Did you guess Downtown Disney? You win!
We had never been there before! I had heard so many great things about it but it is kind of like how I feel about Papa Gino's (my favorite Pizza chain here in the northeast). If I go there, no matter how good some of the other items look, I must get cheese pizza. They have the best cheese pizza and if I get anything else I would feel like I was "missing out". That is how I felt about Downtown Disney. I would rather be in a park and I never wanted to give up "park time" for it. But today it worked and I was glad I finally visited. I will go back.
So the kids and I hopped the bus to DD. We stopped first at Typhoon Lagoon and let off a whole slew of people. Once we got to DD our first stop was Goofy's Candy Company. What a cool place! We had to get some sugar in us so after much browsing Goofy picked a dipped and sprinklefied marshmellow concotion.
Belle went with a cupcake. Very un-Belle like choice for her actually. Much too plain, I would have expected her to choose something really covered in "stuff".
And Bashful opted for the yummy chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzel, I had one of these too, girl after my own heart!
We sat and ate our goodies and watched the animals out in front of the Rainforest Cafe. It was a truly beautiful day, not as hot as the day before, and just lovely. After we ate we went to the store where things are all under $10. Props to Disney for this! A nice place to pick up some affordable souvies and allow your kids to spend some more of their money on reasonably priced things. I picked up some magnets here (Mickey/Minnie/Goofy/Pluto) and a silicone Mickey head mold that you use to make pancakes with. I had $17 left on my Disney rewards card and this used that about. I think the girls bought some pens or things here, memory is fuzzy. Then we hit another store and I can't recall which one. I picked up a collar for our dog Sterling (remember he has a hidden Mickey on his back leg) that is red with Mickey heads on it. Belle bought him some Mickey part squeaky toys and Bashful got him a Mickey Tennis Ball toy. Spoiled pooch.
We meandered, always watching the clock to make sure we weren't running late. We didn't have all the time to see everything so we skipped World of Disney and kept on going to the
Lego store. I knew Goofy would be in heaven.
I thought that wall of Lego people was so cool! Goofy saw so much he liked but:
A. He was almost out of money
B. The things he was wanting were too much than I was going to spend
C. The things he wanted were HUGE and wouldn't fit in our limited suitcase space
So I let him make 3 people and he got those and was happy.
We decided to grab lunch with our last couple of credits. I had heard so much about the Earl of Sandwich so we went there. I found it to be a little crazy inside ordering and I didn't feel that warm Disney magic in here with the CMs. Good food though. Belle and I shared a sandwich, was it called The Patriot? It had Turkey and Cranberry among other things in it. The little ones had Grilled Cheese which they thought was just alright.
Sadly we had to go get the bus back to POFQ. We went and sat and waited about 10 minutes. Grammy called to see if we were on our way home. We told them we'd be there soon.
So we arrived at POFQ and they were all checked out and waiting on a bench. The kids and I grabbed our luggage from Bell Services and went to the bathroom to change out of shorts into pants for the trek home. I can't tell you how I was feeling at that moment. Just in that mode of not really believing this was over. Seeing people laughing and happy waiting for a bus and just feeling so, so jealous that it was our time to leave.
All good things must come to an end I guess but it just has to be one of the worst feelings, leaving the Magic and going back to reality.
Our ride arrived and Bob was great with getting the luggage in and us on our way. Papa enjoyed sitting up front and chatting with him the ride to the airport. In no time we were at Orlando airport. Check in and Security were a total breeze and we moved through very quickly.
Goofy had $10 left and had to spend it. He got an activity book with crayons in a gift shop for $9.99. We bought some candy and I grabbed a magazine and we waited. It was a full flight home. Mostly sad folks like us.
Without planning to do so Goofy was wearing the same shirt he wore the last time we flew home. It has now become the official "Saddest Day Ever We are Leaving Disney" shirt.
Final pictures at the airport:
We boarded and the flight home was uneventful. Goofy slept for about an hour, always nice, and everyone else occupied themselves with iPods and books. Our ride was waiting for us when we got to cold Logan airport and we had a long ride home, dropping my parents off first and then going to our house. We got home around 8pm if I recall and I hustled the kids to bed as they had to get up for school in the morning.
If it is sad coming home from Disney it is sadder coming home to Disney and having your husband still miles away in Peru for another 6 days. I haven't mentioned Grumpy much. We didn't have very much phone contact with him while in Disney. We texted a few times and only spoke once. He was having phone issues so we could really only leave messages. We were in World Showcase the time we did get to talk to him. He had been on the
Amazon and had eaten termites live off a tree as well as fished for Pirahna. He ended up having a pretty cool trip himself (though not as cool as ours!) and he cllimbed the high peak at Macchu Picchu.
I'll be back soon for closing thoughts and what's up next. I won $700 at the casino last weekend in my yearly trek there and I am debating a solo trip in August. I have Grumpy's blessing but I just feel a bit unsettled about it so I don't know if I'll do it. I have always wanted to, I just had the amount I need handed to me and yet I just have hesitation. What is wrong with me?????
Allyson
Last year when we brought Kalyn home from college I checked all her desk drawers and her closet several times. Later that night in a middle of a conversation she sits straight up and says "all my socks and underwear are at school!" Never checked the dresser drawers 
Looking forward to final thoughts!
and the night before DH had a dream that we lost our MNSSHP tickets. 
