Let The Memories Continue! – Day 13

(ZA : Day 13 onwards is written by Jarod)

While it was sad leaving the comforts of Walt Disney World (and our Dining plan!), today marked the start of another leg of our vacation. This four day leg would be a much easier and less stressful part of our trip. Today, we slept in late, and woke up just in time to enjoy the free breakfast that Drury Hotel offers. The spread has not changed from the last time we have stayed at this hotel, comprising of Scrambled eggs, Sausage Patties, Potatoes, and an assortment of pastries. However, our favourite would have to be the waffles. The breakfast station provided a waffle machine, and Ashley had loads of fun making her very own waffle, and she could not wait to share it with the rest of her family. We also tried to look out for any of the staff that were here last year, but were unable to do so. We left breakfast satisfied, and prepared ourselves for the next part of the day.

After washing up at our hotel room, we climbed aboard our car and set a course to Toys’R Us at The Florida Mall. As we approached the destination, we commented that this was the exact same Toys’R Us that we went to last year, with the huge glass panels and large library of toys. After scrounging the aisles, Ashley decided on buying more MLP stuffs that she could not find in Singapore.

After which,we also had a short trip to Best Buy, which was not far away, and decided to have a look around. Unfortunately, most of the items on sale were things that we did not require, although an $149 Windows tablet was very tempting.We left not only empty-handed, but also empty-stomached. We had planned to return to one of our favourite restaurants, The Catfish Place, from last year, and simply knew that it would not disappoint

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Outside, we were greeted with their title ‘The place where the local folk eat”. The decoration was simple, but homely, and our server quickly showed us to our seats.We ordered Catfish and Shrimp, Frog legs, and a hot dog for Ashley. The Catfish and shrimp was lightly battered and fried, and was succulent and flavourful. Ashley also loved her hot dog bun, which bread was crispy on the outside, but fluffy on the inside. I craved for more catfish, but decided against ordering another plate as I did not want to skip out on dinner. We left satisfied, and very frankly, craving for more. Something about simple places selling simple food appeals to me.

After eating the hearty lunch, we headed to the Orlando Premium Outlet at International Drive. A more overlooked shopping day would be the Monday after Thanksgiving, labelled as “Cyber Monday”, where deals on items are also common, although the locals prefer to, as the name suggests, shop online. As such, the traffic was much calmer today compared to Black Friday, and parking inside the compound was readily available. As expected, shops had discounts matching the ones on Black Friday, and we bought items (at very low prices!) from brands such as: Guess, GAP, IZOD and Kate Spade. We left happy with our purchases, and with many bags on hand.

Finally, it was time for Dinner. As we did not have anything booked today, we asked Ashley where she would like to eat, and she eagerly chirped that she wanted to eat at Olive Garden. Olive Garden is an Italian Restaurant, offering good food at low prices. When we went there last year, I was nastily surprised that I was allergic to one of the more rarer cheeses on offer. After narrowing it down to Romano cheese, I had a mental note to not order the Five-Cheese Baked Ziti (Although it was so good!), and you could see why I was less than eager on visiting Olive Garden yet again. However, I reluctantly agreed.

Again, we had a strange sense of Deja Vu, as we visited the same Olive Garden from last year, and were seated not far away from the table we originally sat at. We were greeted by complimentary Breadsticks and Salad (which my mom and I swapped to soup), before moving on to our main courses. I ordered the Eggplant Parmigiana, my Dad ordered Shrimp Carbonara, my Mom ordered the Ravioli di Portobello, and Ashley ordered Mac’N Cheese. The eggplant that I ordered are cutely shaped like cookies, and deep-fried, before serving with some pasta. It was lightly done, and still very flavourful. The Shrimp Carbonara was also well done, but the sauce was a little too heavy for my Dad’s taste. However, the star of the show was the Ravioli, which was done excellently. I never really liked Ravioli before, but this has certainly changed my mind. Ashley, as usual, loved her Mac’n Cheese. Sadly, since we wered so busy occupied eating our main meals, we did not have any space left for the breadsticks that were provided free of charge when we ordered our meals. They were really good and sadly a shame that we could not eat more of them. They were very flavourful and tasted strongly of Garlic. I was very satisfied with the meal today, and was glad that I agreed to go to Olive Garden for dinner.

Finally, it was time to go back to the hotel. It was a surprisingly tiring day, even with the lax schedule, but Ashley still had strength to un-box and play with some of her new toys that she bought, while the rest of us took refuge in the comfortable beds and free soda that Drury Hotels provides. We called it a night, and waited eagerly for what awaits us on this new exciting leg of the journey.