Shrek The Halls & then some

(Waterfront at the National Harbor)

It began as a misty, grey morning with the promise of mild temperatures and clearing skies later in the day. We had agreed to meet for breakfast at 0800. I had set my alarm for 7:00 am and was awakened by the chiming sound of my phone alarm. Unbeknownst to me, my brother-in-law was receiving a wake up call from Shrek, himself, courtesy of the front desk. Apparently, you can choose your wake up voice from several of the Shrek movie characters. This morning the Petronellas were awakened by Shrek yelling at them to get up and then passing gas loudly over the phone. (Tomorrow, Darren has chosen Donkey to do the honors)
We arrived in the lobby and headed to the coffee shop. The lobby was practically empty and we enjoyed a little quiet time before the hoards of children would descend. This is apparently a huge family destination (surprise!) After breakfast we decided we would take a nice walk before heading over to “Ice”.

(Artsy shot of Don in front of the Hollywood mural)

When you enter, you first view a film that details how “Ice” is made. A large contingent of Chinese ice carvers are brought over to create the sculptures. You are then given an extremely unflattering blue parka and permitted to enter the exhibit. The temperature inside is about 9 degrees and it wasn’t long before I thought my fingers might fall off while I was taking pictures.

There are several slides made out of Ice that you can ride down. This is me flying down the slide. The highlight was that when I hit the end of the slide the girl who was working there leaned over to me and said, “I love your boots!” I guess my pants rode up and the turquoise colored tops were visible. It’s not every day that you get to go full throttle down an Ice slide.
The carvings were pretty amazing and they follow the story of the DreamWorks Christmas special, Shrek The Halls. At the end, there is a Nativity scene that details the real story of Christmas and then you drop into the obligatory gift shop. Once our appendages again had circulation flowing, we turned in our parkas and headed off to lunch.

(Don hoping for enlightenment)
We settled on Grace’s Mandarin for our lunch destination and we were not disappointed.

We had some awesome sushi and the presentation was amazing however I cannot get the image to rotate and save so you’ll just have to take my word on how amazing  and delicious lunch was. We then spent the rest of the afternoon on a lengthy shopping excursion. There were 2 little girls leaving The Gaylord with tiaras on and I commented, “Why don’t I have a tiara? They are amazing.” Lo and behold, my darling Don went out and bought me one. When I scrounge a copy of that photo from my sister, I will post it on Facebook.

We procured 2 bottles of wine and headed back to the hotel for cocktails and to open our Christmas presents. As usual, The Petronella’s were amazingly generous and thoughtful with their gifting and when we headed out for dinner later that evening I was sporting my new bronze-colored down coat.
When we arrived at the Mexican restaurant where we held reservations the wait was 2 hours for a table. Fortunately, we were ushered in after about 15 minutes. Again, the food was delicious at Rosa Mexicano. We ordered the guacamole, which was made table side. We almost licked the bowl.

Several margaritas later, we waddled back to the streets and into the masses that had descended on The National Harbor this Saturday night.

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