The Power of Olfaction

We arrived to our hotel Sunday evening. We will sometimes do driving time for our vacations on Sunday (after church of course). We try hard to bring all the food we will need so we don’t have to stop to buy food on the Sabbath. There is probably some argument to be made at this point that we shouldn’t be checking into a hotel, or traveling, on the Sabbath, but that is a discussion for another day.

We got into our room, situated directly above Downtown Disney. We were all hungry from the drive and anxious to tear into the sandwiches we brought. As soon as I opened the door to the balcony, I knew it was a mistake. The most delicious smell EVER poured through the open door. Suddenly, all the kids were on the balcony wondering if we could eat whatever that was. I was so tempted to find that smell and indulge. It was a sweet, carmelly scent, almost like popcorn, but more of a pastry smell to it. I vowed that I was going to find it the next day and we could all partake of whatever it was.

In the morning, we were off to Disneyland. The smell wasn’t there and so I couldn’t track it. At the end of the day, no one had forgotten, so I assumed the task of tracking it down. It had already been a long day of walking, but I was willing to take one for the team, and find the smell. I was to take care of a few things downstairs, then I would purchase our evening treat. Because of where our room was located, it was a pretty good walk (maybe ¼ mile) from the lobby downstairs to our room. Even though we could “spit” on the vendors in Downtown Disney, to actually get there, we had to go down to the lobby, out and around making the trek at least ½ mile. So, I finished what I had to downstairs and started back upstairs, just as I reached our door, I realized I forgot the treat. Back I went. I reached Downtown Disney and began searching. I found the bakery I thought was responsible for that wonderful smell. I told them, I want whatever it is you are making that smells so good. The guy just laughed and pointed me to the Kettle Corn stand. Yup – kettle corn. That was it. The sugar from the kettle corn caramelized in the popper and they fanned it out to our room.

The popcorn was a whopping 6 dollars a bag (large of course) but I had to try the corn. The kettle corn angel filled my bag with fresh, warm kettle corn. Some of the pieces stuck together with caramelized sugar but it didn’t have any caramel on it. I had to taste it. Again. Again. More. More. As I took my walk back to the room, I didn’t care about my aching feet. I didn’t care that people were saying,”that is a huge bag of popcorn” or that they seemed to stare at the popcorn dust on my face. This was the best popcorn I ever had and nobody was going to ruin it for me. My kids were a little disappointed when I came back with just popcorn. I think everyone had envisioned pastries or cobbler or something. But once they tasted it, it became a popcorn frenzy. It became a contest to see who could take bigger handfuls of this golden goodie. Even my child who hates popcorn (and who shouldn’t have it because of braces) couldn’t get enough. So tonight, on our last night here, I had to get more popcorn for the trip home tomorrow. Bringing my grand total spent on popcorn to $24 – that is so pathetic – but delicious!