As our monorail purred into the GF, I was giddy with anticipation of my first-ever DISmeet and even more to the point, that it was with my sweetest of sweet (and only) long lost sis, TarzansKat, or, as we shall call her ever onward, TK. I'd seen pics of her and her DH and her sweet little prince of a boy before leaving so I was on the lookout as we approached Citricos. I spotted her DH pushing the stroller around just outside the entrance to the restaurant and went over to introduce myself.
He didn't shake my hand.
HOW RUDE! (NOStephanieTanner)
Kidding.
He's actually a peach. The poor TK clan was well into the throes of a Disney cold at that point and as much as they wanted to share dinner with us, they didn't want to share their germs. So nice.
Just as I was introducing myself to her DS (who a.) was playing shy and b.) is possibly the cutest little man born to this planet), two things happened at once, TK rounded the corner, ready to tell us our table was available and BF called me. I excused myself for a second to quickly take his call and then FINALLY got to meet TK.
If you missed my PTR, all you need to know is this - TK and I share 98% of the same genes (including likes, dislikes and pirate obsessions) but none of the same parents. The number of things we have in common is scary. The number of things we don't have in common is perfect - enough alike to take over the world, enough different to not kill each other in the process.
I knew this would be one of the biggest and best highlights of our trip.
We were seated at a large round table set in from the windows. Our server's name was Tiffany. She was wonderful, though had no idea what she was in for with our group! LOL She brought us water and bread to start while we looked over the menus. I think Missy was the only one who was 100% POSITIVE about what she was having for dinner. She'd known for weeks since Id forwarded her the menu in advance. The rest of us...well...suffice it to say we were a tad indecisive. I think we made it through most of the basket of bread (which is FANTASTIC, it has tiny pieces of olive in it) before the rest of us decided what we wanted.
Six and a half weeks later, we ordered dinner.
God bless you, Tiffany, and your infinite patience.
Missy ordered the swordfish. The "I've waited six weeks for this swordfish" swordfish. The fish itself is grilled and served over papparadelle pasta al olio with crushed olives, black olive oil, and basil coulis. Missy assures me that what all that means in English is that heaven tastes like swordfish.
(Sorry, no food porn just yet. We DID remember to get the desserts, but that's it. We were MUCH better about it the rest of the week.)
The rest of us had the Filet Jardiniere: an oak-grilled filet of beef with house-cured vegetables, quattro formaggi crushed potatoes, and veal glace de viande.
I'd like to draw your attention to four words in that last sentence: quattro formaggi crushed potoatoes. Do you know what they mean? They mean "you can and will want to eat these potatoes for the rest of your life". I mean, the filet was divine (I had mine medium rare, TK and her DH had theirs medium) and the cured veggies were good - tangy and not what I expected, in a pleasant way. But the potatoes.
OH the PO-TA-TOES.
If these potatoes were a dessert they'd be Butter Grilled Pound Cake. (R.I.P.)
If these potatoes were a resort stay, they'd be a complimentary upgrade to the Concierge level at the Poly.
If these potatoes were a presidential candidate, well, I know they would NOT be Sarah Palin. If you asked my mom they would be eight more years of Bill Clinton.
Unfortunately, since returning home, I have yet to find a recipe for these wonderous of wondered spuds. I'm getting desperate.
So yes, the potatoes were divine, and dinner was great, but really spending time with our new friends was the best part. I discovered that not only are TK and I like two peas in a pod (snowpeas, preferably; we're classy like that), but her DH is so much like my BF that if they ever got together and started teasing us as a combined spousal unit, I think the earth's rotation would stop. Then they'd spend about 70 hours playing MarioKart on the WII followed by watching a Naruto marathon. And yes, these are men. But aren't all men boys at heart?
TK's lil' man is just. Well. He's the bees' knees. Missy and I immediately fell in love with him. He's just so sweet. I've never in my life heard a three and a half year old with a vocabulary like he has. He's equal parts shy, mischievous, brilliant and sweet. Oh. And he really likes grapes. And his cars. And C-A-N-D-Y. He and Tiffany were so sweet when they interacted. She'd talk right to him and ask him what he wanted and if he got shy, she'd talk to TK or her DH and then all of a sudden he'd come right out with what he wanted and took to shyly flirting with her. At one point towards the end of our meal, he started playing with a little girl at a table near us. The little girl called him a "pretty boy". And that he is folks. He's simply darlin'. Missy is currently drafting plans to kidnap him, never to return him.
And TK. I could say so much. But really, I don't need to. She was everything I knew her to be. But in 3-D. And sitting across the table, talking about our first day and her whole trip, I knew I'd found a lifelong friend.
At some point Tiffany brought up the subject of dessert. We were amenable. As were our pockets (WOOHOO FREE DINNING!) TK and I chose the trio of sorbets.
A rather crummy picture:
The flavors were raspberry (my favorite - so tangy and fresh), cappucino (good - strong) and almond (delightful - tasted a bit like vanilla but was also distinctly almond, nice coupled with the raspberry). The red line of stuff in front of the sorbet was a strawberry sauce which was so good with all three flavors.
TK's DH had the Seasonal Berry Gratin with a champagne-Grand Marnier sabayon. Wow. It looked good. The berries looked plump and sweet. TK's lil' man made his own sundae and had a grand ole' time doing it.
Missy's dessert is what happens when sin is plated. Oh. MY. She had the Warm Chocolate Banana Torte. It was. OHMIGOD. All I could have was a single bite. It was so delicious and dark chocolatey and nannery.
And the chocolate crown wasn't too bad either. It was both nomable and a cute accessory.
One would think dessert would be the end of the meal. Nay. We sat and chitted and chatted until someone looked at the time. Our ADR had been for 5:40 p.m. It was now 8:45 p.m. Three hours say you?!?!
Three FANTASTIC hours, say I.
We discussed maybe moving our par-tay to a location with more drinks or to the MK for the Spectro showing but when it came down to it, we all agreed we were beat. Missy and I had our first full park day ahead of us and TK and her clan had their departure day looming and their colds o-pressing. However, we did decide to take the monorail together - the TK clan back to the MK for the launch to WL and Missy and I to the Poly.
We first partook of a mini-photo session out on the couches near the elevators and I have to say, one of my favorite photos from the trip is from that night. I just look so darned happy. So does TK. However, because I know that TK likes her privacy, I've opted NOT to include them here. Just know that in the pics we're grinning like women on Christmas morning who just woke up to find Jack Sparrow under their tree. (We had also exchanged gift bags earlier in the evening, but Ill include pics of those in the Souvenir chapter, which will likely take 76 days to post.) We headed out to the monorail and it seemed like only seconds later we were at the MK saying goodbye.
Oh how I wished our trips had overlapped more. We bid our new friends adios and safe travels and waved as the monorail took off towards the Contemporary.
You know, people may tease me about my Disney obsession or for posting to these boards. Ive just stopped listening. Posting here has brought so many new and wonderful people into my life, including the TK family. And for that I am thankful.
When we arrived back at the Poly, we made a pit stop at the Concierge lounge just to see what their nighttime offerings included. They had a fantastic drink (I believe it was orange-guava (a.k.a. Lilikoi juice) with rum) and some cookies and popcorn and such. A movie was playing on the TV and the lounge was more crowded than Id expected it to be. We headed back down to the room and as we were undressing,
IT began.
I think theyre blowing up Disney World.
Missy wasnt kidding. We could hear fireworks from our room. But this wasnt just Wishes! folks. Oh no. The American Fireworks Association (which is what well pretend theyre called because I cant think of the proper name at the moment) was putting on a display over the Lagoon. Id heard a rumor this would be happening and wed agreed that if we werent too tired wed go check it out, since it was kind of a once in a lifetime Disney thing. The biggest fireworks display ever put on at Disney World (I think in terms of number of shells used).
I looked at Missy. She looked at me. We were both in our PJs. She yawned. I said, Id go out there if I still had a bra on.
And thats how we missed a once in a lifetime Disney thing. We listened to it though. It mustve gone on for over 30 minutes, some of the explosions so loud the room vibrated. I imagine it was pretty fantastic. Just as it was ending, when Missy turned out the lights and I said gnight, she said,
Disney World better still be here in the morning.
Up Next: The Tower of Vomit and Why Toy Story Mania Should Have Those Fun Little Barf Bags. ::sigh::
Too rodent like for me!
But worth it...
