Friday, May 2, 2008
Shopping and messing around day
Due to sunburns, as previously mentioned, we knew that we had to have a day that would keep the girls mostly out of the sun. So, we decided to do some messing around and souvenir shopping.
We got up at our leisure and went to breakfast at HRHs The Kitchen. They had a wonderful buffet that everyone in the family greatly enjoyed. We were kind of disappointed that we had waited so long to check this out. . . but, at least we had the opportunity to enjoy their offerings this morning.
After breakfast, we load up in the van and set out to see what we could see. We stopped and filled the gas tank, found a restroom since the one at the service station was too yucky to use and loaded back up.
We wanted to get a few little souvenirs for the girls to give to their friends and look for something unique for ourselves. We didnt want to spend a bundle, so specialty shops werent really what we were looking for. I cant recall the name of the shops we stopped at, but they had these giant eagles painted on the building and they were huge. From the second we walked in, we knew we were in the wrong place. This place was dirty, had gum stuck to the floor, was extremely smelly (eeewwwwww) and their merchandise was junk. Even the beach towels were useless, so out we went. Those 10 minutes were the most wasted of our vacation and we can never get them back. If you see the shops Im talking about. . . be warned, dont bother. If you want a cheap little shot glass with a palm tree, this is your place, but otherwise, steer clear.
Apparently, not learning our lesson the first time around, dh pulls up to another store very similar to the first and insists we at least check it out. The second I opened the door, I said ok, checked out and found to be sorry so back in the van. Dh knew I was right, so off we went in search of some real souvenir shopping. I must say, at this point, I dont think we ever truly found what we were looking for.
Before we go back to Orlando next time, I will definitely research this issue in depth. There are locals who regularly spend time on these boards and their knowledge would prove invaluable. I dont know why I never thought to ask about it before, but it should seriously be a topic regularly visited. Junk shops to stay away from and what to visit that is worth you time. Maybe this should be a chapter in one of Kelly Monaghans books. I found some excellent information in his books, such as the go-kart track place we visited and several other wonderful tidbits (the Desert Lady). Kelly, are you there?? We need advice on some serious souvenir shopping that is not found at the outlet mall or at those huge, smelly, dirty junk stores.
Finally, around 10:30 we come across a place called ShellWorld. At first we passed it up, but then thought it might be interesting and our girls really, really wanted to find jewelry boxes made from shells. So, dh turns around and backtracks to the shell shop. Outside was what appeared to be a golf cart completely covered in shells. As you can see from the pics, the girls thought this was something.
We spent about an hour shopping here and dh got out for only $100! Can you believe it? We found all kinds of stuff that the girls wanted for their friends, and of course themselves as well. Nothing was expensive, but nothing truly unique either. They were happy, so thats what mattered and they did get their shell jewelry boxes. It seemed like every time we were ready to check out, we would find another display or whatever that caught our attention and there was something we just HAD to have. The guy checking us out, who I believe was the owner, was so patient and tolerant you could tell this was like an everyday thing for him. He ended up giving each of the girls a shell necklace as we were leaving.
So, back in the van with no particular destination in mind, however we know we are not interested in the mall or those big souvenir shops. I know we drove around for maybe another 90 minutes, stopping to check out a few places, but we never hit pay dirt. We did come across this store that sold fresh citrus. We went in to see what they offered and sampled their oranges and juice. It was delicious, but dh wanted to ask some questions, so we found the owner. After he spent 10 minutes grilling the poor lady, we left with assurances we would be back the morning we were leaving to stock our cooler with orange juice, oranges and grapefruit. We bought a couple oranges and a small bottle of juice to share with the girls.
At this point, we are hungry and remember seeing a Macaroni Grill. I know, I know, why a Macaroni Grill. Those are everywhere. Well, the closest one to where we live is 90 miles away, so we dont get there much. My job requires me to travel quite a bit, so I eat there a couple times a year, but dh doesnt get the opportunity and kind of wanted to take the girls. Ok, so he takes us to Macaroni Grill and in we go. We are immediately seated because it is late for lunch but way too early for supper. There are only maybe 3 other table occupied, but we figure we will get solid service and good preparation. Our waiter was a hoot, but by the end of the meal, we were glad to be finished and leaving. I wanted to ask him why he didnt just have a seat and join us he was at our table so much, but dh said uuhh, no, you will not be rude so just eat your meal and shush. Wellll alrighty then! Trust me, he will pay for that. . . talk about rude! Jeeesh! My husband is the most kind, mild mannered, tolerant man I have ever, ever met. We are like this weird odd couple because Im very outspoken and impatient. . . ok, ok, bordering on aggressive when the situation requires it. I just dont tolerate crap and have zero patience for stupid. Im opinionated but usually very well informed, so not afraid to speak up. I like to stand for those who dont have a voice or who arent heard. Ive worked for a social service agency for nearly 14 years, so I found my calling years ago. Now you all know Im not getting rich off my salary, so trips like this must be well planned and prepared for. Once every 5 years or so we are able to blow one out like we did here.
Ok, ok. . . back on track. So our waiter, his name was Mac and Ill never forget him, but hell always remember that crazy family from Illinois. He even took our dd9 to his station to order the childrens sundaes that came with their meals. She thought she was the shiznit, let me tell you! So dd9 had the kids pasta dinner (aka spaghetti), dds 12 & 16 had the kids grilled chicken and kids alfredo meals. Each of those 3 meals were $5.29 and included drinks, entrée and dessert. I had Penne Rustica ($10.29) and dh had chicken Portobello ($12.99). Dh and I each ordered a soft drink @$2.19 each. Service was very good; the food was ok to good, so dh tipped around 20% for a total of $56.00. I know this is probably too much information, but during my research, I promised that I would provide as many annoying, boring little details and I could because I am sure that someone will want to know. I wanted to know how much things cost for the budget I prepared and I wanted to know about tipping as well, so that is why I include that ridiculous level of detail. For those who arent interested, please forgive me and just keep plowing through.
Now we go back to the van and dh wants to go to the Bass Pro Shop. We saw one during our meanderings earlier and it looked like it was pretty big. So off we go and end up spending another hour in there. We did some shopping, but again dh gets lucky and leaves without dropping even $100. Mostly it was his purchases anyway, but he wanted to try buffalo jerky, so had to bring several bags back to the fellas at home. Plus, as you must know by now, he is a huge NASCAR fan and he found some stuff he wanted to bring home to his racing buddies.
Now its like 4:00pm and we decide to head back to HRH and figure out what to do from there. When we get to the room, theres a message from the manager I had been working with for our reservations, and who had checked in with us a few times during our stay and he said he wanted to meet us in person to say hello and also let us know there was a concert that night that he thought our girls would really enjoy. He said 8:00 for the concert, so we figured we would go to City Walk, grab some dinner and head back.
I guess around 6:00 we head to CW and had every intention of going to Bubba Gumps. We had some gift cards we had purchased prior to traveling thanks to a tip from another diser (you know who you are, mamma) that we needed to use, so we boated over and headed to Bubbas. Once there, we quickly realized that this was not going to fit in our plans if we wanted to get back to HRH for the concert because the wait was like 90 minutes and they dont honor the priority seating for resort guests. So, we go back to NASCAR café because we also had some gift cards from there that we had forgotten to use on our previous visit. Wee really didnt want to repeat a restaurant, but even though they were just as busy, they honored priority seating and we waited only maybe 5 minutes and got the same table as before. This time dd16 ordered more appropriately, we declined getting the picture since we had bought the one taken earlier in the week and we were in kind of a hurry. None of us were really that hungry since our lunch had been later, so we only ordered a kids chicken tender meal ($5.99) for dds 16 & 12 to share. I ordered a burger with fries ($10.58) and shared with dd9, and the other girls and dh ordered the pork chop meal ($17.49), which he also shared with our girls. Jeez, Im trying to remember that meal. Was it the ½ the pig or what. . . . $17.49 for a pork chop??? Food was good; service was quick, as requested, so dh tipped 20%. Total spent was $55.00. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that we ordered 3 sweet teas ($7.47), which is only worth mentioning because one of those was mine. I usually drink water with lemon, but that sweet tea sounded soooo good, I ordered one. . . which was a foolish mistake. I dont use caffeine, remember, because I have an extra heartbeat which is exaggerated by caffeine. Plus, Id forgotten, but brewed tea had begun to cause heartburn right before I quit drinking it. Ok, so now Ive drank a giant glass of iced tea (it was soooooooo good though) which is more caffeine at once than I have ingested in several years and my heartbeat is pronounced, so I am anxious because I can feel that extra beat when it happens, plus Im all wired up and shaky from the caffeine, which Im no longer used to feeling. I just want to lie down and sleep until the effects wear off, but I know I cant. I drink a couple glasses of water to try to move the caffeine out of my system, or dilute it or whatever I was thinking at the time, so now I just have to continually go to the bathroom. Yes, I know, enough whining, I made a choice so I had to live with it without whining or ruining the evening for my family.
Back to the boat and our return to HRH is relaxing, beautiful and takes my anxiety way down. By the time we made it to the lobby, the band was playing its final song! What. . . we were told 8:00. Its only like 8:15. Oops, the manager had told us 8:00, but the performance really started at 7:00. I guess it was meant to be, because my girls were able to meet the band and get their pictures taken with them.
I cant recall the name of the band these kids formed, but I guess they are all the rage in the area and had just gotten some big recording deal. So watch out for them!! As this is all going on, I asked to see our manager and he came to greet us. It was wonderful to be able to shake his hand and thank him for all his assistance. He really went above and beyond anything I expected or have ever witnessed before. We could not thank him enough. Im glad he was able to see how happy my kids were and they got to tell him themselves how much they LOVED HRH, and everything we had been doing. I hope that made all his hard work worth it. Especially since our dd16 has some disabilities, but we had not had any major issues at all! All her needs were met, and then some and that is quite an accomplishment I must say.
Another thing we saw quite a bit at HRH was various artists performing their craft. There seemed to always be someone creating something each day. This night, there was an artist creating caricatures. I know, they are a dime a dozen. But after seeing what this guy drew for another family, we knew we had to immortalize this moment. It was expensive, but he could do all three girls together, though they had to sit separately. The level of detail he included was excellent and we were glad to have spent the money. He deserved what he charged and more than earned his generous tip!
Heres some random pics we took while waiting for the girls to be finished sitting.
Here's a shot of that delicious Emerils coffee brewing one fresh cup at a time!
After this, it was getting late and we took the girls to the room, where turn down service had, as usual, done a great job with the room and the kids were in bed in no time. They really wanted to go swimming because they had heard the boys from the band were going to, but we said no, horrible parents that we are, because we figured if that was really true, that pool would be packed with screaming 8 14 year olds and we wanted none of it. As it turns out, and we know this because we went out there, if those boys went swimming, they must have jumped in and out because there was no sign of them or a million girls when we went back down.
Which is a perfect time to tell you that once the girls were settled down and watching a little tv, we decided to take a little time for ourselves. We left them a cell phone, told them not to answer the door for any reason, assured them we would return to get them if the fire alarm went off, but agreed on a meeting place outside if necessary and off we went. We just wanted to explore a bit without the girls. We thought about going into the Velvet Lounge for a couple drinks, but decided we really werent interested in that. We are not very big drinkers, if you havent figured that out yet. I really, really, really hate hangovers and it seems like I get one after even a modest amount of alcohol consumption. So we walked around, saw a couple other artists, checked out the pool (no boys) and decided on treating ourselves to something in Emack & Bolio. As we were watching the artist painting right outside the door to E& B, the on-duty manager we had met earlier walked in. He stopped to pick up a couple pool towels someone had dropped on the floor (E&B is right by the pool entrance/exit if you dont know HRH) and went on into the ice cream shop. After watching the painter for a minute, we went on in and decided on ice cream. Dh had a banana split, his signature dish and he must order one everywhere we go ($5.25) and I had something called Mad Macks ($4.65). It was soooooooooo yummy and rich and full of lovely calories and fat. It had ice cream and brownie and I dont remember what all else. Dh grabbed a bottle of water ($4.50) and we sat down at a table. They also have glass cases with bagels, donuts and other pastries available. While we were sitting there. We saw our manager talking to what we guessed to be the on-duty E&B manager, and before long, there was a staff person taking everything out of those cases and cleaning them top to bottom. We had looked at the pastry just before deciding on ice cream, and didnt see anything wrong, but apparently management thought it wasnt clean enough. After that, they set to sweeping and cleaning the floor too. I am wired to notice things less than clean. We hadnt seen anything that made me take notice at all, but we now understood why HRH is rated like it is. Their standards are top notch and management doesnt just sit in an office. They are all over that place, as we witnessed every day, and holding their employees to a very strict standard. Amen to that and once again, kudos to HRH management.
After our guilty trip to E&B, we wandered a little more then went back to the room. An hour without the kids was nice, but made us feel guilty as well. Ok, ok. . . not so guilty that we didnt do it again the next night!!!!!!
Its lights out for us and tomorrow is going to find us at Islands of Adventure. . . or so I thought!
