MAY 16
First day of golf. We got up and grabbed our stuff to shuttle over to the Palm course at Shades of Green Resort. I had played Magnolia (also over there) a few times but never Palm. They say it was more difficult but I enjoyed it. Other than the case of balls I lost last year playing Magnolia I kept the same ball for 11 holes and only lost 3 balls that day.
We went over and ate at Shades of Green at what I think was called Garden Gallery. We had eaten there before and it was not very good this time. Your standard buffet with limited items and not very good quality. As always the course looks great. They set you up with carts with GPS and coolers and give you balls to go to the driving range. For scores you can refer to the Mancation page (when it gets updated!!).
It was a good day of golf and for the first time I was not last on the leader board. Ed had a great day and was top of the leader board. At the start of the day they warned us about the raccoons and to not keep anything out in the carts. Well on the back 9 we stopped at this one hole and a raccoon decided to walk over and start to get in the cart and go for the cell phones and glasses. Not sure what they do with them. Sell the stuff on Ebay?
Well the cart before us had the same raccoon go and grab Michaels camera but he threw a sandwich his way and he dropped the camera. We also came apon a snake on one of the greens that was o longer alive and maybe that was because the group ahead had put it in the cup for the group behind them. The Disney Wildlife patrol are still looking for the guilty party.
There was quite a bit of water on this course and sometimes you were even hitting over water the whole time. All this water was a great place to meet even more Florida wildlife. In some cases we went to extremes to meet the wildlife. Dave decided to say hello to a member of the local fish population. He is so good at golf he gets bored inbetween holes and has to do something else.
On the last hole I hit right up near the river going across the fairway and I looked in and there was a gator swimming by. The guys had to run down to see but by then it went under. THIS IS WHY YOU DON”T LET YOUR KIDS NEAR THE WATER AT THE RESORT BEACHES!!!
We all headed back to the Boardwalk, leaving our clubs there since Disney will transfer and have them ready for the next day if it is a Disney course. It was now time to hit the pool and make a few drinks.
I think a few guys went over to ESPN and some got Pizza on the boardwalk as a snack. I think I got a wrap from the pool bar that day. Good wrap but not as good as Captain Cook’s food and not much of a variety at the Boardwalk to choose from that is close to the pool.
I had to make this photo large not just because it is a good photo of Bill and Gabe but because I had to laugh at the guy behind them checking out Gabes butt or maybe it was because Bill was grabbing it.
We got cleaned up and headed into Epcot. Our dinner that night was trying out Marrakesh (Morrocco). We were going to try it the year before but changed our minds. I had heard very good things about it so I was interested in trying it. It was busy that night and the guys were getting frisky with the decorations but we won’t show those phots….this is a family web site. We were seated and ordered enough wine and appetizers to feed a small country.
A few of the appetizers were very good. I could have made a meal out of them. The mussels were ok but the sauce they were in was great with the bread. Did someone say BREAD? Well Ed was feeling the affects of some of the mixed drinks so he just hung out partly conscious and ate 3 baskets of bread to himself. He is now called Ed “bread” Romeo. He felt much better after the bread which was more than could be said about Dave and Sean.
Dave had to share part of his dinner with Sean’s flip flops on the floor but that must have made Dave feel better after seeing the way he was ripping into the rack of lamb after purging, but Sean imidiately decided he was no longer hungry.
My dinner was ok but I was not a huge fan and don’t think I will return. The entertainment was good and the dancing was great until Gabe and Michael decided they needed to join in. It was all fun until someone dresses up like a Shriner.
Some guys headed off to Rose and Crown for drinks and Ed, Phil and I met up with Lou Mongello (who was visiting there with his family and this was his last night).
Ed had worked on the new design for Spaceship Earth back at Imagineering in California but had not been on the ride since the 80s so we all headed over to check it out. I thought it was a nice cleanup of the ride but nothing exciting. I always have to ride Spaceship Earth when I visit but I was hoping for more to have been done to the ride. We headed over to Test Track but after getting almost up to the cars the ride went down and we were given passes to come back. We had a nice chat with Lou on the way back to the Boardwalk (where he was parked) and it would have been nice to spend more time talking but it was late and Lou had to get back to his family after a long day for both of us. We might talk about “guys trips” to WDW on Lou’s show at some point to explain that it can be a good destination for guys trips and not just families and the wives are happier than if the guys went to Las Vegas.
