Travel
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Animal Kingdom
Day Three at Disney dawned with a downpour. We knew it was going to blow over, but not til later, so we suited up and sloshed to breakfast, trying to stay as dry as possible. We milled about in the lobby area of the hotel for a while, then finally headed out on the bus, and then waded into the park. We walked up the ramp toward a bug attraction, looking like a bunch of sentient garbage bags. In case you don’t know, the central feature of Animal Kingdom – its Cinderella castle/Epcot ball – is the Tree of Life. The Tree is 145 feet tall, and 50 feet wide…
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Epcot
I started this post on our second day at Disney World over a month ago . . . then Mardi Gras happened. So here it is a month later – done, moreso than perfect, as is the usual. Day two was our driest, most comfortable day. Chilly but not rainy. As the prior day was the National Championships, in which Clemson played (and which they roundly lost, sob), we had worn our Clemson orange on day one. Having properly mourned our loss that night, we woke the next day and put on the Mickey t shirts that Santa had put in everyone’s stocking. Also, the Prof continued the process of…
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Last Full Morning
Hot, bitter coffee, espresso. I finish The Secret Chord this morning, on the settee on the porch. I feel rinsed, wrung. I have to be dragged back here, to this tropical island, from the scrubby, brutal, bloodwashed Israel I have occupied. I immediately download Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. Only a few more days to read for pleasure. Last night we played cards on the little wooden table on the back deck – Spit, and Rummy, in the fading light. Then we headed over to the open air bar for a quick drink – eighteen dollars apiece, these drinks, and we have limited ourselves each day to just one.…
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Second Full Day
It is our third night – the evening of our second full day here. Last night we shared one starter (pork and shrimp Asian dumplings – four of them, really good), one main (chicken stir fry – average) and one dessert (a coconut cheesecake confection with coconut ice cream and basil leaves and little pearls of sweet cream, which was an odd but perfect combo). I had a local bottled beer, he had a cocktail. We ate by the pool, under what would have been a starry night if it wasn’t so overcast. Nevertheless, the tall poolside palms rustled, the other guests murmuring discussion and the lapping water, and the…
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Evening – Recounting the First Full Day
I feel nourished by the food here. This morning I have granola and soy milk, with fresh berries on top. A berry smoothie, in a small glass bottle with a rubber stopper, lined up next to others that have been plunged in an ice bath at the bottom of a silver tub. Slices of cold ham and thick square slabs of cheddar, creamy lemon pastry, coffee, toast with butter and honey. The butter is piled in circlets on a plate, the honey in a jar with a large dipper fastened on the lid. They melt and mingle on the toasted whole grain bread. Just looking at this food makes me…