We're Back!

As usual, Mickey showed us a good time. But before I get too into vacation stories, let me first relieve you all by saying: My dogs survived!! I know you were all just as worried as me, right? Turns out, despite my fretting, they enjoyed themselves in doggie day care every day, ate well, and came home just as tuckered out as Jesse and I. In fact, they had such a good time, they really didn't even seem to be terribly excited to see me when we picked them up. (Gasp!) I was actually really relieved at this, because I could tell they were feeling so comfortable at the boarding place. Now that we have done it once, I think it will be much easier to do it again. Not that I want to anytime soon, but it's just nice to know that they didn't stress the whole time. In fact, they came home with a nice little report card that filled me in on their little vacation.

Okay, so now that the important stuff is out of the way and you can all breathe again...

This year, we stayed at Coronado Springs, which is probably our favorite thus far. The grounds were really nice and I think our room may have been recently redone. It was all fresh and pretty. Plus, it's a convention center so they had a lot of nice amenities, like a gym, which I only used once, but Jesse used a number of times.

Below is a shot inside our room, just as we arrived - before unpacking and messing it all up!

And here's the exterior of part of the resort below. There are 3 areas, each themed slightly differently. The building we were in was 4 stories, but you can see this one only has 2 levels. Either way, they were all really nice and happy festive.

We spent the day we arrived just walking around the grounds and had dinner at a place called Maya Grill at the resort. It wasn't very good. In fact, it may have been the most bland meal of my life. For instance, my "salad" was greens...no dressing...no other vegetables. We decided our chef was passive aggressive against vegans and vegetarians. =) The menu had zero vegetarian options - which is really unusual. Most places list at least one meatless option. Anyway, this made it difficult to order, especially since I decided I wanted to go vegan on vacation. (Vegan = nothing with any animal products at all, including dairy, honey, etc. - I will tell you more stories of my vegan adventures later.) Anyhow, despite the bland meal, we had a great first evening at the resort.

I noticed the below newspaper headline as we were buying a little snack in the food court, and couldn't help but take a photo. I hadn't considered the impact of the recession on the feminist movement, but this decade is writing a big shift, and for a minute, I was envious of all sociology students when I read the headline - what discussions to be had! I'm saddened that the wage gap is closing in this manner, but excited to see how this all plays out in terms of equity and resources. What would Marx say??? Anyway, that is another blog post all together, so let me move back to vacation!

The next day, we headed to Magic Kingdom in the morning, which is what people usually think of when they think Disney. It's the traditional Princess/Castle type thing, and though neither Jesse or I care much for castles or Princesses, it's a right of passage to have your photo taken in front of the castle, so we happily conformed. =)


Here's us at the tail end of riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one of our favorites at Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is fun, but it's neither of our favorite parks. So, we decided to only do a half day there, and left for lunch at another nearby resort, and then headed over to Epcot. We met up with my parents, brother and sister-in-law at Epcot. While we were waiting, I had fun playing with the mirrors and trying to get a self-photo that had both of us in it. I think I did pretty well.



Once my family showed up, I had to do the same with all of them.


Had a great afternoon at Epcot, riding Test Track and Soarin' - two of our most favorite. For dinner, we went to the Polynesian Resort and ate at a place called Ohana. Unlike our passive aggressive Maya Grill chef, the chef at Ohana was amazing. His name is Chef TJ, and I had actually read about him online before we left. He is known for treating vegans very well, and lived up to his reputation. He came out to the table to talk with me, and explained that he would be making me a special seven course dinner, then warned me to pace myself. After that, he personally delivered each course to our table and explained to me what was in each dish. He was stinking awesome, the food was beautifully presented, and I could not have asked for better.

The above is course four. I had: 1) hummus and the best baba ghanouche of my life 2) grilled bok choy with mushrooms in yummy sauce 3) spicy ginger soup 4) wraps with pineapple and avocado spears, cucumber stuffed with chili (above photo) 5) main dish of tempura fried asparagus, tofu, rice, fried noodles and other general yumminess 6) lychee in coconut milk with berries 7) tofutti with fruit and chocolate syrup. My terrible descriptions would surely make any chef cringe...apologies to Chef TJ! He explained to me all the ingredients and cooking methods, but it was so much to take in, I just can't remember it all! All I really remember is that he used Hawaiian beer for the tempura because of the yeast in it. Otherwise, I just remember it was yummy, Chef TJ treated me with excellent service, and my tummy was so very full when we left. Later that night, we went back to Epcot for a bit, watched fireworks from the monorail, and climbed into bed late...still with a full tummy.

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom, which is my favorite park. The themeing alone warrants a day of viewing, let alone the attractions. (It would have to be on my top ten coolest jobs list to be a Disney set designer - they do a great job.)

Here's my parents happily checking out some birds.

Jesse and I with Expedition Everest in the background. Last year when I rode this, I seriously considered the thought that I may die on it. Never again, but I would recommend that everyone to do it at least once! Fishies...they were so pretty in real life - orange and blue.
Our last full day we decided to take it easy. We went to Downtown Disney, a shopping/entertainment district, browsed stores, then had some lunch and headed back to the resort. We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, which was an awesome way to end vacation.
Below is the view I had from my lounger and I don't think it could get any better! He looks so peaceful. Unfortunately, when Jesse called to check flight loads the next day, we learned that they were really full. Our best hope of getting out of Orlando meant we had to be on the first flight out. This also meant we had to be up at 2am something (1am something Missouri time) in order to catch the bus to the airport and be there in time for the flight. We ended up getting the last two open seats on the plane and were extremely thankful. They had already announced to all standby passengers that the flight was full and they were rolling everyone over to the next flight out, but we decided to stick around the gate just in case. I'm glad we did, because at the last minute, they called us and we cruised on right before it pulled away from the jet bridge. We got home, bleary-eyed and tired...

My only complaint is that it was not long enough!