Wine and Dine Weekend

So, it’s been well over a month since I’ve recapped anything — let’s hope I remember how this works!!

I’ll start with Wine and Dine weekend – or as several of my friends have dubbed it “runDisney Splash and Dash”. Yeah. it rained. Not the WHOLE time mind you, just those crucial hours where we were waiting in the corrals and then the actually running of the Half Marathon :)

But before it rained, there was fun!

I got in Friday morning-ish.

Magical Express – the first of many lines for the weekend. Even though I actually was the line :)

My plan was to meet up with friends over at the Magic Kingdom, but it turns out that was the first night of the Very Merry Christmas Party so the line to even get on a bus was crazy! I decided then to go to the expo and grab my things instead of doing that Saturday.

After getting my loot and dropping it off at the hotel, I headed over to EPCOT for some International Food and Wine-ing instead! Met up with one of my running group friends, Sarah, to get her a key to the room since she was going to be sharing a couple of the nights there. We wandered and snacked. Snacked and wandered. Got back to the room fairly early. I had a breakfast reservation on Saturday and Sarah had a 5K to run!

Since Sarah was getting up for the 5K, I woke up early as well and decided to go out for a run myself. 3 miles around the lake at POP Century and Art of Animation – bunnies galore!! And a gorgeous view!

Evil Bunny…or, bad lighting.

I mean…really…

Then I got dressed and headed to breakfast.

The Breakfast. Ya’ll..amazing! And fun! This is the deal – during Food and Wine, there are different seminars and events going on. This Parisian Breakfast is one such event! For a VERY reasonable (especially by Disney standards) 39.00, you can have breakfast in France, before the park opens to the public!

We were greeted at the door to Chefs de France with a mimosa and brought to the table.

As a ‘single’ I was seated with a few other ladies who were on their own for the morning.  The buffet was filled with pastries, and charcuterie and…pastries…Chocolate was also poured at the table

Mmmmm. Note: this was definitely not a diabetes friendly breakfast but I was prepared!

See…there’s some cheese on there too…Frangipani and pain du chocolat. And a savory palmier

That’s a pumpkin danish…it was tasty.

Waiters continued to refill the mimosas throughout the morning. To save on sugar, I switched away from the mimosa to…

I’m sure le garcon had a huge laugh at me!

Conversation was wonderful and eventually the deliciousness had to end – we were given a small “goodie bag” with a reusable shopping bag, a small recipe book and some jam!

I wandered EPCOT a bit then headed to Hollywood Studios for a while, looking for lunch. Fail. :)

Headed back to POP to take a nap/hang by the pool before finding dinner – a burger at Art of Animation – and getting ready to start the running adventure!

Getting in the Christmas spirit!

I met up with some more running group friends to get the bus over to World of Sports to start the race. Had some pre-race character picture opportunities before potties and meeting up with the rest of our group!

Not exactly a character…

Me and my may-un!

Our gracious hostess

Head Chef Mickey

Chip and Dale. And Me.

Since we’d had such fun at the Princess Half, Vanessa (from seevrun) and I had decided to tackle this one together. Head over here and read her recap of the event! When we headed to the corrals, Vanessa and I found it nearly impossible to get into place so kind of just followed the crowd. OR…maybe one of us suggested we slip in at the back of the corral in front of our assigned corral (let the haters hate now!). By now it had started drizzling, then raining, then drizzling….thankfully I had a plastic poncho so managed to stay dry most of the time – I eventually threw it away around mile 10 though!

Running Disney at night is a completely different experience than running in daylight! For Wine and Dine, one of the BIGGEST and BEST differences is the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. And, it must have been an early Christmas miracle, because for the briefest moment, the rain stopped and we were able to get some pictures!

Just playin’ it cool….

V and I and the lights. Picture from seevrun.blogspot.com

Before the lights, though, there is the “Disco Tunnel” — part of the course takes us through a service corridor in the Prop and Costume area and Disney fancies this up with a couple of disco balls and of course some disco music. This is where I learned that I cannot dance and run at the same time. It’s actually quite possible that I can’t dance, period. :)

We met up with friends at the end after changing into dry-ish clothes. My bag had gotten a hole in it so some things were a bit damp! We didn’t venture much farther than Mexico — and our post-race supper was nachos!

The night was really winding down – or the morning was winding up! – and it was time to catch a bus back to the resort. Turns out, our bus driver didn’t know where she was going so it took us a little longer to get back — once in, I hung up all my things to dry and hopped into bed for a few hours of not-exactly-sleep before a couple more days in the parks!!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend! Great times, with great friends. Now looking forward to spending time with these folks in a few weeks when I head back down for #Dopey15 (can’t believe THAT is almost happening!!)