2 hours later, I awaken, with Sheri giving me this "grin" (you can imagine what it looked like). "I guess I was tired," I groggily say. "Did I snore?" Sheri turns to the boys and repeats the question. The boys then give me a symphony of snoring sounds.
Keep it up, guys…just see if y'all ever get to use the car when you're 16.
I hop online and work on my summer online class a bit. I then send a quick message to AJ Wolfe of the Disney Food Blog to see if she wanted any pics of dishes from places we were dining at. She immediately texts me back and lets me know what they're up to (so, yes, she would be very happy with pics). After that, wifey starts getting a little agitated and wants to get going for our ADR at Sanaa. We're still a good 20 minutes away from our time, but, being the good husband, I just look at her funny and go along with it - we get ready and head back to the lobby. It was then that I realized why she was so antsy…she thought it was over at Jambo House.
Well, now what?
We look around the lobby for a bit and take in its grandeur. A cultural rep CM talks with us for a bit and takes a family pic. Still early, we chance it and head downstairs to the desk at Sanaa to check in. We get a pager and look around the bottom floor for a moment.
The pager goes off in Eric's hand, and he doesn't even notice it. It's the Miller side of the family. We head in and start to look over the drink menu. As we do so, Aaron comments that it's the exact same kids' menu here as it was at the Coral Reef. EXACT! We let them order a special lemonade that came with a light-up Buzz, not even thinking that, since it was the EXACT same menu, it was likely the EXACT same not-so-tasty lemonade they tried at Coral Reef.
It was.
They swapped out drinks (smoothies) . Still, the boys got collector figures that apparently were somewhat special. They were supposed to glow blue, but an ordering snafu gave them green-glowing figures, which apparently are pretty rare.
Sheri and I both ordered the same drink…the flight of 3 white wines:
Right: Delheim Gewurtzraminer
Center: Gunderlach Diva Spatlese Riesling
Left: Cline Viognier
That done, we order. Sheri surprises me and gets a New York Strip along with me. I usually go either medium or medium-rare, but Sheri wants her steak somewhere between extra-well done and shoe-leather texture. Though there's a significant difference between the way we ordered our steaks, they both came out at the same time. This usually means mine will be overdone and hers underdone.
Both of us took one bite of our steaks, with the raisin-chutney topping and the potato-spinach mixture…
…and contemplating conceiving a girl just to name her "Sanaa" in honor of our new favorite restaurant at Walt Disney World. That steak was perfect, as was Sheri's. It blew away the mushroom filet at Le Cellier. It sank the strip I had at the Coral Reef the night before. It even blitzed and sacked the strip I had at Shula's a few years back in Boston during a conference. It was cooked to absolute perfection, and the chutney, with just a hint of sweetness, perfectly balanced the spinach and onions in the potatoes. Whatever the boys had, they liked it too (I was too busy enjoying my meal).
The manager took the time to spend a few minutes talking with us. We talked about the Indian influence on the food and how he would classify the type of restaurant. This was a really nice touch, having the manager do more than just "how's the food? Good? Great. Seeyabyebye!" The server also talked with us a bit about the décor and how people actually stole some of the artifacts bolted to the walls.
For dessert, Sheri copied me again, and we got the dessert sampler:
Top, Chai cream Right, African ice cream. Left, chocolate cake.
We got a quick pic before starting the dessert course.
Then we tried the dessert.
We nearly tried conceiving that daughter right then and there at the table.
Our server warned us that the Chai cream would be dangerously addicting. I'm not a fan of anything Chai-related, but one taste of that cream instantly changed my mind. The chocolate cake was ehhh, and the African ice cream was good, but the Chai cream was out of this world! I got every single drop of the stuff out of the ramekin and nearly ate that too.
If you are looking for a VERY good meal at Disney World without taking a major risk with the cultural flavors, I cannot recommend Sanna highly enough. Granted, I can't speak for the ethnic foods, but the Strip is hands-down amazing.
It wasn't busy yet, and our server still had rooms in what I assumed was her section, so we stayed and talked for a few minutes before paying and heading out. We head back upstairs and make our way to Johari Treasures for tomorrow's breakfast (donuts and milk). We then make our way back to the room and start changing into our swimwear to check out the pool area. 5.3 miles later, we pass through the lobby and resist the urge to go left to the bus stops (the only way we ever seem to go out of the lobby). We head right and, a couple of minutes later, we pass the fitness center and are in the swimming area. At first glance, it's BIG. After looking at the main pool area, we turn right and look at the "water playground" area. Most documents have this part of the pool area in the pictures, and it is impressive. The only real issue (and it's not an issue) is that it seems to be set up to cater to the 1-5 age group. Our boys both walked around for a bit and squirted each other once before heading out. Oh well.
We head back to the main pool and start searching for life preservers for them, as they immediately saw the water slide. While getting the floatation thingys, I see Eric (from yesterday…not SyracuseWolvrine nor the 5 year-old kid that follows me around) walking by. He stops and talks for a second…he mentioned that he looked over my blog the previous night and liked what he saw (the podcast updates). I was genuinely touched…I always expected family and friends to read the blog. This is the first time I've met someone in person who has seen the writing. We talked for an instant before he headed out. An instant later, the boys were equipped and ready to tackle the water slide. They thought they were big enough to find the way up themselves, and I grudgingly let them go. Of course, they didn't notice me lagging behind them by about 10 seconds…good thing, too, because they missed the stairs and were heading towards the exit. I holler at them and point them in the right direction. When they started running (despite my threats not to earlier), they found me heading up to the top with them. They were the only ones up there, so I give them the short safety briefing (one at a time, wait until the light turns green, no head-first, etc…) before sending Aaron down. As Eric hops in and waits (wow…he listened!), we see about 5 family's worth of kids head up. After Eric goes down, I start to make my way back down the stairs…until I see Aaron heading up the stairs for another trip. I sigh and tell him to wait for Eric before I head back up. The kids up there are now wondering what the heck I'm doing up there with no intentions of going down the slide. Aaron and Eric make it up, and rest of the kids now understand. The boys head down and make their way back up.
I was up there for a good 15 minutes.
Luckily another couple of adults made their way up…mostly so they could try the slide themselves.
Finally, only 1 kid comes up (Eric) and tells me that this is the last run for them. After he goes down, I decide to tempt fate (and the chance of getting stuck) and head down it myself. You should have seen the face of the mother who was expecting to catch her 4 year old daughter coming down the slide. I had my arms out for her to catch me and everything…
We mess around for a bit in the pool, and I start hearing the pool bar calling my name. I look to Sheri, who balks and doesn't want a drink. I decide to get a drink later on just before we head back to the room. I'm more than ready to get out (because of the pruniness, the forthcoming drink, and the movie that had started, etc.) Eventually, the boys release us from lifeguard duty, and we head back to the room. Anyone want to guess what I forgot to order and drink on the way back?
After the journey back to the room, we start getting the boys in the shower. I notice that I had a voice message. It was our neighbor who was feeding the cats. Apparently, Mac was acting a little different tonight. I call back and talk about it. He's acting a little lethargic. We know he sometimes mopes around a little when we aren't around. Couple this with the insulin, and we hope that that's the problem. I thank them, and they tell me that they'll text with an update in the morning.
The boys are a little tired, so we don't have to fight them too much to get in bed. We quickly find out that there's not a ton of variety on the tv selection. I'm still partial to the selection at ASMO (love the classic cartoons).
Day 2 is in the books, and things are going perfectly!
Day 3 starts HERE
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