The No Parks and Recreation Tour 2022 – Day Two

Tuesday 20th September

You know what it’s like. After a long gruelling day of travel, stress and bloating (or is that just me on planes?) you could really do with a decent sleep and a good lie-in, but your body clock hates you and you find yourself awake at 4.30am. That’s bad enough, but on this particular morning, I had Louise telling me that Emily phoned a little while ago to report that our kitchen back home was completely flooded and they had the water turned off at the mains.

With all hopes of today being less stressful than yesterday abandoned before sunrise, I sprang (I’m being generous!) into action. I contacted a local plumber who had been to us a couple of times before and begged him to be available that day to go and save our house from water damage and crucially allow Emily to have a poo, as the toilets couldn’t currently be flushed.

He said he would do his very best and now being fully awake and coursing with adrenaline, a return to sleep was not going to happen. Instead, I got up, got dressed and went out for a walk around the Boardwalk, three times. This mammoth and impressive athletic undertaking burned an enormous 350 calories. How am I to retain my gloriously athletic frame when the odds are stacked against me in such an unfair manner?

It was still dark of course so the place looked glorious with all the lights a-twinkling.

Despite the early hour I encountered and awkwardly acknowledged several joggers making their loops at a much higher pace than I. It became more awkward each time we passed each other as we looped in opposite directions.

The closing of the ESPN bar had passed me by, so this was a surprise.

This new place was news to me too.

After my three laps, I returned to the hotel and found my way to the quiet pool by which we intended to spend today.

Back in the room, Louise was sleeping, so I went out onto the balcony and make no apologies for yet more photos.

Rebecca phoned and I shared my view and had a chat with her until waking Louise at 7am as I was hungry. I made us a coffee whilst Louise got dressed and then we made our way to the Club Lounge for breakfast. An impressive spread was on offer, with POG juice my drink of choice.

We made our way down to the quiet pool via the shop where we got some suncream and After Sun. Rebecca phoned again, as she had been called by the care home so had questions for Louise about some of Mary’s medication.

It was indeed a very quiet pool.

We met and briefly chatted with Wendy, one of my two blog readers, who was by the same pool and then spent a lot of time reading, relaxing and swimming.

My underlying stress levels about the potential carnage in our kitchen back home were niggling at me, but at around 11.15 (4.15 back home) the plumber called and told me the issue was caused by the disastrous standard of work carried out by an emergency plumber we had been forced to get out a few weeks ago, but he had fixed it all for £80. I was mightily relieved.

With that huge weight lifted from my shoulders, we went up to the Club Lounge to add a huge weight to my stomach instead. I had swam a whole six lengths so far, so with that and my walk this morning I would be wasting away unless I onboarded some serious calories. To be fair, the choice at lunch was light with crudites being the main fare, but still, it was all lovely. We chatted with my Mum & Dad as we lunched, and got back to the pool around 1.30pm.

We read and relaxed some more until about 4pm and then made our way back to the room where more relaxing happened.

Inexplicably, Louise had the hairdryer on for forty minutes which restricted my TV watching somewhat, but when she was 99.9% ready I got in the shower, got dressed and was still ready first.

I got the car and picked Louise up at the entrance and we were Target bound for the infamous holiday “bits”. I knew the Target we were going to, up past the Premium Outlet Mall, near the new Cheesecake Factory we had booked to eat at this evening. If you do wish to go to this one, book online. The waits are often horrible.

As we got to the end of Hotel Boulevard at Lake Buena Vista every bone in my body was telling me to turn right down to Bahama Breeze where I would then go left. The sat nav said to turn left at Crossroads instead so I trusted it and found a whole new way to a place I thought I knew fairly well, turning right by the Olive Garden we often frequent.

In Target, I secured my elusive shaver which was still cheaper than a tiny pot of moisturiser Louise “needed”. We picked up some other bits and left $111 lighter. This never happens to us, but we were early for our reservation and sat in our car people-watching for about fifteen minutes.

We went in and were seated immediately with the reception full of folks waiting for a long time. Book ahead!

We got drinks and a ridiculously good bread service.

During our multiple visits to the Cheesecake Factory in January, we had established that they served the best Nachos on the planet and there will be no debate about this. So we ordered those of course, with added steak.

Despite their vastness and the fact that in January five of us shared them, this happened.

I, as I would do a lot on this trip, ordered steak. This was a Ribeye and was very large. Here’s me trying to show how large it was compared to my chubby hands. The photo is a little blurry and you can’t make out that my watch says I had burned about 6,000 calories already…no sorry, I had eaten 6,000 calories.

Louise, as she often does, ordered a cheesy pasta thing.

A wine for Louise and diet coke for me saw the bill at $125 with a good tip. This was an awesome meal and we would be back.

Very full and tired I pointed the car at the Yacht Club, parked and picked up some water and went to the room. I managed to read for half an hour before dropping off around 10.30.

Till the next time……