Chapter 3: A Fancy-Pants Dinner - Jan 10th

It was another beautiful day out when I woke up. I was extra excited because today we were going to Victoria and Alberts, or as I kept calling it, our "Fancy-Pants Dinner". I have wanted to eat at V&A's for pretty much as long as I have known about it. I love food. And I love good food. And everything about eating there appealed to me. So I saved up and told Steevin we were going there. He was much less excited than I was but he never gets excited in advance and he was happy that I was so excited.

But dinner wouldn't be for hours and we had other stuff to do this morning like see some animals! We got ready and went to our "local" bakery for breakfast. Steevin just got a croissant and I chowed down on a really good blueberry muffin. While we were sitting outside enjoying the morning a little boy came tearing down the boardwalk with a seagull hot on his heels. The boy was screaming in a mix of terror and laughter. He caught up with his family and his dad did some sort of wrestling drop-kick move in the general direction of the bird which seemed to be enough to scare it away.  That boy may be scared for life of seagulls but we had a good laugh.

Today we were going to Animal Kingdom so we couldn't just stroll over to our destination. We had to ride a buss like the regular unwashed masses. Ick. When we got to Animal Kingdom their Christmas tree was still up. I really liked the decorations!

It looks like A Lion King Christmas

Yay!

Animal Kingdom is home to some scary animals

We headed right for the Safari because we wanted to avoid long lines and hopefully get  to see the animals all nice and active. We got our wish for both. We were seated in the 2nd row with a guy and his little girl. She was pretty cute. But the people in front of us... UHG! It was a couple, and the guy kept standing up and crawling over his wife to switch sides to get the "The Best Possible Shot" with his camera. It was driving me bonkers. How hard is it to sit in one seat. I decided that he is the kind of person who will one day have a child that will FALL OUT of a ride because they were standing up to see better (because it's what daddy does) and then probably sue Disney for not having seat belts. I was annoyed.

But then... I forgot to be annoyed because we saw giraffes and they were running and frolicking. I didn't even know giraffes could frolic.  But they can. And one walked RIGHT by the truck. We could have reached out and gave it a pet. Of course we didn't. But it was that close!

"Hello, Come to Toys R Us!"

Heeeeeeops! They don't look too hungry hungry.

This guy.

Roaming Elephant

We decided to inspect the tree of life a little bit closer by accidentally walking up a secret trail OR the exit to Its Tough To Be a Bug. We're not entirely sure but it was cool to check out the detail on the tree. We stopped and saw some more animals. We saw Mearkats and gorillas. Every time I see a gorilla it reminds me of the time I went to the zoo with my Aunt, cousin and grandma. My cousin was pretty little at the time and when she saw the gorillas she excitedly told everyone that "He looks just like Papa Neal!" who was my Grandma's husband at the time. LOL! Well she was right...

I love all the carvings!

See... this is me. Loving them. The carvings.

Steevin is pointing out his favorites.

Woah...

Meerkat scouting for danger

Mrs. Gorilla checking her manicure. Her baby is next to her behind the roots.

We decided we'd go get Fastpasses for Expedition Everest. We somehow got lost and ended up in the exit for Kali River Rapids. Again... I don't know how we did that. Its hard to lose a giant mountain but we did. So we squirted a few rafts with the water cannons and took a photo of group for them and then headed back the way we came. Because we had taken the long way around we were obviously famished so we used some snack points and Steevin got a pork and shrimp egg roll and I had a super fresh and yummy spring roll.

We like snacks!

We found it! Steev has to carry me there, I'm too tired from our long journey.

 We got our fastpass for Everest and decided to go to Dinoland U.S.A. so that I could visit Chester and Hesters and ride Primeval Whirl.  On our way we were distracted by a little path that led us to Tigger, Pooh and Friends. After visiting with them we walked right on to Primeval Whirl. After spinning ourselves dizzy and doing a little shopping at the shops we decided to check out Dinosaur. We walked up, saw it was a 45 minute wait and spun around on our heels and walked right out. 45 minutes for "Indiana Jones Jr."? No thank you.

I took this picture because I like monkeys

Gila Monster

We all have tummies full of hunny

I was pretending to jump. Steev was supposed to as well but I guess he forgot.

Being sad with Eeyore. Steevin was supposed to as well but I guess he forgot.

Here we are in front of a Monkey Habitat. Steevin is doing some sort of "rock-power-fist" thing. He  told me we were going to pose like monkeys but I guess he forgot...

Since Dinosaur was a no-go we decided to get lunch at the Flame Tree. Steevin ordered the Ribs and Chicken and I got the pork sandwich. As always it came with dessert so I got the Key Lime Mouse and Steev had the chocolate. I think the lady that was behind the counter getting us our food had a crush on me because she also gave me cupcake just to give me a magical day. Awe, it was nice. I did feel bad when I couldn't finish it though. I was already feeling full after my meal and I didn't even eat all my dessert and I was trying to save room for Fancy-Pants Dinner. I did have a bit though and dang! That frosting is just pure sugar. If you're kid is going all wack-a-doo at Disney World and you don't know why... think back to if you gave them one of those cupcakes because they're probably on the most intense sugar high of their life.

Mmm.. pork sandwich

Steevin's ribs and chicken

Steevin told me that this is NOT a tiger eating a pig. Its a pig piledriving a tiger. And now you know!

 After lunch we went to go see the tigers. Steev had himself a headache so I asked if he wanted to skip Everest. He said NO he did not want to skip that. So we headed over. The standby line said 10 minutes so we thought we'd do that and then use our fastpass when we were done and ride it again. But the sign lied as we stopped in a long line in the first room. So we hopped out of the sucker... I mean Standby line and fastpassed it up! The ride was super fun as always. We got Erika (Steevin's sister) a souvenir there as her nickname is Yeti and there are plenty of yeti things there. We also got Steevin some pills for his headache.

Steev and I love big cats! (and small ones)

I just KNOW he wants to snuggle!

We decided to head out for the day as it was 4pm and the park closed at 5pm anyway.  Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade was going on so we got re-routed... and lost again! Sheesh. I think we needed a guide on this trip. We eventually found our way out, and back to the busses (ew!) and headed home. Steev decided to take a nap because of his head and I took a little one too.

I got up and started to get ready for Fancy-Pants Dinner. I woke Steev up a little later and all of a sudden he decided to get nervous for dinner because maybe it was TOO fancy for him. Well I didn't want to spend so much money on something if Steev wasn't even going to enjoy it so I said we didn't need to go and he said NO we are going. He started to get ready and realized he brought the wrong pants... the ones that didn't fit. Now... if your girlfriend took the time to book a Fancy-Pants Dinner, and kept reminding you about the need to pack your dinner jacket and your Fancy-Pants and kept on calling it a Fancy-Pants Dinner... wouldn't you make sure your Fancy-Pants were in order for the dinner? I asked Steevin 5 more times if he was sure he wouldn't just be happier if we called it off. And he was determined to go because I had my heart set on it for so long and that is the kind of guy he is. So we made it work with an un-tucked shirt (covered by his dinner jacket), a safety pin and oh yes... his black pinstripe converse because he doesn't own dress shoes. I think he almost hyperventilated before we got there. I kept telling him they weren't going to inspect him, he just had to look nice, which he did. It was an adventure for sure. LOL! But we both got dressed and ready and looked pretty darn nice and then we got a cab to The Grand Floridian for dinner.

At our hotel before dinner

We clean up pretty nice

Especially this guy

Safety pins? What safety pins?

We arrived at the Grand Floridian and asked for directions to Victoria and Alberts. We went and checked in but I knew we were early so they had a hostess WALK us to the bar around the corner. I told Steev he could relax now because they had seen him and hadn't sent him home but he was still nervous. So I ordered him a Rum and Coke at the bar and I got a Gin and Tonic. We actually had a great time chatting with the bartender and another couple there. The bartender told us about a drink she invented called a Poison Apple and then made the couple one and gave us a little taste. It was pretty good. Soon the hostess came back and found us and walked us back to V&A's. No classless buzzers for us, thankyouverymuch.

Even though Steevin is convinced the hostess went backstage and laughed to all her friends because he sat down first instead of letting me sit first, he soon loosened up a little and was able to enjoy himself. We got our personalized menus, picked what we wanted to eat and what followed was the best tasting three hours of our lives.

Our amuse-bouche: cauliflower cream with caviar, ahi tuna, duck, and lobster. It was all amazing!

My appetizer: cold-smoked and seared bison with truffle vinaigrette

Steevin's appetizer: gulf shrimp and heirloom tomatoes with charmoula sauce

My Fish course: Maine scallop with braised fennel and blood orange gastrique. (No photo of Steevin's. His was GONE by the time I was ready to take a photo. I guess it was good!)

My hot appetizer: Marcho Farm veal with and apple red wine kraut

Steev's blurry hot appetizer: roasted quail with Asian pears and Serrano ham jus

My main course: Kurobuta pork tenderloin and belly with verjus-bacon vinaigrette. For those of you who know me, I know you're asking if that is popcorn on top. Yes it is. And it was very good as a topping. I will add Victoria and Albert's popcorn to my small list of popcorn items I will eat. :)

Steev's main course: Australian kobe-style beef tenderloin with smoked garlic potato puree

This is the smoked garlic potato puree

My delicious cheese platter

Steevin's white chocolate gelatto

Coolest coffee pot ever. I really want one. Also, the coffee was really good. (As though anything at this place wasn't amazing!)

My Hawaiian Kona chocolate souffle. This was heaven in my mouth!

Steev's vanilla bean creme brûlée. He said this was the greatest thing ever.

And then this! After dinner treats and a rose. The chocolate on the right was sea salt and some sort of caramel with liqueur. SO AMAZING!

This was an amazing night with amazing company. If you've ever wondered about going to Victoria and Alberts but weren't sure about it, I can't say enough nice things about it. Yes, it was expensive. But I did not feel bad at all for saving up for something like this and I would do it again.