Archive for September 20th, 2009
Let’s knock this out, shall we? I’m a month behind on blog posts and I’d really like to get Halloween pictures up sometime before Christmas so I’m combining the last few days of our trip.
Day 8:
Would it be sacrilege to be grateful that our time at Disney was nearly done? A great time was had by all but it was definitely time to head home and get back to the real world. Ava really needed to get back on her schedule as she prefers things very structured and all of this flex time was doing a number on her. Not to mention that we all missed the dogs and (gasp) maybe even the cats.
We started the day out early at the pool. Come on,y’all knew there would have to be pool pictures at some point, right? It’s not like Ava didn’t beg to get in the pool nearly every time we walked by it so we’d promised her some time in the water before we hit the road.
She took to it like a duck to water. Err, like ducks (plural) to water, I guess. These guys were already at the pool when we got there.
No matter. We were headed for the kiddie pool anyway…
where we spent an inordinately long amount playing fetch and/or keep away with a discarded dive ring someone had left by the pool. I honestly had no idea we could keep the toddler occupied for that long by simply tossing the dive ring and having her return it to us. She thought it was great fun to go after it over and over and over and over and over again.
Until. UNTIL. We FINALLY got to see the geyser near the pool area erupt. It’s random so you never know when it’s going to happen so Ava was thrilled to be right there for the big moment.
J got in a few laps (and a quick swimming lesson) in the big pool once the ducks finished their morning swim.
And then we bade a fond farewell to the Lincoln Log Wilderness Lodge.
After lugging all 900 pieces of baggage to the car (that would be J, not me) and a few aborted topiary photo ops later we headed out to Downtown Disney so we could (potentially) buy more Disney crap memorabilia and use up our remaining food and snack dining plan credits before hitting the road.
J tried some hats on Ava right before we headed for lunch.
I was somewhat concerned with the intensity in which she was channeling Rastafarian Mickey – note the extreme attention she’s paying to the beads on the faux braids. I think she could have sat there for hours sliding the beads up and down the braids. Hmm, Disney ‘magic’ anyone?
She was not terribly thrilled about the hats nor about the Lego store that I practically had to dynamite J out of. (What is UP with grown men and legos, anyway?) She let us know this by having the worst potty accident EVER while we were having lunch. I mean, it was bad – like dripping down the highchair and puddles on the floor bad. This was surprising because we’d had so few accidents lately so we’d apparently gotten lackadaisical on the follow up with her. Fortunately no one seemed to notice and we used all the napkins we could find + all the Clorox wipes in my purse to do the bulk of the clean up on her, the chair, and the floor. J rushed her to the car for a change of clothes (stupid, stupid, complacent parents – didn’t throw a change of clothes in the stroller like we ALWAYS do) while I tried to find someplace where we could use up our snack credits. We ultimately ended up trading them for about a gazillion bottles of water and then headed out for (near) Savannah where we were overnighting again.
After a wrong turn or six plus no fewer than three stops on the interstate to buy tacky souvenirs, fruit, and pecans, we made it to the Holiday Inn in Pooler, GA only to discover that we were staying in a hotel overrun by college football players. To be fair, they were extremely polite and the coaches definitely ruled with an iron fist. They were quiet as church mice and in bed by 9 PM. The hotel itself was pretty decent and, in true Southern fashion, I knew the life stories of both desk clerks and the housekeeper within 10 minutes of arrival. They’d also referred us to one of the best Italian restaurants EVER where we got take out – massive amounts of homemade lasagna and spaghetti. Enough to eat for days…except it was so good that we ate it all right then and there.
The only downside was the crib they provided for Ava. It was metal and looked for all the world like the cribs I’ve seen in a million and one pictures of Chinese orphanages. I promptly sent it back (that’s how I got the life story of the housekeeper, who, by the way, was in her 70′s which made me feel like total crap for asking her to move it after they’d just brought it in to us.) J ended up helping her with it and bringing up our own pack and play which was in the car.
To wrap up the day: After the mountains of pasta that we consumed we all slept like the dead. Even Ava, which was soooo nice.
Day 9:
We drove to my Mom’s house, weeklong doggie camp extraordinaire, where I was very glad to see my pups and hand Ava off to other people to entertain her for a little while. My gosh, we were all in need of a quick breather after all the family time we’d just spent together. Honestly, I think she was a little sick of us by then.
We also passed out the souvenirs we’d bought and ate pineapple oranges until we were sick.
My niece loved her pirate ears, I think. Or at least she faked it long enough to get a picture.
Day 10:
More driving and then home at last. The cats were all alive thanks to our neighbors who kindly fed them – although they declined to take one of them home despite my offer of cat in payment. They did take the lovely German cookies we left for them, however. Smart people. I would have made the same choice.
Oh, and I forgot to mention. Lazarus, the miracle fish, was ummmm, not so much a miracle after all. He departed this watery life just prior to our departure for all things mouse.
So that’s it, y’all. We loved it and we’re already tentatively planning our next trip back. I can assure you of a couple of things, though. It will not be in the summer. Or even in the fall. I’m thinking early December 2010. And we will most definitely not drive again. Air travel next time, for sure. And I honestly do not know how people can live in that part of Florida and function outside in the summer – it was just way too humid for me. We have humidity here, of course, but we can always count on a break in the weather often enough to give us a breather. There – not so much it seems which is why December or January sounds much more appealing.