Last nite, my gym trainee and I got together and did our “homework.” We’d planned to hit up Downtown Disney’s Uva Bar after work to observe the bartender in action, but it almost didn’t happen. Her 10-year-old son was at the airport with a bunch of schoolmates getting ready to leave on a school trip to Missouri, and you know how the news stations kept talking about the 1000 American Airlines flights that got canceled? Yup; they were booked on American Air. The teacher had to make alternate flight arrangements when their connecting flight was canceled, and gym trainee was poised to go to LAX and pick her son up if their (nonrefundable) trip was canceled. I went online and had their flight updates automatically sent to me on my cell, and all night long while we were at Downtown Disney I got notifications of 40-minute delays. Their 5:20p flight was pushed back little by little until they finally left at 10:20p. They already missed a reception program at the arrival site. But at least they got to go!

Downtown Disney was unexpectedly crowded. The usual parking lot was full and they had to open overflow parking. On a Thursday? What was going on? And of course as we were trying to make our way to the bar at the other end of the walk, there were oblivious moseying teenagers and adults, and unruly children randomly darting around and arbitrarily stopping right in front of us, that we had to maneuver around. I was reminded of why I hate going to Disneyland in the summer. The Uva Bar itself was pretty crowded, too. We were lucky to find 2 seats in the circular outdoor bar area. The bartender was working by himself when we got there, and there was a slight delay in getting some service, but when he did come around to us, he greeted us with direct eye contact and a smile. Unfortunately, his work station was at the other side of the circular bar so I couldn’t see him pour directly from the bottles to check out how long his pours are. I did occasionally catch him shake and pour from the shaker, though. I had my usual there: caramel apple martini, Mezza platter (3 flavored hummus and pita bread) appetizer which we shared, and ahi tuna salad with a Mediterranean twist (zesty lemon dressing, hummus at the bottom of the plate, couscous, mint leaves, romaine lettuce, and GIANT cuts of seared rare ahi). Gym trainee had a Manhattan and a burger that she said was delicious, too. MAN they use real alcohol in their drinks. I was laughing about how she said she drank some of her drink, got buzzed, stopped drinking, ate dinner, finished her drink, and got buzzed again.

After dinner we walked off our alcohol with shopping. She bought some bath bomb fizzies and bath salts at Basin, which is also one of my favorite stores, but I was being frugal. There was a bath bomb that the clerk demonstrated for us and as it fizzes away, little tiny multi-colored Mickey Mouse heads pop out! That’s soooo cute. Of course she bought one.

After wandering around Downtown Disney, we went back to my house and watched half of the DVD that came with the class, which is another assignment for this week (to rewatch the DVD). We’re such good students.