Here it was. Our last day at MK - and we dont know when well be back. That thought is rattling around in all our heads and were trying real hard not to show it - because well all cry. Thats just the way we are (we, as in the adults, not the kids.) Thats what happens to you when youre in Disney. I think part of the Disney magic is the fact that somehow Disney gets into your psyche and makes you a) never want to leave and b) yearn to come back and it truly is a yearning. As I sit here (at work - he-he) and type this, I picture all the people AT Disney at this moment and it kills me not to be there. I hate that. Its not that Im not happy with where I am (well, except for the fact that Im at work) but Id just rather be at Disney. Always.
Anyway... I realized that the thousand pictures or so that we had already taken were not nearly enough and I wanted to truly capture every last moment of the day so I started snapping...
and snapping...
and snapping...
and snapping...
until the kids started doing stuff like this:
I dont understand why the kids get so mad when I tell them to smile every 10 seconds and pose for a picture?!?!? One day, I know theyll cherish every single one of the pictures we take of them.
Once again, another perfect day. If you ever want perfect vacation weather, go on vacation with us. Im not kidding. Im probably jinxing myself by saying this but seriously, whenever we vacation as a family, we have perfect weather. Its very odd - but nice. We do a two-week vacation up north every July and we actually wish for rainy days so we can have a down day or two. We bring up all kinds of games, etc. to play and we really look forward to those rainy days where you have nothing to do but lay around in a cabin and play games and we seriously never get them.
Anywho... we really didnt know what we were going to do today because we had already been to MK and done everything we wanted to do so we pretty much just aimlessly walked around. We did Buzz and I really bit the big weenie with that... Im horrible. My trigger finger seriously hurt for hours after Buzz. How can you be that bad? DN2 had like 500,000 points and I think I had 10. Why are boys just naturally better than girls with stuff like that? Really? It shouldnt be that way and if truth be told, Im a very sore loser and I wanted to hop right back on the beat the crap out of him - but we didnt. The lines seemed a little longer today.
We walked over to Space Mountain because DD and DN2 wanted to ride it, but it was a 70 min wait or so and just as we were contemplating what to do next, a high school band started playing so we sat down and listened to them. We were sitting with the parents and they were soooo proud of their kids playing. It was really sweet to see. And then it depressed me because neither DD, DN2 or Hercules are in a band and I realized wed never get to go to Disney to watch them. And then I wondered if the kids that were playing in the band realized how lucky they were to be able to go to Disney to play. I never got to do that kind of stuff when I was a kid. My mom was too busy lying about her age. See what mom is doing now? Shes trying to make up for her lying by buying us trips to Disney. Works for me!
We walked through kidmania and rode Peter Pan which I always love. We did Mickeys Philharmagic and we absolutely loved this! What a pleasant, fun, entertaining attraction this is. What I love about it is it has a little of the new and the old Disney. Very fun!
From there we did the Haunted House - again - which I still love but I kept getting that heavy feeling of.... when will I do this again? <Sigh...> After we did the Haunted House, we thought wed see if there was any chance we could get into Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner - maybe there was a cancellation. As luck should have it, there was just a cancellation so we took it.
We had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservation so we did a whole lot more of nothing. We shopped. We sat and rested. We took more pictures and once again just tried to take in all the sights and sounds of MK. Oh yeah, Pirates was open so we were able to go in that. I couldnt tell if anything had changed. The ugly hairy dirty leg still hung there at the end. Thats all I really remembered from it.
We made our way back to Liberty Tree and once we were seated, the CM explained to us that it was a family-style meal and that the characters would all be out to greet us shortly. We all kinda looked at each other and said, characters? The CM looked at us like we were complete idiots and said, you didnt realize this was a character meal? Oops.. nope, we didnt. He asked us if we were okay with it (i.e., are we willing to pay the extra $$$$ for the characters) and we (DM) said that was fine so he walked away and we all looked at each other and said, since when was Liberty Tree a character meal? I know, I know... all you veteran Disers out there are completely shaking your heads and rolling your eyes because Im guessing Liberty Tree has probably always been a character meal - we just didnt know it so - BONUS! We did eat there for lunch back in 2000 but lunch must not be a character meal - only dinner, right?
Anyway, since our character meal at AK really stunk, we were excited to get some real interaction with the characters. Plus, I was milking my birthday a bit and I was wearing my b-day pin again (sorry) so I was hoping to get a little special something from the characters.
They brought out the food and it was GREAT! It was turkey, roast beef, smashed potatoes with gravy, mac and cheese and some type of veggie. Oh yeah, a really good salad first. The food really was extremely good and after eating burgers and hot dogs and pizza for a week, it was a really nice change for us.
The characters (Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale) all came and went and they gave us as much time as we wanted. We snapped lots of pictures (surprise, surprise), they all attempted to acknowledge my birthday, they totally interacted with the kids - even though our kids are hardly kids. I think it was Chip who took DDs sunglass off her head and tried to put them on him - which was funny because he was totally pulling them open wide and I was waiting for them to snap. They didnt but it made me wonder what he would have done had he broken them. They stood behind DN2 and covered his eyes - they were just very interactive. Im not sure if we were in the middle of a shift change or something but a few of the characters even came over to our table twice. If youve never had a character meal here before, Id highly recommend it. The food was great and the characters were awesome.
Here are some pics:
The characters bring out the kid in all of us...
Chip trying to put DD's sunglasses on his huge furry head...
Chip realizing he can't get them on and putting them back on DD's head...
I just realized every single picture I'm posting is of either Chip or Dale. There really were more characters than just them, I swear. I also told them that I had imcriminating picture of them shaking a mysterious bottle of Coke a few days back and they pleaded the fifth...
Best part? They brought out our apple cobbler (to die for) and they had a candle in it and the CMs sang happy birthday to me. They even gave me a card signed by all the characters. For all this being a surprise for us, it couldnt have been more fun. We had a great time.
Here's a pic of me when the CM's were singing happy birthday to me...
After dinner, we headed over to Main Street to pull up a curb for the parade and Wishes! We managed to whittle the time away by eating ice cream...
and taking more pictures...
We were sitting there waiting for the parade to begin. Main Street was clear of people. It was probably about 15-20 minutes before parade time and the curbs were lined 7-10 people deep. This lone man is walking down Main Street holding three funnel cakes, looking a little lost. Hes not saying anything but everyone (thousands of people) are watching him. He walks past everyone and we assume he is gone. Nope. There he is again - walking UP Main Street - still holding his funnel cakes - still looking lost. Keep in mind, he is the ONLY man/person on Main Street at this point. Finally, he holds his hands up and says to the crowd, I cant find my family! Everyone in the crowd kinda laughs and he goes on his way and once again, we assume hes gone. Nope. Here he comes again and everyone starts applauding him and laughing AT him. I would have absolutely died if I were him but I would have just walked up to a strange family at that point and pretended to be with them.
Finally, he was near me so I asked him if he wanted to use my phone to call his wife. He did. No answer. He walks away from me and my phone rings. I yelled, Hey strange man! and he turned and grabbed my phone. It was his wife. He wasnt happy - and apparently neither was she. He kept saying, WHERE ARE YOU? She must have been trying to explain where she was and finally he said, IM THE ONLY MAN IN THE STREET WALKING - FIND ME! He hands the phone back to me, thanks me and walks away. Once again, everyone applauded and he kinda shrugged his shoulders and went on his way - this time for real. Whether or not he found his real family well never know. Im assuming so. If the strange man happens to be reading this report right now, thanks for the entertainment. It was fun. Im sure you were completely mortified but it was entertaining for us all.
Once again we watched the parade only this time it was hard to smile and enjoy it - not knowing when we were coming back. And again, with Wishes it was the same thing. Why cant we just live in the moment? With a heavy heart, we walked out of MK. While we were walking out of MK, we saw Chace (with a c - remember him from our first night?) and he waved at us - whether or not he recognized us well never know - we like to think so. The CMs were all waving at everyone as we were leaving, holding the C Ya Real Soon sign and I couldnt help but wonder... will they?
Up next - MGM - our last day. <Sigh>
What a nice way to spend your birthday - eating through the countries. The eggrolls are also my favorite! What great kids you have in your family that they'd be willing to wear the "flowery" T-shirts for you. Everyone should have a lot of attention on their birthday so congratulations! What a special day you had.
It was so much fun!!
