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Author Message Common Ground / Goofy's HUGE! / Tink's WDW TR March 2002 Day 7 (no 4,5,6) Tink *~*~* Cast Member Posts: 1066 Registered: Aug 2002  Posted 09-01-02 07:51 PM                 Cast of characters: Erin, closing in on middle age, stressed out Wall Street type from Long Island That's right, there was no report for days 4, 5 & 6. This is because these were the heavy days of the techie security conference, and in spite of the fact that the conference was held on property at the Coronado Springs, there wasn't much in the way of Disney to write about. It is the usual round of information overload sessions, between which one dashes back to the Casitas to check email and return phone calls. I did manage to take a walk around the lake each night, and actually had time for drinks and chatting with guests at the Dig Site bar on a few occassions. However, this evening a couple of my colleagues and I stole away to have dinner at the California Grill in the Contemporary Hotel. We arrived just in time to watch the spectacular sunset. The view of the Magic Kingdom from the restaurant windows is stunning. We especially enjoyed watching the castle lights change color. They seem to be favoring purple and blue. One of our party was late arriving, so we took a couple of seats at the bar, and missed our first opportunity for a window table and had to wait some more. BTW, they serve an excellent pinot grigio. The straggler finally arrived, and we were shown to a table in the 2nd farthest corner from the castle. The view was a bit obstructed by one of the columns, but we figured out that we could rearrange our chairs around the table temporarily to get around that. Promptly at 7:30 pm, an excited ripple went through the "audience" as the lights in the restaurant were dimmed and the music started. We actually did see Tink doing her high wire act, although I wished I had my binoculars. She was just a little speck of light from our viewpoint. Boy that must be a fun job! Then the fireworks started in earnest, and they were just beautiful. What a great idea to put a restaurant with big windows on the park side of the hotel! The music was wonderful too - all the "oldies" from Peter Pan, Pinocchio, etc. It was over all too soon ("8 minutes" our server told us), wild applause ensued, and then dinner was served. One of the guys had the sushi, followed by roast pork and polenta. We other two had the asparagus soup - my colleague pronounced it "a work of art", as it was bright green and drizzled with white swirls of sour cream. AND it was delicious! Then he had the barbequed beef with mashed potatoes and I had the pan seared salmon with fresh greens. We traded bites, because everything was so good. Finale - rounds of chocolate cake injected with fudgy stuff, swimming in a plate of peanut butter sauce! Oh, oh, oh! If I'd have eaten any more, they'd have had to roll me out of there on a stretcher. I'm going home tomorrow (Thursday March 21st). I hear it is raining and cold in New York. The weather has been fantastically cooperative my entire stay in Florida; however, it is traditional that on the day of my departure, the skies open up and it starts pouring. Well, we will see... Tink *~*~* Common Ground / Goofy's HUGE! / Tink's WDW TR March 2002 Day 7 (no 4,5,6)