FROM: Amber Earns Her Ears Published Mondays

A Week of Little Adventures

If there's one thing that's a relief in Orlando, it's when autumn rolls in and the weather makes that end of year turn. Crowds are usually smaller and Epcot's Food and Wine Festival arrives. Amber fills us in.

- Amber Sewell, October 5, 2011

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Today, I walked out of the door, and it was autumn.

And it was fantastic!!

On Saturday, my parents came down to switch out cars; I would take my father’s BMW and he would take poor Dinosaur (whose missing seal on the oil tank has crippled him) home on a trailer to fix. While the day before was quite, quite warm, I walked out the door in long sleeves to sign my parents in to security and was actually comfortable. I have since retired my shorts, and will refuse to wear them for the rest of the year.

My parents stopped by the Caribbean to check in and change from their 13 hour drive, and then they came to visit me. Mom and I headed to Magic Kingdom to pick up buttons and maps from the 40th anniversary while Dad switched out the cars. It was a relief to be at the parks with someone who goes at the same pace, who likes the same things as I do. Mom and I walked around and enjoyed all of the autumn decorations that had been put up since the last time I’d been there. We headed for Colombia Harbour House to have a tuna sandwich, but the line was unbelievably long – out the door and around the corner. So we wandered around and, after both of us complaining about being hungry but too indecisive to choose anything, we stood in line at Casey’s and found seating under the Tomorrowland Terrace.

After that we left; the park was a little too crowded for our taste, as not everyone had filtered out after the celebrations that morning. We headed to EPCOT to meet Dad, and make our way around the world.

The Food & Wine Festival is my family’s favorite time of year to go to Disney World, and I have already made it my goal to try every single item (non-alcoholic, that is) around the world before I leave. As a trip without the kids, we were able to try everything we wanted, several times over if we so chose. Desserts were a big thing for us – the pumpkin mousse, and the lemon chiffon are by far some of my favorites. It was a little too warm to eat everything we wanted, but we reserved everything else for when they come down in eleven more days.

Speaking of the Food & Wine Festival, the cast preview was Thursday.

It wasn’t exclusively for the Cast Members, however; Guests who were lucky enough to be in EPCOT that day after two were able to purchase food. It was chaotic; New Zealand wasn’t taking cards, managers were in a tizzy, and all sorts of frantic activity was taking place. But the merchandise was a lot better than the past few years have been, and the food is just as good. The short lines (especially compared to Saturday) were very nice, and my friend and I took full advantage of them as we wandered around buying lava cakes and escargot. She had to go to work, though, and I had to catch the Guest bus over to the Caribbean to show my ID card for the discount on the room. Which was no easy feat, as I couldn’t remember where the check-in area was, and I got semi-lost walking around the resort.

Inspections were this week, as well. I didn’t really clean that much for them, at least not the common areas, as I’m being obdurate and protesting the general state of filth the apartment stays in. I came home fairly late after my adventure to the Caribbean, put up the rest of my groceries, and straightened my room. When inspections came around at about two in the afternoon, I had just gotten back in bed after making some strawberry oatmeal and popping in a DVD of Gilmore Girls. We managed to pass somehow; our oven wasn’t clean enough (and I’ve made it dirtier tonight with cheese from the casserole I made), and Lindsey and I were told to take down our things on the walls. After three notifications, they make you go to a housing meeting; this means that we can leave them up for the next inspection, and have to take them down for inspections after that. As I predict there will probably be only one more inspection, I’m not too worried.

That’s about all the excitement for the week.

Nothing too terribly fun, nothing too terribly out of the ordinary. I set off yet another round of smoke when I was defrosting some chicken in the microwave; someone thought it would be a good idea to shove all of the plastic lunchboxes under it, and the plastic was slowly melting. I get to go to Barnes and Noble sometime in the near future now that I’ve got a car again (thank goodness!), despite the fact that I still will take the bus to work.

Until next week!

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