August 29th Day of Departure
In the morning, we called down to have a club car sent over to pick up our luggage and take us over to the Airline check-in. We realized we still had the swim vest Maddie had been using, so I sent Andy over to return it whilst I got us our boarding passes for later. We had 6 people and 6 bags to check, so when they started weighting them, naturally TEs bag was like 10 pounds over. We had to redistribute the weight and in doing so, broke the zipper on the outside of her bag. Thankfully, they had duct tape so we wrapped up her suitcase all nice and ghetto style.
I tipped the baggage girl and off we went. When we walked away, I asked Waldo if he tipped the girl. He said no. I looked at him and said, Honolulu. TE started laughing and Waldo got mad. Youve seen that Seinfeld episode, right?
Am I the only one that thinks the shower tiles are giving me the finger?
We met up with Andy over near the pool, only to find out the rental place wasnt open. So we rented a locker and threw it in there until we got back from breakfast
We caught the bus to the MK over at the Springs stop and then jumped on the Monorail over to the Poly. Ahhh
the Poly. Hello, lover!
I check us in and sent Waldo to sit and Andy and the kids to the gift shop to browse whilst TE and I waited near Kona. Our buzzer went off in 5 minutes, so I scrambled to gather the troops and we headed in to be seated.
Someone's happy to be heading home:
We ordered breakfast and I ordered a YUMMY pot of pressed coffee. That was heaven, that pot of coffee! I tried the Tonga Toast for the first time and it was DE-LISH, but VERY sweet! I could only eat half, but thats ok, as everyone wanted to try it, so nothing was wasted. We rolled ourselves out of there and decided to end our vacation at Epcot.
Let me back up for a minute to explain this picture. I was trippin' on this mans very peculiar eating habits. He cut up all his food into teeny tiny bites and then started eating. I thought it was kinda weird, so I had to document that.
And yes, my DH actually thought I was taking his picture.
I spy with my little eye pink CROCS that burned the corneas of my eyes!
With that, we hopped on the monorail and headed into Epcot. We had just enough time to look for my Epcot shirt and ride SE before heading back to SSR to catch out ME bus. The line at SE wrapped around the front of the ride, so I decided to go look for my shirt whilst the others waited in line. I still could not find anything larger than a small, so I settled on another shirt and met up with the others, just as they were entering the ride. Perfect timing.
Our last monorail ride:
This time I sat and enjoyed the ride with my little boy.
It was feeling a little blue, but I knew wed be back sooner than I had imagined and that we had years of Disney magic and memories in our future.
We exited the park and were lucky enough to find a SSR bus waiting for us. We rode a very empty bus back to the resort and grabbed our carry-ons from the bell desk. As we sat and waited for our ME bus to arrive, I sent Janet a text to see where she was. I knew she was flying out of the same airline and I was hoping to see here at the airport. Sadly, she sent back that she was already at the airport. I was bummed I would miss seeing her again.
A very sad pair of children:
Our bus arrived and we were soon on our way to the airport. We stopped at the food court for some lunch at McDonalds. Ok, I never thought I say I missed McDonalds, but I did and it was nice to have some good old greasy Mickey Ds!
We headed over to our terminal, it was nice and empty so, we grabbed us some seats and relaxed as we had about an hour before our flight left. It was finally boarding time, and we got ourselves situated. The plane had rows of 3 on one side and rows of 2 on the other side. We were seated on the rows of 2 so we sat Waldo and TE, then me and Maddie, then Andy and Evan. It would be a short flight to Atlanta where we would catch our connecting flight to LAX after a 2 hour layover.
The beginning of the flight was uneventful. Evan decided he wanted to sit with me, so I switched spots with Andy and Evan fell asleep in no time. It was a pretty rough flight. We had a lot of turbulence on approach to Atlanta. I mean A LOT! Evan was asleep by the window and pretty soon, I notice something sliding down the wall of plane near Maddies seat. She was getting sick! OMG! I yelled at Andy and he grabbed a bag and she just kept getting sick. Everyone around us was so helpful. People were passing me napkins and wet wipes as I tried to clean the plane and Andy tried to clean up Maddie. Thankfully, she didnt get herself messed up, only the plane. Ewww.
We finally landed and the flight attendant came over and handed us some towels and a bag to put all the soiled napkins and stuff. We stayed on the plane until everyone was off and people passing us asked if we needed help or if she was okay. Everyone, including the flight attendants were beyond helpful and understanding. As we left the plane, the captain came out and asked Maddie if she was ok and he gave her and Evan AirTran wings. It was so sweet. Yup, I will fly AirTran again.
We got to Atlanta and were directed to our connecting gate. We found a spot to sit and wait, and I sat and held Maddie. She was very tired and upset about the whole ordeal. Andy went and found her some Dramamine for the next leg to LA and then I took her to the bathroom to change her into some warmer clothes.
Whilst in the restroom, we ran into another lady who was on our flight. She stopped us to say hi and to ask if Maddie was feeling better. We thanked her for asking and Maddie told her she was better. Our flight was getting ready to board by the time we got back, and the others were waving their arms at us to hurry up. Seriously, did they think the plane was going to leave us?
Our flight to LA was smooth sailing. We all slept most of the way home and got in to LAX a bit early. As soon as we were cleared by the captain, I called my brother to see where they were. They were still on the freeway, and would meet us at the baggage claim area. We all got off the plane and then Waldo zoomed off. He had no idea what baggage area we were in and it was no use shouting at him, we all know how effective that was. We hoped for the best and headed towards the elevators. We met up with my brother and SIL and our luggage was one of the first off. Waldos
um
not so much. We waited and waited and waited. Still, no bags for Waldo. I looked at him and said Honolulu.
Finally his bag showed up, but not before we had a good time teasing him about it.
We all headed to the parking lot, my SIL told us where our car was parked and handed over the keys. We said good-bye and thank you and headed home in Friday night traffic. All the way home we chatted about our vacation, all our new friends, & all our old friends. The kids we so excited to be home, but could not stop talking about what did and what we missed and who well see next time and where well stay next time. It was non-stop chatter, until Andy turned and looked at me and said DVC, baby!
Mission accomplished.
Up next: Final Thoughts