Enjoying Time Outside the Parks

Hard to believe we've already been here two days and haven't spent time in the parks. We did plan on hitting Magic Kingdom after dinner on Saturday night at the Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge.

We've done Whispering Canyon many times for breakfast but never dinner. A popular favorite is the Canyon Skillet, which consists of smoked pork ribs, pulled pork, oven-roasted chicken, beef brisket, mashed potatoes, cowboy beans, corn on the cob, mixed greens salad with apple vinaigrette, coleslaw and fresh-baked cornbread.

Not much of a red meat eater, so opted for the Meatloaf, which was more up my alley. The meatloaf wasn't like my Mom's or Mary's but enjoyed it none the less. Love vegetables and thought the snow peas mixed with carrots and squash was a nice compliment. The skillet looked great and did enjoy the beef brisket I tried.

After dinner, we headed towards the dock to take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom. Skies were clear, nice breeze off the water, perfect for a moonlit boat ride. We left Wilderness Lodge, encircled the new Bay Lake Towers and then got our first glimpses of Cinderella's Castle and Tomorrowland!

Docked and as we headed towards the Magic Kingdom, started to feel some raindrops. Got through the turnstyle and just as we entered the Magic Kingdom, the rain began to fall (and I mean fall!), so ducked into the shops along Main Street to do a little shopping. The forecasts were calling for hard rains all day but ended up having gorgeous weather, so really couldn't complain.

Merchandise in the shops was pretty much the same as when we were last down this past May. No luck locating a Dooney & Bourke wristlet for Mary but I did score two (2) Cutester vinyl chasers for Mary & Amanda (maybe the rain brought me luck ), so overall not too bad. The special Cinderella vinylmation that released a few days earlier was already sold out, castmembers we spoke with weren't sure if they would be getting any more in or not :(