Wednesday was the first dance competition day for Madeline. She had a 10:30 call time for her duet, so she was able to sleep in a bit. But it was a running day for Andy & me, so we got up early (6 am-ish) so that we could run before he left for work. As expected, it was already hot and muggy, even that early. Usually we run three miles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but we decided that we would only do 30-minute maintenance runs on days we were not going to a theme park, and we’d skip running completely on days we were going to walk 20,000 steps anyway. Thirty minutes was enough to work up plenty of sweat, and I was grateful for a shower back at the hotel.

Competition hair and makeup takes about two hours, so I got Madeline up about 8 am. We had breakfast in the hotel’s common area since the big girls were still sleeping on the hide-a-bed. We took a Lyft to the Hilton. I got her set up with her duet partner and headed back to the Residence Inn because I had other work calls. Fortunately, I was able to watch her compete her duet on the competition’s live stream in between calls.

After my calls ended I went back to the Hilton to watch the dance awards. Madeline’s duet took ninth place! The girls danced really well, so I was a little surprised they didn’t place higher, but the competition was really strong. When we got to the hotel and Madeline got out of competition hair and makeup, it was time to leave for dinner.

I had made reservations at Cafe Tu Tu Tango, a restaurant Andy and I had eaten at 21 years earlier when we were in Orlando for one of his conferences. We remembered the food and the atmosphere being really great and were anxious to go back. Unfortunately, this was a very different experience. When we arrived at the restaurant, many people were standing outside, indicating the place was packed. Inside, it was wall-to-wall people, and loud. So loud. And while we were waiting to be seated, the music got even louder.

When we were seated at our table we realized that there was some kind of a dance performance happening, and that’s why the music was louder. Someone came by our table and said it would get quieter when the performance was over. It did, but not by much. Also, the table next to us was some kind of college birthday party, and they were being really loud. When our server finally came to get drink orders, she walked away after only getting mine, Andy’s and Francesca’s. Madeline was exhausted, and between the loudness and the neglect, she was really upset. We went outside to get away from the noise, but it was raining so we just huddled in the doorway of the restaurant. She decided she wanted to go back to the hotel, and I was not at all hesitant to take her. We went back to the table to get our things and let Andy and the big girls know we were leaving. They wanted to stay, which was fine, and we decided they’d bring us food back at the hotel.

Madeline’s mood picked up almost immediately after we left the restaurant. She held my hand almost the entire two block walk, which did not stink. That doesn’t happen much these days! When we got back we snacked on carrots while watching Luca on Disney+ on my iPad. She ended up eating an entire bag of carrots!

The others returned about the time the movie ended, and the food was really good. She had a 7 am call time the next morning, so we headed to bed on the early side. All in all, it wasn’t too bad of a day.