Our only big activity for the day before this evening was Chef Mickey’s.
This restaurant over in the Contemporary is a character buffet. And we had a 10:30 breakfast buffet to get to. So we all got ready and left.
The neat thing about this buffet is that Mickey and Goofy and crew are in chef’s togs. And the boys were charged up to see more characters. Even ones they had seen already. We had a decent meal and some nice character interaction.
And photographic evidence (that will be useful when #2S tries to accuse us of abuse in later days) that #2S does indeed eat.
When we finished, we called some of our Maelstrom friends. And colleagues in ministry. I stumbled across another United Methodist minister while meeting people on the DIS forums. He and his wife and son were at Disney at the same time. So we planned a time to meet. We coordinated meeting the Rev. Markymark and GADisneyGal and the Magic Magnet.
When they arrived, they discovered that Lisa had strep, and then didn’t want to meet so much anymore. Just kidding. We had a nice chat. We took pics. We shared plans. And parted ways. They were off to Epcot. We were off for less structured activities.
Like shopping.
The Contemporary has much cooler shopping than the Wilderness Lodge. We found some what-nots and doo-dads that we wanted. Plus some Christmas presents.
We went back to the Lodge for some swimming. I was sent on some errand that I can’t remember. I believe it involved trying to change ADR’s to get into Whispering Canyon for supper. Or somewhere else. But no luck. Everything was booked up. While I was gone, Lisa and the boys hopped out to the pool.
And because I value my life, I will not post the swimsuit picture, Dear.
I am not a water person. I don’t like swimming. I sunburn easy and don’t like being slathered in sunscreen. So the pool is one of the last places on earth I really want to spend my time. Instead, I grabbed my laptop and sat out on the porch of our poolside room. I could see the family. I could hear the people. But I didn’t have to be out there. I was content.
Lisa left me with instructions to let them know when it was time to get out. So that time came and I informed them that it was that time. Kind of like a butler.
But it was time to get ready for the Halloween party.
Back when we swapped from the cruise to WDW for vacation, we decided to do a Halloween Party. We thought it would be fun for all of us to dress up and do the trick or treating. So way back in the middle of the year, we bought our costumes. Our boys have two favorite movies: Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan. So we saw the natural selections of costumes. The boys would be the heroes. Lisa and I would be the villains. Lisa was to be Maleficent to #1S’s Prince Philip. I was to be Captain Hook to #2S’s Peter Pan. So we hauled our costume stuff down and got ready for a Halloween party.
As I was getting dressed I discovered something. I do not make a very good Captain Hook. I make an excellent Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas.
Seems that I just don’t have a thin as a rail, Captain Hook appearance. I can’t pull it off. I even had a CM make the statement to another that I was Governor Ratcliffe.
But I had hair for one night. I even had to get my hair cut that evening before I left.
The one thing that I really was not looking forward to was the heat. Our costumes were very warm. So Lisa planned ahead to take costumes off later in the evening. I did not. I would be the Captain Ratcliff all night long. But it wasn’t too bad. I have done much worse.
See, I haven’t always been a pastor. In college, for funsies, I used to shoot at people. And get shot at. With real guns.
I was part of the Oklahoma Territorial Gunslingers.
We were a group of guys who would perform gunfights and western comedy skits. We traveled all over Oklahoma, into southern Arkansas, and north Texas. We weren’t professional actors. And we didn’t get paid much to do it. Our motto was “we’ll come for a t-shirt and a meal”. And we did, usually. We would go and spend all day long, dressed in jeans, long sleeve shirts, and long dusters in the hot Oklahoma summers.
And we loved every minute of it.
Being Captain Ratcliff Hook wasn’t all that bad. But it also had it’s very good upside. People stare at you. Mostly because they can’t figure out what the heck you are doing. Little kids are the best. They are fascinated and afraid at the same time. Adults are polite enough to guess that you most likely have a reason for being dressed up. But the eyes tell it all. They really think we’re nuts. Guess what? Yup.
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