(Updated 4/1) Dodged the Blizzard, But Not the Crowds (2/18-3/8)

[mickey916]

The carrot cake looks delicious.

It was! We usually go the chocolate route but that one looked so good we couldn't pass it up. We're glad we got it.

You got as many steps that day as you usually get at WDW.

The walk back and forth to dinner definitely boosted the count!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

2/26/26 A Day in Jacksonville​

Originally I wasn’t sure if DH was fully committed to going on this trip especially since I knew he was worried about the potential of a snowstorm while we were gone (little did we know, it was going to be a doozy). For Christmas, however, he surprised me with tickets to the Nate Bargatze Big Dumb Eyes comedy show in Jacksonville on February 26th. This made me so happy on two fronts: 1) I love Nate Bargatze’s comedy and 2) that meant he was committed to taking this winter trip! The first words out of my mouth when I opened his gift was “Oh I guess that means we’re definitely going to Florida!”

We decided to spend the day in Jacksonville, checking out some of the restaurants and sights before the show. We made the drive up to Jacksonville and stopped for an early lunch at 11:00 at the Bearded Pig.

View attachment 1059886

This is a small counter service BBQ restaurant and bar that I learned about through YouTube. Even though it was 11:00 on a Thursday, the place was packed! We placed our order and then found a table outside. Like the Polite Pig, they then bring the food to your table.

We shared a turkey sandwich with fries and a side of macaroni & cheese.

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The turkey sandwich was very small but it was excellent. The turkey was perfectly smoked, juicy, and tender. There were bottles of various tasty sauces on the table that we enjoyed dipping our halves in. The fries were fresh cut and very good. The macaroni & cheese was the weakest part of the meal. It had a nice flavor but was a little dried out. I think we probably got the end of the batch. Overall we were really impressed by not only the food we ordered but the salads and BBQ plates we saw everyone enjoying around us. We really want to eat here again and try some more of their offerings, perhaps on one of our drives down or back. The parking lot is the only downside as it is really small and the spots are tight. Next time we go we’re considering parking elsewhere and walking over. This was a great find! We gave it an A.
After our lunch we parked in a parking garage and walked along the Southbank Riverwalk along the St. John’s River. I had purchased a parking pass online for the comedy show which stated it was valid from 2:00-10:00 pm. So, after our walk, once it was 2:00 we drove over to Parking Lot Z near the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. As we pulled in the gate was locked and there was a woman sitting there. She told us we couldn’t park there until 4. I showed her my parking pass and she shrugged and said “Good enough for me!” and let us in. We got our first choice of spots!

The show didn’t start until 7:00 so we had some time to kill and wanted to get an early dinner. We decided to walk back over the bridge to the Southbank side of the river to go to another restaurant I thought sounded good, bb’s restaurant. As we started our walk, we could smell a very strong coffee smell. We realized we were walking past the Maxwell Coffee plant. We saw a security guard and asked him if it always smelled like that and he said “yes it does!” We thought it was cool but I don’t know if I’d like to smell that all the time!

Our walk to the restaurant ended up being over a 2 mile walk because we took a couple wrong turns but we eventually made it there. I had read online that they had outside seating so I was envisioning sitting outside along the waterfront. That was not the case. There were a couple tables out by the parking lot, not really the scenery I thought we would be getting, so we decided to eat inside.

We shared two entrees. First, the jambalaya pizza: andouille sausage, cajun shrimp, grilled chicken, bell peppers, fresh mozzarella, and creole tomato sauce.

View attachment 1059892

This sadly was not nearly as good as it sounded on the menu. The crust was like one you would make from Pillsbury refrigerated dough, which really detracted from the pizza. The toppings were fine but not as flavorful as described. I don't recall any creole tomato sauce. It wasn’t bad but not at all what we had hoped for based on the description.

We also shared the Pan Asian Chop Chop Salad: grilled chicken, toasted peanuts, asian rice noodles, fried wonton strips, sweet soy drizzle, wasabi drizzle (which we got on the side), sesame ginger vinaigrette

The salad was huge and the kitchen split it for us into two plates.

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This too was good, not great. The chicken was seasoned and grilled well but the rest of it was lettuce, wonton chips, and noodles, as described but expected maybe a few other vegetables. It too did not live up to its flowery description on the menu.

There was one more reason besides the interesting sounding pizza and salad that made me want to go to this restaurant - they had an amazing list of desserts. DH and I perused the display case a couple times and ultimately decided to share a slice of carrot cake.

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This was worth the trip! It was probably the best carrot cake we’ve ever had. The cream cheese frosting was so creamy and delicious. The cake itself was tender, moist and full of flavor and texture from chunks of pineapple, raisins and shredded carrots. We gave the cake an A.

Overall we gave our experience at bb’s restaurant a B. I don’t think we would go there again except we might stop by for dessert after eating at the Bearded Pig! All of their cakes looked fabulous.

After finishing our meal we walked back the direct route to the Vystar Veteran’s Memorial Arena. It was still early for the show so we sat in our car for a bit and talked to our sons to see how things were melting at home (they weren't). They were both back at their own places by this point.

At around 6:00 they started letting people through security and we found our seats. We had a pretty good view of the stage.

View attachment 1059894

They made several announcements that no photography or videography was allowed so I don’t have pictures of the actual show. The show started at 7:00 with the host Julian McCullough who did a great job working the audience. There were then three other comics, Dustin Chafin, Nick Thune and Derrick Stroup, who each did about a 10 minute set. We weren’t familiar with any of them but we thought Derrick Stroup was very funny. Nate Bargatze then did a full hour of all new material. We had seen him almost exactly two years ago (on 2/24/24) in Providence, RI and I was very surprised that he didn’t repeat any of the jokes from his Be Funny tour. DH and I laughed for pretty much the entire hour.

When the show was over we were following the crowds out when we noticed a few people going out a different exit. We followed them and that exit actually emptied out right across from our parking lot. We got to our car and were among the first people out of the lot. We then had an uneventful drive all the way back to Flamingo Crossings, arriving back at 12:30 am. It was a very fun day and night in Jacksonville.

Total steps: 21,028 (8.32 miles)

The food at the bearded pig looks good and the other plates you described from other people sound even better. Looks like a good place to put on the stopping list.
Too bad the other place wasn’t as good. I like carrot cake but not love it. It does look yummy!
Good thing that woman let you in. That was weird.
My DH likes Nate B. What a fun surprise!!
Glad you got to see all new jokes!!
That is a lot of steps for not being in Disney!! Haha

 

[mickey916]

The food at the bearded pig looks good and the other plates you described from other people sound even better. Looks like a good place to put on the stopping list.

Our plan is to go there on the way down this time.

Too bad the other place wasn’t as good. I like carrot cake but not love it. It does look yummy!

That's how I feel about carrot cake too usually but this one was yummy!

Good thing that woman let you in. That was weird.

It was very weird. I booked the parking through a link the official site where DH bought the tickets. What's also weird was when we left there was a sign at the lot that said "Parking for (some company) only" and that wasn't the name of the parking company I booked through. I know we were in the right lot since it said Lot Z. I don't know what happened but it all worked out great.

My DH likes Nate B. What a fun surprise!!

Your DH has great taste!

Glad you got to see all new jokes!!

Me too. I have been avoiding recent videos of him to make sure we would be surprised.

That is a lot of steps for not being in Disney!! Haha

It is! Especially since we had a 5 hour round trip commute to/from Jacksonville.

 

[mickey916]

2/27/26 Meatless Day at Disney Springs​

Before each trip I always put together a rough plan for our meals. When I first started planning this trip I didn’t even think about the fact that we were going during Lent when we don’t eat meat on Fridays. I did realize it eventually and shifted some plans around to make it work. We planned on spending this day at Disney Springs so I booked dinner at Frontera Cocina and assumed we’d figure out something for lunch.

We arrived at Disney Springs about 9:30, walked around for a bit, and watched an orchestra from West Chicago perform on the Waterfront stage. We always love to see the various school groups. So talented!

We wanted a mid-morning snack and realized beignets are meatless! So, we took the boat to the French Quarter. Like most places we went, there was a pretty long line at Scat Cats but it went fairly quickly.

Showing amazing restraint, we ordered only 3.



These are just so delicious! Can’t believe we were nine days into our trip before we had our first beignet! Good things come to those who wait I guess. We gave them an A-.

After our delicious mid-morning snack, we walked down to the Riverside Resort. We discovered the River Roost was closed for renovations and they were renovating the water wheel too. We definitely saw a lot of construction on this trip.

We took the boat from Riverside back to Disney Springs and walked around for a bit weighing our meat-free lunch options. After a sub-par experience previously at Earl of Sandwich, we had crossed that one off our list. But, upon searching for meat-less options, I thought the Caprese sandwich sounded good. The line here was enormous too. I attempted to place a mobile order as I was standing in line. They don’t use the MDE app but instead use their own website. It was so cumbersome that by the time I was ready to place my order I was at the cash register so I ordered the old fashioned way.

Caprese sandwich on multigrain bread: Fresh Mozzarella, Roma Tomato, Basil and Balsamic



This was very tasty! The bread was very fresh, the mozzarella, tomato and basil were all very flavorful. Earl of Sandwich redeemed itself with this sandwich. I wanted potato wedges but didn’t see them on the menu. The MDE menu has them listed but the actual Earl of Sandwich menu does not. We will have to investigate next time. We gave our lunch a B+.

After lunch we stopped to watch another high school performance on the Waterside stage. This time it was a band from the Chicago area. They were excellent. We then walked to Old Key West by following the path near Cirque du Soleil. On our walk back from OKW we took a detour through the Treehouses. That’s a bucket list stay for some day. We then walked through Saratoga Springs. DH had challenged us to find one new Hidden Mickey on our travels that day and we were really struggling. Luckily we found this one on our walk through Saratoga Springs.



We walked back to Disney Springs and it started to rain. We waited out the rainstorm on the patio of the former Sprinkles. The pop-up Crazy Shake wasn’t open yet but was soon to open in a couple days.



Since we didn’t have much else to do, we moved up our dining reservation and headed to Frontera Cocina. I had looked at the official Frontera Cocina menu ahead of time to make sure there were some meatless options. There was a Butternut Squash & Mushroom Red Chile Enchilada listed that I thought DH would like. I verified that morning that it was still on the menu. However when we received our actual menu, it wasn’t on there. The server told us that the menu had changed that day. Interestingly enough though as I look at the menu today, it is still listed on their online menu. At that point I wasn’t really sure what DH would like. We asked the server for meatless suggestions and she said the cauliflower tacos were excellent. It was really the only option besides seafood.

We started our meal with the Half & Half appetizer: Half guacamole verde, half toasted pumpkin seed “hummus”, jicama, cucumber.



We really enjoyed this appetizer. The guacamole and hummus are so fresh and flavorful. We really liked the jicama too. I don’t know how they prepare it or if it’s just served as is. I haven’t been able to find jicama in the grocery store but I’d like to try it at home some time. The chips were crispy, fresh, and nicely salted. Our server actually brought us a refill of chips too to finish up our dips.

For my entree, I ordered the Camarones al Coco: Grilled Florida Pink Shrimp, creamy coconut sauce studded with roasted white onion, jalapeno & sundried tomatoes, yuca al mojo and green chile adobo.



This was very unique and full of flavor. I loved the coconut sauce and the yuca which was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The shrimp was very fresh and perfectly grilled. I really enjoyed this dish.

DH went with the server’s suggestion and ordered the cauliflower tacos. They are still not on the online menu so I can't write a description.



This was served with flour tortillas. The cauliflower was lightly battered and fried. DH thought it was very tasty but a little greasy. He was glad he tried it and said even though it’s not something he would normally order he enjoyed it.

We gave Frontera Cocina a B+.

For dessert we stopped by Ghirardelli. We’ve never had a Ghirardelli sundae before and it was time to correct that. We ordered 2 Dubai Sundaes.



I loved this sundae. The hot fudge was rich and creamy and the kadayif (chopped filo pastry) and pistachio-tahini cream was excellent. DH wasn’t as much of a fan of the kadayif. He said he would’ve preferred a regular hot fudge sundae. We gave the sundae an A. Despite how good these were though it’s hard to justify the cost of $45 for two small sundaes.

Total steps: 23,818 (9.13 miles)

Up next..Dodging Crowds for at Least Part of the Day

 

[Wood Nymph]

My family went to Florida for spring break a few times when I was a kid. My dad was the ultimate steak lover and loved aged beef and rare meat. It was Good Friday and he was trying to find a restaurant for dinner. The only reservation he could find was at a steakhouse. They had aged beef hanging on display, like the Yachtsman at Yacht Club used to have. He was practically drooling at the meat but stuck with fish for dinner.

The shrimp was very fresh and perfectly grilled. I really enjoyed this dish.

It looks good, except for the tail. I understand why they leave the tail on the shrimp. But it does make it inconvenient to remove when it is saucy.

He said he would’ve preferred a regular hot fudge sundae.

We used to get the hot fudge sundae. But the price got too high and we stopped buying it.

We then walked to Old Key West by following the path near Cirque du Soleil. On our walk back from OKW we took a detour through the Treehouses. That’s a bucket list stay for some day. We then walked through Saratoga Springs. DH had challenged us to find one new Hidden Mickey on our travels that day and we were really struggling. Luckily we found this one on our walk through Saratoga Springs.

That sounds like a long walk!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

2/27/26 Meatless Day at Disney Springs​

Before each trip I always put together a rough plan for our meals. When I first started planning this trip I didn’t even think about the fact that we were going during Lent when we don’t eat meat on Fridays. I did realize it eventually and shifted some plans around to make it work. We planned on spending this day at Disney Springs so I booked dinner at Frontera Cocina and assumed we’d figure out something for lunch.

I would’ve cheated. I went to Catholic school most of my life too.

We arrived at Disney Springs about 9:30, walked around for a bit, and watched an orchestra from West Chicago perform on the Waterfront stage. We always love to see the various school groups. So talented!

My school band performed in Disney my senior year. I was a flag twirler. It was so fun!
My niece’s dance school performed in DS a few years ago. That was so fun to watch.

We wanted a mid-morning snack and realized beignets are meatless! So, we took the boat to the French Quarter. Like most places we went, there was a pretty long line at Scat Cats but it went fairly quickly.

Showing amazing restraint, we ordered only 3.

View attachment 1060070

These are just so delicious! Can’t believe we were nine days into our trip before we had our first beignet! Good things come to those who wait I guess. We gave them an A-.

Why an A-? I can’t wait to get these in April.

After our delicious mid-morning snack, we walked down to the Riverside Resort. We discovered the River Roost was closed for renovations and they were renovating the water wheel too. We definitely saw a lot of construction on this trip.

We took the boat from Riverside back to Disney Springs and walked around for a bit weighing our meat-free lunch options. After a sub-par experience previously at Earl of Sandwich, we had crossed that one off our list. But, upon searching for meat-less options, I thought the Caprese sandwich sounded good. The line here was enormous too. I attempted to place a mobile order as I was standing in line. They don’t use the MDE app but instead use their own website. It was so cumbersome that by the time I was ready to place my order I was at the cash register so I ordered the old fashioned way.

Caprese sandwich on multigrain bread: Fresh Mozzarella, Roma Tomato, Basil and Balsamic

View attachment 1060071

This was very tasty! The bread was very fresh, the mozzarella, tomato and basil were all very flavorful. Earl of Sandwich redeemed itself with this sandwich. I wanted potato wedges but didn’t see them on the menu. The MDE menu has them listed but the actual Earl of Sandwich menu does not. We will have to investigate next time. We gave our lunch a B+.

I love caprese salads/ sandwiches
That’s a great choice for lent.

After lunch we stopped to watch another high school performance on the Waterside stage. This time it was a band from the Chicago area. They were excellent. We then walked to Old Key West by following the path near Cirque du Soleil. On our walk back from OKW we took a detour through the Treehouses. That’s a bucket list stay for some day. We then walked through Saratoga Springs. DH had challenged us to find one new Hidden Mickey on our travels that day and we were really struggling. Luckily we found this one on our walk through Saratoga Springs.

View attachment 1060072

We walked back to Disney Springs and it started to rain. We waited out the rainstorm on the patio of the former Sprinkles. The pop-up Crazy Shake wasn’t open yet but was soon to open in a couple days.

View attachment 1060073

Since we didn’t have much else to do, we moved up our dining reservation and headed to Frontera Cocina. I had looked at the official Frontera Cocina menu ahead of time to make sure there were some meatless options. There was a Butternut Squash & Mushroom Red Chile Enchilada listed that I thought DH would like. I verified that morning that it was still on the menu. However when we received our actual menu, it wasn’t on there. The server told us that the menu had changed that day. Interestingly enough though as I look at the menu today, it is still listed on their online menu. At that point I wasn’t really sure what DH would like. We asked the server for meatless suggestions and she said the cauliflower tacos were excellent. It was really the only option besides seafood.

We started our meal with the Half & Half appetizer: Half guacamole verde, half toasted pumpkin seed “hummus”, jicama, cucumber.

View attachment 1060074

We really enjoyed this appetizer. The guacamole and hummus are so fresh and flavorful. We really liked the jicama too. I don’t know how they prepare it or if it’s just served as is. I haven’t been able to find jicama in the grocery store but I’d like to try it at home some time. The chips were crispy, fresh, and nicely salted. Our server actually brought us a refill of chips too to finish up our dips.

That does look yummy!

For my entree, I ordered the Camarones al Coco: Grilled Florida Pink Shrimp, creamy coconut sauce studded with roasted white onion, jalapeno & sundried tomatoes, yuca al mojo and green chile adobo.

View attachment 1060076

This was very unique and full of flavor. I loved the coconut sauce and the yuca which was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The shrimp was very fresh and perfectly grilled. I really enjoyed this dish.

DH went with the server’s suggestion and ordered the cauliflower tacos. They are still not on the online menu so I can't write a description.

View attachment 1060075

This was served with flour tortillas. The cauliflower was lightly battered and fried. DH thought it was very tasty but a little greasy. He was glad he tried it and said even though it’s not something he would normally order he enjoyed it.

Both your dinners look delicious! I would like either one.

We gave Frontera Cocina a B+.

For dessert we stopped by Ghirardelli. We’ve never had a Ghirardelli sundae before and it was time to correct that. We ordered 2 Dubai Sundaes.

View attachment 1060077

I loved this sundae. The hot fudge was rich and creamy and the kadayif (chopped filo pastry) and pistachio-tahini cream was excellent. DH wasn’t as much of a fan of the kadayif. He said he would’ve preferred a regular hot fudge sundae. We gave the sundae an A. Despite how good these were though it’s hard to justify the cost of $45 for two small sundaes.

We used to get sundaes with the boys when they were little every trip. We couldn’t understand why there weren’t more ice cream places around Florida. They are delicious!
I would be afraid to pay that much for a sundae that I never had before and wasn’t sure I’d love it. Glad it was a hit!!

Total steps: 23,818 (9.13 miles)

Up next..Dodging Crowds for at Least Part of the Day

 

[mickey916]

My family went to Florida for spring break a few times when I was a kid. My dad was the ultimate steak lover and loved aged beef and rare meat. It was Good Friday and he was trying to find a restaurant for dinner. The only reservation he could find was at a steakhouse. They had aged beef hanging on display, like the Yachtsman at Yacht Club used to have. He was practically drooling at the meat but stuck with fish for dinner.

Good for him! That must've been challenging.

It looks good, except for the tail. I understand why they leave the tail on the shrimp. But it does make it inconvenient to remove when it is saucy.

I agree! I hate having sticky or greasy fingers so I always try to remove them with a knife and fork but it never works.

We used to get the hot fudge sundae. But the price got too high and we stopped buying it.

We probably won't do it again either.

That sounds like a long walk!

It was but it was very relaxing.

I would’ve cheated. I went to Catholic school most of my life too.

Haha! We always look at it as a challenge to try something we wouldn't normally try.

My school band performed in Disney my senior year. I was a flag twirler. It was so fun!
My niece’s dance school performed in DS a few years ago. That was so fun to watch.

That's so cool. My band never did anything fun like that.

Why an A-? I can’t wait to get these in April.

This particular batch wasn't quite up the A standard they usually are. I think it was so busy that they were cranking them out too fast. It could've used just a smidge more time in the fryer. Still really good though!

I love caprese salads/ sandwiches
That’s a great choice for lent.

It certainly didn't seem like a huge sacrifice. It was good!

Both your dinners look delicious! I would like either one.

We really like Frontera Cocina. We don't have it scheduled for this coming trip but I keep thinking we need to squeeze it in somewhere.

I would be afraid to pay that much for a sundae that I never had before and wasn’t sure I’d love it. Glad it was a hit!!

Good point! I usually like Dubai-flavored things so I wasn't too worried. I would've been really bummed though if it ended up in the trash (like some of our other treats) for that much money!

 

[mickey916]

2/28/26 Dodging the Wild Crowds for Wildlife​

Last year we discovered the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive which is a free, drive through nature experience that is only open Friday to Sunday. We really enjoyed it and were wondering if there might be different birds this time of year.

On our way, we stopped for breakfast at Mecato’s Bakery & Cafe in Apopka. We ordered two items to share, which unfortunately we cut up before I remembered to take pictures.

First, the Pan Rolle con Queso (Bread Roll with Cheese): Oven baked bread roll stuffed with white cheese.. This is half of it.



This was a pretty basic roll with cheese inside. It wasn't particularly warm and gooey.

We also shared the Guava & Cheese Quesitos.



This pastry was fine too. The guava was nice and sweet and the pastry was flaky. Both of our items were good but really nothing more than grocery store baked goods in our opinion.

As we were heading out, DH noticed they sold Colombian Hot Chocolate advertised as “chocolate slowly melted in milk”. He was very hopeful that it was going to be the delicious Hot Chocolate he was searching for. He bought one to take with us in the car.



Sadly, this came out of a dispenser and tasted just like the powder-based ones he tried at Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.

Since he ordered a beverage, I also ordered an iced mocha.



This too was fine but nothing memorable. We gave Mecato’s Bakery a B. It really didn’t live up to the flowery descriptions I had read on the online menu. Originally my plan was to get both breakfast and lunch here but there was no need to go back for lunch.

We drove to the Lake Apopka wildlife drive and began our search for birds and gators. There seemed to be more smaller birds than last spring but mostly the same birds we saw last time.

Here is a Great Blue Heron.



And a red shouldered hawk.



We saw many other types of birds too as well as lots of gators. At first we didn’t see that many gators but then spotted so many that we wished we had taken a count.





Our wildlife excursion didn’t just afford us the chance to see birds and alligators, however. DH took a video of a bobcat walking along one of the canals. This is a screenshot from his video:



Such a cool thing to see out in the wild from the safety of our car.

We also saw a couple turtles.



It was such a great day for enjoying wildlife. If you’re ever looking for something to do on a weekend and have a car, I highly recommend doing the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive. It is only about 30-40 minutes from Disney and is free. It is only open Friday - Sunday 7 am - 3 pm but definitely worth the drive.

After our drive we searched for a new lunch spot.

Up next…a surprisingly delicious meal…

 

[ddluvsdisney]

2/27/26 Dodging the Wild Crowds for Wildlife​

Last year we discovered the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive which is a free, drive through nature experience that is only open Friday to Sunday. We really enjoyed it and were wondering if there might be different birds this time of year.

On our way, we stopped for breakfast at Mecato’s Bakery & Cafe in Apopka. We ordered two items to share, which unfortunately we cut up before I remembered to take pictures.

First, the Pan Rolle con Queso (Bread Roll with Cheese): Oven baked bread roll stuffed with white cheese.. This is half of it.

View attachment 1060557

This was a pretty basic roll with cheese inside. It wasn't particularly warm and gooey.

We also shared the Guava & Cheese Quesitos.

View attachment 1060561

This pastry was fine too. The guava was nice and sweet and the pastry was flaky. Both of our items were good but really nothing more than grocery store baked goods in our opinion.

As we were heading out, DH noticed they sold Colombian Hot Chocolate advertised as “chocolate slowly melted in milk”. He was very hopeful that it was going to be the delicious Hot Chocolate he was searching for. He bought one to take with us in the car.

View attachment 1060558

Sadly, this came out of a dispenser and tasted just like the powder-based ones he tried at Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.

Since he ordered a beverage, I also ordered an iced mocha.

View attachment 1060559

This too was fine but nothing memorable. We gave Mecato’s Bakery a B. It really didn’t live up to the flowery descriptions I had read on the online menu. Originally my plan was to get both breakfast and lunch here but there was no need to go back for lunch.

We drove to the Lake Apopka wildlife drive and began our search for birds and gators. There seemed to be more smaller birds than last spring but mostly the same birds we saw last time.

Here is a Great Blue Heron.

View attachment 1060564

And a red shouldered hawk.

View attachment 1060560

We saw many other types of birds too as well as lots of gators. At first we didn’t see that many gators but then spotted so many that we wished we had taken a count.

View attachment 1060562

View attachment 1060563

Our wildlife excursion didn’t just afford us the chance to see birds and alligators, however. DH took a video of a bobcat walking along one of the canals. This is a screenshot from his video:

View attachment 1060566

Such a cool thing to see out in the wild from the safety of our car.

We also saw a couple turtles.

View attachment 1060565

It was such a great day for enjoying wildlife. If you’re ever looking for something to do on a weekend and have a car, I highly recommend doing the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive. It is only about 30-40 minutes from Disney and is free. It is only open Friday - Sunday 7 am - 3 pm but definitely worth the drive.

After our drive we searched for a new lunch spot.

Up next…a surprisingly delicious meal…

Oh wow gators and a bobcat!! So cool
I still get so excited when a see alligators. I guess it’s just bc I can’t see any around here.
Too bad your breakfast wasn’t very good. How did you hear about the restaurant?
Hopefully your DH finally finds some worthy hot chocolate.

 

[mickey916]

Oh wow gators and a bobcat!! So cool

Really cool!

I still get so excited when a see alligators. I guess it’s just bc I can’t see any around here.

I do too (and I'm glad I don't see them here)

Too bad your breakfast wasn’t very good. How did you hear about the restaurant?

I actually don't remember how I heard about it. I think I was looking at Trip Advisor for restaurants in Apopka. The descriptions sound incredible and everything was beautiful looking. It was just the taste that didn't wow us.

Hopefully your DH finally finds some worthy hot chocolate.

Not yet! I told him he should open up his own hot chocolate business and make it himself!

 

[mickey916]

2/28/26 continued…A Hidden Gem for Lunch​

After our wildlife tour we took a ride to Winter Park. We were thinking about taking the canal ride. Since we were in need of a lunch location, I checked Trip Advisor for a restaurant along the way. I found a restaurant called Tibby’s New Orleans Kitchen that sounded interesting. It was a small restaurant in a strip mall but once we went inside it looked really cool.



We decided to try something we’ve never had before so we ordered the Muffuletta to share: Muffuletta bread loaded with salami, ham, mortadella, olive salad, Swiss cheese & provolone cheese.



We had no idea it would be this huge! There was an option to order a half muffuletta which would’ve been more than enough. This was so delicious. It was filled with flavorful meats and olives. The bread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We each had a quarter and it was plenty but it was so good, we shared another quarter and packed the final quarter to take with us.



We also each ordered a cup of Chicken & Andouille File Gumbo: Boneless, hand-shredded chicken, Andouille sausage & sautéed vegetables mixed with filé. Topped with white rice.



This too was excellent! So full of meat and rich flavor.

We were so full that we knew we shouldn’t get dessert but how could we not try the beignets? Our server convinced us that they weren’t very big.



We’ve never had beignets outside of the Scat Cat Club at POFQ. I’m assuming these are probably closer to authentic ones.They were made with many flaky, buttery layers of pastry dough that was deep fried and covered in powdered sugar. We really liked the flaky layers but they did seem a little greasier than the POFQ ones. We liked these but still like POFQ ones more, probably because it’s what we’re used to. We gave them an A- but ranked them on our list lower than the Scat Cat ones.

Overall we really enjoyed our meal at Tibby’s and definitely will go there again. We gave it an A.

After lunch we headed to find the canal ride in Winter Park. The town was so crowded and there was no place to park near the launch for the canal boats. We decided to try it another time. Instead, we went for a 2.5 mile walk around Lake Baldwin. It was a great way to get our steps.

We drove to Pine Hills to wait for Mass at St. Andrew’s Church.

Up next…saving $17 for parking but at what cost?

 

[Wood Nymph]

Our wildlife excursion didn’t just afford us the chance to see birds and alligators, however. DH took a video of a bobcat walking along one of the canals.

The bobcat is very special, unlike birds and turtles. I would have been excited to see it, too.

My aunt had a condo on the lake in Apoka. It is a nice area.

 

[mickey916]

The bobcat is very special, unlike birds and turtles. I would have been excited to see it, too.

My aunt had a condo on the lake in Apoka. It is a nice area.

It is a very nice area. We couldn't believe we saw that bobcat and even got a video of it.

 

[MaryPopsIn2]

I’ve been enjoying your TR for the past several years and find them enjoyable. I chuckled over the dilemma of no fish Fridays. I’m there with you.

I am not a coffee drinker and was delighted to find “real” hot chocolate in Montreal this past weekend at several cafes and hotel restaurants. It made our weekend getaway even more special.

 

[mickey916]

I’ve been enjoying your TR for the past several years and find them enjoyable. I chuckled over the dilemma of no fish Fridays. I’m there with you.

Thank you for following along!

I am not a coffee drinker and was delighted to find “real” hot chocolate in Montreal this past weekend at several cafes and hotel restaurants. It made our weekend getaway even more special.

That's great! We might have to renew our passports, lol.

 

[mickey916]

2/28/26 continued..Chaos Before Dinner​

We had dinner reservations at Island’s Dining Room at Loew’s Royal Pacific Resort for their Wok Experience (which is only offered on Friday and Saturday nights). We wanted to see if the experience lived up to our last visit. Last time I had been told that we could have our parking validated, which we did, but we discovered as we left the parking lot that the validation only discounted the $35 parking fee down to $17; it didn’t make it free. In what I thought was a genius move, we decided we would park at City Walk for free after 6:00 and walk over for our 6:30 reservation. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who wanted to park for free after 6:00 at City Walk. It may not have been the genius move I thought it was.

We drove to the City Walk garage and discovered we were in a huge line of traffic just to get in. As we drove, the parking attendant diverted us to the South parking garage. I never realized there was another garage. Once we entered the garage, the parking attendants directed us all the way up to the roof. We ended up parking in the Cat in the Hat section along with many other cars who were constantly streaming in.

We made our way down the escalator to discover that security at CityWalk is nothing like Disney Springs. I didn’t know we would have to empty our pockets, put everything in trays, and walk through a metal detector, just like the airport. It was a mad house! We were jammed in with hundreds of people attempting to get through the few open security kiosks. There was actually no space between us and the people around us. It was chaotic, stressful, and claustrophobic. I was totally stressed and thinking that the $17 for parking at the Royal Pacific Resort would’ve been well worth avoiding this hassle. I would’ve even paid the full price!

We finally made it through security at 6:30. We still needed to walk to the Royal Pacific Resort, so we were obviously going to be late for our reservation. We found the pathway and quickly walked to the resort. We checked in about 10 minutes late but luckily the restaurant was empty so there was no issue with being late.

We were greeted by the host and seated at a booth with a nice view into a courtyard. We were welcomed by our server who was very friendly. We told him we were going to order the “wok experience” so he told us we could head up to the buffet area. Last time DH and I each ordered our own stir-fry but then we were so full that we only got to sample a few of the other delicious offerings. This time we decided we would build one stirfry to share and then have more room to try other things (and we were still a little full from that muffuletta). We headed up to the stirfry station, filled our bowl with vegetables and handed them to the chef at the wok station. Last time we went there was a sign listing the options for protein, sauces, and base. This time there was no sign so we had to ask what the choices were. It seems odd they did away with the sign. We opted for chicken, lo mein noodles, and General Gau’s sauce. We made a mistake though and told the chef we were going to share this bowl. So, in an effort I guess to feed both of us, he gave us an enormous bowl of food. This totally defeated the purpose of us sharing, lol!



This was once again very tasty. The chicken was good quality meat and the noodles were cooked perfectly. The sauce was sweet and not very spicy.

After sharing our stir-fry, we selected some other items from the buffet. We shared a plate of the three bread offerings, Sweet Hawaiian roll, sesame bread sticks and furikake flat bread.



The sweet Hawaiian rolls were very fresh and tasty. The sesame breadsticks seemed stale. The furikake flatbread was good. The Hawaiian rolls were the best bread offering by far.

There was a station with cold side dishes: Vietnamese Shredded Chicken Salad, Kimchi Salad, Cellophane Noodles & Vegetable salad.



The Vietnamese Chicken was just as delicious as we remembered from our last visit. It was filled with tender, flavorful chicken, vegetables and noodles. We both tried the kimchi and we weren’t fans. We’ve never tried kimchi before so we can’t judge whether it was good or not. We just might not like kimchi. The cellophane noodles were good but nothing memorable.

There was a regular salad bar, some miso soups, and an entire bar dedicated to pickled vegetables. There were also hot sides: Stir fry veggies, vegetable lo mein noodle stir fry, and fried rice.



We were happy we had a little bit more room in our bellies for these this time around, as they were all excellent. My favorite was the fried rice and DH liked the stir fried veggies best.

There was also a small dessert bar with three offerings. They were pretty much the same as last time with some different toppings: coconut rice pudding, pineapple cheesecake, and vegan chocolate cake.



This coconut rice pudding is creamy and sweet. It was a nice little sweet taste of rice pudding. We gave it a B+.


The pineapple cheesecake was phenomenal. The cheesecake was perfectly creamy with a nice graham cracker crust topped with whipped cream and a pineapple jam. It had the texture of a no bake cheesecake. This was our favorite dessert of the three. We gave it an A-.



The vegan chocolate cake was dense and fudgy. We also liked this a lot. We gave it an A- as well.

Overall this was another great meal at Islands Dining. The food was fresh and flavorful, the restaurant was beautiful and the service was excellent. Last time we dined there it was only their second night after re-opening and they were all so filled with enthusiasm and excitement. This time you could tell the excitement had died down a bit but it was still a great experience. We gave our meal an A, which surprisingly put it above ‘Ohana on this trip.

Both times the restaurant was empty though at 6:30 on a Saturday night. That doesn’t really bode well for the restaurant’s longevity. We plan to take our sons here for their first time when we go in May. We’re really hoping the Wok Experience is still being offered on Friday and Saturday nights.

After finishing our meal, we walked back to City Walk. We discussed hanging around there for a bit but the crowds were so heavy it was challenging just to walk around. So, we headed back to our car on the top of the parking garage. It was a beautiful view from there though.



Total steps: 15045 (6.02 miles)

Up next..Breakfast and a visit to Animal Kingdom before a crowded Disney Springs Day

 

[Wood Nymph]

There used to be a local restaurant called Stir Crazy that was similar to the Wok experience that you had. We really liked it, but I guess it wasn't popular enough for the restaurant to stay open. I would love to see a restaurant like this at Disney Springs.