Our late afternoon was spent much like the rest of our day, doing nothing really but totally enjoying ourselves.
Dh and the younger two headed out to the pool. Dh said that he was able to snag one of the cabanas (the free ones) and set up camp there. The boys weren't quite so enamored of the "other kind" of cabana because they missed the music, drinks, fruit and fluffy towels (who knew, I had no idea they even noticed that stuff the other day). But, they were happy and had a "home base" for the rest of the afternoon. Dh said they spent time playing football with that little water ball purchased earlier in the week, played Marco Polo, took many trips down the slide and had fun playing with the lifeguards at "game time" that afternoon. Dh said for the most part they were the only ones in the pool! Where did the rest of the swimmers go?!
While dh and the younger boys spent a few hours turning into fish, "Aladdin" and I spent the same time reading in the main lobby. It was such a relaxing time!! On our way to the lobby I stopped in at the sundries store and bought a bag of "Aladdin's" favorite candy and his favorite sports drink. I also grabbed a bottle of water for myself. We both had a good book in tow ("Aladdin" was reading
Kingdom Keepers which turned out to be a pretty good book about a fictional group of kids having adventures and saving not only the Magic Kingdom but world while at WDW).
The piano player was present and it was a really nice way to spend a few hours relaxing on a hot afternoon. We staked out a small grouping of comfortable chairs and settled in to snack and read. It was a nice break from the heat of the day. I am glad that "Aladdin" chose to stick around with his lame footed/pregnant/tired mom. It was really nice to just spend time quietly sitting around with him.
The music that filled the lobby was a very nice touch! I very much enjoyed hearing the sounds of beautiful piano music and smelling the sweetness of fresh flowers while I curled up with a good book and read until my heart's content next to one of my favorite people.
Both of us were lost in our books when a CM approached and asked us if we needed anything, how we were enjoying our stay/vacation, etc. After having about a five minute chat with him, he said goodbye and wandered off. To our very great surprise he reappeared five minutes later with a Grand Floridian embossed chocolate box for me and a CD of the piano player's recordings for "Aladdin". I have NO IDEA why that magic occurred. I have no clue as to what the function of that CM was or why he picked us out of all of the people sitting and enjoying the music. When we tried to thank him, he just smiled and said "thanks are not needed". Out of all of our "magical encounters" this one was the most unexpected and touching because we were so wrapped up in the music, the books, our snacks and just relaxing that we almost forgot where we were (at WDW I mean). For such a magical and unexpected reminder to be given, well, it was beyond any stretch of my imagination. ONLY at WDW can you be sitting and minding your own business and have a random CM approach you with chocolates and music!
Here is a random picture I snapped of the beautiful flowers that were set out around the lobby.
After about a half hour more, it was time to head back to the room to meet up with the mermen of the family. Dh just shook his head and asked me if I had a sign on my back that said "Looking for magical moments" when we told him about the wonderful CM encounter we had just experienced in the lobby. He did stop making fun of me long enough to snag a chocolate out of the box.
We walked through the chaos that was occurring in the Sugarloaf lounge with the setting out of the evening offerings. I cannot express how different the feeling of this club level lounge was from the one at AKL. At AKL it always felt welcoming and certainly never overcrowded or like you would have to fight your way to the food or fight to get seats to consume that food in...that was the feeling we had in this lounge during the "peak times" so we simply headed out and made our way to Gasperilla's in search of nourishment there.
Along the way we were treated to one of nature's very own gems,the sight of a rainbow. It was very beautiful. After a short afternoon downpour, there it was. I had to take a picture of course! I sure am glad I did because within a few minutes it was all but gone.
I love Gasperilla's. I think it has a wonderful order/get a beeper system. I dislike ordering at other CS places and then having to stand there and wait for your food to be made. I really like the whole concept of hand you a beeper and let you go off and finish picking out the rest of your meal and pay or simply grab a table or rest your weary feet instead. It makes way more sense to me. I wish that AKL's CS place did it like that. I wish that they all did it that way.
However, I also wish that Gasperilla's had more to offer by way of seating. For such a nice CS place the indoor seating is really lacking. But that didn't bother us in the least. We were looking forward to eating outside on the patio. From there we had a good view of the castle across the water, the water itself and the monorail as it zipped by on the far side of the lake. That and we enjoyed watching all of the different sorts of people walking to and fro at the GF. The CMs dressed up in their Victorian outfits. The guests dressed up in their evening wear going to dinner, the guests coming back from the parks wearing shorts and tired looks, the golf carts zipping by. It was a great place to sit and people watch.
Some of the people I was most interested in watching happened to be at the same table with me.

First up, "Stitch" who was hamming it up for the camera. He was (of course) dining on a hot dog kid's meal. He chose carrots and french fries as his sides and a bottle of water to drink. Dh shared some of his soft serve ice cream with him so "Stitch" did end up with dessert as well.
"Goofy" *insert huge gasp of utter NON surprise* also chose the hot dog kid's meal. He chose a chocolate chip cookie and french fries as his sides with an apple juice to drink. Once again he was lucky enough to have some of dh's soft serve ice cream end up in his little Mickey ear tray. "Goofy" chose to dip his cookie in it. He said this was one of the best meals of the week. HA HA. So much for the Cali Grill, Coral Reef and Le Cellier. HA HA.
"Aladdin" picked cheese pizza, soft serve (cookies and cream) ice cream and a cup of lemonade.
Dh chose a bacon cheeseburger with fries, soft serve ice cream and a coke. Nothing fancy but good and filling.
I chose to have a chicken ceaser salad with a side of french fries (hey they said I could pick a side too...so I went with something a bit less healthy). It was very tasty and really hit the spot with my cravings. I would like to have another one right about now. For my drink I chose chocolate milk and dessert was a blueberry muffin.
None of our dinner choices were fancy by any means, but they were all very good. I highly enjoyed this meal for no other reason then it was a very relaxing one spent in the best of company. If you are staying at a monorail resort and looking for a fun place to grab a CS meal, try Gasperilla's and snag a seat outside. It's a great spot!
Next we took a stroll over to the beach area. We stopped by our room along the way to grab the earlier purchased basket of sand toys,our glow sticks/necklace/lei kit that dear sweet LindaBabe surprised us with earlier in our vacation, our books and some drinks from the club lounge. As the boys played in the sand, read and had "pirate adventures" dh and I kicked our feet up on to the lounges, held hands and watched a beautiful sunset unfold. It was another very relaxing, romantic and happy moment for our family. In fact, it is one of my very favorite moments from our entire vacation...sitting holding dh's hand, watching the boys laugh, run and dig on the beach and seeing the sun set over the lake. Ahhhh

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Here are some pictures I snapped of our time on the beach.
As the day dropped into night we laughed together, strung leis, snapped glow sticks/necklaces into glowing fun and just really enjoyed taking the time to be together. We really had fun with those glowing pieces of plastic! The boys used them as swords, clipped them into circles with the necklace clasps and then used them as frisbees (not to mention as necklaces) and also danced like wild children swinging the glowing surprises in big arches and sweeping lines. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR BEING SO SWEET AND GENEROUS LINDA!! You are one special person!
Soon it was time to make our way back to the marina area in front of Gasperilla's and settle in on a bench to watch the fireworks.
After the fireworks we found a nice spot between the buildings to sit on the lawn and watch the electrical light parade float past. That was a lot of fun.
It brought back memories of watching it with the boys last year from our room at the Contemporary.
After that we headed back to Gasperilla's and used some of our many remaining snack credits to grab an assortment of cookies, rice krispie Mickey heads and ice cream...we took our bounty back to our room and watched a Disney channel movie together before my head finally did indeed hit that soft pillow and our day of relaxation ended.
UP NEXT: Our last full day at WDW *sniff sniff*
To be continued...