Itinerary: Day 5 - A ‘Rest’ Day (Rental house fun)
Day 5: Thursday Jun 9, 2022
- We will enjoy a full day of being lazy at the rental house. There will probably be a lot of swimming and snacking happening, with a movie thrown in there as well. I’ll also be doing some laundry.
Why would we do a rest day after only 1 day in the parks? Two reasons: first up, the family we were originally traveling with had a Sofi stadium tour planned for Thursday. Second, we figured with the rough back to back night drives and a full day in the park, we all might need the extra rest early on. I’d probably do DL and DCA starts before a break in the future, but it worked out ok for us this trip.
DH took advantage of a non-park morning to get some work done. The rest of us slept in until mid-morning, and I got some snuggles in during our lazy morning!
Another cute touch at the house - themed coffee mugs! Especially fitting given our focus on Alice this trip:
DD5 still crashed on the couch at 10am!
Snuggles with DD8 while I had my coffee in bed.
- We may also hit DTD some of the day. Who knows! If anyone has suggestions, feel free to share ‘em!
We didn’t take the family to DTD at all. Instead we did a late breakfast as everyone finally rolled out of bed around 10:30, and then DH and I went to Target to pick up a few things for dinner plus a couple things we’d forgotten the day we arrived. When we got back, I started a load of laundry and got the kids ready for the pool!
This time I DID get in the pool so I have no pictures. It was a lot of fun, and DC12 and DS10 both enjoyed the water slide. DD5 and DD8 avoided it as neither can truly swim, and it was 8 feet deep. I did NOT want to have to do any water rescues while on vacation! We spent a few hours swimming - I especially liked floating on a large ring while the kids chased me around. DD15 and DC12 went inside to change and play on their phones, and DH joined us later after a work call. (You might notice DH worked quite a bit this trip - he had taken on a new role just a few weeks before, and needed to be present and taking care of things despite our vacation; he made sure I was comfortable with his level of work involvement and I appreciated his dedication and diligence in being present for us but keeping up his commitments in his new role.)
DD8 eventually got over her fear of the slide, and attempted it a couple times while DH was also in the pool. She did fine, but it definitely made me nervous and I was glad when she was done, but I was so proud of her for attempting it in the first place. DD5 spent the most time in the water, and still managed to get very tan.
- For dinner, we’ll be setting the kids up with something at the house (likely pizza or mac & cheese), while the adults date to DTD. The plan is to walk up for UVA or Catal. My DD15 should be able to babysit all the kids, especially if we get a movie going for them.
We ordered pizza for the kids and I got ready for date night and caught up on journaling.
Date night had a bumpy start: we decided to take an Uber to save our feet, but when DH decided he did want the full Trader Sam’s experience instead of the Catal dinner I’d expected, the check-in CM noted that we would both need our IDs. I had left my wallet at home thinking I wouldn’t need it. So we decided to do a round trip Uber BACK to the house, grab the ID and go from there.
Finally back at Trader Sam’s to checkin:
Trader Sam’s was cute and well themed at the bar. We ended up getting 3 souvenir mugs, but I didn’t care for any of the drinks at all. They were WAY too strong for me. DH sipped his 2 drinks, but didn’t really enjoy them - he was after the souvenirs (once again surprising me). We ordered food as well - a PuPu Platter and a Hawaiian Platter.
Drink menu:
Our first two drinks: on the left, DH’s Shipwreck on the Rocks (Maker's Mark Bourbon with Agave Nectar and freshly Muddled Lemon and Mint - $39) and on the right my HippopotoMAI-TAI (Coruba Dark Rum, Bacardi Superior Rum, Orange Curaçao, Orgeat (Almond) Syrup, Agave Nectar and fresh Lime Juice - $36). Mine was all booze, no tropical mai-tai flavor - basically straight rum. I think I actually prefered DH’s Shipwreck even though I generally prefer rum to bourbon.
Hawaiian Platter (Marinated Short Rib served with Jasmine Rice, Macaroni Salad and Tangy Slaw - $17), partially devoured. It was delicious - the sauce on the ribs was so flavorful! The rice was excellent - perfectly cooked and seasoned. The macaroni salad was creamy and on its own would have been bland, but worked well paired with the short ribs. The tangy slaw wasn’t particularly tangy, and not memorable.
PuPu Platter (Pork Gyoza, Panko-crusted Long Beans, Macaroni Salad, and Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken Wings served with Togarashi Aïoli - $22), minus the long beans which initially came out room temperature and weren’t pleasant. Our bartender quickly had them replaced, but I have to say I was not impressed with them, even hot. They weren’t bad, just not great either. The gyoza was fantastic, the chicken wings likewise excellent and so flavorful it was good to have the macaroni salad to go with them.
DH added a Zombie (Appleton Estate Reserve Rum, Bacardi Reserva Ocho Rum, Hamilton 151 Rum, Tropical Juices, Falernum, and Cinnamon - $46), but only took a few sips. He doesn’t really like rum at all, and only got it because he loved the mug. Once again his desire for merch was a surprise to me, even after all these years (18 yrs of marriage)! No picture of the Zombie the night of, but here is the mug at home:
After an entertaining but mildly disappointing stay at Trader Sam’s, we weren’t ready for our night to be over. I was a bit chilly, and I joked we needed to buy me a sweatshirt, since I had bought a sweatshirt every other trip, and that I had to check out the dress shop, because last trip I had seen something I liked but talked myself out of it and always regretted it a bit. We did lots of window shopping, and explored the dress shop but didn’t find anything I loved. DH was amused and slightly shocked at the Coach brand merch available and boggled at the $250 ears. We moved on and I caught the smells of Catal - something garlic was in the air! We decided we’d do appetizers and desserts there, and put our name in the walk up list. We did a run through WoD again, this time allowing me to linger more on items and not have to be paying attention to 5 kids going in different directions. I really liked a set of black sweats, tops and bottoms, with gold
Disneyland logos, but it didn’t have the year, and I liked to have one with the year. None of the 2022 ones really stood out, so we left without buying anything. At this point, our Catal table was ready and we headed off for round two!
We were seated against the rail and enjoyed the sunset views of DTD. DH loves people watching so it was perfect for him!
I didn’t grab the prices, but we ordered drinks and appetizers right away.
Pan con Tomate (Grilled Rustic Bread, Vine-ripe Tomato Purée, Sweet Garlic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sea Salt)
Cheese Plate (3 types of cheese I forget, plus quince, apple butter, and pickled raisins)
The sweet garlic was just what I needed as a snack, and the cheese was delicious. The quince paste was divine paired with the cheeses and the crispy cracker they served with it. DH talked me into trying a different drink - this time white sangria, since I’d only ever had red sangria before. It was more drinkable than the earlier stuff I’d tried, but I didn’t love it. He got something with whiskey that he enjoyed so much more than his Trader Sam’s drinks that he got 3 of them. Once we were done with the appetizers, we went with creme brulee and the cornbread madeleines.
The creme brulee was fine - good warm crust and cold creamy underneath
The madeleines stole the show! Warm, sweet, with a unique texture - I was in love! Unfortunately, I was so full I couldn’t quite finish them, so we took a few home for the kids to split.
We did one last round of wandering DTD aimlessly, and called for an Uber home.
- We’ll end the night watching fireworks from the house/yard (in theory there is a view available).
The kids were WIDE awake when we got home. I don’t think there were fireworks that night, as I don’t remember hearing them and didn’t journal anything about it. I did note that the kids were riled up when we got home and took so long to get them calmed and tucked in that DH fell asleep!
The next day we’d be back in the parks, and I was a bit worried morning would be a struggle. Let’s find out if my fears were realized!
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. May we always be so lucky!
