Chapter 6: Mini Golf and Giant Appetites - Jan 13

 When morning arrived, Steevin was a big 'ol pain in the patootie to wake up. I guess he had too much fun at Jellyrolls the night before. Well, who can blame him?! We got up and got ready and when I stood out on our balcony to take in the morning, I realized that it was MUCH cooler today so we bundled up and headed out. On our way out we noticed our maid had made us two swans from our towels and placed them in the shape of a heart. Cute!

We decided to get a quickie breakfast and some coffee at the BoardWalk bakery. While there we met an older Australian couple. The woman was like Steevin and was enjoying the cold weather and her husband was like me and dressed in multiple layers and ordering hot coffee. The husband told his wife he was going to leave her here with Steevin and take me home with him because we both knew when it was cold and preferred the warm weather and her and Steevin could enjoy the cold together. But I decided I loved Steev too much and couldn't give him up even for warm Australian summers so we said so long to our new friends and walked to Fantasty Gardens for a round of mini golf.

On our way over to Fantasy Gardens Steev was very excited because he got to cross his first street ever in Florida. I am happy to report we both survived the experience. Mini golf was a lot of fun. I love that place. The activity warmed me up a bit and we ended up tying at the end. We headed back towards the hotel (crossing the street again!!!) and took the Friendship Boat to Epcot. Our first stop was to Canada for Maple candy (Mmmmm... gimme that pure sugar and just put it in my mouth!) and then we watched the "new" (well to both of us at least) "Oh Canada" movie with Martin Short. It was enjoyable. Now that I just typed this out I have the song stuck in my head. I believe this was Steevin's first ever 360 movie.

Mickey welcomes us to...

Fantasy Gardens!

Mini Golf Time!

The Not-Quite-A-Tardis in Canada

We left Canada and headed to Mexico since we hadn't been there yet. We thought about getting quick service there but nothing sounded interesting enough. It was all bean and cheese burritos and chicken enchiladas. I can have that anywhere. So since food in Mexico wasn't an option for us we decided to hit up our favorite place there instead... Cava del Tequila! I ordered my very favorite, the avocado margarita and Steevin got a pineapple one. We also had an order of chips and guacamole to hold us over. We were sitting next to a man who I called "The Salt Guy". I have never seen anyone put so much salt on their food before. Every time I looked over he was shaking salt on his food. I am not exaggerating when I say he started with a salt shaker 1/4 full and used all of it and then reached for another shaker! Dude must have retained water after that meal like crazy!

Cava del Tequila

We rode the Gran Fiesta Tour (Panchito Pistoles!! Pew! Pew!) and then headed to China snack and munched on a chicken curry pastry. And then we headed to Japan for a "light" lunch. A light meal isn't possible on the dinning plan. No matter how hard you try. We ate at the Katsura Grill and Gardens. I had a chicken curry because the pastry just wasn't enough and a green tea cake and Steevin has sushi, noodles and ice cream. We shopped and explored some more and Steevin looked for a raccoon hat. He found one but it wasn't what he wanted so we didn't get it.

Our "light" lunch

No raccoon hat but we did find cool Viking helmets!

I have a styrofoam sward and I'm not afraid to use it.

We finished up our tour of the countries (at least for today) and went to go ride Figment and the ride in The Land with all the cool Hydroponics. I don't know why I find that so interesting but I do. We hopped on Ellen's Energy Adventure and as much as I love that ride I was fighting to stay awake.  So we went to Innoventions with their fun games and whatnot (WHY can't Anaheim's Innoventions have fun stuff too?!) . We played a piggybank game and learned how to save for our future. We got to take our Piggy Bank around to different locations and play money saving games. Good news... We get to retire!!! And we also got to make our own video game that we were the star of. It was pretty dang cute.

Our Piggy!

At this point Steev realized we hadn't seen many Photopass Cast Members on this trip. And our favorite souvenir is the disc of photopass pictures. And it wasn't going to be worth it if we didn't have very many pictures! So we went off on a park-wide hunt for the elusive photopass people. We found one. One single solitary photopass person. we got our picture taken and then decided to head out as we had dinner reservations. On our way out a cute old man asked us to take a survey so we did.

If you can only find one Photopass  person you better make it count!

We took the monorail to the Contemporary and there was a little boy who just arrived there with his family. They were headed to their hotel and every time Cinderella's castle came into view all lit up, he got so excited and shouted for everyone to look at the castle. Adorable! 

Wow. There are a LOT of kids and Southerners at The Contemporary. LOL! I understand the kids. Its the closest to the Magic Kingdom so parents take their kids there... but why all the Southern accents all over the place? Not that that is a bad thing. I just thought it was odd that anyone who lived south of the Mason Dixon line decided that this hotel was the only one worth staying at. 

We were early for our dinner at the California Grill so we got drinks at the Outer Rim Bar (Grey Goose dirty martini for me and a rum and coke for Steev).  It was here that I realized I had miscalculated our Free Dining plan meals and we had three extra table service meals I didn't even realize we had. How in the world?! I didn't realize that we also got full meals on the day we arrived and our departure day. We spent some time here sipping our drinks and booking some other meals for the rest of our stay. How is it possible for people to eat this much food?!

It was finally time for dinner and we headed up the elevator. The California Grill is beautiful. We had an amazing view of the castle from way up. The waiter was great and the food was so delicious. Steevin started off his meal with a Spicy Kazan Roll (which was one of the reasons we chose to eat here. I had heard their sushi was some of the best around and Steev loves sushi). The spicy kazan roll has crab, shrimp, bay scallops, tuna and fireball sauce. I started with Hand-Made Gnocchi with wild mushrooms, edemame, smoked pork and an organic soft poached egg. I don't even like mushrooms but this was so good and the mushrooms didn't overpower everything.

Kazan Roll

Gnocchi with wild mushrooms and a poached egg

For our main course Steevin had Black Grouper with stir-fry vegetables, haricot verts, a huge house-made shrimp dumpling and shiso broth. I really enjoyed my Cast Iron Seared Bison with with truffle mac & cheese, brussel sprouts, cipollini, smoked bacon and glace de viande.

Black Grouper

Cast Iron Seared Bison with truffle mac & cheese

And even though we were SO full you just cannot pass up the amazing desserts at this place. Especially when its already included in your dinning plan. I had a Gianduja Mousse with Cocoa Nib Tuile, hazelnuts, cappuccino Anglaise, and Bailey's ice cream. Coffee, hazelnuts and Bailey's? It was heaven in my mouth! Steevin had S'Mores Valrhona Chocolate Cake which was a chocolate lava cake, Tahitian vanilla marshmallow, graham cracker sable, and peanut butter gelato. Hilariously, Steevin absolutely hates peanut butter with a passion. I didn't realize this had peanut butter in it until I pulled up the menu again for writing this report. I can only assume he didn't read the menu all the way when he ordered it because he never would have if he had known. LOL! And the thing is... he loved it and at the whole thing. So there you go... I ate mushrooms and Steevin ate peanut butter at California Grill. Sometimes even something you hate tasted good if its prepared right.

S'Mores Valrhona Chocolate Cake 

Gianduja Mousse

At the end of our delicious dinner we got to see the Electrical Water Pageant right from our seats. That was a fun way to top off the evening. We took a taxi home and I made a note for myself in my "Trip Report Notebook" that says "Taxi driver = Indian Grandpa Norrie". But I don't remember why the driver reminded me of my grandpa... and that's why you don't wait 7 months to write your trip report even if you write really good notes. However, I'm sure if he reminded me of my Grandpa Norrie he pretty much made my day!

A picture of the reflection of my face as I look at the castle from our table

Electric Water Pageant