My weekend 2

Wow, I am exhausted…….. This weekend we had a family vacation get away, we spent the weekend at Disney in Orlando. We stayed in the Caribbean beach resort which suited our needs to a tee. We did not go to any of the parks (we have been to them all before and July is not the best time to see them) Our goal was to swim, have a character breakfast, see downtown Disney and the boardwalk. A secondary goal which failed miserably was to not spend too much money!!!
Friday I worked from home, and at 3pm we got an early start on the road ( a whole hour) and got to our room before 5. The room was functional, clean and had ice cold air! One detriment was that our room was officially the most difficult one to get to in the entire complex. Our building was set back from the parking lot next to the lake, reachable by a myriad of paths that twisted and turned all over the place, then we were upstairs and the stairs were on three corners of the building and our room was in the forth corner!
Anyway we hit Boardwalk straight away, where we had a dinner reservation at Caboddles or something. … the food was distinctly average despite the price, the highlight was the 4 cheese on flatbread my wife ordered as a starter despite my protests. One of the cheeses was Gorgonzola, so I knew it was going to be rank and sure enough the look on her face as she took the first mouthful was a picture! More entertainment was had when I persuaded my 6yo to try some calamari, she was doing ok until I told her what it was and then it was spit up time! Worth the candy bribe. Did I mention that I had my "worlds greatest Dad" T-shirt on?
After that we had a good look around watching magicians, and jugglers and boats. We put off the putt putt golf due to an hour long wait, and would continue to put it off all weekend. Instead we returned to the hotel for our first (of many) swim. We went to the small pool right next to our room, it was already getting dark, but there were several people still splashing about. We had a good time, met some people from Essex (Where I’m from back in Blighty) and had a great time, until the lightning came and we had to get out. We all slept well that night.
That night I went out in search of a grocery store "off property" so I could buy some milk and juice for a reasonable price. I got to Publix just as the closed and had to make do with Walgreens. I got my stuff and headed off to the checkout. Apparently I timed it just right because 10 seconds later I was second in a line of 15. I had a girl standing way too close behind me, so much so that when I shuffled forward so I could breathe she actually bumped into me when she closed the gap…. Why do people do that? I can’t stand that, I will actually go out of my way to piss people like that off…… like last week at the cinema, I was getting drinks when the woman got so damn close she actually ended up standing at the counter with me, tutting as the server was waiting for the froth on the coke to settle before topping them off. So when I got the drinks I skillfully turned and walked right into her as if I didn’t know she was there, said excuse me I need to get to the straws (there were closer straws, but for some reason I really wanted one from the dispencer she was blocking, As she moved to let me past the person who would have been behind her if she hadn’t wanted to stand in my space moved in to my place and ordered, I walked away chuckling to my self…. Anyway I digress! This girl is right in my space and I was thinking about how I could stitch her up somehow when an abomination walked in….. A man, and I use this in the loosest of terms, for as we all know God made man in his own image, it would be a sad lookout for Christians of the world if god looked anything like this guy. (credit : Blackadder) this man had Sandals, with socks (always a bad thing), knee length socks, way too tight black silky shorts, and a tight white t-shirt and while not fat he was certainly not someone who should have been tucking in. The topper was the strawberry blond uber perm a-la Richard Simmons / Leo Sayer. It was all I could do to stifle my laughter. It turns out that to make things worse he is a northerner, and the too close girl is his daughter! He proclaims to everyone who is interested and huge numbers of us who really couldn’t give a shit that "This is ridiculous (pointing to the line) this would never happen in the northeast…..", mumbleing under my breath "why don’t you fuck off back up there? Its not like we are going to miss you…" I bite my tongue. Trying to placate him the daughter says what do you need? "Detergent and water" he replied, "not that they are going to have it in this joke of a store", Whatever, I saw both of them out there while I was shopping, this guy is quite possibly the most nauseating human I have ever seen. "well they might" says the daughter, so off he goes pouting, the line has now grown to 20+. Just after he left they decided to open up the other till, being second in line I had first dibbs on the line but the woman ahead of me had almost done and I already had some of my stuff on the counter so I deferred to the too close girl who now I felt nothing but sympathy for, she bought her chocolate bar and left the store, a minute or two later Leo Simmons returned with detergent and water and stood there looking like a pratt trying to figure out where his daughter had gone, Realizing all of a sudden that he was going to have to line up to pay for his stuff he threw his hands up in disgust and stormed out… Hilarious. I passed them leaving in their New Jersey plated Mini van and had to laugh out loud…. But STILL I digress….
Saturday morning we got up early and headed off to the Polynesian resort for breakfast with Mickey, the kids were awestruck First there was Goofy the 3yo was dumbstruck trying to make head or tail of what this 7 foot monster intended for her. True to form Goofy had soon won her trust and then she couldn’t get enough of him. Next came the mouse himself followed by Chip and Dale. All the while we were chowing down on some excellent breakfast foods. The girls got up twice to dance around the restaurant with the characters. Well worth the money even if the girls were too distracted to eat much. Then we were onto the pool, and we swam and swam and swan. The 6 yo (I’m fed up with calling her that I’m going to use here initial from now on) , So H plucked up the courage to go down the water slide, with Daddy in tow, once she had gone down once there was no stopping her. R, the 3yo bobbed about with her wings, having a ball with Mommy and Daddy. Finally we dragged ourselves out of the pool and headed off back to the room. All of us had caught a little sun and for some reason I had come to the pool barefoot. Bare foot is fine in the morning, but at 4pm in the hot hot Florida Sun, Barefoot is definitely a no no. So hopping from shade spot to shade spot I limped back to the room seriously burning the crap out of my feet.
Then we went off to Downtown Disney and specifically to the AMC cinema, to watch "Bad News Bears", not worth going to see BTW, but a welcome rest for R who promptly fell fast asleep. Once out of the cinema we headed for the "marketplace" . Key attractions were the Lego store, I have never seen so much Lego in my life, and they have loads of stuff out for the kids to play with . There are some huge sculptures made out of millions of blocks including a sea monster that scared R silly. We stocked up on Lego to take back with us. Then more shopping in the huge Disney store, and the toy connection and a ride on the merry go round finished off the evening. We returned to our hotel for a dinner which was nothing to write home about, and then back to the little pool for another late night swim, and a "wild" animal encounter with a rabbit. And Bed!
Sunday we got up early again and went back to the main pool, H had fun doing cannonballs and learnt to do flips, swim down and roll in from the edge, we also had some fun with me throwing her away from me in the pool. We checked out of the hotel and went back to Downtown to do some more shopping and lunch at the rainforest café, Finally a meal worthy of some note. Excellent food, Awesome surroundings and a really nice dining experience. Then MORE Shopping, merry go round again! And by mid evening we were ready to head home…