Dinner and a Movie, and Also Mini-Golf!

First trip of the new year!

Mind you, the weather report still predicted it being a bit chilly, so sticking around one of the theme parks for fireworks didn’t exactly seem all that desirable, but we figured we could still get out of the house and catch a quick game of mini-golf while it was still daylight (and thus warm) out, then retreat to the comforts of a nearby movie theater to endure the rest of the evening with plush, leather seats, delicious food offerings, and the latest from the always wonderful Robert Downey, Jr.

It’s a rough life, I know…

Fore!
When we arrived at Fantasia Gardens, my wife’s personal mini-golf destination of choice, it soon became very clear that we were not the only ones who opted for a bit of miniature enjoyment that afternoon, to the point where I was seriously starting to doubt if I was going to be able to maintain my own sanity while sandwiched between  several groups of golfers who had no signs of parents in sight and seemed quite eager to take full advantage of that random lack of parental oversight! Fortunately (?!), we eventually caught a break when one of the absentee parents popped in to say that maybe they should hop across the course to do some other empty holes out of order because he had gotten tired of waiting himself, and so although normally I wouldn’t really be a supporter of such line-dodging shenanigans, frankly in this case I was just happy to have them out of my own hair! 

P.S.
Did I mention that I actually beat my wife at mini-golf for a change?!?!?!

It was honestly a really good match – we were just about neck and neck for most of it, or she would go down a stroke on one hole and then I’d make an error on the next and level us back out. If it wasn’t for hole #X, there’s a good chance I would’ve lost, but with her previous olympic caliber track record, I’ll take just about any win that I can get!

Comfy Seats, Yummy Eats, and an Idiosyncratic Detective Caper
Simply put, this was a meal that I had been looking forward to all week. I’m officially back in “diet mode” once again (read: “trying to avoid eating 5,000 calories of crap a day”), so my mind has been doing a lot of watering when I think back about first checking out the new AMC Dine-In Theaters at Downtown Disney last summer! My wife and I had decided days earlier that this was going to be our big splurge after a full week of being good, and I was destined to make it count – the same amazing Crab Rangoon Dip that we had enjoyed before, a no doubt ridiculously fattening Oreo Mudslide (might as well be milkshake, also like before), and for my entree I ended up trying their Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar Pizzini, which ended up being kinda messy, but still very good…

I guess the only real complaint I had about this particular visit was that the service seemed a little slower than last time, albeit the theater was considerably more busy, too. Our appetizer came out fairly quickly, though it was probably 30 minutes into the movie before our actual entrees showed up, and they never have been really good on water refills … especially once they’ve already delivered the check. Still a strong recommendation from my perspective, though – every time I leave here, I seem to have several new items from the menu that I’m already looking forward to trying next time … something that more Disney restaurants should be striving to achieve!

Oh yeah, and as for the movie itself??? We ended up seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and both ended up really enjoying it. Granted, it won’t exactly be anywhere near my running for Best Movie of All-Time or anything, but it was a good, solid piece of entertainment, had a lot of really fun and lively moments, as we’ve come to expect from Robert Downey Jr in this role, and it had a rather amusing ending, too!

All in all, not too shabby for an afternoon/evening out on the town…