Episode 12- a slithery surprise and a not so magical ME experience
I made my way out of the gates and to the bus with a heavy heart. It had been a wonderful trip, but like every other time I have been to Disney, I was wishing for just one more day. Of course, once that day was over I would still probably wish for another day, and so and and so on, until I was just living at WDW (A girl can dream, right?
).
Since we made it back to the resort a little early, we had some time to walk around, take some last minute photos and fill up our mugs one last time. Since we hadnt be able to log any time at the pool, we headed out in that direction, stopping to check out the savannah .
We came across some antelope things, and some flamingos
And then we reached the pool
I took a seat on a lounger for a few minutes and just soaked in the atmosphere, trying to save up as much Disney as possible before we had to leave.
We then continued on to the Mara and filled up our mugs. I snapped a few pictures of the water feature that runs from the lobby into the pool. I always thought that this was one of the best parts of the lobby at both the wilderness lodge and the AKL.
I also just love the waterfall by the Victoria falls lounge. I think that it is one of the best hotel bars at Disney, just for the ambiance alone.
I got a quick photo of DH by the doorway, and we then headed out to check out the firepit that we missed out on the previous evening.
Not so exciting during the daytime, but mark my words, someday Im going to sit around the fire in the evening and enjoy a nice adult beverage.
We could see some giraffes had joined us out on the savannah, so we headed in their direction to take some more photos before we had to wait on ME.
We even saw a wildebeest!
We turned around to head back inside when we heard a commotion of sorts going on the pathway back into the resort. What we saw was this
An innocent black racer. While I was living in Florida, before DS, I worked as an archaeologist, and spent my days tramping around the swamps and forests. Ive seen just about every snake Florida has to offer, both the venomous and non-venomous varieties (except coral snakes, I never ran into one of those).
Well, I guess the family on the path didnt have much experience with snakes, because they were pretty much freaking out. I assured them that it was a harmless snake, and that they should just leave it alone and head down the path. Well, they gave it a wide berth, and headed on their way.
I stood there and watched it, wanting to make sure it made it safely into the bushes before some other family came along. The one thing that I didnt tell that family, is although it is a perfectly harmless snake, Black Racers can get territorial, and will charge at you if it feels threatened, so I didnt want anyone to come along and poke at it or try and chase it.
As a quick side note Ill dont think Ill ever stop teasing DH about his first run-in with a black racer. He was working in the yard and I was inside watching TV. All of a sudden I see DH running full speed by the window, with the weed whacker still in his hand. This being out of his normal range of behavior, I went outside to investigate. He was in the front yard, yelling about some giant snake that jumped out of the weeds to attack him! Well, being how our yard ran up to a retention pond, I went out to take a look to make sure it wasnt a water moccasin or anything dangerous. What I found was a tiny, skinny, about a foot long, black racer sunning himself in the yard.
Seriously, this was the giant attack snake, not only was it a pretty small little fellow, but DH was armed with a weed whacker, he could have chopped it to ribbons. I dont think hell ever live it down.
Once the snake slithered safely into the bushes, we headed back inside to wait on Magical Express. I settled down on one of the comfy chairs, while DH collected our luggage.
While I was waiting I head a CM come inside and announce the ME that departed ½ hour before our scheduled departure. Oh, I thought to myself, I guess we can just wait here until they call us. So we did, we waited and waited and waited. When it was 5 minutes until we were supposed to be called, we went and sat outside, just to be on the safe side.
When we got outside there was a Mears bus by the ME stop, but no one was making any announcements, and since it wasnt an ME or cruise line bus, and our bus wasnt supposed to come for another 5 minutes, I didnt think too much about it.
The Mears bus left shortly, still with no announcements or anything, so I just figured it was for a conference or something.
So we waited, and waited, and when the bus didnt come DH started to get really anxious. I asked someone when the 2:30 ME bus was coming, and the CM told us it should be any minute now.
We waited and waited some more, and when another 5 minutes past I went to ask a different CM about the bus, and he verified that the Mears bus we saw, was indeed the bus we should have been on.
Drat! Now DH was really panicking, but the CM assured us that we could get on the next ME bus with no problem, and just to tell the driver we missed the previous bus.
Dh was on the verge of a full fledged meltdown by this point, he was sure we were going to miss our flight.
Well the next ME bus arrived, we got on with no problem, but now DH was in a panic about hitting traffic. I tried to assure him that unlike the DC area, Orlando rush hour did not begin until work got out at 5 pm, but he wasnt listening. The whole ride over he was in a real state, and I tried to ignore him and watch the cute kids in the seat across the isle. They were talking about the trip with their grandparents and it was fun to see how excited they were and what a great time they had.
When we pulled up to the airport, DH grabbed me, the luggage and took off. He was like the Tasmanian devil, tearing though the airport, rushing through check in and security. When we got to the gate, and he realized that we had plenty of time, he finally cooled down.
After a while, I noticed that the nice family who sat across the isle from us on the ME bus were also on my flight. I took great glee in pointing that out to DH, that since they were on the same flight with us, and that Disney scheduled them on the later ME bus, that he had panicked the whole way for nothing. Dh was not amused.
Well after all that excitement, I was happy to settle into a quiet flight, and before I knew it we were back in DC. DS received a glowing report of good behavior from my parents, who said theyd be happy to watch him again anytime.
This trip, despite its shortness, was exactly what DH and I needed. It was delightful to spent time together, to enjoy each others company, and reconnect. I look forward to doing it again in the future, and to anyone contemplating and adults only trip, go book it, right now! You wont regret it!
And how fun that y'all got to ride TSM 2x!
for still making it into the park so close to rope drop!
But, it sounds like y'all really had a great time. 
