The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Day 16 – Chilled ~ Pointe Orlando, Brick house and Tapas

[Mad Hatters]

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report

So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum).

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Saturday 2nd June: Day 16 – Chilled ~ Pointe Orlando, Brick house and Tapas

As it was Saturday, today was always planned to be a complete chill out day. I like to try and leave the parks alone on Saturdays where I can help it. That means that today is a very light report.

Grace and I were both awake at 7:40am. We heard the boys stirring and they were both up not long after us. We fancied having breakfast in our room this morning, so Grace nipped down and grabbed us some food.

Joshua had his favourite cereal, Froot Loops.


Trayvon had his favourite too, Lucky Charms.


The boys being very happy with their cereal.


They then both shared a glazed ring donut. Don’t judge us we are on holiday after all! The jam one was mine


I had some scrambled eggs, pork sausage and pancakes.


I think Grace had some Hershey’s or a cereal bar from the fridge as I don’t have any picture of hers

My parents went down for breakfast at 9:30am. I actually made a note of what they had today. Dad had a bowl of Frosties and some eggs on toast. Mum also had Frosties and a bit of toast.

The 4 of us fancied getting out for a little walk so at around half past 10 we set off to Pointe Orlando. There isn’t much in the way of shops here, but we just fancied having a little look around there and seeing if there were any new restaurants we fancied etc.

This building doesn’t look right Never actually been in here. One day we will.



Over the road is a relatively new to us CVS store, so we had a nosey around there. I was doing a bit of price comparing and realised that it was more expensive than Walgreens, so that’s where we headed to next.

We grabbed a few bits and pieces including some candy for us to take back as gifts for people.


Sandwich stuff.


We knocked together some sandwiches for our lunch. As you can see, I washed mine down with a bottle of Michelob and had a few Lays as well. Yummy


Lunch eaten, we were ready to take another little walk out, this time to hit some more gift shops. At 12:35 we headed out. My dad joined us for this walk.

Joshua bought himself a Star Wars drinks bottle using the last of his spending money.

As a tradition, we always visit the Harley Davidson shop on International drive. I believe a dog collar was bought from here for my sister’s dog, but I can’t fully remember.



ABC Liquor store was also on my radar. I had a look around but decided not to buy anything more, for now. I've said it before, but there wasn't the choice here that there used to be.

We hit up a few more of the gift stores. I finally got my traditional Florida T-shirt We also got a keyring, fridge magnet and Joshua chose a fridge magnet to take back for his mum as another gift.


When we got back we decided to have an hour in the pool. My parents joined us for this. We messed around as usual in there and played with an inflatable ball and the swimming ring. We had the pool to ourselves

We headed back up to our room at 3:30pm to get our baths and showers. Our plan for this afternoon was to go to Brew House Tavern and Tap before our evening meal so that we could chill out and have a few drinks.

I consumed one of these whilst getting ready


The 4 of us left the hotel at 4:15pm. My parents weren’t quite ready yet. Obviously haha

We arrived at Brick House Tavern + Tap at just gone 4:26pm. It was a lovely afternoon.


We had never been here before, but I’ve often fancied calling in as they do a lot of different beers and you can order them in big beer bongs.

We got ourselves sat down by the fire, thankfully it wasn’t on and the AC was blasting out


Both of the boys had a Dr Pepper each. They also had some menus and crayons to entertain themselves with while we went through the menu to make our drink decisions.



Grace looking smug. Probably because she was eying up the cocktail menu. She ended up choosing a sparkling sangria.



She said that it was absolutely lovely. I tested it and had to agree, it was really nice.

I chose a Florida beer co hurricane reef pilsner. Our server was really good and she let me have a sample of it before I ordered. This was lovely.



Ignore my questionable hand position, I was letting my hand breathe for a little bit. It was nice to be at a point of my recovery where I could start taking it out of my splint for 5 or 10 minutes here and there.

The boys entertained themselves playing games on their tablets utilising the free wifi.


We decided on having some nibbles with our drinks and mainly to give the kids a bit of a feed in case they didn’t really like our evening meal. We ordered a portion of tots and fries. These went down really well. That well that I forgot to take a picture Sorry.

Grace ordered herself another of the same drink as she was really enjoying them.


This time I went for an orange blossom brewing pilsner. Again I was offered a sample of this first, but I turned it down. Silly boy! I really didn’t like this one unfortunately. Being the Yorkshire man I am though, I finished it



It was around 5pm now and my Mum and dad had just arrived, so they came over and joined us. Well, joined the table next to us.
Mum got a boring diet coke and Dad had his usual, Stella.


Cheers!


Grace ordered the same again. They were going down too well.
I sampled a cigar city that was 7.5% first. This was nice, but I knew that I would struggle to drink a full 22oz of it. So instead, I chose a Sweetwater brewing 420 EPA. This is what I had a few times at Disney and it is very nice.


With these drinks finished, we were ready for our evening meal.
The cheque. Not too bad I don’t think.


Tonight’s restaurant of choice was Tapa Toro. This is a Spanish restaurant located at the Orlando eye 360 area. The 4 of us ate here in 2016 and it was a really lovely meal, so we were keen to go back and see if my parents would enjoy it as much as we did.

{Continued in next post}

[Mad Hatters]

{Continued from previous post}

What a lovely afternoon/evening.


Tapa Toro



First up we ordered some drinks.

Grace, Joshua and Trayvon got a diet coke. Me and Dad got a pint of Estrella each. We considered a bottle of wine, but I do love a nice pint of Estrella Mum had herself a boozy drink and decided to try a Tapa Toro Mojito.

The Mojito was a bit too strong for her tastes (she hardly ever drinks alcohol). I may have helped her finish this off

Now onto the tapas. We ordered a few different dishes for the table:

Jamon Iberico (black-footed Iberian ham)


Pan con tomate (rustic bread/vine ripe tomatoes/garlic-infused olive oil/sherry vinegar/sea salt)


Pan con tomate as above, but with manchego cheese.


Cordero (australian lamb/salsa verde).


Patatas bravas (spicy tomato sauce/alioli)


Patatas con chorizo (chorizo/potatoes/fried egg)


Mejillones con chorizo (shi≈≈≈≈o peppers/herb butter/rustic bread)


Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp/garlic/lemon/olive oil)


Croquetas de Jamon (ham/béchamel/alioli)


Albondigas de res (beef meatballs/tomato sauce/polenta)


Empanadas (chickpeas/tomato/potatoes/cilantro yogurt)


At some point there was a little bit of flamenco dancing which added to the Spanish feel of the evening



This was another lovely meal albeit pretty expensive. We all really enjoyed the food. The only criticism of the evening was that we felt our server was a little bit too pushy. He was trying to push us to the more expensive set menu’s etc. Not a big deal, we just didn’t really click with him as such. It certainly didn’t spoil the evening anyway

It was such a beautiful evening. The boys and mum got an ice cream from the Ben & Jerrys ice cream store just near to the eye. We grabbed a bench to just sit and enjoy the moment.



The boys messed about for a little bit…….




Then we slowly headed back to the hotel. We were back at around 8pm. We saw this little guy on the walk back too.



We had our standard evening of a few games of dominos while my dad and I partook in having a couple more beers The women cheated/won again at dominoes

And that was the end of our super chilled day. Brick House is somewhere I can see us spending the odd afternoon when we return. There is plenty more beers there for me to sample There was also a very friendly feel to the place.

We were in bed and asleep by 9:57pm.

Total steps for today: 23,261.

Thanks for reading

[Floridafour]

Great day 👍 it’s nice to have a chill out day. Thanks for posting 🙂

[caitlinsmummy]

Oh you must do Wonderworks, I remember it from my trip in 2003 and it was great. We've got tickets to go in May too!

Loving all the drinks and cocktails, that sangria looks lovely.

Such a shame you felt pushed by the server at Tapa Toro but at least it didn't spoil your evening.

Love the pics of the boys, they look like they're having so much fun, reminds me of my boys

Another lovely day xx

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by Floridafour

Great day 👍 it’s nice to have a chill out day. Thanks for posting 🙂

See more...

It was a great day, lovely and relaxed with a few cheeky drinks.

Thanks for reading 👍

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Oh you must do Wonderworks, I remember it from my trip in 2003 and it was great. We've got tickets to go in May too!

Loving all the drinks and cocktails, that sangria looks lovely.

Such a shame you felt pushed by the server at Tapa Toro but at least it didn't spoil your evening.

Love the pics of the boys, they look like they're having so much fun, reminds me of my boys

Another lovely day xx

See more...

I’ll take your word on it and next time we are on I drive, we will go 👍 hope it’s as good as you remembered it.

Brick house is a great spot, the drinks were lovely. Plenty more beers to try for me haha.

It’s a shame when you get a pushy waiter as it can be a bit awkward. I’d had a few by this point so really didn’t bother me 😄

They were loving it haha they really did have lots of fun.

Thanks for reading.

[summersun]

great day x

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by summersun

great day x

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Thanks for reading along 👍

[Goldia]

Some fab food and drink today. Plus lovely photos of the kids in the evening on the walk back to the hotel.

I also laughed that it was a chill out day, yet you still managed 23k steps!

[i love jack]

Nice chilled day