Shul, Opera, Party....wonderful but not restful Shabbat

Yesterday was a busy, fun day.  Mark had agreed to read haftarah at shul Saturday morning, and we thought that would work because the opera, Tannhauser by Wagner, would start at 1 p.m.  Imagine our suprise when Mark glanced at the tickets in his pocket during shul and saw it started at noon! We got to shul at 10:30, just as the Torah service started, he read, and then as soon as the Torah was put away at about 11:30, we ran slipped the door to the opera.  We didn't really know much about it, but we enjoyed it more than Otello from a few weeks ago.  It's not going to be my favorite, but it was fascinating. One interesting thing was watching Maestro James Levine conducting from his wheelchair. 

The opera ran until nearly 5 p.m., so we strolled around Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) for awhile and then drove over to the Contemporary Resort for the DVC Member Halloween party.  This was the BEST bargain we ever got from Disney.  It cost only $15 per person.  For that we got a bag with candy in it as we entered, great decorations and theming in the big ballroom, two kinds of fun drinks and three fun desserts, face painting, games for kids, a DJ who got everybody up dancing, and photo ops with both Chip and Dale and Daisy and Donald in special Halloween themed outfits.  When you got your picture with the ducks, they gave you a professionally developed and printed copy for each person.  We stayed from 7 to 8:30, collected our picture, and then went to the Contempo Cafe for salmon dinners.  We didn't get home until about 11 p.m., but we still got that extra hour of sleep since the clocks went back for the end of Daylight Savings Time during the wee hours.

Today we are heading to Disney Springs again for the movie The Martian.  Then we will pick up a few things at Publix before settling in for TV watching the rest of the day.