Annette & DH - September 2007

Cast: Me, 41, Disney Fanactic, Trip Planner, DH, 54, Converted Disney Fan, Trip Taker and Enjoys all of my efforts.

Dates: Sept 19 - 30, 2007

Day 2
Thursday I had an ADR at Chefs de France for lunch at noon. In the morning I ran around grocery shopping, went to the nearby Dollar Store to pick up a few last minute items and just took my time doing things. Even though we were on the free dining plan, I usually pick up snacks like pretzels for DH, maybe a can of Pringles for laying out by the pool and bottled water and some sodas for late at night in the room. I also had to go to DTD to transfer rewards points to my Disney Visa Rewards card and upgrade DH's ticket to a 10day plus ticket with no expiration. I preferred to do that myself so DH wouldn't have a heart attack looking at the price – it was more than an Annual Pass! That's hard to believe, but it will last him through this entire vacation, next years and more.

It was nice to be at Disney and not running around like crazy. DH's flight was to arrive at 10:30pm that night.

Once I got to France, I went to the perfume store there and like Disney Magic, there was a sign outside informing me that reps from my favorite perfume Annick Goutal, from Paris, were there and there were gifts with purchase. Any woman loves the phrase "gifts with purchase" it's like an aphrodisiac. I immediately went in and found out they had a brand new perfume with pure essential oil of orange blossoms. Perfect, it will remind me of Disney trips in Florida. A purchase was made and a gift received, which was a lovely small travel bottle of my choice of one of three Annick perfumes. WOW, two perfumes for one and I do travel a lot...too bad the gift bottle is glass!

This was my first meal at CdF and it was wonderful. Lunch was so good that I immediately went up afterwards to the front desk area and asked if they by any chance had a ADR available for two for Saturday night….low and behold they did. She booked an 8:10pm (way too late for us) but she told me to just show up at 5:30 (our preferred time) and there would be "no problem" seating us. At lunch the restaurant had been only half full. Later the next day, I did check with our hotel concierge and secured a 6:10pm reservation for dinner there Sat and cancelled the 8:10pm, just to be sure. I was really surprised we could get such a good time for a weekend ADR at France.

I didn't ride any rides that day and headed back to the room to make some phone calls to work and just relax. I had a 3:40pm ADR at the Garden View Tea Room at the GF. I'm a big fan of hot tea and since DH doesn't drink it, this was my little treat to myself. I love the Garden View Lounge. It's so light and pleasant. The tea is great, the scones and cream are great and the strawberries and whipped cream are to die for. Really good.

In the early evening, I went over to DTD to accomplish all my tasks there and ended up at another favorite of mine, Portabello's Yacht Club. If you like roasted garlic, this is your place! I like to sit at the bar tables and eat one of their appetizers, a four cheese thin crust pizza (delicious). Even if you order an appetizer they bring your freshly baked bread and just out of the oven roasted garlic cloves to spread on it….yummy!

When I was done, I went to get the rental car and drive to the airport but low and behold it was a total downpour outside and me with no umbrella. The car was parked by the AMC theaters, a fair distance away, and I was too early to pick him up so I went back in and talked to the bartender some more and tried my first ever port…yuc. They kept me company until the rain slowed and I headed off right on time to pick up my DH.

I noticed lots of lightning in the distance and the rain started to pour again once in the car. I found a public radio station and was amazed to hear tornado warnings for right now in an area just north of Orlando. Weird weather to be sure. Turns out the tornado warning wasn't my biggest problem at the moment – getting to the airport was. I had planned on just taking 417 straight back to the airport, 15 mins maximum on the toll road late at night. I did not take into account that they are doing road work on the between the airport and 417 and they had set up detours that went very far and wide of my desired path to the airport. All I can say is thank goodness I had brought my portable GPS unit with me. I get lost easy enough but this detour went way out of the way, the back roads to 528 and the other entrance to the airport (where I had to pay more tolls in addition to the ones I'd already paid on 417!! ) It took me 40 minutes to get there, so if you are planning this trip in the near future, give yourself plenty of time to mess up.

DH's flight was about 10 mins late coming in and he had to collect luggage, so I was ok. Those parking security people where you pick up flight arrivals were not allowing anyone to stop so round and round I went for another 15 minutes until DH finally showed up complete with luggage. I travel so much for work that whenever I arrive at my destination with my luggage in the same day I was scheduled to, in the city I wanted, I now consider that a great success – travel is such a pain nowadays.

Off we go back to WDW. Wait, is DH sneezing? Is he blowing his nose? He was fine yesterday – now he's caught a cold on the plane. He never gets sick. Except last fall during our WDW vacation when he also picked up a cold on the way down. He blew his nose the entire trip….he makes fun of my taking Airborne tablets....but am I sick? Noooooooooooo.

I get him back to POR-AB and he loves the room. I'm so glad I could get it for him. It's late and we go back to bed. It's really hot and very humid from the rain all evening…no wait, it's always humid here, I forgot!

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