The Waterstraut Waterspout: Social Distancing Journal, Day 95

Tuesday started out a little rough for me. But, I picked myself up with a breakfast of Mickey Waffles. We saw our anniversary being impacted weeks ago, so we did purchase a few things to make it a little better, and one of those items was our very own Mickey Waffle Maker! Now, you can't just get any old waffle mix for it, either. You need to get the official stuff that Disney uses. So, we got that too.

And ta da! Mickey waffles at home! They taste just like the real thing.

We ate a lot of meals this past week in our room. A few weeks ago we ordered a cute little bistro table, that will eventually go outside. But it's summer, and it was nice to have a quiet place to eat just the two of us. No kids, no dogs, no laundry or dishwasher or anything going. Also pictured: our Mrs. Potts teapot you'll see later, and a breakfast in bed tray. We got prepared for as much of a vacation at home as we could.

We also broke out some new bedding.

After our Mickey Waffles on Tuesday, we were headed to Disney World! Well, sort of. Disney Springs has been open a few weeks. Masks are required, and enforced from what we've heard. So we were going to give that a try. BUT, the golf courses had never closed. And Disney doesn't JUST have regular golf, on certain days of the week they have Foot Golf! We've talked about trying it for a few years, but we finally decided to go for it. Seemed like a great social distancing activity.

So, for the first time in four months and three days (the last time we were there was February 13th), we drove under this sign. Ah. Home.

A very, very weird home. Nobody was there. I've never seen it like that. Resorts were still closed even (some opened today- we JUST missed them for our anniversary). The golf course is at Shades of Green, right across from the Polynesian, so we drove right past the Magic Kingdom parking lot- which apparently they are using to park a TON of buses, and of course, a couple of parking trams.

When we pulled into the golf course parking lot, they took our temperature at the security gate before letting us in. We had to go inside to pay for our tee time, and then we walked on over to the course. We encountered a total of two employees, both very briefly, both wearing masks. We were also, of course.

But once you get out there, there is no need for them. You might as well be walking in the neighborhood. There was nobody else around. I mean, you could see people off at other holes. But nowhere even close to you.

So what exactly is foot golf? It's like a soccer/golf hybrid. And it's really fun.

The holes are big enough for the soccer balls, so you just kick it in like you would golf.

Asa was much better at it than me. He often kicked the ball twice as far as me. But, it was Disney and it was out of the house, and it was pretty safe. So, this is one thing I might do again in social distancing time.

After footgolfing, we made our way over to Disney Springs- this is the main road out in front. There were NO CARS. Crazy. Now, it was a Tuesday at like 3:30. But still.

Once you park in the open garage (they only do one at a time), you'll have to make your way through the temperature screenings.

But on our visit, there was no wait for that. Just stroll on in and get your temperature taken. Also note, the Disney workers at the bottom of the escalators making sure the railing stays sanitized (we made sure not to touch it, though).

Now, it's not that ALL of Disney Springs was this empty. Sometimes I'd turn a corner and think "oh no, this is a lot of people, I'm a little uncomfortable." But, take that with a grain of salt. I've been virtually no where. We're still ordering groceries. It wasn't that I couldn't stay 6 feet away from people. I could. Just the room for error wasn't there. And of course we were all outside, and 95% of people were wearing their masks properly (something about Floridians liking to wear a mask over their mouth but not their nose). But much of the time there was virtually nobody around.

We were more than happy to sport our masks and head on over to the Polite Pig. (You might remember that won as the place we first wanted to eat when Disney reopened.) We purposefully ate at around 4 o'clock, knowing there would be less people. And boy were there ever. There was no wait to place your order at the counter.

We placed our order and headed to the outside tables. You do still get a locater thingie for your table, and oddly enough, there's still a roll of paper towels sitting at every table. (We didn't use them) But an employee brings you sauce and gets your drinks for you now. They also bring you alcohol wipes for before your meal, and wet ones for after (and of course we had our own hand sanitizer- but there were stations for it all over). We found a table that seemed a little more socially distant. The tables have been spaced apart outside, but they are now out in the walkway, and I wasn't sure I'd feel too comfortable with people zipping by me.

Then, they brought us out the butcher board. You know, I don't really get people that missed eating out so much that they'd risk sitting inside for like, Chili's... but every time we go by any chain like that, it's packed. This is the first time I ate in public in over 100 days, and it was a little weird and uncomfortable, even outside. But the second I started eating the food, I almost wanted to cry. It tasted like... normalcy (and deliciousness- nobody makes bbq cauliflower and whiskey glazed brussel sprouts like Polite Pig)

But it is all kind of a fleeting thing. You fill your belly and it is delicious. But once it's over and you stick your mask back on to, as Asa says "taste your bbq burps" you quickly remember things aren't normal. We did decide that it was empty enough that we felt safe enough to go into World of Disney and get some new puzzles.

They are limiting the people inside (someone stands at all the doorways and count people coming and going on a nifty little ipad type situation), but we were able to walk right in. There were very few people inside, and nobody in line when we checked out. We were in and out in minutes. The thing that took the longest was figuring out what puzzle to get. They did have lots in stock of that Mickey puzzle we had done.

We have been at Disney for our anniversary in some form or another since our second anniversary. For years now, we've gotten desserts at Amorette's Patisserie. Lucky for us, they opened just days before our anniversary. And even luckier, they had just started making their petite cakes we get exclusively on our anniversary. So we bought a couple desserts to bring home, including the cake.

All told, we were there about an hour and half. Our masks were sweaty and we were ready to get out of there, but even nearing five there wasn't an influx of people.

We made our way back to the parking garage, which is now divided for traffic coming and going. I had brought along the cooler so if we were lucky enough to get desserts, they would travel back home safely.

When we got back home, I realized things were getting back to normal at the lodge when I saw the sign for taco tuesday. Ugh. But hey, at least there were some deer around too.

Oh, and our neighbor called. Apparently they had gotten our Amazon package and opened it, not realizing it wasn't theirs (I mean, everyone has a constant stream of Amazon purchases these days, right?) Anyway, he must have been really confused when he saw the 12 pack of elmers glue.

We headed over to the pool when we got back. Got to take advantage of it while we can!

And because it was an early dinner we had snacks. Asa and I didn't eat lentils once last week, since we would have been indulging in the Disney dining plan if things had gone according to plan.