I was so happy he liked it...the nanoseconds seeing that face caused some pretty big fear in me!
Once off, he wanted to go again, again! Ah, that line was just way too long, so we got more FPs and moved along.
Not sure what the plan was, but in the distance as we came out of Critter Country I saw the
SS Columbia, which we've never been on, at the dock, with people onboard and people in line. I figured they had just gotten to the dock, and would be loading up. Perfect!
I quickly conferred with my partner in crime, he agreed that the "pirate ship" would be most excellent, and got in the quick conveyance device (aka the stroller). Zoom zoom!
We found the last close-by parking spot for the stroller, which just made it all seem even more Meant To Be... Got in line, hum dee dum..takes awhile for them to offload that boat.
The boat was cool! You can play with all but one cannon, you can pretend like you're, oh, I don't know...there was a thing for kids to play with but I have no idea what it was. We went downstairs and wandered...they say it's like what a ship would be like in that century...seemed a bit bleak.
The copper pots were pretty, though, all full of fake icky looking stew...
He has become very self-conscious of his teeth...he had two top teeth extracted when he was just 2.5, and it bothers him. His dentist doesn't think those teeth will come in for another couple years, and he's recently realized that other kids have more teeth than he does, and he refuses to do a full smile anymore. Now I know how sad my mom was...there was no tooth reason, just a lack of self-esteem (yes starting at 4) and an eternal sadness post-divorce, and I did a closed-mouth smile. After I had braces I was forced to smile with teeth under pain of paying my mom back, so there's a tendency to think that I had bad teeth before, but there was no pre-post-braces difference, other than the thread of money (which was no fair because I didn't WANT the stupid braces anyway).
Anyway, I know my mom's sadness over the lack of a big broad beautiful smile, but I don't force the issue b/c I know he must feel funny, missing those teeth (and a lower one lost when he was 6 months old, but there's almost no space there anymore).
After our trip, I was getting so hot! Needed a water refill, so we went over to Rancho to fill the water bottle. E played in their newly refurbed space, and E had an epic battle with imaginary Sith lords.
Pretty flowers...
Despite the heat, E then noticed PLOTSI (Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island) and even though he was warned that the pirates no longer exist (much sadness), he wanted to go. Okey dokey, we went on over.
I wanted to show him the cavern with Pintel popping up in the treasure cove, but I wanted to not scare him to death with it. I wanted to finesse it.
Well...that plan doesn't work in the summertime. Why? Because there are loads of other people all intent on exploring the park in THEIR own way...and while I was about to get E up on my hip so I could kind of hold him back from the window, while we reached for the treasure... (mind you I was directly in front of it, it wasn't questionable as to who should have been "next")...a woman just stuck her hand in there and caused the effect to happen, and Eamon nearly screamed in terror.
Now to her credit, she did apologize...but still...she was just passing through, you know? She knew what would happen, she zoomed off quickly...there was no need for it to happen, she could have waited. E couldn't go much further because he was just afraid of more things popping out, and we had to backtrack. No more caverns for him on that trip.
Sigh.
We were able to explore most of the outside of the island, and that was pretty fun.
We were again negatively impacted by others on the tall bridge that wobbles...even though there's a sign telling people not to jump, etc, on the bridge a few teen boys went across it just slamming the bridge around. We had to wait until they were across, letting others go in front (who thankfully didn't slam the bridge around), before the boys were done and we felt OK crossing.
But other than THAT, it was good. E spun the wheel that brings the skeleton up, he played in the bone cage, we went on the pontoon bridge. He went in the ship thing, etc etc.
Annoyed with me b/c I insisted on a water break.
We also found the treehouse, where pretty much only kids and skinny non-claustrophobic adults dedicated to their tiny childrens' happiness can go. I let E go up alone, which means I have NO idea what he means when he said he didn't want to through the treehouse (you have to in order to leave the treehouse without being rude and going the wrong way) because there were "terrifying statues".
On his way up!
Water feature at the base of the tree.
Way up there! I was calling up to him, telling him to go through that treehouse, while he told me about the statues.
Coming down, once he passed by the "statues".
I did wish I were a kid again, or around 120 lbs, so I could go up there. But I'm neither, so I just enjoyed the breezes around the base of the tree.
We finished our wandering and left the island. By this time it was well after 3 pretty much almost 4, and we could call the hotel. However, I have a very hard time hearing my phone while in the parks, or rather hearing what is being said into my phone, so I couldn't call just then. We decided that I needed a latte and he needed a cookie, so we headed to the bakery.
Surely anyone familiar with timing of things currently knows the problem...the Celebrate not-a-parade thing. Ugh. People were being given the option to go behind the buildings, which I *desperately* wanted to do, but that Blue Ribbon place was already promised (to both of us!) and until just now I'd forgotten that there's a coffee place in PPH.
Oh the humanity...I'm sure you all know the tortures of walking along the pathway while a "parade" is going on. The people who are pretending to walk but are really watching...the people who don't realize they could just pop under the rope and stand in one place, but opt for tormenting those behind them. The people who don't look behind them and walk right in front of strollers, causing the stroller-pushers to stop on a dime (risking their own achilles tendons). And the guy I'm specifically referring to? I KNEW he was going to do it...he was carrying a baby and I just KNEW he was about to turn into that store and I KNEW he wasn't going to look, and I was 100% right.
So, to you sir, when I said "please sir, sir, sir", I wasn't telling you that you were a jerk, I wasn't being rude to you...I was trying to STOP you from getting run over, I was doing all I could (with a very strange new stroller that had a mind of its own) to NOT hit you, but I felt that YOU, yes YOU, should have taken some of that responsibility by simply checking behind you for the person, child, and stroller...
that you had JUST passed, before turning in front of them.
Oh, and then? You
really shouldn't jerkily "let me pass", then confer with your wife who was behind you but next to me, *pushing a stroller*, and then have your wife RAM my ankles. I did my damndest to NOT hit you, and in fact I did NOT. I said "sir", not "you jerk", my intention was not to pass you but to WARN you, and I did NOTHING to deserve being hit by your wife.
It was pretty bad. Worse than I've experienced with the true and proper parade, which might just be because of summer vs the normal times I go, or it might be that the C! *thing* is hyper, loud, has cheesy MCs, and forces you to watch Mary Poppins "getting down" with current music. Awful awful.
We got into the cool calmness of the bakery...ahhhhh. I had some time to cool down, but that just causes my face to de-pink itself and for rivulets of sweat to go down my neck. NOT pretty. But genetic. However, I was looking around, and no one else was that bad. I didn't FEEL as bad as I did in DCA a few days before, but I looked bedraggled. So much so that I commented on it, self-consciously, to the CM taking my order...and she said words that should NEVER be said.
BAcking up...during my description of the hot day in DCA, I brought it up myself. That's OK. Being hot when no one else is can bring certain things to mind. Of course, not when it's all day long...but it was OK for me to think it, because I'm me. I admit I'm 39, I have no idea of the familial history as mom and grandma had hysterectomies in their 30s...I hope it's not *that* since we're still TTC, but of course it's a thought one has.
However, a Cast Member should NEVER say to a customer..."well maybe it's menopause!"
Ever.
Yes, our California mosquitoes are awful. Whenever my daughters get bites they swell up like crazy. Benedryl helps a little but the one thing that always helps is Atarax but it will knock you on your fanny. Be warned. Have you tried an Aveeno oatmeal bath? Or a baking soda bath. Those help them too. They are also good for sunburns.
Oh my word!
