The Whispering Canyon Cafe

Recently I had the opportunity to enjoy dinner with some friends at the Whispering Canyon Café , located at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.

First, a word of warning for those who may be looking for a nice, peaceful, quiet and romantic place for dinner with your loved one: This is NOT the place! Contrary to the name of the restaurant, there was anything but whispering going on. To be fair, the restaurant’s website does warn you that it’s a “rowdy, family-style restaurant right out of the Old West…” Below is a brief synopsis of my experience at this restaurant.

Several gimmicks kept it fun for the patrons, and kids, in particular. The restaurant does not leave ketchup on the tables, so you have to ask for it. Be prepared. If you ask for ketchup, the waiter or waitress will bellow for the attention of all of the patrons, and then you have to join them in asking for the ketchup, pretty much at the top of your lungs, “WE NEED SOME KETCHUP!” Kids LOVED this. An excuse to shout at the dinner table and not get slapped? Sa-weet!

Upon hearing the shout for ketchup, whomever has the ketchup at their table brings it to your table. Now, be aware: you don’t get just one bottle. You get about 25-30 of them, and you have to leave it ALL on your table until someone else bellows for the ketchup, at which time YOU get to carry it all to their table.

One super fun thing they did for the kids was to have a pony stick race around the restaurant. A waiter rolled out a huge barrel full of pony sticks and asked who wanted to race. The kids swarmed him and selected their “steeds.” Then, the music started and they raced around the inside perimeter of the restaurant a couple of times. There was much whooping and hollering from parents and kids alike, and it was pretty fun to watch, too!

The atmosphere is very friendly and “familiar”, meaning that the wait staff may engage you in friendly bantering, such as you may find in a small town local diner where there are regular patrons and the wait staff knows them all.

Food-wise, I can highly recommend the Chicken & Pasta, served with sun-dried tomatoes, and garden fresh vegetables tossed in olive oil, toasted garlic and Parmigiano-Reggiano. :-)

My friends ordered one large Canyon Skillet for their teenaged kids and a smaller version for themselves. Please be warned that the larger version is A LOT of food. It could probably feed at least 3 people, depending on the size of their appetite. The Canyon Skillet comes with smoked pork ribs, pulled pork, oven-roasted chicken, and beef brisket, in addition to herb-crushed potatoes, cowboy beans, corn on the cob, mixed greens salad with apple vinaigrette, and fresh-baked cornbread.

My friends said they did enjoy the skillet very much, but the beef brisket wasn’t quite up to par on that particular evening. Only one of us (not me) had any room left for dessert. I don’t recall what he ate (I think it was the apple-caramel pie), but I am told that it was good.

They do like you to clean your plate at this restaurant, and heaven help you if you don’t eat your vegetables! There were two or three separate instances where someone at a table did not eat their vegetables. The waitperson hollered for everyone’s attention, and then announced that that person did not eat their veggies. Someone else held up a “BOO!” sign, and then the entire restaurant booed those people, so if you go there, please, EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!

Overall we had a very good dining experience at the Whispering Canyon Café. The experience is probably not one I will repeat any time soon, but only because it’s not my preferred kind of dining experience. If you have kids, or even if you don’t and you happen to like a rowdy and boisterous atmosphere, then by all means, check them out the next time you are in Orlando. I think you will have a great time!

I was in no way compensated for this review.

It grew!

See that lighthouse? That one right there?

Yep, that's the one! The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. It has grown 100 feet since I last climbed it 8 months ago. Either that, or I'm out of shape, and that can't be it. ;-)

Fortunately there wre not too many people climbing up or down while I was climbing. As you can see below, the stairs are pretty much built for one-way traffic only.

I've written about this lighthouse before, so rather than get into all of that again, I'll just share some pics from around the grounds that day. Enjoy!

In memoriam of a son lost at sea.

A theatre in the woods.

The Zoo - Part 4

Can you spot the Mountain Lion?

Two Red Ruffed lemurs at play on the rope.

A family of monkeys groom each other after their naps.

A Black Howler Monkey conserves his energy for a cooler part of the day. I didn't hear a sound out of him while I was there.

Amur Leopard

A cougar sunning himself on some rocks.

Green Parrot

The elusive Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth

I hope you enjoyed this series. I'm not really a fan of wild animals in captivity, but I do think it's important for people to know whom they share the planet with. Hopefully zoos benefit the animal kingdom in the long run by educating people on the existence of the animals and their needs. Peace for your day.

The Zoo - Part 3

Siamang

Kangaroos

Tortoises

Cheetah

Camel

The Zoo - Part 2

Cottontop Tamarin

Zebu

The Zoo - Part 1

It has been awhile since I've been to a zoo, but finally had the chance to check out the one in my area. It was extremely hot that day, so the animals mostly only had energy to sleep. The humans were the only dummies walking around. Here are a few pics for you.

Macaw

Porcupines

Prehensile-tailed Porcupine

Clouded Leopard

...and you thought they were extinct!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Pelican Food

We were down on the Pier this past weekend and spotted this pelican standing hopefully by this sign:

Then we spotted his buddies around the corner to the left of this sign...



...and then when we were leaving, we spotted this gentleman, who had the thankless task of cleaning up after the pelicans after the Pelican Food shop closed. Ick!

Mother's Day Dessert

Our dessert options on Mother's Day...

...and our selection: Godiva Chocolate Cake!

Delish!

There and Back Again....A Lighthouse Tale (with apologies to Tolkien)

Greetings All!

Last Saturday I put on my Adventure Girl Pants and drove up to Ponce Inlet to see and climb the tallest lighthouse in Florida, aptly named the Ponce Inlet Light Station (sometimes simplicity really is best in naming things.)

Ponce Inlet was completed in 1887, and sports a 203-step climb to the top in a tight spiral staircase, which is most decidedly built for one-way traffic. Happily there are landings between “floors” where people can stand aside and let traffic pass before proceeding.

The view of the staircase from ground level looking up. Dizzy time, baby!

I DID make it to the top, in case you are wondering, and paid the price for a few days with super sore leg muscles, although I am happy to report my muscles have fully recovered! :-)

My fellow climbers were of all ages, including an 81-year old grandmother, and a young mom with babe in arms. I don’t know how she managed the last flight of steps with the baby, as those were extremely steep! She was extremely brave, or perhaps crazy.

At the top, I was treated to a glorious view! The weather was perfect and I could see for miles! The ocean was a magnificent shade of blue and I loved looking at the colorful homes and businesses around the beach. You can see some of the pictures below:

Doesn't that water look amazing?

This is the actual light currently in use at Ponce Inlet. We weren't allowed into the lantern room because the lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation, according to the sign below:

The Light Keeper's Evening Duty Routine, from January 1, 1870

After several minutes savoring the view, it was time to leave the high perch (alas) and descend back to ground level. It’s much quicker going down because you have gravity on your side. ;-) Upon exiting the lighthouse there was a smattering of applause from various people who were waiting on their loved ones to descend and were happy to see them arrive safely on foot, and not all of a sudden, if you get my meaning.

At this time I went on to explore the grounds. There were the homes of the first watch keeper, and the second watch keeper, made into museums with historical artifacts from back in the day, as well as a building dedicated to the lenses used in the lighthouse from the past and present, and a couple of other structures whose names elude me at the moment.

I took over 500 pictures, though, (it’s a sickness, I think), so it’s well-documented. Below is a Kedge anchor from circa 1830-1860.

On my way out, I took a mini stroll through the natural wooded area near the grounds. Some of the trees I saw would make for great a Halloween movie set. Very spooky!

Spooky trees. Oooo!

Coming out of the woods I saw the cat cemetery that contains the remains of five of the previous lighthouse cats through the years. The current lighthouse cat is named Nelly, and you can see her lovely portrait below. They adore Nelly there, and she even has her own line of merchandise in the gift shop! I purchased an “I ♥ Lighthouses” bumper sticker, and a lovely mermaid wall sculpture (shown below).

The lovely reigning lighthouse cat, Queen Nelly (well, I call her Queen), and, really, would any cat have it any other way?

Queen Nelly's predecessors



In all, I spent about three hours touring the lighthouse and grounds. It's one of those really neat day trips outside of Orlando that most tourists, unless they are lighthouse enthusiasts, don't know about. Admission is only $5, and you get a snazzy lighthouse bracelet as a souvenir (wink, wink), and an interesting history lesson of what life was like for the light keepers. I know they had to be physically fit. The lamp oil weighed about 40 pounds, and someone had to climb all 203 steps up every night with it. Impressed? Yeah, me, too!

My snazzy lighthouse bracelet souvenir, lol. I know you're jealous. ;-)



I'm afraid that wraps up my mini tour of the Ponce Inlet Light Station. There was a lot I didn't get into because I figured you might want to get on with your life right about now. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading, and if you get the chance, be sure to make the trip to see this lighthouse in person. It's worth the price of admission, and more! (No, I am not being paid to write this, lol.)