Day 2:
I forgot to mention we picked up groceries after dinner on our first night. Lots of choices for stores on the island - Whole Food, Publix, Kroger, and Harris Teeter at least. Even with lots of breakfast items in hand, neither me or DH felt like cooking breakfast, so we headed over to the “Tide me Over” quick service window for some Mickey Waffles and Beignets. The menu selection is really nice (I promise to get a photo).
To call this window a quick service restaurant is under playing the quality of the food that comes out of it. There are no warming pans with powdered eggs. Everything is coming out cooked fresh, and honestly, the eggs are the best I have had on Disney property. While not quite table service level, but I rate “'Tide me Over” as among the best Disney quick service.
Important Warning! The beignets are not Mickey beignets. And not the best thing on the menu. However there were Mickey Waffles.
After breakfast my daughter and I walked down to the pier - we both like fishing for crabs, had built that into our plan, so we were checking out the situation.
By the time we finished chatting with a super nice fellow guest, the recreation/rentals window was open. We were interested in signing up for some of activities and wanted to see about the rental options. They rent out or sell: lots of different bikes (including helmets) fishing rods, bait (shrimp), and have crab nets. You can also sign up for crafts activities and activities with the naturalist:
We chose to make Mickey wreaths on Thursday, and to take the resort nature walk with a naturalist on Tuesday. I would have liked to have booked the walk where they talk about the history of the resort, but that interfered with our pre-booked boat tour on Wednesday.
We headed back to the room - I had a couple of hours of work to catch up on - but we admired the not-so-wildlife on the way
My daughter misses her cats, so appreciated seeing this lady. She was busy hunting the many birds on property - I was busy shooing away a lovely bluebird. We both found it funny that it was a cat. The resort used to have a Golden Retriever as a kind of mascot until the current golden and its handler got Chapeked. They have literally removed all references to this golden, except for a piece of artwork in the rooms (which I am sure will be removed when they do a refurb) and the fact that these are throughout the walkways:
Later in the day we headed to the pool. The pool is nice enough. It has the same kind of rustic “work camp” theming as the one at Port Orleans, but does not come close to matching that pool’s amazing theming. While the resort is most defiantly booked full this week (spring breaks and the PGA tournament in town), the pool itself never felt crowded. That said, there is a shortage of chairs. They need about 15 more chairs and 5 more umbrellas out there to make sure everyone has a place.
Hanging out at the pool was much more relaxing, and much less - I guess - loud? than it seemed the night before. They intersperse the Disney music in the pool area with other music - everything from country to hip hop. And a lot of the Disney music is more obscure - like High School Musical 2, where you barely notice it is Disney. Once you go upstairs onto the patio with the QS and the shop, the music is louder and much more - in your face Disney. But you can’t hear that anywhere else, and I like it.
We played Pluto bingo, and later my daughter took part in the waterslide race. We thought it was lame that a few Dad’s had the best time. We thought they should have awarded an adult "winner’ and a kid “winner”. We discovered they not only have Dole Whips, but had lime floats on the menu - Lime soft serve with sprite
My daughter loved it, but I thought it was a bit fakey tasting. Sunshine Terrace remains my favorite Disney soft serve location - hands down. I was thrilled to discover they had mini corn dogs. They were good - crispy and hot.
Before leaving leaving the pool, we went by the recreation window to buy a crab net and to get some bait. We planned to get up early the next morning to try to catch crabs while it was still high tide - we had some crab lines, but wanted a net too. When I got to the window, they told me they didn’t have any nets put together, but if I gave them my room number, they would drop one off to us. They also gave us a couple of baggies of frozen shrimp to use as bait as no charge.
We went to dinner at the Crazy Crab - Jarvis Creek (there are two) and had reservations to sit outside. It was a perfect night with a nice breeze and we were on the railings overlooking the water. The place was packed and so service was a little backed up - though our server was attentive.
Side story: My daughter went to play on a playground that was on a spit of land between the restaurant deck and the water. Mostly there was fencing up between that spit and the water, but there were a few places with no barrier. There were lots of people standing on the waters edge, having a drink as they waited for their table. My husband asked if there were alligators around here. I KNOW there are alligators in this area because I had a conversation with a CM about it. On arrival night, after walking the resort, I went back to the front desk to thank them for our room assignment and tell them they were right. We started discussing how we should be able to see all kinds of animals from the porch - including dolphins. I asked if there were alligators and one CM said, "oh yeah. I have one who lives in my back yard. He’s at least 8 feet and we call him Mr. Big. 
She had some funny stories to tell about living with an 8 foot alligator in your back yard. But moral of the story is: Don’t stand right by the water when you are waiting for your table to get ready.
We came to Crazy Crab because they are known for their seafood boils. But the menu has other options:
While waiting for our food, the waiter brought us some hush puppies that can only be described as magical. These hush puppies will be legendary and fit in that “remember when we had those hush puppies at Crazy Crab? They were mind blowing.” category. There was a cover band playing a mix of ska, reggae (my DH favorite) and some alt pop. For dinner we got shrimp, crab legs and I also got the poke tuna nachos. It was all fantastic and very well done.
Dinner was one of those nights where your whole family is happy and starting to relax into vacation. My DH said, “yeah, I would come back here again.” To which I said, “if that’s the case, we are going to need some more points”. And wasn’t that my plan all along?
When we got back from dinner this was waiting for us:
I cannot say enough good things about the Cast Members here. They are all really amazing and friendly. I like that the resort is small enough that you can get to know people, and see them again from one day to the next. I know some people build that at WDW, but that has never happened to me until this trip.
We all agreed that this resort is perfect for an April vacation where the beach is less important 9because you can’t swim in the ocean) and the pool is the center piece. The pool is lively and fun, and in full swing. For us, we would rather go to Corolla in the Outer Banks for our beach vacation in the summer, but this location is perfect for an April-May, September-October trip. If you don’t like the beach - it is fantastic anytime.
seafood 
We don’t have it in Illinois.
