Day 9 - Part 1
Our last day. Magical Express, or “Depress” as I’ve heard it appropriately called for this leg of the trip, was due to pick us up at 2. Technically, it was feasible to get up for rope drop, enjoy a morning at one of the parks, and easily be back at the resort in time for Magical Express. But realistically, we were whooped, and it was an easy call to sleep-in a little, take our time packing, and just enjoy a more relaxed morning. Either Judy or I were the first up, and after getting dressed we started working on finishing up whatever breakfast items we had.
At 8:30 I started some laundry.
I don’t really remember why I felt like I had to do laundry then. Probably the kids were still lounging in bed and I figured I might as well make good use of the time. Plus, who wants to pack dirty clothes? That’s one of the beauties of staying in a DVC suite, and we’d been too busy to take advantage of the washer and dryer up to this point.
Finally, the kids started getting up and showering and having breakfast. At one point a little while later, while I was in the master bedroom packing, Judy got them together and they all came in to present me with my Father’s Day gift. I had completely forgotten that Father’s Day would occur on the last day of our trip. (I didn’t mind a bit…being at Disney for a whole week, every day had felt like Father’s Day.) Anyway, they gave me a new Disney t-shirt. It was a dark blue shirt, with the four Disney World parks on it, with Mickey Mouse in the middle. I wore it to the big “D.C. Meet” later that summer, and you can catch a glimpse of it in some pictures in this side-chapter
link from earlier in the trip report. So, anyway…
thaaat’s what Judy had been shopping for in the Emporium the night before when I was a little irritated that she wasn’t with us out on Main Street waiting for the fireworks to begin. Hee hee.
She also knew that I liked the rainfall showerhead that they have in the suites at Kidani, so she’d looked in the gift shop, Johari Treasures, where they sell them. (Must be I’m not the only one who likes them.) But they were really expensive, so she told me that she’d look for one at home. She did buy one after we got back, it’s probably a different brand, but it works pretty well. And best of all, she installed it herself!
Okay, back to the trip. We put the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer, and another load into the washing machine. I know, it’s details like this that separate this trip report from all others.
The morning wore on, and where earlier it seemed like we had all kinds of time, now it was looking like we’d need to pick up the pace just to get out of here by check-out time. This is when we discovered that the dryer wasn’t working very well. I mean, it worked, it just didn’t, um, dry. We packed up all of the stuff that we could, and got the second load of clothes in the dryer. Judy went around trying to find places to pack any leftover food that could be taken back home. James’ duffel had the most room, and I think I mentioned in some of the chatter on this trip report that we discovered some beat-up cereal bars in his duffel bag months after returning home. I guess he assumed that she’d unpack them as well.
I forgot to mention earlier that when we checked-in we discovered that the previous occupants had left a couple of bottles of beer in the fridge. I may have drank one, but I know that I left at least one for the next occupants. Kind of like missing Wishes, I just never found a good opportunity to consume them.
Finally the clothes were dry, and we were fully-packed. We hauled our stuff out the door just a little bit before 11. The housekeeping ladies had been hovering around and were eagerly waiting to get at our room. We lugged all of our bags down to the lobby and I checked-out. Then we handed our bags over to the Bell Services people.
Now, our plan was to enjoy the pool for a couple of hours. We were already in our bathing suits, and we had a couple of bags with our change of clothes in them. We got about halfway to the pool when Marlene noticed James carrying his mug and said, “Oh no! My mug is packed in my bag!” So, back to Bell Services we went, (well, just Marlene and I; the others continued on) so that she could retrieve her mug out of the bag.
Okay, now we were
finally relaxing by the pool. I put “relapse” in the chapter title just because that’s something I like to say: “sit back, and relapse”.
How about some pool photos? Here's Marlene trying to go down the slide without getting her face wet, apparently.
And James on the slide. My favorite is the 3rd one down.
Judy, not on the slide. Just relapsing.
I love this bridge. It's such a nice focal point for the pool.
I walked over to the animal watching area behind the pool bar. I'd hoped to see a red river hog. No luck, but there was this bird.
And some other critter.
And another bird.
When I came back, I saw that James found some foosball competition. Or, at least some people to play against. I'm not sure that they were what you'd call "competition". Not for James anyway.
While writing this chapter, James walked by and I asked him if he beat these people and he said, "Oh yeah. Creamed 'em."
Another shot of the pool. Okay, I'll be nice this time for all of you Judy-sighters. I already looked at this in magnified-view
and I can't find her in it.
Back in 2009 when Kidani was only partially completed, a lot of people on the Disboards worried that this pool would be too small when all of the rooms were open. But when we were there in 2010, it always looked like you see it in this picture -- in use, but definitely not over-crowded.
And one last shot of the water tower in the water play area.
Now that I had some photo documentation completed, I was able to get in the pool and then lounge in a chair for a while. It was heavenly. I wrote in my trip notes that I loved the peaceful music and bird noises that are piped-in. It was so peaceful.
Up next: More Root Beer!
Link to next chapter
from just that much.
I'm so excited!! They have this little Japanese Garden close to where I live in Boca Raton so i'm going to go there and practice with my new camera soon! 
That's awesome! I wish I lived close enough that I could do a day trip.
