Tuesday is our 8th wedding anniversary. According to tradition, something bronze would be an appropriate gift. Instead of giving each other some cheesy bronze trinket we took ourselves to Orlando for an overnight date. Celebrating on our actual anniversary would have been tricky from a babysitting perspective. Luckily, the grandparents were free and willing this weekend to take the boys.
J booked dinner reservations at Emeril’s (BAM!)at Universal City Walk. OMG!
J told them that it was our anniversary when he made reservations. They seated us in a private room overlooking Universal City Walk! The room used to be the restaurant’s private smoking room for cigar connoisseurs. But since Florida law now bans all smoking at restaurants, they converted the tiny sitting room into a cozy dining room. It was fabulous! We were away from all of the hustle and bustle in the main dining room downstairs. We had our own wait staff consisting of 5 or more people.
J and I both ordered the ‘Tasting Menu’. It was a four course affair that did not disappoint. The appetizer was a baked lobster and crab stuffed Haas avocado. The fish course consisted of a seared salmon fillet served over a spicy jambalaya with green tomato relish. The main course was fillet mignon with green beans, caramelized onions and tiny baked potatoes smothered with andouille sausage. I could barely finish my courses. There was so much food! I wanted to save room for dessert too… It was phenomenal.
I had the molten lava cake:
J enjoyed the house specialty- Banana Cream Pie:
Can you believe that he finished that entire piece of pie?! He sure did!
It was an incredible dining extravaganza. The staff went out of their way to give us a memorable experience! I highly recommend it if you’re ever in town for a special celebration.
After dinner we walked over to the Sharp Aquos theater to see the Blue Man Group perform. The walk helped relieve some of the pain of our gluttony 🙂
J got us tickets in the “poncho section”. We were right in the middle of the second row. The lady next to us was a BMG expert. She’d been to several of their performances in different cities. She kept squealing with delight and telling us that we were going to LOVE it. I was looking forward to it. Seeing the BMG has been on my list of things I want to do forever! I’m so glad J listened to my hints. I’m subtle that way…
So, we donned our sassy plastic ponchos.
J tied his complimentary crepe paper to his head, Kung Fu Panda-style:
And we sat back to enjoy the show. WOW! What an amazing experience! I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll just say that I’ve never seen anything quite like it. J and I left the theater without a drop of goo on us. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I wanted to post before and after shots of us on the blog. But no such luck. We were clean. Maybe next time… 🙂
We slept in on Sunday morning. A rarity for us, for sure. We got up at 10:30 AM and plopped ourselves in some lounge chairs by the pool until lunch time. It was great! We were the only ones by the pool and the sun was shining bright. When we got hot and hungry, we headed over to Downtown Disney. We’d been wanting to see the new Batman movie for a while so Downtown Disney was a great venue for killing two birds with one stone. We had a lunch of Cuban sandwiches sitting in the shade outside of Bongos then we headed over to the AMC theater for our movie. What a fantastic film! I see what all the hype is about. Heath Ledger is incredible! Just incredible!
Time seemed to slow down this weekend. It was so relaxing being together with just J. I feel refreshed and ready to take on the kiddies in the morning… 🙂 J’s leaving for his annual North Carolina surf trip on Wednesday. I’m going to rely on this refreshed feeling to keep my sanity while he’s gone. Before he leaves though, we’re taking the boys to Sea World’s new water park, Aquatica on Tuesday. It should be a good time! We had to do something on our actual anniversary, right? Why not spoil the kids? 🙂
Adventures of Four 