Back to the Tropics, Day VIII

 (contd.)

Day VIII

One Last Hurrah in the Sun

We definitely had ourselves a late morning on this last day of our Florida venture.  The sun was already high in the sky by the time we started crawling out of bed, still exhausted from our previous day's excursion to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.  We were looking forward to a chill, low-key, poolside/packing suitcases sort of day.

While the kids slept in, Kris and I threw on some flip-flops and stumbled across the resort parking lot to a nearby Dunkin Donuts (which you may remember me talking about on our last vacation down here.)  Figured we'd be nice parents and surprise our kids with some frozen drinks and donuts.  When in Rome.

After the kids got their lazy asses out of bed - and were subsequently pumped full of sugar - we made our way down to the pool area to get a few more hours of sun and chlorine in our system.  Like the last time around, we didn't have much on the agenda today, this being our last, full day in Florida before our flight back to Michigan the following day.  A morning/early afternoon enjoying the pool one last time, a last-minute trip out to Disney Springs to pick up any remaining souvenirs and items any of us might want to snatch up, returning to the condo in order to re-pack up all our luggage, and getting to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

None of us were feeling overly energetic to dive straight into the pool quite yet - like I said before, we were all dragging a bit considering we had tackled two, full Disney parks the day before - so we just quasi- fell asleep in the sun for a bit first.

Abby - wedgie and all - passes out under a lounge chair.

After a few hours - and some much-needed showers, I will add - we prepared to set out for Disney Springs.  The girls wanted to putz around in the stores again, just to make sure there wasn't anything they had missed before (neither of them had bought very much in terms of souvenirs on this trip, despite the fact that they were rolling with much more spending money than the previous trip.)

After a not-nearly-as-painful-as-last-time experience with parking (I will say that it's far easier finding a parking spot on a weekday afternoon than, say, a weekend evening), we rode down the Lime Garage escalators and came out into the Outlets section of Disney Springs.

Still hot as f*** out, just in case you were curious.

We looked around this Ron Jon for quite some time, believe it or not. . . which is weird for our family because none of us really get down with the vibe of this place.  We love our tropics, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't really call us 'beach' or 'surf' people by any means.  In the end, no one bought anything from here, and we moved on.

Kris and I didn't really get a chance to check out the Outlets last time we were here, so we made a point of it to drag the girls around to a few of the stores (not the super fancy ones, though - none of us are buying Prada or Gucci or that kinda nonsense.)

This area snakes out in multiple directions, it's kinda confusing.

Kris checks online prices in the Levi's store (deals were better online and in Birch Run's outlets back home, so we didn't get anything here, either.)

After an hour or two of popping in and out of different name-brand stores in the Outlets - and not buying anything - we said 'screw it' and headed in to the marketplace area of Disney Springs (forget what it's called now.)

By this point in time, it was in the late-lunch/early-dinner neck of the woods, and the kids were definitely getting hungry again.  Kris was pretty indifferent, so I suggested we give Raglan Road a shot (it had been easily 15 years since Kris and I ate here last, so it was definitely overdue.)  Alayna was pretty excited about trying Irish food for the first time, so we put our name down on a wait list and headed back over to the pub's merch store next door to kill some time.

Hey look - here's this guy.

(I bet those are glued together or something.  No way that's free-standing.)

Believe it or not, we didn't buy anything here, either.  Usually I pick up a shirt, or a pint glass, or something. . . but I just didn't see anything I really wanted.  I seriously picked up, like, four things on this entire trip, I have no idea what's happening to me.

After a half an hour or so, Kris received a text saying our table was ready.  We ordered some waters and began to peruse the pricey, pricey menu. . .

I was more warm than hungry - which is honestly par for the course on trips like this - so I only had a beer.  In my defense, though, it was a 12% beer, so it sat heavy.

Alayna ordered some kinda steak/potatoes/onion rings entree that was like forty f***ing dollars, but Abby (thank God) just ordered a kid's mac n' cheese.  Now I don't mind dropping a ton of money on a nice dinner at a classy restaurant, but pushing $100 for lunch at a pub seems kinda ridiculous to me, honestly.

I do love the decor in this place, though. . .

Live Irish music.  Always awesome.

Checking out handmade prints of some kind from a local vendor, following lunch.  They have small kiosks like this scattered throughout Disney Springs, they've been a staple for the last twenty years or so.  

Kris, waiting nearby on her phone.  Probably texting.

We passed by this T-Rex restaurant like a dozen frickin' times and never once went in.  But we've eaten there before a few times, and it's nothing special - very similar in price, taste, and vibe to, say, Rainforest Cafe or something else along those lines.

This new walkway - which they must have built sometime in the last three years (because it definitely wasn't here when we were here last in 2019) - is super convenient: it cuts down the walk time from the T-Rex area of Disney Springs to the Rainforest Cafe area by, like, half.  Cuts right across the lake so you don't have to walk around it like some kind of asshole.

As previously discussed, this place has mediocre, over-priced food, but some cool atmosphere - the girls always liked poking their head inside to see the animatronic animals and the fish tanks.  And of course the merch store next door. . .

We headed into one of the designated Christmas Ornament stores from there, and picked out yet another Disney ornament for our tree so that we could properly commemorate our trip (I think we have three ornaments that serve that purpose now - a little excessive.)  After picking one out, I got into a very, very long line, and Kris took the girls next door to another store. . . where she, for whatever reason, took this picture of Abby high-fiving inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Woods.

We had stuck around Disney Springs a little longer than we had expected to, but oddly enough we had very little to show for it - not a whole, hell of a lot of shopping done on this trip compared to last time around (when we, admittedly, went a little ape-shit with the souvenir-buying.)  After several hours of walking around in the sun, we were all looking forward to maybe squeezing in one, last dip in the pool before having to begin the packing process.

Another glorious sunset over Central Florida.  Say what you will about the traffic and the urban sprawl, but you can't really compete with sunrises and sunsets down here. . .

Another frozen drink by the pool.  Because it's vacation and there are zero f***s given on vacation.

After awhile of hanging out in and by the pool, the girls went back upstairs to shower off, catch up on Stranger Things, and start unwinding (the next day - traveling back up to Michigan - is always like running a gauntlet of stress, anxiety and exhaustion.)  Kris and I stayed down by the pool and had a couple more drinks, enjoying our last evening's perfect weather. 

Kris is a big fan of the pina coladas from this Tiki Bar, they put a lot of love into her drinks (she's on a first-name basis with more than one of their bartenders, after all.)

Sunset over the Disney Parks. . .

Well, Florida was fun while it lasted, I guess. . .

- Brian