Melissa Axel

Great place to relax with a frosty beverage… if you’re lucky, it will come with a cute mini Polynesian feather thing or maybe a wooden back scratcher! Also a good spot to watch the fireworks at the close of the Magic Kingdom park – the music is piped into the lounge (and Ohana restaurant) and you have a very good view and avoid the crowds at the park itself.

I have no idea if this place is still as cute and fun (or good for dining) as it was when I visited it as a kid. It seems that recently Lou Pearlman (of boy band fame) has bought up most of it and is in the process of “re-invigorating” it, aka über-commercializing it. Sorry! But maybe it will still be fun… hopefully at least the food is good. From what I remember, the old style restaurants and “saloons” there were really wonderful!

consolidating this & Banff into Alberta on my list…

consolidating this & Lake Louise into Alberta on my list…

consolidating this & Québec City into Québec on my list…

consolidating this & Montréal into Québec on my list…

consolidating this & Tahiti into French Polynesia on my list…

consolidating this & Bora Bora into French Polynesia on my list…

Sadly, I don’t think I will be starting any MFA studies at Naropa anytime soon since the commute from Denver Tech Center would just be too much. But their contemporary performance program is still on my “terminal degree” radar, since one day I really do plan to terminate my perennial studying. ;-) The PhD thing just seems like wayyyyy too much research for my artist blood…

You can get more bang for your buck at Joe’s on the waterfront in Boston by ordering several of their great appetizers (I’d venture to say that, like quite a few restaurants, the apps are better than the main dishes). Some of my faves include the fried mozzarella (a big slab of it floating in yummy marinara sauce, not those junky sticks so many places fake it with), the seared tuna with sticky rice cake (yum!), and if you like the raw bar, go for the dozen blue point oysters – very refreshing!

Obviously the view will only apply during daytime, but at night it’s a pretty stroll along the wharf as well and not a far walk from the North End, where you can grab some Italian decadence from the infamous Mike’s Pastry if you’ve (hopefully) saved space for dessert.

The room upstairs is ideal for larger group dinners or other special occasions… we had a lot of fun at my Berklee graduation dinner there when it turned out that Leslie’s bachelorette party was seated not far away. Luckily, nothing too crazy went on, but we did get a laugh out of the t-shirt they made highlighting the “Top 10 reasons to Party with Leslie Tonight.” Number 8? “She loves to Salsa with strangers!”