Sunday the 15th dawned a little grey, but thankfully not raining.
Thankfully because this was Scrooge's
big day!
Scrooge is a engineer/plane nut. He is building a plane in our garage. And today he was going to test fly his baby. Not his actual plane, but the same model. This will be a 2 year project I am guessing, right now he's just working on the avionics so it'll be a while (a year I think) before the actual build starts and then the build will take at least a year.
He's been doing a lot of prep, flying some other small sport planes that are similar in how they handle.
This is the plane he was flying before the trip, it's now changed to something else (a Sportstar maybe?) but he liked this plane quite a bit.
What is different though is his will be amphibious. Like a pelican, no pontoons. Where we live, it makes a ton of sense and will be absolutely wonderful. I am excited for him which is good as really, it will be our "boat" or timeshare, or vacation home lol. Someday maybe we will have a cabin we can fly it to (or at least we dream that will happen!) but for now it will be little jumps in the area and there are tons and tons of places to do that where we live.
So the company that makes the kit he is building, is based not too far from WDW and he had made plans to go fly that morning. We'd picked a day that wasn't EMH anywhere and slotted it to be an open day, meaning we'd do whatever the kids wanted and not have a specific park picked. Rain would have been a big problem. The poor man had been pouring over weather reports for days, by the hour, and by the minute as it got closer. It was grey, it was overcast, it was threatening. But it was DRY!
After what seemed like hours of asking the kids what they wanted to do (once the big ones actually got up that is) and rounds and rounds of them saying
I don't know
I don't know
I don't know
It came down to this.
Steven had homework that he needed to do and the rest of the kids wanted to....
SWIM!
It was not terribly warm in my opinion but the kids didn't care and for my part it was awfully nice to just stay in my sweats and stroll over to the "quiet" pool with coffee cup and book in hand.
I did not have the camera as I'd given it to Scrooge to take with him flying. I'd charged the battery the night before and had it all out ready for him to take. So Wall-E, Tink, and Goofy hung out and played all morning in the pool. Lots of Marco Polo and got several other kids involved. They had a blast.
Our plan had been to meet up around lunch. We'd rented a car for this day so Scrooge could get to the lake he'd be taking off from, which was about 45 minutes away. Steven's one request had been to go to House of Blues and so that was our lunch destination. We'd talked about the kids and I meeting Scrooge there but now that Steven had homework..and didn't seem to be moving quickly on it, it seemed best to just have Scrooge pick us up when he was done and head out from there.
Scrooge called as he was passing the main gate, he'd gotten turned around quite a bit coming back but I'd wanted a warning, assuming (correctly) that the kids would not be happy about getting out of the pool.
The joys of 16 year old boys. Steven had supposedly ONE paragraph that needed to be written and emailed to his teacher by midnight that night (Seattle time so he really had until 3am to get it done). I'd brought my laptop for work so he was dialed in and online. We left for the pool by 9:30 I think and came back at noon, maybe even 12:30. Steven was NOT done. "Almost" done was the quote.
So Scrooge pulls up in....a Toyota Sienna. The exact same car we have at home. For some reason, we all thought this was really funny. I don't know why. The teen and tween had to get all primped up (even though Steven had had 3 hours in which to write a paragraph and take a shower) so it must have been 1:30 before we left the cabin.
I was not happy. Not my finest moment. A nice cold beer on the deck and some chips and salsa with Scrooge while they were dressing helped lol but I couldn't help feeling we were wasting a very valuable day. Scrooge felt a little the same but was pretty high from his flight.
He said it was amazing. That there were alligators EVERYWHERE in the lakes and the take off's and landings were incredible. More so than ever he was pleased with the choice he'd made. Which was good as we'd actually put a deposit (gulp) down about 1 month prior. So I asked to see the pictures. Or if he'd taken any video. He looks at me and says.
He forgot to put the battery in the camera!
Which he then covers by saying he was too busy to take many pictures anyway.
Yeah.
Right.
FINALLY we are ready to leave. I truthfully don't think I will allow a fully unplanned day again. I think there were simply too many options and it overwhelmed them. We had a lazy day at the resort planned for day 6 so I think my irritation was that IMHO they should have picked something else. Which is my issue entirely, they had fun and for the most part didn't have a clue I was semi annoyed.
HOB here we come. The plan was live music, we eat there, no live music we go somewhere on the DP (I was thinking Wolfgang Puck Cafe or Earl of Sandwich) I wasn't thrilled about an OOP meal but on the flip side their menu looked really good and lunch was a heck of a lot cheaper than dinner.
Live music, outside! But no food actually "served" outside. So we ordered at the bar, take out, to eat outside.
The food was really really good. I didn't take any pictures but admit it was nice to sit down and be able to do apps, or salads and not deal with dessert. I had a lovely salad with blackened chicken (which I'd added, it didn't come with it) and blue cheese and a coconut rum and coke. Scrooge had a pulled pork sandwich and a beer, Steven went for a plate of buffalo wings (which put him in heaven) and the other 3 split a pizza. For some reason that rum and coke was my favorite drink of the trip! It suited my mood though it certainly didn't match the weather, it was a chilly day.
I think we liked the band more than Steven did. It was very much "our generation" of music and Scrooge and I were rocking out. Steven liked it but we REALLY liked it.
He loved the atmosphere though. I still need to look at his pics, he took a ton on his camera. Which he still need to upload. But here is one happy 16 year old. Who is an aspiring musician so this was perfect.
Of course Scrooges folks don't think he looks happy in this pic and are convinced that the hood on makes him look like a gangster but all I see is a happy teen who is basically shy.
Afterward it was shopping time. We split up, the big boys heading to Virgin Records with the rest of us off to look at pins and hats. We took our time and enjoyed ourselves but for the most part I would have to say I was not overwhelmed with the merchandise selection anywhere.
Steven had bought this crazy Mickey shirt at the MK the day before, black and grey it was like Mickey was melting. I had it with me to exchange for a larger size but they didn't have it anywhere.
Each kid did get a pin and Goofy and Wall-E, a hat. And, thanks to the Disney Visa, we got 10% off on the hats, so it was completely worth it.
Next stop was....GOOFY's!
The kids went nuts in there. 3 of them anyway. Actually Scrooge may have gotten something as well, I'm not sure. Of course Tink wanted bulk candy, which was not a snack credit but I was so happy to see "real" espresso and use a snack credit for a doppio, I didn't care.
Here the 3 sweet tooth kids are with their new hats, pins and SUGAR!
Tink with Buzz. Tink was a HUGE tomboy as a kid, was obsessed with Buzz and even WAS Buzz for Halloween one year. No princess dresses for her back then!
By the time we got all of this done it was, maybe 5? 5:30? We had ressies at 8 at Teppan Edo, and a car, so we decided to hit DHS as the kids have been dying to go there since our first day. We do have a full day planned there for the following day but since we've got a couple of hours, why not!
OMG.
DHS was INSANE. We walk in and literally, can hardly move. Rnr? 60 minutes. TSM? 90. ToT? 60. FP's gone. Everywhere.
So we sadly stroll around the back side, to the set section. It is DESERTED. Very very weird feeling after the crush of the front. Surreal even. We walk by Star Tours.
No wait.
Seriously? We actually think the sign might be broken but sure enough, we walk right in! Yeah!!! One ride today at least. The tour starts. Just as we are about to come out of the meteor field it....stops. Threepio is cutting in and out...Fuzzy. Scrooge and I cannot remember if this is really part of the ride or not.
They start it again.
Same thing happens.
Nope, not part of the ride.
Nope. It broke.
We exit, get ushered back around into another theater and this time complete our star tour successfully. The kids enjoyed it, at least the little ones but gosh, I remember it feeling more "real" in the past. I still liked it, in a nostalgic kind of way.
We left, filled with concerns about how crowded the park might be the next day and I vowed we'd get there earlier than we'd been trending. I vowed we'd eat BREAKFAST there. The combination of the insanely crowded MK the day before and now this, one ride for the whole day had me...cranky.
Sadly, I was actually glad to leave, hoping Epcot wouldn't be so nutty. We'd discussed taking the boat over there but didn't want to deal with getting back after dinner and figured that would give us more options after dinner since Epcot would be closed by the time we were done but MK would be open for several more hours.
Next....Teppan Edo, a few rain drops, will we get to see Illuminations? Will the kids stay awake to hit the MK? Will Steven be able to exchange his shirt?
And....will Steven get his homework in?
and not to be missed...a towel animal party in the Cabins!
and now I love to dress up
Would absolutely love to have this before the huge Dis meet on May 17 in epcot!
I'm here and I've subscribed. It might take me a bit to get caught up, but I will. 
I so want to stay at FW someday.
