The Chinese Bakery Story

Several people in my life know the Bay Area well. My number one rule in visiting an area is always to ask the locals where to go. And so I turned to my local experts for advice. One very good friend who lived in San Francisco and knows of which she speaks, highly recommended a bakery in Chinatown. She advised me that they "always" have a line because they are just that good. With that I knew I had to visit. Thus our mission on Thursday evening, once on-board a Hyde-Powell Cable Car, was to find the Golden Gate Bakery to order Dan Tot.

From our tourist map, we knew to jump off the cable car at Washington and Powell. We wandered down streets to Grant Avenue keeping our eyes open for the Bakery. We found it! We found no line, even! We found a sign....

I called my friend back home. I reported our findings. She directed me back to her second suggestion on Stockton. We back-tracked and found the bakery. I went inside and asked the young woman at the counter: "Do you have dan tots?"

"They finished for today. All gone! Sorry!"

No Dan Tot.

I called back. I was getting a little testy. We had passed another bakery around the corner. I had no idea what Dan Tot even looked like. I was feeling very out of my element. I told my friend that I was going to just walk into bakeries until I found one. And so with that we walked into the Golden Bakery. The room was filled with older Chinese gentlemen sitting around tables and talking in Chinglish. Chinglish: It's like Spanglish but with Chinese instead of Spanish.

I asked the woman behind the counter the magic question: Do you have dan tots?

She tapped on the glass and said "Here!" I looked and saw little egg custard tarts. OH! So THOSE are dan tots? And that's when it allllll started. I'm not naive. I knew about Chinese women. I've been around. But I had forgotten how pushy they can get!

PCL: "How many you want?"

Me: "Four."

PCL: "I be right back."

She went to the back of the bakery and came out with a big tray full of buns. "These buns with barbecue beef. Still warm from da oven. You want some?"

Me: "I'll take four dan tots."

The Chinese lady took a styrofoam box off the shelf. "You want six? Six fit in the box."

Me: "OK, I'll take six."

She gestured to the big tray of buns "What about da buns?"

"OK, I'll take one bun." Hey, we were still at least an hour or so away from dinner. We could call it our appetizer.

She packed up the dan tots and bun but never gave me a total. I handed her a $20 bill and watched her punch numbers into the cash register. She handed me change and as I turned to leave the bakery, she pointed to the display case asking "You want cream filled roll?"

"NO!" I told her. "But it was a nice try." She smiled.

Then we left and took pictures outside her bakery. And on our way back to the Cable Car. Eating our appetizer.

Trying to Be Helpful

This weekend my wonderful husband took me on a three-night no-children getaway weekend. We flew on an airplane, stayed in swanky hotels, visited with friends along the way, and ate a bunch of AMAZING food. It was an incredible weekend not just for the fun we had together but for the blessings of our friends and family - my mom and sister who watched the boys, friends in town who helped us with schlepping the boys around a bit, and friends who set up amazing opportunities for us on our trip. In a nutshell. But that nutshell doesn't begin to tell it all. We had so many things happen along the way.

We flew up to San Francisco (SFO) on Thursday afternoon. Our Thursday night reservation included two passes for the famous San Francisco Cable Cars. I wanted to visit Chinatown again so on Thursday evening, we waited for the cable car at Hyde Street. Now, this particular line has a stop at the top of Lombard street, right at the edge of the crooked part.

The cable car was packed with tourists. One gentleman was trying to hold on while taking pictures of the incredible views. His wife stood just in front of me, while I sat on a bench. She faced away from the view of the crooked street. Being the cute, perky and helpful person I am, I naturally wanted her to see the amazing sight just behind her! If I were so close to a world-famous location, I would want someone to point it out to me. And so I tried. I really tried.

I started with "Turn around! Look!"

The woman looked at me as if I had two heads.

"Famous street! Look!" I pointed. Pointing is the international sign for "TURN AROUND AND LOOK IN THE DIRECTION I'M POINTING." Right?

She replied, still facing ME, "I do not understand what you are saying," in an accent that sound German to me.

DaddyDoc says that at this point I drew a bunch of "Z"s in the air and said "ZIG-ZAG STREET" while demonstrating the international sign for "Zig-Zag". (He laughs when he tells this part of the story.)

The woman still did not turn around. She repeated "I do not understand you" in an exasperated voice. She left "You stupid American woman" silent but I heard it in her eyes and exasperation. I know she thought it.

I tried to show her the map, with the picture of a crooked street. I continued to POINT behind her back to try to get her to look. I was standing up to emphatically express the urgency of the situation. Standing up to make a point is the international sign for "HURRY UP BEFORE THE CABLE CAR STARTS DRIVING AGAIN!"

Finally I sat down again and turned to Doc saying "I was just trying to be a helpful American. I would want her to do it for me if I was missing an opportunity to look at something famous."

We did not help any other tourists during our stay.

Actually, I take that back. A woman in front of our hotel asked us where to find the Fisherman's Wharf. We told her to continue walking down the street and she could not miss it. As she walked ahead, she told us she was looking for the Holiday Inn on Fisherman's Wharf. I few hours later, I saw it on a map. Yeah, it's a few blocks away from the Fisherman's Wharf. We sent her out of her way, actually. Oops.

Feeding the Village

The chronological diary thing isn't working for me so I'm giving it up.

But way back when we went camping in Vail Lake, one of the things I loved so much was food in the village. Very Good Friend brought her dips and I brought mine. Everyone just pulled the food out of our trailers and put them on tables for everyone to share. Saturday morning, Mr. VGF made bacon and pancakes and started feeding children when I was barely awake. So I just made a big skillet of scrambled eggs and brought them out to share.

We had our Saturday night dinner planned out.

(Ahem, with apologies to Laura Numeroff...)

If anyone spends any decent amount of time camping with Scouts, they quickly find themselves eating out of someone's Dutch oven at some point.

If you feed a family out of a Dutch oven, they're going to want to buy a Dutch oven themselves. So the family will go out and buy one.

If they buy a Dutch oven, they're going to want to cook in it the next time everyone camps together. The more recipes they try, the more they will want to cook. So everyone will have to bring their Dutch ovens so the village can cook as many dishes as possible in the Dutch Ovens.

Sort of. Because in this village, we also have access to cool portable grills, too.

And so after the taco dinner with Dutch oven lazy cobbler on Friday night, we had grilled tri-tip from one family, vegetables from another, a salad from another and so many months (and so few pictures) later, I can't remember what all we had but I remember that...

I made the very famous very complicated cheesy potatoes (whose main ingredient is hash browns) in our Dutch oven.

And for dessert, one of the Village people joined us with a giant glorious flan and freshly made whipped cream. And s'mores.

We were serenaded by two Cub Scouts who had a cute little song from one of their Scout camps that they wanted to share with us. Even though one of the scouts is notoriously shy about standing up in public.

And there was Herbie... the family pet. And he was THIS BIG, he was THIS BIG.

And that's the power of the Village.

Finally Camping in Our Trailer, Part One

One of the most delightful things about camping with a trailer as opposed to just tent camping is that there is far less last minute packing to do. Many times when we have left for a short weekend of camping, the biggest hurdle to leaving in a timely manner has been packing the car. Usually I have to run errands and take the kids too and from school, so packing in advance does not work. But with the tent trailer, almost everything we needed was already packed inside the trailer. We only had to fill the ice chests and add few things in the car before we could leave. Doc took a half day off of work to try to get out a little earlier than we might otherwise.

We packed the car, attached the trailer to the car and headed out. Doc was still figuring out the electric brake so every time we stopped, we stopped HARD. I was waiting for Opal to come through the back window. She did not.

We found a way to pull the van and trailer into a drug store parking lot so Doc could pick up a prescription. So we waited and waited. Finally we were off.

I had entered the address for Vail Lake into Google Maps and had a plan. We took the I-15 south of Temecula to the Immigration check point. According to Google Maps, Vail Lake should have been very nearby. But Google Maps was wrong. I do not know what we would have done without Daddy Doc's iPhone but we fortunately had no reason to find out. I found the Vail Lake website on the iPhone and learned that we should have exited the freeway much earlier, in Temecula. We took side streets back to the road to Vail Lake. In traffic. So we waited and waited.

We finally arrived, I hopped out to check-in only to find a really long and slow moving line.

I waited and waited.

I do not like to wait and wait. I just wanted to get to my spot! Finally we checked in and were able to leave. The Enablers and Very Good Friends had already checked in.

As we drove into the park, we witnessed a child on a bike who hit a curb and landed hard. He was bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose. Doc and I, along with others, stopped our cars and jumped out to help the child. One woman grabbed a towel. Another man who had come by on a bike, tried to comfort the boy and clean his face. I grabbed my overnight bag in which I always carry certain supplies, no matter what. You just never know when you will need them. I opened the sanitary napkin and said to the man tending the child "I know this may seem gross but it was made for absorbing blood." He said "Oh, I don't mind at all. You're absolutely right."

At that point I asked the crowd "Does anyone know where this child's family is so we can find them?" That was when I learned that the man tending to the child was actually his father! Everyone's first instinct was to help the child, as it should have been. No one asked questions until we knew he was tended to.

Knowing that the father was there and seeing the situation was under control, we decided that we had contributed all that we could to the scene and proceeded to our campsite.

As we drove up the street, I was very glad that the operator had advised against the sites I had originally asked about reserving. They were unshaded and looked rather dusty. That said, I was a bit disturbed that she did not mention that the sites I selected sat right on the edge of a very steep cliff. The back side of our sites dropped straight down to a dry river bed below. There was no fence between our sites and the edge of the cliff. While the sites were lovely, they made for a bunch of nervous mothers watching our children very carefully all weekend! The Very Good Friends had parked their trailer in the middle spot. Mrs. VGF hoped to block the campfire smoke from embedding in the tent fabric of our trailer! She said once that gets in, it never comes out. She hoped we could postpone that as long as possible.

When we came upon our site, Mrs. Enabler and Mrs. Very Good Friend were waiting for us, all right. One had a digital camera and the other a video camera. They were determined to film Doc backing the trailer into the spot... and hoping to mock him in the process! Alas, Doc disappointed them as he very capably backed Opal right into her spot! Mrs. Very Good Friend complained that the experience was entirely too boring.

Captain Stubborn started to crank the trailer up.

Sweet But Sneaky, who is most often found in his father's shadow, took a turn cranking, too.

The boys all got right to business helping Doc set up the Tent Trailer. And our friends came up with ways to help us. Mr. Very Good Friend pulled a "step" out of his pick-up bed for us. It was a box built out of 2x4s, great for stepping up and stomping dirt off our feet on our way into the trailer. He also had a slunky we used... Now, Opal does not have a sewer hook-up. We have hoses for fresh water and grey water drainage, but the toilet is a cartridge. Doc just pulls out the cartridge "box" and dumps it into a sewer dumping station. But the kitchen sink drained very slowly. In order to help solve the sink draining, we tried the slunky.

Note Mr. VGF's 2x4 step.

Please note the cute little buckets from the Target dollar department. They're no wood ducks but they're cute and practical at the same time.

The Pantry.

SBS really wanted someone to come play a game with him. Please note the PVC pipe trash bag holding system to the right. We also tied a grocery sack to the frame to collect recycling. I might need Doc to just build another frame.

With the trailer set up, I wanted to start getting my pieces of dinner ready. Before heading up to Temecula, we planned our dinner menus. "Many hands make light work!" Each family brought something to contribute. For Friday dinner we planned carne asada, tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, salsa, guacamole, with the most traditional of camping desserts: Chocolate Dump Cake with Trader Joe's Amazing Jars of Cherries. I kept wanting to show off the trailer but the Village wasn't coming over. I couldn't figure it out.

That is until Mr. & Mrs. Enabler and Mr. and Mrs. Very Good Friends came over together with a beautiful wine gift bag. And they were giggling. They had planned an absolutely perfect Trailer Warming Gift for me:

A cheap bottle of merlot!

A cheap bottle of Merlot is the most perfect Trailer Park Warming Gift ever. It's pure brilliance. But most of all, I felt special that my friends knew me well enough to know just what to get me. I suggested that I might mix it into spaghetti sauce so it wouldn't go to waste. They laughed and said that this is one time they don't mind that a wine "gift" would be used for cooking.

We all shared a very good laugh and then Mrs. Enabler and Mrs. VGF came in to check Opal out before everyone went back to cooking dinner.

Dinner was delicious and the Banfi Rosa Regale sparkling dessert wine which I brought paired perfectly with dessert by the campfire. Yes, I can even pair wine for Dutch Oven Dump Cake, thank you very much. And the non-wine drinkers enjoyed it, too. Best of all, Mr. VGF brought out his shovel and graciously put warm coals under our chairs to keep our bums nice and toasty in our camping chairs.

Creating Doc's Famous Dutch Oven Dump Cake.

Mrs. Enabler's friend came along with her adorable little ones and we now had even more reason to worry about the cliffs behind our trailers but we all slept nicely in our trailers that night. And thanks to the full-hook-ups we were able to keep the heater thermostat turned on all evening.

SBS slept on the dining table the first night.

Mr. Genius.

Captain Stubborn is in there somewhere. Really. He is.

Back by Demand: The Trailer Chronicles Continue...

Apparently I have an audience. And my audience is demanding. Yes, I was scolded this weekend. It seems that not everyone has an RSS feed set up like I do and so some people are actually so interested in reading my stories about camping with my Practically Perfect Tent Trailer that they are coming here every day or so looking for an update only to be terribly disappointed by finding incomplete months old Half Marathon trip reports.

And so for "You Know Who You Are" I apologize and I am forcing myself to find time to update you all on the glorious stories of camping with our Trailer. (And by forcing I do not mean that I do not like doing this. I just need to learn better time management skills. Either that or I need a live in housekeeper like Alice Davis (The Brady Bunch Alice Davis, not the Disney Legend.) I think that is truly my problem. Some people were just not born with a housekeeping gene and I am one of them.) But I digress...

When we left off with the saga of the tent trailer, I told you the story of the 50-point turn from heck in the MGM-Grand parking structure on the Las Vegas strip and changing a flat trailer tire in the rain in Baker, California. I also entertained you with a lovely photo tour from my driveway.

Now if there's anything I love to do, I love to shop. The problem with shopping for me is two-fold:

1- In my perfectionism and tendency to set unreasonable expectations, I get these ideas in my head of EXACTLY what I want and EXACTLY what I need to have.

2- I'm frugal. I want the best quality for the best price. I like to buy things on sale. Or with coupons. But then I worry that what if they run out of what I need before I can get it??

Fortunately we already had quite a bit of camping equipment on hand already. We dragged the boxes out of the garage and I sorted through it to figure out what we had, what was worn and what we still needed. I made lists. I made lots of lists. I knew that two sets of plastic drawers from Le Tarjay would be perfect for utensils, cooking tools, chopping boards, and so forth. I got new silicone spatulas from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are teal, plum and some other color. They're jewel tones and I love jewel tones. Very pretty.

I needed a paper towel holder. I wanted a set of mixing bowls with lids, lightweight so they did not add too much weight to the trailer, stacking so they would not take up too much space, and I really did not want to spend more than $5 on them, $10 max but that was really pushing it. I looked at several stores for those bowls. I went on several trips to Target looking for those bowls. On one trip when we were in a random aisle at a Target that was not our normal store, Doc found a perfect set of bowls! I was so happy.

No, really - cheap, lightweight mixing bowls that could double as serving bowls. I was HAPPY!

I really wanted a bigger variety of pots and pans than what I already had. I was using random pots that I had collected over the years. By collected I mean "When various elderly relatives died, I inherited a really old pot." I do not mean to sound disrespectful or ungrateful to my late grandfather. He was a fine man. But the pot was old when I acquired it. I still have some of his good cooper bottom pots in my kitchen but I did not put my "good" pots in my camping buckets. Who does that? I decided to try to find some better pots and pans. Except that I really did not want something too heavy in the trailer and I really did not want to spend a lot of money on trailer pots and pans considering we just bought a BRAND NEW trailer. I actually found a lovely nonstick set of pots and pans at Target on sale! The largest skillet is probably smaller than I would ideally like but it works!

I may have also picked up some acrylic wine glasses.

The "master" bed is bigger than a queen but so thin that I figured queen sheets would work. We bought a waterproof mattress cover one day at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Let me just say now that was a mistake. We have a water proof sheet thing on Captain Stubborn's bed and it is not plastic so I somehow assumed that this waterproof mattress would resemble that. I know at the time I had a really good reason for thinking that I would need a waterproof mattress pad. It came from our trip to Barstow when water condensed under our sleeping bags onto our air mattress. In restrospect, we have no reason for a waterproof mattress and that is just as well because the thing stank like perm solution. I shall spoil that part of our inaugural trip right now. Perm.Solution. It was horrible. Before our second trip we went to Target and bought a new mattress pad. For sheets I selected navy blue knit sheets from Target. We put the sheets on the bed and use a sleeping bag as a comforter. We purchased two pillows to keep in the trailer.

I went to a lot of stores to put together a game box for the trailer: Target, Toys R Us and... Dollar Tree! We have a bucket with Rummikub, playing cards, Mille Borne, my homemade Yahtzee and homemade mancala games. We have some game books like word searches and sudoku. I put together a pencil bag of mechanical pencils and pens. There are some inexpensive ball toys, too.

We even went to Camping World. I had really high hopes for Camping World. Now, don't get me wrong, Camping World has some cool stuff. At Camping World I found a piece of artificial grass that is designed to wrap around the trailer step, secured with cable ties. With each step we can brush off our shoes before we enter the trailer. Very handy dandy, yes, indeed. One might even say "Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy". I think if I had a bigger trailer I might appreciate Camping World a bit more. They had a lot of stuff but I really found I could buy a lot of the things for inside the trailer for less elsewhere. We eyed the external gray tanks (oooooh.... ahhhhh.... holding tanks for waste water! With handles that can hook onto the tow hook on the Mommymobile so we can drive them to the dump stations! ooooooooh... ahhhh...) But because our first trip would be to a full-hook-up site, we passed on our first visit.

The sad and lonely external waste tank. But the over the tow hook handle is very nifty.

Then there was the plain stupid fun.

From the Target Dollar Department (gotta love the Target Dollar Department!!) I found some little buckets and rectangular containers. They have a galvanized look and embossed flowers on them. We use one to hold our keys. All the keys just get dumped in one on a counter so we can find them easily when we need them. The buckets are awesome for plastic utensils and napkins. I have one rectangle by my bed to hold my cell phone, watch, etc when I go to bed. Cute. Cute. Cute! (and perky!)

I also found little rugs in the "Not Quite Dollar Department" at Target. We figured out that the entrance to the trailer was too narrow for a bathroom rug but these rugs for $2.50 were just the right size. We have some turtle rugs, some shark rugs and some whale rugs. For $2.50 I picked up a few for when these get too worn and frayed from use and washing.

Almost immediately after buying the trailer I called my mom. My mom crochets. When I graduated from high school she and I went together to Super Yarn Mart! and flipped through the pattern books. We found two afghan patterns that she would make for me to take to my college dorm with me. One of those patterns has become a legend in our family. It uses three to four colors of yarn and is called "Kittens in a Row". Because each "row" of kittens is a different color, you can see their "paws" hanging down to the rows below. She made that afghan for me. Then one for herself and one for my sister. She made one for DaddyDoc when he went to graduate school. She made one for my cousin who went to college "with me". She made one out of all white baby yarn when we were married and we used it for each of our sons' baptisms. She made a pink baby version when the doctor said I was expecting a girl. She went to the store the day my "daughter" was born with a Y-chromosome and bought new yarn. When he was a few days old she came to bring him his blue and green colored blanket. We have three blankets in my family room "colors" and each of my boys has his own "Big Boy Blanket".

So even before I had the trailer in person, I ordered the yarn and had the yarn shipped to my mom and she made a trailer blanket.

We had to pick a place to break in the trailer. Ideally we would have someplace local so we would not have to drive too far should something happen to the Mommymobile or the trailer. I wanted full hook-ups so that we would not have to find ourselves running out of resources or overfilling a grey tank. And I wanted something with plenty for our family and friends to do. Mr. Enabler suggested Vail Lake in Temecula, California. Vail Lake is a private club resort but non-members can make reservations as well. We found a weekend that would work for the Enablers, the Very Good Friends and even my friend the Pastry Chef could join us! I called Vail Lake and the woman on the phone could not have been nicer. She was very friendly, cracked jokes and when I asked about a particular area of the campground, she steered me away from some undesirable sites.

The only thing left to do was to come up with a name. One friend asked if I planned to name the trailer and I liked the idea. I really wanted to come up with a name that fit a trailer. I had an idea but worried that it might offend someone whose mother shared the name. I spent some time talking with some friends about trailer people. One friend spoke of her grandmother and I asked her grandmother's name. It was PERFECT. I loved it!! But I worried I would offend my friend. She promised she would not be offended.

And so I had the Practically Perfect Name for the Practically Perfect Trailer: Opal.

2010 WDW Princess Half-Marathon Marathon of Posts Vol 5

Did you think I'd abandoned the story? Unfortunately, I have very few photos for the rest of this day... I need to beg, steal and borrow files from swanie...

Once on our way back to the hotel I figured out the biggest casualty of my half-marathon:

You may or may recall that I said that putting my eyeglasses in my jogging bra turned out to be a mistake. Here's the thing: Walt Disney World is bad juju for my eyeglasses. Remember how I LOST my glasses there in October? Yes, well this time I managed to drill a nasty patch of a scratch right in the center of my left lens thanks to my cell phone which was also in my jogging bra. With just the glasses there, it was a GREAT spot. Not so much with the cell phone.

Great.

Heavy Heavy Sigh.

So. Anyway. We went back to our room. Swanie was not very hungry and wanted to wash her clothes in the FREE laundry downstairs. The rest of us wanted food. We all took turns in the shower. ohmygoodnessgracious. I did not want to get out of that heavenly warm shower. But I did. C felt guilty driving over to Jambo House for lunch, instead of walking. But not enough to not do it. I felt NO guilt. My legs hurt. C, J and I waddled down to the car and over to Jambo House's Mara counter service for lunch. Walking in from the parking lot I realized why my stomach felt eh. Even though I dragged my Luna recovery shake mix in a small (MICKEY MOUSE!) Tupperware container from home, and even though I bought nonfat milk in the Kidani Village store, I totally forgot to make my recovery shake. Huh. I wished I had. But I had some salad and zebra domes instead.

After lunch with the lovely J and C, we went back to the room and found swanie back from her laundry run. We had plans for an early dinner with the message board people at the Grand Floridian Resort so we decided to head over there for the rest of the afternoon. C used two of my bib safety pins to pin the ribbon of my medal to my shirt. The dirty little truth is medal ribbons are very scratchy and uncomfortable on our necks. Frankly, this is not a good enough reason to NOT wear the medal every where one goes in the aftermath of the event. There really is no good reason not to in my world. Yes, I DID do this and yes, I WILL wear my medal to advertise this fact. The safety pin trick was wonderful and the medal even laid nice and flat.

We decided to leave the car at the hotel and take Disney transportation. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the Resort Loop Monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort. We planned to hang out at the pool there for the afternoon. On the way to the pool, we passed the afternoon tea held near the lobby.

I love afternoon tea. Oh, how I love it. I love everything about it. I love teapots and tea cups. I love sipping a cup of tea. I love the little strainers over tea cups to strain out the loose leaf tea. I love finger sandwiches and little desserts. I love cups of soup with the words "Cream of" in their names. I love scones and Devonshire cream and preserves. I love crumpets. I love girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. I love glasse of champagne at high tea (hic!)

I.Love.Afternoon.Tea.

On my honeymoon, my wonderful husband packed a tie and took me to the famous afternoon tea in the lobby of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.

I had heard of this Grand Floridian Tea but with three young boys and a very busy schedule in October, I never planned to visit it. And on this trip I likewise had no plans to stop.

That did not stop me from schmoozing with the very friendly Cast Member at the check in desk. It also did not stop me from taking pictures of the floor outside the tea lounge. How perfect is this?

By now, of course, my roommates were long gone but I could tell where to go. The Cast Members at the Grand Floridian seemed well prepared to greet their Princess Half guests. Each and every Cast Member I passed along the way, upon seeing the beautiful sparkly medal around my un-scathed neck, congratulated me on finishing the half-marathon. I loved it!

Eventually I moved my body across the garden paths to the pool, finding my roommates. As good as a mai tai sounded, and boy do I enjoy a mai tai, I just could not bring myself to order one. My body needed water. Lots of water. And so I sheepishly asked for a glass of water with a lemon at the bar, which the bartender gracious gave me. Meanwhile, the pool waitress girl was looking all over to find seats for the table we chose near the pool. We started out as four but within a short time, BK, T, and two more members of the message board joined us. Eventually I ordered "the drink". A few months ago, a dear friend of mine told me about this drink. I first ordered it at a very nice restaurant in advance of a very fine multi-course meal and the server laughed and said "Oh! Are you getting your stomach ready to digest your big meal?" He knew about "The Drink."

And so I ordered a ginger ale with bitters and a wedge of lime, knowing that dinner would be at a buffet. I'm Klasssssy.

We had a lovely time by the pool. And of course we laughed some more but oh, there was so much more to come!

When it was time for dinner, we walked back into the lobby and met with the rest of the group for dinner at 1900 Park Faire. 1900 Park Faire is not very a very large venue for among Walt Disney World buffet locations. Based on this, some of my Walt Disney World savvy friends have been surprised to know the size of our group that night: We had a dinner reservation for 38 people.

Ours was the earliest seating of the evening. Upon gathering in the wait area, we all posed together for a photo. The photographer, aided by at least two others, posed us all carefully in an attempt to see as many of our faces as possible in the final photo. Once finished, we entered the restaurant and our group settled into four tables. Not just any four tables but the four tables in the most central area of the restaurant, very convenient to the buffet! We had two different servers. I cannot speak for the other but ours was very attentive to our needs. I never saw my Diet Coke glass empty. My dirty dishes were always picked up before I returned with more food.

The slightly blurry but clearly charmed by my Princessly presence in his court, Prince and me.

With all those people there, you had to know that there would be Mickey gnomes, right? Well, there were. As Cinderella and Prince Charming came by for visits and photo opportunities, they posed with Mickey as well. Cinderella and the Prince made us all feel welcome at their dinner party. And then... Cinderella's Step-Mother and Step-Sisters came to visit. They all seemed to eye the gnomes with discontent and suspicion. For awhile anyway...

As the evening progressed, a waltz came on and everyone in the restaurant directed our attention to the center of our four tables to watch Cinderella and the Prince dance for us all. While C held up Mickey to take a picture of him with Cinderella and the Prince in the background, the Prince picked up Mickey and soon, all three waltzed together much to the amusement of our tables. Eventually the Prince returned Mickey to our table. Shortly, Driselda arrived...

Most may know Driselda as "The Pink Stepsister." I will never look upon her the same again. Not one to be upstaged by Cinderella and the Prince, Driselda marched across the room to our table and grabbed Mickey saying "Give him to me!" With that, Driselda, and Mickey, began to Tango back and forth across our room. Oh yes, they did.

I was peeing my pants laughing. And to top it all off, for their grand finale, Driselda announced that Mickey would now dip her. And... he did. Oh yes, he did!

When we finally all had enough to eat, we got up to leave. Prince Charming came in and extended an invitation to stay! He told us "You're welcome to stay in these four tables all night if you wish. You make the time go by a lot faster." Awwww. We charmed the prince! He told us that we were a lot of fun to have. I believe him. I mean, really, Princes aren't allowed to lie.

From the Grand Floridian we slowly meandered back to the Magic Kingdom. Groups of thirty plus people don't exactly travel efficiently.

We first herded over to Space Mountain. Space was closed for refurbishment in October and so we missed it on our family trip. Although I am not a fan of coasters, and both the Matterhorn and Space are among my least favorites, I really wanted to see how it was because I had heard so much about it over the years. The Magic Kingdom has no Matterhorn and Orlando's Space Mountain was built before Anaheim's. I have always heard that Orlando's Space is a combination of the two rides - like the Matterhorn but dark and indoors like Space.

As we boarded the ride I saw instantly how strange the Space cars were. The sides seemed low. The restraint is a t-bar. We sat single file front to back.

But next we entered the coaster room and what did I notice?

The silence.

Space Mountain in Anaheim has had a soundtrack for several years. Space in Orlando... does not.

All we could hear was the cars on the tracks and some screams from guests, including ourselves, naturally. But it was very very strange and almost eerie. Space with music is much, much, much better.

When I reported back to Doc that I rode Space he asked if he missed anything in October. I replied "Nope." It was like Matterhorn but indoors, in the dark and quiet. I still do not like Matterhorn or Space Mountain but I do appreciate having two separate and unique attractions in Anaheim. In this case? Advantage: Anaheim.

Remember G and his gnoooooome? At this point in our evening G and his Princess parted with our group. There were tears and hugs.

And then we went on Buzz Lightyear.

I'm sorry, Walt Disney World, but once again: Advantage: Anaheim.

First off, I could not pick up my Astro-Blaster. Second, I could not actually hit any targets. I could not seem to get the astroblaster to shoot in rapid succession and I do not know why.

While most of the group headed to Haunted Mansion a smaller portion stood near the Indy Speedway (aka WDW Autopia) to watch fireworks. I turned fuddy duddy. While I would have liked to spend more time with friends, I was getting tired and worried that I would approach crankyness if I stayed. I was fading - Remember, I had been awake since 3:00 in the middle of the night! (Again, at 3:00 it is NOT morning!)

Leaving a park right after the evening fireworks/parade/show/whathaveyou is never a good idea but at least I was alone and not trying to keep up with a group. Some of my park strategies from Anaheim did work in Orlando and I dodged traffic up Main Street. A few CMs noticed my medal and congratulated me, which you know I eat up with a spoon.

As one of the first people to board the bus to Kidani Village I found a seat. My aching legs left me with no guilt about sitting down while others stood. None. But I really do not understand why the sick kid had to sit down right next to me and cough and sniffle all the way back to the hotel. So very very unpleasant. Especially because his entire family sat elsewhere on the bus together and basically dumped him next too me because he was annoying them. Really? What makes you think I want to be sitting near him any more than you do??

Back at the room I turned on the TV and flipped the channels. Oh! That's right! This night was the Oscars. Bummer, I barely missed seeing the John Hughes tribute. I watched while I packed my things as much as I could for the next day and dressed for bed. My roommates returned. I was getting cold so I climbed into bed. I wanted to talk to them. I wanted to ask questions. I wanted to say good-bye to swanie because she would be leaving at 4 am. I wanted to download swanies SD card onto my laptop. I wanted to be social from my nice warm bed...

But I cannot tell you exactly what happened. I remember swanie's alarm going off in the morning. And when I woke up, J said "I didn't know you slept with your glasses on, PerkyMommy?"

Well, yeah, usually, I don't.