Wheres the closest bathroom? OMG, I cant throw up in front of all these people
We make it to Morocco and I duck into a bathroom. You know, our family has lots of close calls at Disneyworld and I am pleased to announce that I held it together. Nope. Didnt actually need the fanny pack after all. I just needed to wash my face off a little and sit for a bit.
Even after the close call, I was still was feeling really crummy so I tell DH we need to book it back to the hotel or next time I might not be so lucky
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Up Next: The Thing That Happened on The Bus To Epcot