Sun, Shopping, Sand, Surf, Sweat & Shamu: A Splashin Summertime Sabbatical at SVR!

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Holy moly! A couple of busy days have kept me from more frequent updates . Let’s see if I can at least finish off Saturday, August 23rd:

Returning home from the beach, we tossed our sandy clothes and towels in the laundry, showered off all the salt and sunscreen, enjoyed a little pre-dinner rest, then embarked on a search for dinner. All that swimming had worked up an appetite in my guys. So I wasn’t surprised when they raised the suggestion of Golden Corral for our evening meal.

Arriving at Golden Corral, it was pandemonium in the restaurant as it usually is. Doesn’t seem to matter which location we go to, there’s always tons of young families, meaning tons of young kids. Don’t get me wrong, I have zero issue with the little ones…..but I have issue with kids running amok and unsupervised around food (so dangerous!!). While I love Golden Corral, this always tends to bring me down a bit. And tonight was no exception…..the noise was almost deafening!!!

Unfortunately, we were seated next to a very raucous family with three little boys, all of whom were trying to speak louder than their father (the latter who could be heard for a country mile). Mom appeared blissfully oblivious to the chaos and was unfazed by her group of rowdy males, choosing to focus her efforts on her screaming toddler. The two older boys (maybe 3 and 5 years old?) ran circles around the table with marshmallow skewers in hand. I am sure I cringed outwardly, despite my best efforts to hide my discomfort. I couldn’t help but wondering which little fellow would be the first to lose an eye on the end of that skewer .

At any rate, the Loud Family eventually herded their whirling dervishes out the door after paying their bill, and we all heaved a big sigh of relief. It wasn’t exactly peace restored (the restaurant was still very busy!), but it was a vast improvement for sure.

Dinner? Well, the food was great, as usual. There’s lots of variety, something for everyone, with everything fresh and hot and quickly replenished. I always find it hard to choose what to eat when we dine here, as there is SO much selection and only a limited stomach capacity to utilize. Steve, of course, enjoyed the meats more than anything. He was spied with one of these all-meat plates more than once:



And Jake? Well, his was usually a mish-mash of everything:



Dessert at Golden Corral is always a treat (pun intended). The desserts here are always sooooo good…….again, picking what to have is always a major decision!



Speaking of dessert, we were in for surprise this visit. Not only did they offer their iconic chocolate fountain:



….they also had two new fountains of liquid awesomeness: a white chocolate and a caramel. Oh. My. Gawd.



In the end, I made a brownie sundae, sampled a chocolate cupcake, and had a caramel-dipped marshmallow. Let’s just say I won’t be getting weighed for a few weeks…maybe months…after this trip .



We paid the bill (had 10% off thanks to a coupon available online) and rolled ourselves out to the van. Making the short drive back to the Vistana, we headed straight to the pool for yet another evening of swimming under the stars while we marvelled to each other that we had left home a full week prior. Time flies when you’re having fun!!

Tomorrow was Sunday, a day of “rest”. Well, sort of. We had a couple of fun things planned, too.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Well clearly I made a big mistake taking a pass on GC this time around. It's really just a so-so sort of place for us. That caramel fountain is a game changer. Marshmallows and caramel...never would have thought of that one. I feel the salivary glands filling up at this moment.

I'm also struck by the number of times you guys have spent the entire day involved in water/sun and then go to the pool again in the evening. Even just laying on a chair beside the pool all day wears me out. I was about to say that I must be old but then I realized that my 15yo would be tired too. If you ask her... I'm still old.

 

[tristyp]

You mentioned about not having frequent upodates but I find them very frequent. You are the only trip report I have stayed with from start to finish. i usually like reading the ones that are done or near done as some of them move very slowly. I am not complaining about that just a compliment to you.

That Golden Corral looks good and my herd will fit right in

I also wanted to comment on your vacation pace. It seems perfect. I got an email 2 days ago for the Congo mini golf for $34.00 for 4 plus 4 bags of food(Is that a good deal?) but, I feel like we have so much going on with 7 days at Disney, a day at Discovery Cove, a day at Aquatica and MNSSHP. Plus my wifes birthday is on the 3rd and I have a day full of surprises for her. i feel like we are only going to have maybe 2 rest days and those days will include shopping and stuff.

Looking back i wish i would have done day on- day off sort of thing. I dont want to lay around all day on the day off but a bit of shopping, maybe mini golf just some shorter commitments. I may just be over thinking this as well.

Rant over

 

[Lynne G]

Dinner did look good. We're not big buffet lovers, but maybe if we see one of the GCs, we'll have to try once.

Wasn't the weather just great to hang at the pool? We did the Villain's Party that night. That was a waste of my night and quite a bit of money. It was also the night when my DS and I got our sneakers soaked in giant puddles getting to the Seas building for our Frozen dinner. That buffet was pretty good, and no real line to meet both Anna and Elsa together. Only bright part of that night. Oh, and earlier that day, we had a nice breakfast with characters in Universal Studios. Was a busy day transition day for us.

Carry on - the pace is just right!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Well clearly I made a big mistake taking a pass on GC this time around. It's really just a so-so sort of place for us. That caramel fountain is a game changer. Marshmallows and caramel...never would have thought of that one. I feel the salivary glands filling up at this moment.

I'm also struck by the number of times you guys have spent the entire day involved in water/sun and then go to the pool again in the evening. Even just laying on a chair beside the pool all day wears me out. I was about to say that I must be old but then I realized that my 15yo would be tired too. If you ask her... I'm still old.

I think that our swimming obsession on this vacation was partly because it was soooo hot, so the pools and the water felt soooo good . We actually found ourselves in the Fountains pool on every single night of our trip, with the exception of one. On that night (during the second week, maybe the Wednesday evening?) we went out to swim to find the Fountains pool closed.....roped off by yellow caution tape . It stayed that way from early evening right on through to morning. We couldn't get close enough to see, but whatever occurred must have involved a partial draining of the pool, as the following days the water was noticeably and sharply cooler. We ended up swimming in the Lakes pool during the closure, rather than miss out on our evening dip.

One thing about all the swimming....we sure slept well!

You mentioned about not having frequent upodates but I find them very frequent. You are the only trip report I have stayed with from start to finish. i usually like reading the ones that are done or near done as some of them move very slowly. I am not complaining about that just a compliment to you.

That Golden Corral looks good and my herd will fit right in

I also wanted to comment on your vacation pace. It seems perfect. I got an email 2 days ago for the Congo mini golf for $34.00 for 4 plus 4 bags of food(Is that a good deal?) but, I feel like we have so much going on with 7 days at Disney, a day at Discovery Cove, a day at Aquatica and MNSSHP. Plus my wifes birthday is on the 3rd and I have a day full of surprises for her. i feel like we are only going to have maybe 2 rest days and those days will include shopping and stuff.

Looking back i wish i would have done day on- day off sort of thing. I dont want to lay around all day on the day off but a bit of shopping, maybe mini golf just some shorter commitments. I may just be over thinking this as well.

Rant over

We loved the one day "on" and one day "off" schedule, even though our non-park days involved something (mini golfing, shopping, or whatnot). It made it so we never felt run down, and always had enough energy to give a park day the gusto it deserved. It was easy to do with a full two weeks at our disposal (and necessary, really, in that heat) but I think the every-other-day itinerary would be harder to maintain with a single week trip.

That's a good deal for Congo River. Its about $12.99 pp just for the golfing, and $3 or $4 for each bag of food. If you think you want to mini golf on your trip, that will probably be your best deal for a quality course.

And thank you for the compliment on my trip reporting . You guys are good for the soul!

Dinner did look good. We're not big buffet lovers, but maybe if we see one of the GCs, we'll have to try once.

Wasn't the weather just great to hang at the pool? We did the Villain's Party that night. That was a waste of my night and quite a bit of money. It was also the night when my DS and I got our sneakers soaked in giant puddles getting to the Seas building for our Frozen dinner. That buffet was pretty good, and no real line to meet both Anna and Elsa together. Only bright part of that night. Oh, and earlier that day, we had a nice breakfast with characters in Universal Studios. Was a busy day transition day for us.

Carry on - the pace is just right!

I had totally forgotten that it rained that day!!! Again, it managed to hit at just the right time. We were back from the beach, just showering and washing up those sandy towels, when whoosh! Down it came. By the time we left for dinner, the precipitation had ended and we were on our way to another nice evening. Sorry to hear you guys got wet feet .... and that the Villians party was a bust . Have you inquired about a refund for your tickets? It seems many other folks have received them.

 

[shalom]

I wasn't going to comment (got so much to do I shouldn't on at all! ), but I wanted to share a quote that fits with the gas discussion. I'm typing in my grandpa's "trip report" (crumbling yellow articles from his village newspaper) about "going west" in (I am guessing, based on the ads on the back of the article) 1933. They're just left Yellowstone, and head north into Canada, when he says:

we saw the Prince of Wales hotel. This is also a beautiful park. But when we came to buy gas we decided we’d seen enough of Canada. We had paid as high as 25 cents for gas in Yellowstone, but 35 cents for a gallon, even if the gallon is a little longer, didn’t appeal to us, so we ...headed south again at the first opportunity

The more things change, eh?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I wasn't going to comment (got so much to do I shouldn't on at all! ), but I wanted to share a quote that fits with the gas discussion. I'm typing in my grandpa's "trip report" (crumbling yellow articles from his village newspaper) about "going west" in (I am guessing, based on the ads on the back of the article) 1933. They're just left Yellowstone, and head north into Canada, when he says:

The more things change, eh?

That's some awesome stuff! What cool memories for him to preserve for his descendants!

It piqued my curiosity to see what that price would be equivalent to today. According to this inflation calculator:

http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=100&year=1933

25 cents a gallon would be equal to $4.44 today.

35 cents a gallon would be equal to $6.22

No wonder he decided to head back south!!!!

Along the same vein, I try and put a summary of our vacation costs on the back cover of each photo book that I do up after our trips. I record the price of all the major expenses, from our airfare, accommodations, rental car and attraction tickets to travel insurance, food and anything else that's notable. I hope that when our grandkids look at at those books many years from now, in addition to laughing at the hairstyles and clothing styles of the new millennium, they will also get a kick out of seeing what we paid for our vacations. I can hear them now...."Nana and Poppa only paid $249 per person for Discovery Cove admission back then. Can you imagine? It's almost $500 now!".

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Sunday, August 24th

After our beach expedition the day prior, Sunday was designated as our “day of rest”. Well, sort of. We can only rest so much – even on a restful vacation. There is always a bit of a nudging desire to go, go, go......even if it’s just a little.

We all slept until we were sufficiently rested, and then enjoyed another pancake feast prepared by our resident chef (strangely enough, that dear man hasn’t made me breakfast since we returned home ). Once we were showered and dressed, we opted to take an hour or so while things would still be quieter (hopefully!) and do a little shopping at the Premium Outlets on International Drive. They had a few stores that the Vineland location didn’t, and variety is the spice of life (or so they say) so we figured, why not? We had nothing but time at our disposal and few plans that were set in stone.

We were less than two hours at the mall from parking to departing, but both teens came away with some good finds and Steve and I picked up some purchases too. Okay, maybe mostly me . There were some great sales at Yankee Candle Company....candles are one of my life’s little pleasures....so I loaded up while the opportunity presented itself .

We had originally planned to return to the villa for lunch, but the shopping, the sun, and the heat had made us lazy (or maybe just the fact that it was Lazy Sunday), so we grabbed a quick lunch from Checkers on our way back to the Vistana. Nothing fancy, just burgers and fries, then it was back to the resort for a relaxing afternoon.

The afternoon was spent in or around the Fountains pool (you’re shocked by this, I know! ). Sundays are FUN Team days at the Fountains pool, so there were a plethora of activities running for young and old alike. Frankie, the Vistana DJ, had the sound system set up and was rocking to the music. A little while after we arrived, after a lively round of kids games had concluded (complete with prizes for winners and non-winners alike) they put out a call for two families of 4 or 5 to participate in the Vistana’s version of Family Feud. It sounded like fun, so we sent Jake over to put our name in. A few minutes later, we were seated across from the Gonzo family and ready to “play the Feud”!

Since we were lacking one family member in order to round out 5 contestants on each side, a little fella came over with his mom and asked if he could join our family for the game. He was so cute...maybe all of 7 years old....and so excited when we said sure. The game’s rules were a bit modified at times (some questions you could steal after 3 strikes, some you couldn’t) but thanks to our uncanny knowledge of animals that start with the letter T, TV shows (past or present) that take place on an island, and things that you forget to put on in the morning and feel weird about all day, we were crowned Family Feud champs with more than 400 points, winning a round of snow cones from the poolside kiosk. I must say, it was an absolute hoot. Even the teenagers had a ball.

We spent the whole afternoon out there, swimming and sunning and just enjoying the activities, the music and the overall festive atmosphere. As one event ended, the FUN Team had something else underway.....from beach ball hot potato to Battle of the Sexes (which Steve was wishing he had played, as the guys took top spot over the ladies and won themselves free drinks from the Tiki Bar).

I am ashamed to say there were no photos taken during the day to this point. I took a brief vacation from the camera and my trio held a small celebration as a result. Every good photographer (not that I’m a good photographer, per se, but you get my drift!) knows that sometimes, you just have to give your subjects a break. And this was their reprieve.

Around 4 o’clock, we headed back to the room to shower and dry off. A breeze had begun to blow which was making the steaming temperatures outside a little more bearable for the first time since we arrived, so we decided it was a great night to head to CityWalk at Universal for our “meal and mini golf” deal. We pulled up to the parking area just after 6 pm, taking advantage of the $5 parking special.



So......should we golf first? Or eat first? Oh, the tough decisions we are called upon to make!!

 

[Lynne G]

Food first. We even went to eat at Earl's before going to Disney Quest. I was shocked. Teen stomachs!

We enjoyed Red Hot Pizza and NASCAR in City Walk while at Universal. I was going to try the new Italian place, but ran out of time. I like City Walk.

 

[ZehnJahren]

The meal at Golden Corral looks great! Count me in with one of those "outward wincers" at restaurants when I see someone's kids running with something sharp and their parents chatting with their friends or on facebook. I want so badly to stop them and take the fork/knife/skewer/crab leb from them, but I know it's not my place, so I just wince.

Can't believe the trip is halfway the the end already! Time goes fast when you're doing something you love. Why doesn't it go as fast when you're having a tooth filled, or waiting on medical news?

That's nice of you guys to let the little guy into your family to play Family Feud! Nice that you won too, but too bad that Steve missed out on the free drinks.

I'm interested in seeing City Walk! I know we'll be going through there to get to Universal Studios on our US/IOA day. I wonder if we'll have any time to dilly dally - though I'm with my mom this trip, the queen of delays. Hahaha, it's so different going solo vs. going with someone else!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Food first. We even went to eat at Earl's before going to Disney Quest. I was shocked. Teen stomachs!

Can you believe it.....we did mini golf first! If I had been a betting woman, I'd have put my money on food first, too.

That's nice of you guys to let the little guy into your family to play Family Feud!

He was so funny....he was the fifth person, so got to answer the final question where "dollar values were tripled" (and things were quite close at that stage of the game, so every piont counted!). The question was name an animal that started with T, and he had his hand up first to answer. His guess, Tiger, was the number one answer and he was SO excited. When we won, he nearly trampled everyone to get to the sno cone machine . We all went over to him and his mom, and shook his hand and thanked him for playing with us. He was beaming from ear to ear . Its those kind of moments that make good vacation memories that we will remember for a long time!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Sunday, August 24th……part 2!

We parked the van on the rooftop of the garage (love the view!):



and headed down the series of moving sidewalks to the entrance to CityWalk. The efficiency of Universal’s awesome system of getting people from the parking areas to the parks so quickly and easily always impresses me when we visit. Love it!!



Along the way, we enjoyed that beautiful breeze (and the merciful cloud cover) and discussed whether our evening gets kicked off with dinner or the golf. As we approached the end of the walkways and saw this view of a rather uncrowded course:



…..we opted to golf first, eat later .

First stop was to exchange our online purchase confirmation at will call for the meal and mini golf vouchers. This was quick, simple, and again, so efficient! We received superb customer service by a very friendly Universal staffer and were on our way in literally a matter of a couple of minutes. It left us all remarking “things are always so easy at Universal!” as we made our way to Hollywood Drive-In Golf.



I let the rest of my trio decide on which course they wanted to golf, and after a brief discussion they opted for the Hauntings of Ghostly Greens. Steve and Jake are HUGE horror movie buffs, so I had a feeling this theming would prevail (but I can totally see us going back again on a future visit and trying out the other course…..both themes were well executed and both courses looked like a ton of fun!). We grabbed putters and balls and were off to tackle 18 holes.





After the stifling round of mini golf that we played at the Pirates Cove course during the week prior, we were down right relieved to find that the temperature continued to moderate as the evening went on and we thoroughly and completely enjoyed our time on the course. The holes were fun and challenging without being too hard, and the theming was adorable and quite unique.



Yours truly even managed a hole in one on this hole:



How I did so, I have yet to figure out (and it left Steve, Jake and Sweetie equally stupefied……let’s just say I’m generally not the world’s best golfer ) but I had witnesses . In fact, I think we all managed at least one hole in one that evening (Jake got 2 or 3, if my memory serves me correctly….in fact, I think he won that round, with Steve hot on his heels) so a fun time was had by all.

Ah yes….and a special note for anyone else visiting during the hot times of the year: they had misting fans right on the course. Thank you, Universal!!!



Continued in the next post!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Sunday, August 24th…..the final chapter .

With golfing behind us, we were ready for dinner. Jake and Sweetie had long since decided on Nascar as our restaurant of choice (Sweetie’s family are HUGE Nascar fans, and she was eager to take lots of photos and email them back home) so that’s where we headed. While we had dined at NBA City on prior visits, Nascar was a new choice for us.



There was no wait for a table (in fact, it was quite empty) so we were seated immediately by a very personable young lady. A short time later, drink orders were taken as well as our entrée selections under the meal and mini golf plan. That was a real plus for this location….there were some really good choices!





While we were waiting for our food to arrive, Jake and Sweetie went on an exploration. They visited the gift shop as well as the upper floor and indulged Sweetie in her requested photo taking. Steve and I enjoyed a few quite moments in the coolness of the restaurant while we sipped away on our beverages.



It wasn’t long before our dinners were brought out of the kitchen. They looked and smelled soooo good!

Jake and both had the chicken tenders and fries. Super yummy.



Steve had the Philly cheese steak.



And Sweetie had the All-American burger. It was really, really BIG!



Excellent food quality, good portion sizes, and under the meal and mini golf deal (https://www.universalorlando.com/Nightlife/CityWalk-Mini-Golf.aspx) it was an exceptional value. The price per person for the mini golf alone would have been $14.99. Our entrees were between $13 and $14 each. Then we each received a bottomless soft drink as part of the deal as well (which I assume was about $3 at the very least). The meal and mini golf combo price was $23.95, so a good savings. We will definitely do this again on future trips (and maybe try another restaurant from the list).

While we were dining, we were greeted by a lady who was taking photos of guests “for free”. She indicated she worked on tips only, was taking pictures with no obligation to buy, and would give us a 4 x 6 print just for smiling for the camera…..and our photo would be available for digital download on the Nascar Sports Grill Facebook page within a few days. What they heck. We said “cheese”, and ended up with this:



….to which Sweetie exclaimed “holy crap! We actually got a photo of all 4 of us that’s somewhat decent!” . Ouch!

The photographer came back with our print a short time later, we gave her nice tip (she was very friendly) and left a gratuity for our server. Then we headed out to Citywalk to do a little exploring and work off all that food.

CityWalk was pretty busy, with the parks now closed (or just closing…..we were treated to a short fireworks display over the entrance to Universal Studios as we strolled along) but it was a fun vibe and the lights made it all very colourful pretty. Jake and Sweetie wanted to stop at the NBA City store (okay, well Jake did….and Sweetie humoured him ) so that’s where we went first:



After getting his basketball fix, we just walked and hung out and let Sweetie soak it all in…..it was her first visit, and she was quite taken with the “vibe”.



Eventually, we wandered back toward the exit and returned to collect the van on the roof. Back at the resort, we grabbed a short swim just to cool off, then it was early to bed for all of us. Tomorrow was our BIG day, the one we had been not-so-patiently waiting for for since Christmas. We had a date with some dolphins at Discovery Cove …..and we couldn’t hardly wait! But that 6:30 am wake-up call would come early for the kiddos. Even earlier for me!!

 

[Lynne G]

Funny, no matter how adventurous my little one is, it's chicken fingers or nuggets and fries no matter where we are. So, she enjoyed them when we dined at NASCAR too. DS and I split the burger, so we could enjoy dessert. I always like it there. Decent bar food, and when we went, it also was not crowded.

That''s what I like about Universal when we travel at the end of summer. No need for reservations or last minute ones, and many good food places to eat. I was however, very very glad I did have a reservation at Christmas time. That saved us from some really unhappy looking people in the very packed Buffet restaurant. I give Open Table a great thank you. Very easy to make reservations with Open Table, and the restaurant had us seated within 15 minutes of our checking in, on an ultra crowded Christmas night.

And if you want to see crowds - you should have seen us navigate from the entrance to City Walk to Margaritaville in one huge mass of people. DH does not do well in crowds, so we wiggled our way as fast as we could to and from the restaurant. Good thing I know the lay of the land. I had never seen so many people in City Walk.


Sorry to hijack- carry on

 

[bankr63]

We paid the bill (had 10% off thanks to a coupon available online) and rolled ourselves out to the van. Making the short drive back to the Vistana, we headed straight to the pool for yet another evening of swimming under the stars while we marvelled to each other that we had left home a full week prior. Time flies when you’re having fun!!

What I marvel at is how each night you have a big dinner, run back to the resort, then hit the pool. I don't know how you do it; I get cramps just thinking about it!

 

[pigletto]

Loving your updates Gina!! 78 days until we will be at Universal ourselves. We are still debating whether or not we will do the golf and meal deal. It doesn't leave a lot of choices for the vegetarian in our group so I will see what she says as it gets closer. I think there is a cheese pizza included at one of the places and a pasta somewhere else so there is hope!

I had to laugh at your Yankee candle love. Me too!!!! In fact I have 2 Fall scented ones out right now, and they are getting low so I told dh I wanted to go to the outlet in Niagara Falls, New York (very good deals). He just laughed because to be honest, I'm kind of known for my Yankee Candle obsession. I have a box downstairs and I bring them out by season.

I'm getting some great restaurant recommendations from your trip report! Like I said, we have a vegetarian in our group, so buffets work well. We're thinking we will try GC on this trip. We're looking forward to Sweet Tomatoes as well.

Can't wait to see the pics from your Discovery Cove day!

 

[bankr63]

We went out to swim to find the Fountains pool closed.....roped off by yellow caution tape . It stayed that way from early evening right on through to morning. We couldn't get close enough to see, but whatever occurred must have involved a partial draining of the pool, as the following days the water was noticeably and sharply cooler.

Ah, the dreaded "code brown" closure...

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Funny, no matter how adventurous my little one is, it's chicken fingers or nuggets and fries no matter where we are. So, she enjoyed them when we dined at NASCAR too. DS and I split the burger, so we could enjoy dessert. I always like it there. Decent bar food, and when we went, it also was not crowded.

lol, Jake and I have rarely met a chicken tender we didn't like . Ditto for a good bowl of pasta.

We were so full after dinner, we sadly took a pass on dessert. We didn't even look at the dessert menu (tsk, tsk.....I should have at least perused it in the name of research).

What I marvel at is how each night you have a big dinner, run back to the resort, then hit the pool. I don't know how you do it; I get cramps just thinking about it!

None of us have ever suffered from after-dinner swimming cramps . I think we must be weird. Either that, or our bodies are just conditioned to suck it up.....Steve and I usually swim 3-4 times a week here at the Y, right after dinner (from 7 - 8 pm). So its a common practice for us (though admittedly, we don't eat at home like we do on vacation....thank the Lord).

I had to laugh at your Yankee candle love. Me too!!!! In fact I have 2 Fall scented ones out right now, and they are getting low so I told dh I wanted to go to the outlet in Niagara Falls, New York (very good deals). He just laughed because to be honest, I'm kind of known for my Yankee Candle obsession. I have a box downstairs and I bring them out by season.

We're looking forward to Sweet Tomatoes as well.

The Yankee Candle Outlet in the Premium Outlets had the most awesome selection of "Florida-y" scents.....I got a full dozen that smelled like the ocean, or oranges, or some variation of a tropical breeze. Its nice to put them on in the evening now that its getting dark so much earlier. I can close my eyes, breathe deeply, and pretend I'm standing on the shore at Daytona with my feet in the sand and the wind in my hair .

Sweet Tomatoes is on our to-do list for May . Jake's never wanted to try it, but Steve and I are game (it gets so much love here on the Dis, it MUST be good). Our kid-free trip will be the perfect time to test it out. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it, too!!

Ah, the dreaded "code brown" closure...

That was our guess, too . Blech.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Hi Gina, we ate at Sweet Tomatoes at the Crossroads so not far from the Sheraton.

Although no meat, I was impressed by the salad bar, baked potatoes, pizza ,soup and bread. I didn't know but you also get dessert even more impressive was that the cashier asked if I had any coupons, I didn't , and took pity on me and gave me a free meal anyway I must just look needy

 

[dennise]

Sweet Tomatoes has the best frozen yogurt, it is so creamy, like a premium ice cream, add caramel sauce and toppings, heavenly. I don't think it has any calories either.