javamom
<font color=green>Rumored Avatar Fairy<br><font co
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2006
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- 2,348
Day 6- Wednesday, June 10th - Gearing up for that hot date!
First, I give my apologies for taking so long to get back to this long-suffering report. Lets see where were we when I left off? Oh yes, Jack snuck into the room at the crack of youre-in-trouble-young-man.
As a side note here, had I known that this was going to be a foreshadowing of things to come in the not too distant future, I would have left him riding the monorail for perpetuity. Anyone in want/need of a 19 year-old-going-on-his-terrible-2s-again man-boy, please let me know. I will pay the shipping fees even, but the food is on you. Call me, (internet stranger)! Ok, maybe I watch too much Craig Ferguson?
We all woke up and the plan was to head to Epcot to see what we could accomplish until it was time for Crash and I to have our hot dinner date.
We headed to Soarin first, as is our usual habit. We rode it and grabbed fastpasses for later as well. I so wish that I could share this ride with my Mom. I know that if the gentle floating sensation doesnt freak her out, she would adore this attraction and it would likely bring back lots of memories for her from when we lived in So Cal.
As I have mentioned before, some of my earliest memories are of going to Disneyland with my family, and then later the orange groves nearby where my step-grandparents lived. I often wonder if any of those groves still exist. But I digress.
Ok where was I before that trip down memory lane? Oh yes, Epcot. Still.
We decided we would take some time to check out Innoventions and soak up all of that AC. Innoventions reminds me of a trade convention, Disney style. Which means that, for the most part, it bored me but we adored the AC. The kids got more out of it than we did. Crash does want to go back again and try the Segway thing.
Next we found ourselves in the Art of Disney Store where we purchased a set of four lithographs of the parks, suitable for framing (which I STILL have not placed into the frames that I bought when we got home).
Side note: Every time we walk through the Art of Disney store, we talk about how fun it would be to outfit a movie room with statues and posters from all of our favorite movies (Disney and otherwise). We have theoretically outfitted a kick-butt movie room several times over, in our imaginations.
We also picked up some more pins to feed that pin addiction as well. We arranged to have the lithos shipped to the International Gateway gift shop for us to pick up when we leave the park later.
After that, it was time to use those Soarin fastpasses to visit Capt Putty again! One of these days, I must buy the CD with the music. I think that I want to get an MP3 player, so I can fill it with my favorite memories and listen to them all day.
Everyone was getting hungry, so we decided that we might try a walk-in at the San Angel Inn. Unfortunately, the wait time would have made it too close to dinner time, so we went over to the cantina instead for nachos and drinks instead. After that we headed toward the rest of World Showcase.
Up next was Norway, where we noticed that Maelstrom was at a 20 min wait. We opted not to ride this time, but we did go explore Puffins Roost (or whatever its called). There was a guy autographing bottles of fragrance. I remember him as tall, blonde, and very Nordic. His fragrances didnt suck, but I didnt buy any either.
We decided to putz our way back toward the IG so that we could pick up our lithos and head back to the villa. So, we started walking in that general direction, stopping here and there to look at carp. Bad news was that when we finally arrived at the IG gift shop (I think it is called World Traders) our lithos were not there. Someone had delivered them to the wrong gate, though the slip was clearly marked IG gate. I was tired, my feet were killing me, so I really did not feel like waiting for it. The castmember said that he would call and have it brought over and would call us to let us know that it had arrived. I was too tired to argue, so we headed back to the villa.
Crash and I washed up and changed clothes. I threw a load of clothes into the washer and threw a load from the dryer at the kids and told them to put them away. I cannot stress enough how nice it was to have a washer and dryer in our room. Everything was fresh and clean, and it was no hassle. Just toss in a load at the end of the day, go to bed, throw them in the dryer in the morning. This is easy peasey and no stinking pile of laundry to deal with. All without packing our closets into suitcases either!
I sent Jack over to the IG to pick up our lithos, at some point. When he got back, it was time to go over the list of dos-and-donts for the evening. They were to head over to the Community Hall and get a couple of DVDs to watch and come straight back. No cooking, yada yada
Sermon 101 over, Crash and I headed down to the Boardwalk for our dinner date at the Flying Fish. We stopped and introduced ourselves along the way. Hi, Im Steph. Nice to meet you. Come here often? Hi, Im Crash, you look familiar.
We dont get many opportunities to go out alone. We are almost always together as a family for dinner, mostly because Crash and I work opposite schedules. It was going to be really nice to just sit across the table and talk without having to wrangle orders for kids, deal with napkins, elbows, and answer a million questions about the menu, or why they dont serve whatever-soda-they-think-they-like-this-week. On the other hand, now that I have an adult (?) child, I find myself lingering in moments with Peter and Belle a lot more. Im just savoring the ordinary mundane, yet superlative, small moments of the day. A hug, a smile, a corny joke told in complete earnest, I adore them all. I wish I could share them too.
No sooner had we checked in at the empty restaurant (it was opening), when I realized that I left my Disney Rewards card in the villa, so I headed up real quick to grab it. I made it back just in time to be seated. They didnt seat us in the area that I refer to as the tent, which I kind of like, but it was still a nice table. We had an excellent server, and Keith the Manager came over to see if we needed anything. We both ordered the strip steak. Weve been married long enough that we seem to order the same thing quite often. I think he has learned to trust my judgment. We even ordered the same drink: Coney Island Iced Teas. They were yummy, we had a couple. Each. Now for desert, we broke our streak and ordered different things. Mostly because I wanted to try the Wine Flight. It was delish! Interestingly the one that I thought I would like the most, I liked the least and vice versa. Crash ordered the Chocolate cake, of course. We used our DDE card again, and our Disney Rewards card. Left server a nice bonus tip!
As a side note, the Manager Keith also called our room later to see if we enjoyed our meal and left his number should we have any questions or concerns. I assume he does this to everyone??? We are by no means, special guests.
We decided to head over to the Character Connection to pick up some packages that we had sent there from earlier purchases. Took the stuff up to the room and checked on the kids. All was well in the villa, so we headed back down to the boardwalk. We decided to walk over to the bridge that leads from the boardwalk to toward the IG entrance to Epcot, to watch Illuminations. We stood there and cuddled on the bridge while we watched. After the fireworks ended, we headed back to the Boardwalk and watched one of the street performers do a routine with masking tape, a hat, a banana, and a couple of poor unfortunate souls that he poked good-natured fun at. It was great, but it made me feel guilty that the kids were missing it. So, we ended our hot date by going back to the villa and our family. Review: good food, good drink, good fun, a great night. OK so maybe it wasnt so HOT. Hey, we are just a couple of old farts from the Midwest with 3 kids. Cuddling on a bridge will have to suffice!
I ended my night by soaking in the Jacuzzi tub and letting the jets massage my little pigs again. Cant wait to go back!
Up next So Sad, time to go home.
First, I give my apologies for taking so long to get back to this long-suffering report. Lets see where were we when I left off? Oh yes, Jack snuck into the room at the crack of youre-in-trouble-young-man.
As a side note here, had I known that this was going to be a foreshadowing of things to come in the not too distant future, I would have left him riding the monorail for perpetuity. Anyone in want/need of a 19 year-old-going-on-his-terrible-2s-again man-boy, please let me know. I will pay the shipping fees even, but the food is on you. Call me, (internet stranger)! Ok, maybe I watch too much Craig Ferguson?
We all woke up and the plan was to head to Epcot to see what we could accomplish until it was time for Crash and I to have our hot dinner date.
We headed to Soarin first, as is our usual habit. We rode it and grabbed fastpasses for later as well. I so wish that I could share this ride with my Mom. I know that if the gentle floating sensation doesnt freak her out, she would adore this attraction and it would likely bring back lots of memories for her from when we lived in So Cal.
As I have mentioned before, some of my earliest memories are of going to Disneyland with my family, and then later the orange groves nearby where my step-grandparents lived. I often wonder if any of those groves still exist. But I digress.
Ok where was I before that trip down memory lane? Oh yes, Epcot. Still.
We decided we would take some time to check out Innoventions and soak up all of that AC. Innoventions reminds me of a trade convention, Disney style. Which means that, for the most part, it bored me but we adored the AC. The kids got more out of it than we did. Crash does want to go back again and try the Segway thing.
Next we found ourselves in the Art of Disney Store where we purchased a set of four lithographs of the parks, suitable for framing (which I STILL have not placed into the frames that I bought when we got home).
Side note: Every time we walk through the Art of Disney store, we talk about how fun it would be to outfit a movie room with statues and posters from all of our favorite movies (Disney and otherwise). We have theoretically outfitted a kick-butt movie room several times over, in our imaginations.
We also picked up some more pins to feed that pin addiction as well. We arranged to have the lithos shipped to the International Gateway gift shop for us to pick up when we leave the park later.
After that, it was time to use those Soarin fastpasses to visit Capt Putty again! One of these days, I must buy the CD with the music. I think that I want to get an MP3 player, so I can fill it with my favorite memories and listen to them all day.
Everyone was getting hungry, so we decided that we might try a walk-in at the San Angel Inn. Unfortunately, the wait time would have made it too close to dinner time, so we went over to the cantina instead for nachos and drinks instead. After that we headed toward the rest of World Showcase.
Up next was Norway, where we noticed that Maelstrom was at a 20 min wait. We opted not to ride this time, but we did go explore Puffins Roost (or whatever its called). There was a guy autographing bottles of fragrance. I remember him as tall, blonde, and very Nordic. His fragrances didnt suck, but I didnt buy any either.
We decided to putz our way back toward the IG so that we could pick up our lithos and head back to the villa. So, we started walking in that general direction, stopping here and there to look at carp. Bad news was that when we finally arrived at the IG gift shop (I think it is called World Traders) our lithos were not there. Someone had delivered them to the wrong gate, though the slip was clearly marked IG gate. I was tired, my feet were killing me, so I really did not feel like waiting for it. The castmember said that he would call and have it brought over and would call us to let us know that it had arrived. I was too tired to argue, so we headed back to the villa.
Crash and I washed up and changed clothes. I threw a load of clothes into the washer and threw a load from the dryer at the kids and told them to put them away. I cannot stress enough how nice it was to have a washer and dryer in our room. Everything was fresh and clean, and it was no hassle. Just toss in a load at the end of the day, go to bed, throw them in the dryer in the morning. This is easy peasey and no stinking pile of laundry to deal with. All without packing our closets into suitcases either!
I sent Jack over to the IG to pick up our lithos, at some point. When he got back, it was time to go over the list of dos-and-donts for the evening. They were to head over to the Community Hall and get a couple of DVDs to watch and come straight back. No cooking, yada yada
Sermon 101 over, Crash and I headed down to the Boardwalk for our dinner date at the Flying Fish. We stopped and introduced ourselves along the way. Hi, Im Steph. Nice to meet you. Come here often? Hi, Im Crash, you look familiar.
We dont get many opportunities to go out alone. We are almost always together as a family for dinner, mostly because Crash and I work opposite schedules. It was going to be really nice to just sit across the table and talk without having to wrangle orders for kids, deal with napkins, elbows, and answer a million questions about the menu, or why they dont serve whatever-soda-they-think-they-like-this-week. On the other hand, now that I have an adult (?) child, I find myself lingering in moments with Peter and Belle a lot more. Im just savoring the ordinary mundane, yet superlative, small moments of the day. A hug, a smile, a corny joke told in complete earnest, I adore them all. I wish I could share them too.
No sooner had we checked in at the empty restaurant (it was opening), when I realized that I left my Disney Rewards card in the villa, so I headed up real quick to grab it. I made it back just in time to be seated. They didnt seat us in the area that I refer to as the tent, which I kind of like, but it was still a nice table. We had an excellent server, and Keith the Manager came over to see if we needed anything. We both ordered the strip steak. Weve been married long enough that we seem to order the same thing quite often. I think he has learned to trust my judgment. We even ordered the same drink: Coney Island Iced Teas. They were yummy, we had a couple. Each. Now for desert, we broke our streak and ordered different things. Mostly because I wanted to try the Wine Flight. It was delish! Interestingly the one that I thought I would like the most, I liked the least and vice versa. Crash ordered the Chocolate cake, of course. We used our DDE card again, and our Disney Rewards card. Left server a nice bonus tip!
As a side note, the Manager Keith also called our room later to see if we enjoyed our meal and left his number should we have any questions or concerns. I assume he does this to everyone??? We are by no means, special guests.
We decided to head over to the Character Connection to pick up some packages that we had sent there from earlier purchases. Took the stuff up to the room and checked on the kids. All was well in the villa, so we headed back down to the boardwalk. We decided to walk over to the bridge that leads from the boardwalk to toward the IG entrance to Epcot, to watch Illuminations. We stood there and cuddled on the bridge while we watched. After the fireworks ended, we headed back to the Boardwalk and watched one of the street performers do a routine with masking tape, a hat, a banana, and a couple of poor unfortunate souls that he poked good-natured fun at. It was great, but it made me feel guilty that the kids were missing it. So, we ended our hot date by going back to the villa and our family. Review: good food, good drink, good fun, a great night. OK so maybe it wasnt so HOT. Hey, we are just a couple of old farts from the Midwest with 3 kids. Cuddling on a bridge will have to suffice!
I ended my night by soaking in the Jacuzzi tub and letting the jets massage my little pigs again. Cant wait to go back!
Up next So Sad, time to go home.
