Day 8, July 9: Do-rags, Capture the Flag, and Zebra Domes
Our last day at the resort to relax. For some reason, we decided we wanted McDonald’s for breakfast, so Chris, being the dutiful husband (an excellent friend, I might add) left on a mission to find Steak Bagels and Sausage Biscuits. The kids were happily lounging around playing, and I, being the news junkie, was desperately searching for Fox News—I KNOW we had it before, what happened to it? So I flip through the channels and realize we’re missing a big chunk of them. Tracy calls the front desk, and they tell her they are sending up an engineer. Why we need an engineer, I wasn’t sure. So, they guy shows up, and tells us that the lightening DID in fact hit the building and wiped out a few TVs, telephone, and the satellite service. So, he promised he’d fix it. I have to make do with the USA Today.
Well, Chris finally returns with our breakfast, after making a detour stop at Goodings to replace some beer, and we chow down. Except for the kids. Now, I know that kids are odd in their eating habits, and it’s been a long time since I was 8, so maybe I’m out of touch. But these kids eat the strangest things, and go on the strangest eating patterns. Logan, for example, for the first 4 or 5 days of our trip ate pretty much nothing but hot dogs. Just hot dogs, no buns. (And I couldn’t persuade him to watch the 4th of July hot dog eating contest on ESPN either…maybe he thought he wouldn’t be able to stomach them after that.) And then, for breakfast one morning, he proceeds to eat about 15 pieces of toast!! It was almost like his little body was craving carbs or something. Bizarre. And then there’s Madison, who I watched eat a breakfast of hard boiled eggs and black olives. I know little tummies can be made of steel, but I don’t think my stomach could have ever withstood that sort of torture.
Anyway, after breakfast, we saw that there was a planned activity for the kids at the Water Playground. We called and discovered it was Capture the Flag. Can the grown-ups play too? Why of course. I have always loved this game, and I’m incredibly competitive by nature, as are Chris and Tracy. We made our way to the Playground and found Pirate Peter, one of the kid’s activity coordinators there with bandanas and plastic bowling pins, or, our ‘flag’. The 3 of us were the only 3 adults (beside Peter), but we are smart enough to know that as adults playing with little kids, you don’t get to play like adults. You have to play at their level. So, somehow all of us, kids included, end up on the red team. Peter and about 7 other kids are on the blue team. We each got red bandanas to wear, and Chris made Madison a Do-Rag with hers… she looked absolutely precious. So, we get the rules down, figure out the boundaries, and we’re off. Did you know that at 30 you don’t move as quickly as you did when you were 10? I apparently had forgotten that. I played one game and then bailed. Tracy bailed too, but only after fussing at one of the “Little League” dads on the sidelines for telling his kid where our flag was hidden. As I started watching the other play, I started wondering if it was such a good idea to run barefoot over wet concrete, chasing each other. Now, granted the concrete was “textured”, but all this meant to me was that if someone busted, it would do twice the damage. Thankfully, the game ended with only one casualty—Chris’s sandal. He’d been bragging all week that his sandals were from Wal-Mart and that they were just as good as my 50 dollar Tevas… guess I was right. But who’s bragging…
Now, we did end up taking the kids back to Downtown Disney, and Madison scored her princess dress, with matching shoes, no less. She picked Sleeping Beauty. This went a good deal over her maximum spending amount, but who can resist? You’re only 5 once. Well, Logan had his heart set on this Mac Daddy Lego Castle Set, which ALSO went over his maximum spending limit… But, again, you’re only 8 once. He worked on that non-stop this afternoon until he was finished. The hard part was figuring out how we would get that precious cargo in the van for the trip home!
We had a 6:20 Priority Seating for Boma and we were all very excited about it. I had told the kids about the Savanna, and that we could see animals when we were finished eating. Madison made her debut as Princess Aurora, shoes included. We met my friend Brandy at the Animal Kindgom Lodge for dinner. Brandy was my big sister in my sorority at the Univeristy of Alabama, and has lived in Orlando a few years now. She works at a resort in Puerto Rico, but her ‘mainland’ office is at the Swan. We spent some time catching up, and enjoying a wonderful bottle of South African merlot/cabernet blend. I enjoyed Boma, although I found some of the food a little TOO exotic but I tried it all. Everyone is right, the Zebra Domes are to die for. I also loved the pineapple cheesecake and the coconut tiramisu. I think I ate more dessert than dinner!! After dinner, we ventured out onto the Savanna Observation deck, and saw a giraffe, a wildebeast, and Eland (we had to ask what that one was) and a little heard of playful Zebras. At one point, the zebras began to chase each other and Logan decided they were playing “Capture the Zebra” instead of Capture the Flag. We left the Animal Kingdom Lodge fat and happy, and went back to Horizons for a very very good night’s sleep, as we would be spending our last day at the parks at Epcot tomorrow.
Day 9, July 10:
We were up and at the gates of Epcot by 8:40 or so, and we stalled at the ropes at Spaceship Earth. The plan was for me to weave my way through the crowds, get everyone fastpasses for Mission:Space, and meet them at Test Track for our first ride. I was a little concerned we’d have to deal with Post Traumatic Tower of Terror Disorder again this morning, but Madison seemed ok, and the line was so short, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for her to get worried. We had a great ride, and the crash effect was working nicely. The only thing not functioning was the thermal scan at the end. From there, we spent some time looking around the showroom, and then made our way to Mission:Space. I rode this last July, when it was still being tweaked, and I was green for 3 hours. So, I told the rest I’d meet them at the end of the ride, and told them there was only 4 to a pod anyway. I hung out in the “waiting room” for about 10-15 minutes until they made an appearance, all looking fairly unscathed, and none green. Chris and Tracy both said it was something they’d rather not do again. We had skipped Universe of Energy last time, (and I can’t remember the last time I went on it) so we hopped aboard to learn all about energy. Tracy commented that the dinosaur segment seemed a little out of place, and I agree with her. Fossil fuel is barely touched on, and then you spend half the moving part of the ride looking at dinosaurs. I had a nice little catnap, and from here, we headed to the Living Seas to find Nemo.
Nemo was right out front, although he was far less interesting than the strange looking Coral Reef character they had next to him. He would “talk” and answer you with whistles in a sort of sing-songy voice. Cool, but very creepy. He blew bubbles too, though, and that was neat. We spent some time by the manatees, and they were more active than I had ever seen them! It was great. We spent a little time in the new Nemo exhibit, which I think has been very nicely done. We “made it to the surface” via the hydrolaters, and headed for the Land. Now, it was right around lunchtime, and I just knew that my all-time favorite boat ride would be around a 45 minute wait, but luckily there was no wait at ALL! I love this ride so much, and I’ve been on the Behind the Seeds tour too many times to count. But what I love most of all is the music going through the barns at the end. I don’t know why, it just always soothes me after running around the park all day. After the ride, we ate at the Food court place in the land, and I had a very good BBQ chicken sandwich and a good, cold beer. Ahhhh… ain’t vacation great? So, we head to the escalators, and I’m a little over halfway done with my beer, and WHAMMO, Madison comes out of nowhere and I get a pretty good dousing. No worries, no need to cry over spit beer.
Now, regardless of what anyone says, I actually LIKE Journey into Your Imagination, although I liked the old versions better. At least they brought the song back. In my group, however, I am the lone Imagination fan. Even Logan thought is was cheesy. They started taunting me, saying, “Miss Melissa (what they call me) likes the cheesy rides!!”… It was sad, but I had to agree with them. We skipped Honey I Shrunk the Audience, simply because I didn’t think Madison’s psyche could handle mice, and a big huge Lion jumping out at her.
We backtracked, and rode Spaceship Earth and then headed out to the World Showcase, our purpose being to hit all the countries we didn’t hit before, so the kids could finish their masks and passports. We walked straight through Canada to the UK, and Tracy took the kids to the KidCot stop while Chris and I stuck our heads in the Pub for a to go Pint. We lingered there for only a little while, and then headed to France. Last time we were here together, Chris boycotted France, but this time, I wanted a Kir Royal, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer, and neither were the kids. I didn’t make him see the movie, though. In Morocco, the kids had a little mini-breakdown so we didn’t stay too long. I wanted to catch the 4:30 show of The American Adventure, which is one of my all-time favorites, and something we skipped last time. We are all very patriotic, and I think the kids even enjoyed it. We stopped in Italy to see the Statue, and I got some film footage of them with her. I always enjoy the woman statue more than the man; to me she seems more playful. We headed to Germany for our 6pm Priority Seating at the Biergarten. I had never eaten here before, but I loved it!! We sat with a very nice family of 2 older sisters and a lone husband of one of them. We couldn’t get the kids to eat very much, but they didn’t seem to mind. By now, the kids were getting tired, and we still had to pack up a week’s worth of stuff to leave the next morning. We slowly walked the rest of the way out of the park and made it home in time for an evening swim, which was very refreshing!!
Day 10, July 12: Miracles Happen
So, we had to be out of the condo by 10am. We (or at least the adults) were up by 8am, frantically trying to get everything together. We couldn’t seem to pry the kids out of bed. At least until Mom came and gave the final decree. Chris went to check out, but he was gone for a really long time. We couldn’t figure out what happened to him. He came back up looking just a little bit perturbed, saying he had just gone through this ordeal with the front desk people because they tried to charge him NOT as a time share person, but as a regular person. The difference was only about 2 thousand BUCKS… thankfully it was sorted out quickly. We finally packed and hit the road, with Chris driving. We stopped for gas, rearranged places and drove on. The kids and Tracy took a realllly long nap, and we didn’t stop until we got to Macon for lunch, about 2:30pm. We stopped at the Mall, so the kids could blow off some energy in the arcade and on the Carousel.
After lunch, I took over driving, while Tracy kept me company in front. Chris was in the back taking a nap, Madison was watching Cheetah Girls (what else?) on the portable DVS player and Logan was playing his gameboy. Peaceful. Then it happened. Tracy and I are talking, and I’m in the left lane keeping up with traffic when this black Toyota Camry in the middle lane on 475 decided to change lanes to the left, but doesn’t signal, and just whips her car over. Seeing she’s made a bad decision, she jerks back to her lane, then swerves and finally goes into a complete spin. I’m terrified. See, I drive a little red 1999 Volkswagen Bug… I am not used to the nuances of a minivan carrying cargo on its roof and carrying peoples loved ones inside. I gripped the wheel and punched the gas, thinking Nascar, and driving through smoke, like on Days of Thunder. I had nothing else I could have done. If I had stopped, there would have been a pile up. I almost made it, but she spun right into us, on the right back side, bounced us off the median, and sent us into a skid. All I could hear was my dad telling em to turn into the skid, so I did, and somehow managed to keep us out of a spin, and get us safely to the shoulder of the road. I looked to see if the car had stopped, saw she had, along with a witness, and looked back to see if everyone was ok. Logan’s little face just crumpled into tears, Madison was clearly in shock. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, at least not that we could see. About this time, I hear Chris yell, “She’s leaving!” I managed to get the first 4 digits of her tag number, and we were on the phone with 911. The witness pulled over and we waited for the police. We waited 25 minutes for someone to show up, and when Deputy Underwood finally did, it seems we would have been better off waiting even longer. The car was clearly not drivable, but yet the first thing she said to me was, “You know to change a tire?” And she was serious. The witness said she stopped to see if the woman was ok, but the woman got out of her car, and picked up OUR hubcap, and then sped off. The nerve. Well, to make a long, gut wrenching story short, my dad (God bless him) drove down and picked us up, and Tracy rented a SUV, and we headed home. The kids were physically ok, although I imagine they were mentally shaken. I know I was. The adults all had whiplash. A week later, my neck still hurts. The irony of who this woman hit is intriguing, though. Both Chris and I are prosecutors, and deal with hit and run defendants all the time. We will find her. And I’d hate to be her when we do. So, if anyone sees a Black Toyota Camry with a Georgia tag starting with 3746, let me know… I plan on making sure she is brought to justice.
Final Thoughts
Although it ended on a sour note, I couldn’t help but be grateful just to be taking breaths of air. A brush like that really makes you realize just how mortal you are, and how we should enjoy and cherish each and every minute. Kiss your kids, and keep your family close
Our last day at the resort to relax. For some reason, we decided we wanted McDonald’s for breakfast, so Chris, being the dutiful husband (an excellent friend, I might add) left on a mission to find Steak Bagels and Sausage Biscuits. The kids were happily lounging around playing, and I, being the news junkie, was desperately searching for Fox News—I KNOW we had it before, what happened to it? So I flip through the channels and realize we’re missing a big chunk of them. Tracy calls the front desk, and they tell her they are sending up an engineer. Why we need an engineer, I wasn’t sure. So, they guy shows up, and tells us that the lightening DID in fact hit the building and wiped out a few TVs, telephone, and the satellite service. So, he promised he’d fix it. I have to make do with the USA Today.
Well, Chris finally returns with our breakfast, after making a detour stop at Goodings to replace some beer, and we chow down. Except for the kids. Now, I know that kids are odd in their eating habits, and it’s been a long time since I was 8, so maybe I’m out of touch. But these kids eat the strangest things, and go on the strangest eating patterns. Logan, for example, for the first 4 or 5 days of our trip ate pretty much nothing but hot dogs. Just hot dogs, no buns. (And I couldn’t persuade him to watch the 4th of July hot dog eating contest on ESPN either…maybe he thought he wouldn’t be able to stomach them after that.) And then, for breakfast one morning, he proceeds to eat about 15 pieces of toast!! It was almost like his little body was craving carbs or something. Bizarre. And then there’s Madison, who I watched eat a breakfast of hard boiled eggs and black olives. I know little tummies can be made of steel, but I don’t think my stomach could have ever withstood that sort of torture.
Anyway, after breakfast, we saw that there was a planned activity for the kids at the Water Playground. We called and discovered it was Capture the Flag. Can the grown-ups play too? Why of course. I have always loved this game, and I’m incredibly competitive by nature, as are Chris and Tracy. We made our way to the Playground and found Pirate Peter, one of the kid’s activity coordinators there with bandanas and plastic bowling pins, or, our ‘flag’. The 3 of us were the only 3 adults (beside Peter), but we are smart enough to know that as adults playing with little kids, you don’t get to play like adults. You have to play at their level. So, somehow all of us, kids included, end up on the red team. Peter and about 7 other kids are on the blue team. We each got red bandanas to wear, and Chris made Madison a Do-Rag with hers… she looked absolutely precious. So, we get the rules down, figure out the boundaries, and we’re off. Did you know that at 30 you don’t move as quickly as you did when you were 10? I apparently had forgotten that. I played one game and then bailed. Tracy bailed too, but only after fussing at one of the “Little League” dads on the sidelines for telling his kid where our flag was hidden. As I started watching the other play, I started wondering if it was such a good idea to run barefoot over wet concrete, chasing each other. Now, granted the concrete was “textured”, but all this meant to me was that if someone busted, it would do twice the damage. Thankfully, the game ended with only one casualty—Chris’s sandal. He’d been bragging all week that his sandals were from Wal-Mart and that they were just as good as my 50 dollar Tevas… guess I was right. But who’s bragging…
Now, we did end up taking the kids back to Downtown Disney, and Madison scored her princess dress, with matching shoes, no less. She picked Sleeping Beauty. This went a good deal over her maximum spending amount, but who can resist? You’re only 5 once. Well, Logan had his heart set on this Mac Daddy Lego Castle Set, which ALSO went over his maximum spending limit… But, again, you’re only 8 once. He worked on that non-stop this afternoon until he was finished. The hard part was figuring out how we would get that precious cargo in the van for the trip home!
We had a 6:20 Priority Seating for Boma and we were all very excited about it. I had told the kids about the Savanna, and that we could see animals when we were finished eating. Madison made her debut as Princess Aurora, shoes included. We met my friend Brandy at the Animal Kindgom Lodge for dinner. Brandy was my big sister in my sorority at the Univeristy of Alabama, and has lived in Orlando a few years now. She works at a resort in Puerto Rico, but her ‘mainland’ office is at the Swan. We spent some time catching up, and enjoying a wonderful bottle of South African merlot/cabernet blend. I enjoyed Boma, although I found some of the food a little TOO exotic but I tried it all. Everyone is right, the Zebra Domes are to die for. I also loved the pineapple cheesecake and the coconut tiramisu. I think I ate more dessert than dinner!! After dinner, we ventured out onto the Savanna Observation deck, and saw a giraffe, a wildebeast, and Eland (we had to ask what that one was) and a little heard of playful Zebras. At one point, the zebras began to chase each other and Logan decided they were playing “Capture the Zebra” instead of Capture the Flag. We left the Animal Kingdom Lodge fat and happy, and went back to Horizons for a very very good night’s sleep, as we would be spending our last day at the parks at Epcot tomorrow.
Day 9, July 10:
We were up and at the gates of Epcot by 8:40 or so, and we stalled at the ropes at Spaceship Earth. The plan was for me to weave my way through the crowds, get everyone fastpasses for Mission:Space, and meet them at Test Track for our first ride. I was a little concerned we’d have to deal with Post Traumatic Tower of Terror Disorder again this morning, but Madison seemed ok, and the line was so short, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for her to get worried. We had a great ride, and the crash effect was working nicely. The only thing not functioning was the thermal scan at the end. From there, we spent some time looking around the showroom, and then made our way to Mission:Space. I rode this last July, when it was still being tweaked, and I was green for 3 hours. So, I told the rest I’d meet them at the end of the ride, and told them there was only 4 to a pod anyway. I hung out in the “waiting room” for about 10-15 minutes until they made an appearance, all looking fairly unscathed, and none green. Chris and Tracy both said it was something they’d rather not do again. We had skipped Universe of Energy last time, (and I can’t remember the last time I went on it) so we hopped aboard to learn all about energy. Tracy commented that the dinosaur segment seemed a little out of place, and I agree with her. Fossil fuel is barely touched on, and then you spend half the moving part of the ride looking at dinosaurs. I had a nice little catnap, and from here, we headed to the Living Seas to find Nemo.
Nemo was right out front, although he was far less interesting than the strange looking Coral Reef character they had next to him. He would “talk” and answer you with whistles in a sort of sing-songy voice. Cool, but very creepy. He blew bubbles too, though, and that was neat. We spent some time by the manatees, and they were more active than I had ever seen them! It was great. We spent a little time in the new Nemo exhibit, which I think has been very nicely done. We “made it to the surface” via the hydrolaters, and headed for the Land. Now, it was right around lunchtime, and I just knew that my all-time favorite boat ride would be around a 45 minute wait, but luckily there was no wait at ALL! I love this ride so much, and I’ve been on the Behind the Seeds tour too many times to count. But what I love most of all is the music going through the barns at the end. I don’t know why, it just always soothes me after running around the park all day. After the ride, we ate at the Food court place in the land, and I had a very good BBQ chicken sandwich and a good, cold beer. Ahhhh… ain’t vacation great? So, we head to the escalators, and I’m a little over halfway done with my beer, and WHAMMO, Madison comes out of nowhere and I get a pretty good dousing. No worries, no need to cry over spit beer.
Now, regardless of what anyone says, I actually LIKE Journey into Your Imagination, although I liked the old versions better. At least they brought the song back. In my group, however, I am the lone Imagination fan. Even Logan thought is was cheesy. They started taunting me, saying, “Miss Melissa (what they call me) likes the cheesy rides!!”… It was sad, but I had to agree with them. We skipped Honey I Shrunk the Audience, simply because I didn’t think Madison’s psyche could handle mice, and a big huge Lion jumping out at her.
We backtracked, and rode Spaceship Earth and then headed out to the World Showcase, our purpose being to hit all the countries we didn’t hit before, so the kids could finish their masks and passports. We walked straight through Canada to the UK, and Tracy took the kids to the KidCot stop while Chris and I stuck our heads in the Pub for a to go Pint. We lingered there for only a little while, and then headed to France. Last time we were here together, Chris boycotted France, but this time, I wanted a Kir Royal, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer, and neither were the kids. I didn’t make him see the movie, though. In Morocco, the kids had a little mini-breakdown so we didn’t stay too long. I wanted to catch the 4:30 show of The American Adventure, which is one of my all-time favorites, and something we skipped last time. We are all very patriotic, and I think the kids even enjoyed it. We stopped in Italy to see the Statue, and I got some film footage of them with her. I always enjoy the woman statue more than the man; to me she seems more playful. We headed to Germany for our 6pm Priority Seating at the Biergarten. I had never eaten here before, but I loved it!! We sat with a very nice family of 2 older sisters and a lone husband of one of them. We couldn’t get the kids to eat very much, but they didn’t seem to mind. By now, the kids were getting tired, and we still had to pack up a week’s worth of stuff to leave the next morning. We slowly walked the rest of the way out of the park and made it home in time for an evening swim, which was very refreshing!!
Day 10, July 12: Miracles Happen
So, we had to be out of the condo by 10am. We (or at least the adults) were up by 8am, frantically trying to get everything together. We couldn’t seem to pry the kids out of bed. At least until Mom came and gave the final decree. Chris went to check out, but he was gone for a really long time. We couldn’t figure out what happened to him. He came back up looking just a little bit perturbed, saying he had just gone through this ordeal with the front desk people because they tried to charge him NOT as a time share person, but as a regular person. The difference was only about 2 thousand BUCKS… thankfully it was sorted out quickly. We finally packed and hit the road, with Chris driving. We stopped for gas, rearranged places and drove on. The kids and Tracy took a realllly long nap, and we didn’t stop until we got to Macon for lunch, about 2:30pm. We stopped at the Mall, so the kids could blow off some energy in the arcade and on the Carousel.
After lunch, I took over driving, while Tracy kept me company in front. Chris was in the back taking a nap, Madison was watching Cheetah Girls (what else?) on the portable DVS player and Logan was playing his gameboy. Peaceful. Then it happened. Tracy and I are talking, and I’m in the left lane keeping up with traffic when this black Toyota Camry in the middle lane on 475 decided to change lanes to the left, but doesn’t signal, and just whips her car over. Seeing she’s made a bad decision, she jerks back to her lane, then swerves and finally goes into a complete spin. I’m terrified. See, I drive a little red 1999 Volkswagen Bug… I am not used to the nuances of a minivan carrying cargo on its roof and carrying peoples loved ones inside. I gripped the wheel and punched the gas, thinking Nascar, and driving through smoke, like on Days of Thunder. I had nothing else I could have done. If I had stopped, there would have been a pile up. I almost made it, but she spun right into us, on the right back side, bounced us off the median, and sent us into a skid. All I could hear was my dad telling em to turn into the skid, so I did, and somehow managed to keep us out of a spin, and get us safely to the shoulder of the road. I looked to see if the car had stopped, saw she had, along with a witness, and looked back to see if everyone was ok. Logan’s little face just crumpled into tears, Madison was clearly in shock. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, at least not that we could see. About this time, I hear Chris yell, “She’s leaving!” I managed to get the first 4 digits of her tag number, and we were on the phone with 911. The witness pulled over and we waited for the police. We waited 25 minutes for someone to show up, and when Deputy Underwood finally did, it seems we would have been better off waiting even longer. The car was clearly not drivable, but yet the first thing she said to me was, “You know to change a tire?” And she was serious. The witness said she stopped to see if the woman was ok, but the woman got out of her car, and picked up OUR hubcap, and then sped off. The nerve. Well, to make a long, gut wrenching story short, my dad (God bless him) drove down and picked us up, and Tracy rented a SUV, and we headed home. The kids were physically ok, although I imagine they were mentally shaken. I know I was. The adults all had whiplash. A week later, my neck still hurts. The irony of who this woman hit is intriguing, though. Both Chris and I are prosecutors, and deal with hit and run defendants all the time. We will find her. And I’d hate to be her when we do. So, if anyone sees a Black Toyota Camry with a Georgia tag starting with 3746, let me know… I plan on making sure she is brought to justice.
Final Thoughts
Although it ended on a sour note, I couldn’t help but be grateful just to be taking breaths of air. A brush like that really makes you realize just how mortal you are, and how we should enjoy and cherish each and every minute. Kiss your kids, and keep your family close
