Trying to keep up with the weight loss wagon......yet again (new title, same journal)

[mikamah]

Hi Rose!!

Sorry you're having one of those days and the tortilla's didn't turn out. It just sucks that you have to deal with all this. I know you know it's worth it to feel good, but still I'm know how hard and frustrating it must get. Hang in there. I think you need to plan your next vacation.

I loved the update. You and Tom in Dumbo always makes me smile, and him holding your hand made me cry. So sweet. I made michael come in and showed him the pics and said that no matter how old you get, I'm your mom, and you can always hold my hand for a little while.

You look fabulous, and I'd kill for my butt to look that big. Love the family pic in epcot too. You all are one beautiful family.

Hope you have a good week and Tom made it home safe and sound and happy.

 

[pjlla]

Well..... I had a bit of reading and relaxing time tonight and rather than grabbing a book, I decided to read your TR.

It sounds like a great trip. But I can totally get your frustrations about it being such a big deal to find food.

We've had just a few issues over the years with DS's food allergy and pickiness issues. I think I waited in line at Casey's for 20+ minutes for a hot dog for him one evening just as the crowds were gathering for the parade. As a rule we aren't hot dog people.... but there was just NOTHING else that he would or could eat that night (he was about 7 at the time). We had all found something else to eat elsewhere (Tomorrowland Noodle Terrace), but he would have NONE of that! Plus with his sesame allergy I'm always hesitant to give him any kind of Asian food.

We still have occasional issues. Took him to Five Guys yesterday for a treat (I had just 2 fries and a diet coke....) and we ordered his burger on a bun without sesame seeds. In the past they cut the burger in half and put it on a hot dog roll. That was fine. This time they put it on two hamburger bun bottoms... but of course, there were still lots of seeds around the edges. DS didn't want to make a fuss, so he picked off all of the seeds we could see and hoped for the best, and it worked out okay. But it was aggravating to have to worry about it. So I get it (sort of).

Anyhow, I enjoyed your TR and all your photos! Thanks for sharing......P

 

[Rose&Mike]

I cant believe your fairy godmother was there waiting for you.

OMG I loved the pic of you and Tom walking holding hands. How sweet. I would also say that no your butt didnt look big. You look like one fabulous momma of a 20 year old boy. You should be very proud.


It sounds like you had a wonderful last day. and drama free is always good.

Thanks Lindsay!

gosh, rose, you look SO good in all of these pictures!! i am really jealous! i always look at my pics and think, "HELLLOOOO! BLOAT!" it must be SUCH a great feeling to be able to take pics and be like, yeah i look GOOOOD! i hope you don't think your butt looks fat! it looks perfect! and the hand holding shot is so cute i can't stand it. when tom is giving you a hard time and you want to throw your hands up in defeat, make sure to look at that picture. it's really lovely.

i like how you are taking it easy on your trips now. one day i hope to do that. i'm still way to commando. even when we went when i was pregnant with thomas we were nonstop! poor john thought he would finally have a restful trip to disney. yeah right! i like your idea of going back to the room for a bit to relax and refresh. it must be nice to go to dinner and not have the stink of the day all over you! i am always a sweaty frazzled mess at our dinners!

you know, i STILL haven't had a casey's hot dog! i really want one now! i will have to try to get there on our next trip!

Thanks Nancy! I really liked the hot dog. It was the first one I'd had in about a year. It took a long time and a lot of trips for me to be able to scale it back a little at wdw. I love to get dressed up, so going back for a shower is a must for us!

I loved the update. You and Tom in Dumbo always makes me smile, and him holding your hand made me cry. So sweet. I made michael come in and showed him the pics and said that no matter how old you get, I'm your mom, and you can always hold my hand for a little while.

So did Michael look at you like you were nuts? Did he remember who we were from Princess?

Well..... I had a bit of reading and relaxing time tonight and rather than grabbing a book, I decided to read your TR.

It sounds like a great trip. But I can totally get your frustrations about it being such a big deal to find food.

We've had just a few issues over the years with DS's food allergy and pickiness issues. I think I waited in line at Casey's for 20+ minutes for a hot dog for him one evening just as the crowds were gathering for the parade. As a rule we aren't hot dog people.... but there was just NOTHING else that he would or could eat that night (he was about 7 at the time). We had all found something else to eat elsewhere (Tomorrowland Noodle Terrace), but he would have NONE of that! Plus with his sesame allergy I'm always hesitant to give him any kind of Asian food.

We still have occasional issues. Took him to Five Guys yesterday for a treat (I had just 2 fries and a diet coke....) and we ordered his burger on a bun without sesame seeds. In the past they cut the burger in half and put it on a hot dog roll. That was fine. This time they put it on two hamburger bun bottoms... but of course, there were still lots of seeds around the edges. DS didn't want to make a fuss, so he picked off all of the seeds we could see and hoped for the best, and it worked out okay. But it was aggravating to have to worry about it. So I get it (sort of).

Anyhow, I enjoyed your TR and all your photos! Thanks for sharing......P

I'm glad it worked out ok with the sesame seeds. It's funny where stuff is hidden. There is gluten in a lot of soy sauce, so I am careful of asian food out as well. Glad you liked the trip report. I think any time you have to avoid food it's a pita.

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so I made a food plan for the week. woohoo. I was pretty happy about that. Today we are suppsed to be having veggie reubens. It would be my third day in a row of cooking. So yesterday I stopped at Kroger for g-f udi's bread for the sandwiches. They were out. I went to a bakery someone recommended on the way home and the g-f bread looked disgusting. Stopped at Kroger again--still out. Uggh. I had a really long talk with someone in the bakery and she said the managers are just not ordering enough and she feels really bad cause she knows there are limited choices for people with gluten issues. She said I was the third person today that she talked to and several people yesterday. She's going to get on them about ordering more. It made me feel better to talk to her, but it's still annoying.

I just wanted a flipping sandwich for dinner. Do you know how many bread choices there are at a grocery store? uggh. I think we are going to go to the whole foods when we run tonight so we can get some bread. It's no where near our house, but oh well.

In the big scheme of things this is a very minor inconvenience. I think I am just not done grieving the fact that I don't want to do this. After 20 years of being told nothing was wrong with me, I guess I am just still hoping it's wrong. I'm sure this fits somewhere into the stages of grief.

Ok, guess that's it. Looking forward to my veggie reuben if I ever find some bread.

 

[Rose&Mike]

I thought I would post pictures from the last day of our trip, even if I don't do an official trip report for that day.

We decided to go back to DHS for our last day. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:20 so we had until about 4:15 to hang out--that's when our ME bus was scheduled to come.

Here's some pics:
My favorite ride is Tower of Terror. I just love it!

I really can't remember specifically what we did on our last day, but we spent the morning at DHS and the afternoon at DTD. We even ordered a sundae to share at Ghiradelli's. I was a little nervous about gluten/cross contamination, but had no issues!

Mike loved Star Tours--so we had to take a picture of this sign:

Every trip we seem to get this picture:

Waiting around for the ME bus:

All in all we had a fabulous time. A couple of issues, but most very minor. We loved the new Star Tours. We loved meeting Debra. And I loved being with my boys.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

So sweet....I love that last picture.

 

[dumbo_buddy]

the best is the tower of terror picture where tom looks like he's watching a movie and not, like, on the scariest ride ever!!! what a cool guy!! great picture! love all of them. i agree with lindsay, the last one is so sweet.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Thanks Lindsay and Nancy.

I have been a slacker with my journal. We think we are going to put our house on the market in a couple of weeks so I've been cleaning out closets and decluttering. We have been in this house way too long because we have accumulated way too much junk! I'm just about caught up--still lots of cleaning and some painting to do, but at least it's decluttered.

I got glutened a week or so ago. And it was not very much. Crumbs from my DS pb&j. I had a stomach ache for a couple of days everytime I ate. Yet I still live in this state of denial where I just want to eat regular food. At work today two of my coworkers spent 10 minutes talking about brownies and cupcakes. Ok, so it might not have been 10 minutes but it felt like 2 hours. I know there are g-f choices. But it's an ordeal. That's more the issue.

I'm going to have to google how folks handle eating out. We have pretty much just about stopped eating out. We're saving a ton of money, but it's not very realistic. We have a ton of trips coming up and I need to get a plan in place so I can eat something besides string cheese, Lara bars, nuts, fruit and g-f pretzels.

The running is going much better which is so awesome. I ran 4 miles today with no pain. That alone made it a great day!

My plan is to start being more consistent with posting here. I think it really helps me put things in perspective.

 

[Rose&Mike]

So after a couple of weeks of not dealing with life very well--and a very chaotic schedule, I feel like I am back on track.

I have managed to maintain this summer, barely, but that's ok. For the first time in weeks I have put together a meal plan for this week, so I am very excited about that. We have found a local restaurant that has gf choices marked on the menu--and they have lots of vegetarian choices, too! We are going there about once a week. And DH found another local restaurant that said they would be happy to make a meatless gf meal, to just come on in. It's nice to have some choices!

So here is my meal plan for the week:
Today--gf pasta with a creamy homemade pesto sauce and cherry tomatoes!
Monday--hummus pizza
Tuesday--leftovers from the freezer
Wednesday--vegetarian meat loaf (this is my first time making this and it looks time consuming, so I'm doing it on my day off)
Thursday--salad with baked goat cheese (thanks Liesel!)
Friday--make the falafel balls for Saturday; Eat Out!
Saturday--falafel balls

I'll let you know how it goes this week.

My plan is to start making the following weeks meal plan on Wednesdays, shop on Saturday or Sunday.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Got glutened--again. Uggh. When will I learn? I had started eating a snack cracker that I thought was ok--no gluten ingredients, but the more I ate the more my stomach started feeling yucky. Last night and today were the worst. I checked on line last night and the manufacturer basically said, so what if the ingredients are gluten free, we're not promising anything. Uggh. I drank a ton of very warm water today which seems to help, and hopefully the worst is over. We also had some ice cream in the house that fell under the same category. I just need to stop relying on labels and check the websites! I feel like I am failing "gluten free 101".

I would not say I am doing great with sticking to the meal plan, but overall we have eaten pretty healthy. Tomorrow I need to make a meal plan for next week--I didn't get to it yesterday.

Today at work they had a "hot dog bar" fundraiser. It was kind of a bummer. Not only cause I couldn't eat any of the food, but also cause I felt cruddy. Oh well. Here's hoping tomorrow is MUCH better!

 

[Rose&Mike]

The last couple of weeks have been going pretty well with the g-f cooking.

We were really lucky, and able to book a last minute trip to WDW for my birthday which was yesterday.

Here is the first day of my mini trip report.

Thursday, Sept 1st.
I had been watching airfares for about a month and on August 24th found flights for under $200 each. We called DVC and were able to book a room at OKW. The only downside--we had to drive to Lexington (which is about an hour away) and we had to come home on Sunday night instead of Monday. We live 10 minutes away from the airport here, but we saved about $300-$400 by driving, so it was worth it.

Mike and I both worked half days on Thursday. He had taken our dogs to be boarded on Wednesday, so we were on the road by 12:45. It was a pretty easy drive and we were at the airport in an hour and 10 minutes.

Here's a pic of me and Mike in the car. I curled my hair instead of flat ironing. Not sure how I feel about the curls. The Bluegrass airport is pretty cool. Lots of horse stuff.

This would be our first trip with our newly filled owners locker so we were excited. Since it was a short trip we had one backpack and two small suitcases. We had to wait about 15 minutes, but had no problems with security.

We headed straight to the gate because we weren't seated together. They were able to switch us around for our first flight, but not our second one. It was a really tiny plane, with really tiny seats, so I was happy to be sitting beside Mike. After getting our seats switched, we had a quick drink! I finally felt like I was on vacation!

We flew through Atlanta--but weren't able to get seats together on the next flight. We were in middle seats right behind each other. I should have taken the row Mike was in cause the guy beside me took his shoes off and had really, really stinky feet. The guy on my other side was in a cammy uniform and sat back so I could see out the window, which was nice. The trip to MCO was quick and we breezed right through to the Magical Express line--oh, I almost forgot. Disney sent our ME tickets UPSair so we didn't have to wait for our tickets. Our last couple of trips we have had long waits for the ME bus, so it was nice to have a short wait--and we were the first stop! We were at OKW before 9:00pm.

ME bus pic--we always take this picture!

This is what we saw when we walked in the Lobby:

Everyone was so nice and friendly. We were a little concerned because our owners locker was sitting outside of the bell stand. I talked to the manager and that's where they store them, but she said if we are going to get in late again, to let the owners locker people know and they will be stored in the climate controlled area. It was delivered at 10:00 am (I got a text) so it sat outside for almost 12 hours. I ended up having to throw out a bottle of advil liqui-gels cause they smelled funky--I'm guessing from the heat. The manager said she would be happy to have our luggage delivered to our room while we went to dinner--which was great!

We headed down to the boat dock and there was a boat ready to go to DTD. The driver had to wait for a few minutes so we chatted with him for a while. It was a lovely ride to DTD. So relaxing!

Here's a pic from the boat:

Dinner was at Raglan Road. I love Raglan Road. They do g-f really well. They have a g-f batter and a dedicated fryer. I don't eat fried food anymore--so it is quite a treat. Mike had fish and chips and I had onion rings and a side salad. I can't remember if Mike had the gf batter or not. The pictures aren't that exciting, but the food was great. We both had another drink, too. It was a great night!

We had been up since about 5:15, so we were starting to poop out at this point. After dinner we headed for the boat dock and took a boat back to OKW. We walked from the dock to our room--we could have taken a bus, but didn't quite understand the buses yet. It was a little more than a 15 minute walk, but not too bad. Once we figured out the buses, we realized we could walk to the first bus stop past the hospitality house and take any bus to the stop near our room. So not so bad.

The rooms are different than BWV. They feel bigger, but we like the bathroom at BW a little better. The room was very clean and really just great for the weekend!

This is the only pic Mike took of the room.

We unpacked a little and then hit the sack. We had an early breakfast reservation. All in all it was a pretty perfect day!

 

[mikamah]

Love your hair with the curls. You look so happy in the pictures this day. I'm so glad you were able to get away for your birthday. Can't wait to hear how the birthday was. I loved being in wdw on my birthday during our princess trip.
And the onion rings look to die for. yummy!!

 

[Rose&Mike]

Love your hair with the curls. You look so happy in the pictures this day. I'm so glad you were able to get away for your birthday. Can't wait to hear how the birthday was. I loved being in wdw on my birthday during our princess trip.
And the onion rings look to die for. yummy!!

Thanks Kathy! The onion rings are pretty tasty.

Day 2--Friday, Sept 2nd

We set the alarm for 7:15. I had made early breakfast reservations at Olivia's (7:30) just in case we got in late and didn't get anything to eat the night before. We woke up early so we got ready for the day and made it there just a few minutes late. They had just opened, so it was pretty quiet. We really liked the atmosphere. And everyone was so friendly!

Here's some pics:

I ordered some decaf and Mike got some water and we waited for the chef to come out. He was very nice. I ordered the banana rum french toast--w/ gf bread. I also had a side of fruit instead of the meat. Mike got a shrimp and avocado omelet w/ potatoes. He can't remember what it was called. He said it was yummy--though I thought it looked kind of gross. I loved the french toast. The rum sauce was fabulous and smelled so good. We very rarely have breakfast out anymore, so this was quite a treat! We didn't take the pics until we started so sorry for the messiness!

I think Mike's omelet looks kind of gross, but he assured me it was tasty. It was full of baby shrimp.

After breakfast we debated what to do, and finally decided to go to Animal Kingdom. We thought we'd make open, but I think they opened earlier than I thought. We were there before 9:00. It was pretty quiet in the morning. We walked right on Everest, and got a fast pass for later. We rode it in the front row--I find it to quite terrifying when it goes backwards! After that we did the safari and then took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We hadn't done it in a long time. It was nice. We met Jiminy Cricket, petted some animals, and did a few other things. I love the elephant statue (?). I love elephants!

Here are some pics:
On the train

After we took the planet back, we did the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and then went over and used our fast pass for EE and rode Dinosaur. By then we were getting tired and hot and decided to go back to the resort for lunch and some pool time!

 

[Rose&Mike]

So all of my pictures are showing up HUGE. Hopefully they will resize eventually.

Day 2--continued.

Almost forgot, we shared a root beer float at AK w/ soft serve. It was yummy!

After AK, we headed back to OKW. We went into the Conch Flats General Store to buy a few things for lunch. We had grapes and gf bagels in the room. We bought some cheese, pbutter, and ginger ale for our mixed drinks. We had packed a tiny George Foreman in our Owner's Locker so we toasted the bagels. GF bagels are kind of nasty in my opinion, unless they are toasted. It was a yummy lunch.

Next we got ready and headed for the Turtle Pond pool. It was just a short walk from our room. We had checked out the main pool earlier, but decided we didn't want to hike all the way back up there. (The main pool has the big slide.) The Turtle Pond pool was great. Not too crowded. Plenty of seats. All the kids that were there were behaving very well. They had shuffle board, I think. Behind the pool. We brought our own drinks cause the only adult choices at this pool were beer, wine and prebottled mixed drinks and I didn't want to chance it. The music at the pool was fabulous. Lots of reggae. Very, very, very, relaxing. Just what I needed after this summer. I took some pictures of the palm trees that I am going to try to do something with for our room--neon color them somehow. Maybe print and paint. I haven't decided yet.

Anyhow, here are some pictures:

view of boat dock/ main building at OKW

Turtle Pond pool

our area of the resort

Mickey railings

After hanging out at the pool we went back and hung out in the room for a bit and got ready for dinner. We were having dinner at Kouzzina's at the Boardwalk. We took a boat to DTD and then a bus to the BW.

waiting for the bus to the main building

on the boat to DTD

We had a really nice dinner at Kouzzina. Last time we were there Mike and Tom got food poisoning from the lamb burger. It was REALLY BAD! I don't think Tom will ever go back there, but Mike and I decided to try it. Our server was pregnant and due in 3 weeks. She was really very nice. We shared dips for an appetizer, and of course had a bourbon. They brought gf pitas--which were really ener-g pizza crusts cut up. It was very good. I'm going to have to try them at home. The tapioca dinner rolls were nasty--so I skipped them. They brought us our own olives/olive oil so that Mike wouldn't contaminate mine with his yucky bread.

I had the grilled veggie dish with brussel sprouts instead of pasta. Mike had a seafood stew thingy. The dips were awesome! Yum! The brussel sprouts to die for! They were so FABULOUS!!!! The veggie dish--a little mushy and way too much eggplant. If I go there again I will probably have dips, brussel sprouts and another veggie. That was one of the suggestions from the chef--just put together a veggie plate. Mike enjoyed his stew.

We shared a creme brule for dessert. It was ok. I have definitely had better. I am starting to become an expert at creme brule since it seems to be the go to gf dessert. They did say OPA to me for my bday so that was nice. There was someone in there celebrating there 80th bday.

We rushed a bit through dessert, because we were supposed to meet a friend at Epcot for a drink. I will definitely go back to Kouzzina--for the brussel sprouts if nothing else!

After dinner we walked to Epcot and waited at the arranged meeting place. We waited about 15 min and I finally checked my facebook on my phone and she cancelled--10 min after we were supposed to meet. That was a tad frustrating, but we ended up hanging out a bit with this huge family who was drinking around the world for their son's 30 bday. It ended up being a pretty fun night. I tried the sparkling vodka at France--and I liked it as much as the champagne. As for the rest of the night--let's just say what happens at epcot should probably stay at epcot. I'm hoping when we take Tom and his friends to F&W next fall it is just a tiny bit calmer and low key. Just in case you wondered--it is perfectly ok to order Irish whiskey at Great Britain.

Eventually we headed back to BW, took the bus to DTD and the boat back to OKW. We then hung out at the pool bar for a little while. It was quite the night. I'm sorry I didn't get to see my friend from college, but overall we had lots of fun.

Here are some more pics:

dips

my dinner--don't those brussel sprouts look great!

Mike's dinner

dessert

 

[dumbo_buddy]

lookin' good as always rose!!! sounds like a fun trip! and OKW looks beautiful and very peaceful - i think that's JUST what you needed!

i love elephants too! big time! in fact, john proposed in front of the elephants at the lincoln park zoo in chicago because i love them so much i'm going to have to seek out the elephant statue this trip and get a picture

i like the part where you say, "don't these brussel sprouts look great" LOL! NO!!! hahahahahah brussell sprouts and great just will never be in the same sentence in my book unless it's "isn't it great that the world is rid of brussell sprouts?!?" lol!!!

 

[Rose&Mike]

Nancy--you should definitely take the train out to Rafiki's Planet Watch--Thomas loves trains, right? It's worth it just to see the elephant statue. OKW really was relaxing. We are thinking about maybe pool hopping there on our next trip--just for the reggae music. It's ok if you don't like brussel sprouts--just more for me.

*****
I've been doing really well with the cooking. Monday we had a pasta dish. Gluten free pasta is not always the best. It's a little starchier and just not as good in my opinion. The key--a really good sauce. So Monday we had a sauce with onions, goat cheese, half and half, dijon mustard, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes. Yum! Topped with a bit of parm cheese and it was delicious. I don't think the parm cheese was vegetarian--but it was gf and that was good enough. Last night we had homemade cheese pizza with udi's crust.

Tonight we are having an onion/swiss "tart" with gf bisquick. I think I have some fresh green beans in the garden that I'm going to make as well.

I tried a new product last week--Luna protein bars. I have really missed Luna bars. Lara bars are good, but I loved the luna mint bar. Yum! Anyhow, the Luna protein bars are great--and gf! They have a couple of different flavors. I think I've tried 4 different ones and they were all yummy! They get a little melty in the heat, but traveled really well.

I'm hoping to be back later with more trip report.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Still doing good with the cooking. Last night I made a carmelized onion tart with swiss cheese and bisquick for the crust. I carmelized two large red onions. It was very tasty, but the whole house still smells like onions.

Still deciding if we are going to run tonight. The weather is not so great here. Drizzly and very cool. I am so not ready for bad weather.

Tonight we are having leftovers.

I have decided to stay a maintain for the next challenge. I am up a couple of pounds from this spring, but still at an ok weight. It's funny the lower I get the less wiggle room there is. My pants start to feel a little snug with even a pound or two. Hopefully that will keep me in check this fall.

The plan is to add another day to my tr tonight.

 

[Rose&Mike]

We went to Whole Foods tonight--what an exciting thing to do on a Friday night. Anyhow, we got some dates and I stuffed them with goat cheese and heated them in the oven. OMG--so good! We have had them before at a restaurant, so I thought I'd try it. Yum! So we had that, gf mac and cheese and broccoli for dinner. We also bought some gf cupcakes, but I'm so full, we might save them for later.

So here's the next day of my trip report.

Day 3, September 3rd.
Because of all the fun we had the night before , we slept in a bit. We were planning on going to DHS for EMH but ended up deciding to save DHS for the next day and went to MK instead. I think we got there around 10:00am

It wasn't too crowded yet, and the Halloween decorations were up!

Nancy--If you don't want to see the decorations before your trip, here's your chance to exit my trip report.
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Ok, back to my trip report.
After taking a couple of pictures we headed toward the castle to see if My Fairy Godmother was there. She was, but she was getting ready to take a little break, so we did some stuff and came back later. You can see the construction over the top of the wall now. Which is good, cause Dumbo was not sounding too fun to me today. We also shared a rootbeer float. The soft serve did not taste as good as the soft serve at AK. But I'm guessing they were probably the same.

We finally got to see My Fairy Godmother--which is what I wanted for my birthday. There was one family in front of us with 4 very cute little girls. She spent a lot of time with them, which I thought was wonderful. The dad behind us started grumbling, but we shot him down and told him how wonderful it was that she was chatting with each little girl. She had them all posing like princesses. It was so cute!

After that we did some more stuff and then had pizza at Pinochhio's Village. They had gf Amy's with real cheese. It was more expensive than regular food there and took a while to cook, but it was edible. One of the people cleaning up there gave us a hard time cause we sat down without food, but the manager told us to, rather than stand at the counter and wait. She was just not nice! But I handled it much better than I would have in the spring, so that's good.

We did some more stuff--HM, COP, Buzz LY I think, and then decided we wanted to see the parade. We got a spot in the shade and just hung out for a bit. We enjoy the parade, so it was a nice break.

We saw this stroller before the parade--it was too cute! And I had to throw in a picture of Jessie! I love Jessie!

After the parade we did the Monster Laugh thing, and I think the PeopleMover. Then we decided to check in early for dinner at The Plaza.

The chef was really nice. He told us when we were in there that they had 8 tables with allergies at them. Crazy, huh? It's not even that big a place. Mike and I both had the veggie sandwich--I had tapioca bread on mine---it was yucky bread, so I just picked out the veggies. The fries were great! The chef made us a mint chocolate chip ic sundae w/hot fudge for dessert. YUM! We also talked to this nice family beside us from England during dinner. Overall it was very nice. Not the most exciting food, but an extremely pleasant experience! We will definitely go back!

My dinner:

Pictures on the way out--notice no weight on my right foot. It was really starting to bother me.

After dinner we went to guest services and Mike had someone call the espn zone to see if the Carolina game was going to be on. Go Gamecocks! We had asked the day before when we were at BW, but the guy who answered the question seemed kind of clueness. They said they had it on. So we skipped Wishes, and headed to espn zone to watch some football! We found some other Gamecock fans and hung out with them. I was not drinking--too much fun the night before--but Mike had a couple of beers. We left at the end of the third quarter. It was pretty fun!

The bus from BW to DTD--not so fun. Even though we were one of the first people there, we did not make the first bus to dtd--too crowded. We waited at the curb with another family and almost didn't get on the second bus cause the driver stopped back further and people were rude! So the bus was PACKED and these two girls who were probably in their mid 30s got in a yelling, f bomb kind of fight on the bus! It was crazy! So crowded you couldn't move and they were right behind me yelling at each other! Longest bus ride EVER!

We finally made it to DTD and took the nice relaxing boat back to OKW. Long day, but fun! We packed a few things, Mike watched footfall highlights, and then we called it a night.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, I meant to add--see my tiny purse in the first picture, twice security had me take my wallet out so they could see the bottom! Crazy! I don't know what they thought I could squeeze in there, but I could barely get the wallet in! Needless to say, security was being taken seriously while we were there.

 

[Rose&Mike]

I still have to add the last day to my trip report, but I am on a roll with the meal planning.

Here's what is on the menu for this week:
Sunday: Curried tofu salad
Monday: brussel sprouts with pasta
Tuesday: spicy back bean cakes
Wednesday: leftovers/veggie burgers

Thursday-Saturday we will be visiting DS. I'm a little stressed about this, cause we don't eat out very much. I need to so some investigating. And if all else fails, I will pack some stuff and we can always have Moes. I know there won't be anything for me to eat at the football stadium so I will probably have Mike throw some protein bars/nuts in his shorts pockets. I used to feel bad about that, but not anymore. If they sell nuts, I'll be happy to buy them, otherwise I think the choices are pizza, burgers, hot dogs.

I am nursing my foot after running yesterday. I think I will do some pool running this week and just take it easy until w&d.

 

[mikamah]

Loved the trip update. Just what I needed today. I haven't been in the mood to go and catch up on the bl challenge, but wanted to dis. And now I'm craving brussel sprouts. They did look yummy. I love brussel sprouts, and will add them to my shopping list for tomorrow. You're doing great with the meal planning. Inspiring me to get organized too. Especially with our schedule.

I love the pics of you and your fairy god mother. So sweet.
Hope the foot recovers quickly from yesterdays run. I'm sure it felt good to go the 13.1, and hopefully you'll feel better quick so you'll know you'll be fine for wine and dine.

I showed michael the pics of the new castle. Very cool. Hope you're enjoying your sunday.

 

[Rose&Mike]

Wow, so we are watching the special on cbs about the rookie firefighter and 9/11. I have just felt raw today. Just ready for the day to be over, I think.

Kathy--when we were there in May I swear you couldn't see anything over the walls. It was crazy how much you could see this trip. Enjoy your brussel sprouts.

So, I made the curried tofu salad. It was really good. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. I think for a quick version, I might use white beans instead of tofu. It was really very good. It had dates in it which added a little bit of sweetness, that's why I picked it. We had it on a bed of fresh spinach. Yum!