Dining With Dinosaurs

About a year ago, we were in the planning stages of a trip to Disney World with our friends, Marie, Thayne, and Julie. I had never been to Disney World, or anywhere in Florida, so I didn't have a lot of things set in my mind that I knew I wanted to do or see. About all I knew for certain was that I wanted to dip my toes in the Atlantic Ocean, and that there was a part of Disney World called the Animal Kingdom. Since I have such a love for animals, I knew I really wanted to go there. Other than that, I was open to just about anything. All of my traveling companions had already been to Disney World, so they had things in mind that they wanted to see or do. But for me, it was all going to be a new experience. Not only was that fun for me, but it also made it more fun for the others. The newness of the experience for me allowed them to see everything with a different perspective. 

One night, Trent and I had just settled down to go to sleep when Trent asked me what Disney restaurants I was interested in trying. We had already arranged for one or two dinners, but he was curious about whether there were any other restaurants I had in mind. Well, of course I couldn't answer the question. I didn't know what was there, so how would I know where I wanted to eat? So I turned on my lamp and grabbed my tablet to see what I could find. Even with just using my tablet, I was able to find a list of restaurants pretty quickly. They were conveniently grouped according to the parks in which they were located, which meant absolutely nothing to me at that time. But I found lots of different restaurants and food types to make my decision more difficult.

A lot of the restaurants also had sample menus, which were helpful in making choices. They included details on just about everything except prices. There were "ball park" figures, but we decided that if we went by the more expensive end of the price range, we'd get a good idea of how much eating at a particular restaurant might cost. And I was amazed at how many restaurants there were! Seafood restaurants, regional American, various international restaurants covering countries from Ireland to Germany, Morocco, Japan, France, and everything in between. (Except Hungarian, but maybe some day...) 

So, there we were, sitting swathed in our bed covers late on a chilly night, looking at different restaurants and sample menus. By the time I got to the listings of eateries in Downtown Disney, my eyes and brain were getting a bit tired, even though I was still enthusiastic about finding a new restaurant to explore. The choices were vast - restaurants by Wolfgang Puck, Irish food, Latin, various themed dining restaurants...it was almost overwhelming. Then a place called T-Rex caught my eye. That might be fun, I thought. I started to look at the sample menu, and just reading about the salads made my mouth water. I told Trent that he had to listen to the description of a particular salad. Like several others, this one had a couple of options. You could order it as it was listed on the menu, or you could have grilled chicken added. As my tired brain read the description, I heard myself reading aloud the various greens, vegetables, and cheeses that were on this luscious dish. "And you can add grilled children," I heard myself say. 

We both started laughing hysterically. Yes, I was so tired that I said grilled children instead of grilled chicken. We laughed ourselves to the point of tears over it, and realized that it was probably time to lay down the tablet, and the task, and get some sleep. The restaurant listings would still be there the next day. As we tried to shut down our brains and get some sleep, we took turns bursting out laughing over the salad and the unusual add-on. I told Trent that it made a lot of sense. After all, when you're dining with dinosaurs, humans could end up on the menu. That started us laughing again. After all of that silliness, I knew I couldn't possibly be quiet and act like an adult in that restaurant, so I ended up choosing The House of Blues instead, and we really enjoyed it. But every time we passed by T-Rex, we sure had a good laugh. And whispered to each other, "No, kids! don't go in there!"