Friends in high places

Brandon and I enter Pizzafari and look through the various dining rooms for the rest of our family, but don’t see them. Brandon eventually finds them in the ordering area – they are just now picking up their food. Fairly good timing all around, then.

We set ourselves up at a table in a mostly-empty dining room. The place is not crowded at all, and we’re able to enjoy a fairly relaxed meal. The sandwich and baked beans are very tasty, and Brandon likes his fruit plate. Becky and Linda split an Italian sandwich. Bob has a pepperoni pizza, while Benjamin – fairly predictably – has a cheese pizza. All of the food is good, and we enjoy our time chatting about the events of the day so far, and the things yet to come.

Becky reports that on the way to Pizzafari, Benjamin spotted Lilo & Stitch out greeting people and “somehow” found himself drawn like a magnet towards them. She had to steer him back on the path to lunch. Knowing my 10-year-old as I do, it must have been a tough choice – Stitch or pizza?

I bring up the 1:00 showing of Festival of the Lion King. No one else is all that enthusiastic about it, and we really would have to shovel our food in to get there. So, by general consensus, we pass on the opportunity. I would have liked to see it again – it was my favorite daytime show in 2003, topped only by Fantasmic, but I’m okay with the group decision not to hurry through lunch.

It is indeed 1:05 before we are finishing up and heading out. I pull out my cell phone to text Wallaby that we’re on our way, and find that I already have a new text message. From the timestamp on it, it came as we were still in Finding Nemo: the Musical, so I didn’t notice it when it arrived.

The message is from Big Wallaby – “Ask for Safari 2 at Departure 3. They’ll know where to send you!”

Wow! This is too cool. Now I won’t just be asking for him by name, I have a specific phrase to give!

I share the message with the others, and they’re as excited as I am. “Safari 2 at Departure 3” … It sounds like a secret codeword from a spy novel, or a password for special service that regular folks don’t get – which, when I think about it, it kind of is. We really feel like VIPs!