Anniversary Celebration

I posted yesterday I would update after we celebrated our anniversary, pictures and information on the much anticipated dinner date we planned at the Napa Rose restaurant at Disneys Grand Californian.

In a word, AMAZING!!!  I am so happy to be able to report this, because we've all had the experience of anticipating and planning a special event only to be disappointed that it didn't live up to it's billing, or something went wrong and we've just had to roll with it and make the best.  On Sunday it looked like that could happen as Kevin's stomach wasn't behaving.  Fear a flu was trying to come on concerned us.  Even yesterday morning he wasn't completely 100%, but insisted he felt well enough to celebrate our day.  We headed out to Disneyland around noon.  With reservations at the Napa Rose restaurant you are able to get 5 hours of valet parking included at the Grand Californian, so we arrived at the hotels front entrance and were ushered in, in style.

We had several hours before our dinner time so we began our evening by walking around the parks starting with California Adventure.  The area called Cars Land opened since the last time we visited the park, so our tour began enjoying the changes that were new for us.  A lot of people extend their weekend visits, so being a Monday the parks were still a bit crowded and other than The Tower of Terror, we didn't go on any other rides just walked and enjoyed the environment. Here's a photo collage of this part of our day.

After walking around California Adventure, we went across to the Disneyland main park and I took a few pictures of some of the Halloween decorating changes they are making.

About an hour before dinner we headed back to the Grand Californian and went to the Hearthstone Lounge to call and check in on the kids and enjoy a nice glass of La Crema chardonay and a wonderful time talking about years past, changes, kids and our current plans for upcoming changes in our lives.  At last it was time for dinner, so we headed over to the Napa Rose.

We were seated by a stained glass window that looked out towards the park.  Our waiter was a wonderfully helpful and friendly gentleman who went by the nicname Saucy, as he'd been a chef there for years and new their menu and it's qualities first hand.  With his assistance we chose to start our meal with the field green salad, with edible flowers, marinated cucumbers and a fresh herb vinaigrette.  This was incredibly flavorful for a salad and was wonderful with the selection of breads they brought.

Our main course was his suggestion of the Maple Leaf Farm Duck Breast.  This is pan roasted with hot almond cauliflower couscous and blood orange jus.  It absolutely melted in your mouth and the rich combinations of flavor was superb!!  Saucy suggested we split the  side dish of carrots and we are glad we did.  It was the perfect side and amount for both of us.

You were treated like royalty here and everything including presentation is done with flare to make your dining experience memorable. We were so full we had no room to enjoy the sorbet for dessert, but I've included a photo of the presentation they do to mark the occasion.

Found a nice couple to take our photo - the duck meal - dessert and Saucy our waiter

Once our meal ended, we headed back out to the park to walk off the slight discomfort of having eaten too much.  Everything looks so pretty and festive with all the lights on so I've added here a collage of some of these scenes.

We finished by heading out to Downtown Disney, to the Jazz Cafe to pick up some coffee for our trip home and the promised breadpuddings "to go", for the kids.  With that we headed home, to be further surprised by the kids who had spent quite a bit of their time cleaning the house to surprise us and making cards for our anniversary.  Amber had apparently stopped over to check in on them and brought a card for us, a plate of hand dipped chocolate strawberries she'd made and a bottle of champagne from she and Eddie.  It was a wonderful end to a truly special day!!!