The Magnificent Seven, Day VII

 (contd.)

Day VII

Pop Century and Disney Springs

We had ourselves another morning of sleeping in a bit - no amusement parks on the agenda today, as this was the Johnson's last day in Florida - and the only thing that required us to get up and go anywhere was one, last visit to Disney Springs.

Their flight didn't leave 'til like 6:30pm, so they wanted to be out of the resort by like 4pm at the latest. It wasn't even 11am yet so we had plenty of time to do one, last circuit of shops and eateries before heading back to Pop Century.

I ended up buying this mug while we were poking around shops today - has the retro 'D' logo from the '80s, along with iconic buildings from the parks, and the size and shape of the mug are perfect for lazy mornings listening to vinyl in my Study.

Ghirardelli. Nobody bothered popping in there for free chocolates this time around. 

The girls all wandered off into the trendy, outlet area of the Disney Springs, while adults hit up a couple of the more Disney-oriented stores.

This Co-Op store is new(ish), and had some cool stuff in there.

I love vintage TV sets. Wouldn't mind a wall of these in my Captain's Quarters downstairs, that'd be bad-ass.

Heading west from Marketplace, we passed in front of the Lego Store (which we didn't bother stopping at) and saw a few, familiar faces.

Meanwhile, the girls continue shopping in the fancier boutiques on the other side of the shopping plaza.

Remember this restaurant? Food sucks but the atmosphere was perfect when your kids were, like, four years old?

This place looks completely different from when Kris and I used to hit it up on an almost weekly basis back in 2007.

I'll never skip this bar again, it was awesome.

Had to move through this giant, train station-ish building in order to get to the 'outlets' (for lack of better term) in order to meet up with the girls.

Coming out the other side of that tunnel-ish building, you find yourself in a canyon of trendy, fashion brands.

It was super hot out (duh), and approaching lunch time, so we gathered up the girls and ushered them to a nearby restaurant the Johnsons had been to on a previous trip.

The Polite Pig - a solid barbecue joint.

Weird pig statues on the front counter you get to check out while waiting in line to order.

They only had four sauces, but they were okay. Big fan of the Black Pepper one, at far left.

Kris, the girls and I weren't super hungry, so we split this sampler tray of various things between our entire family. I didn't get a pic of it before the girls took some of the items off the tray, but it was filled up with trays of random crap. Two things of fries, chips, two things of coleslaw, a couple pickles, a couple diced sausages, a crap-load of pulled pork, tri-tip steak, couple things of brussel sprouts, several cornbread muffins, several pieces of chicken, etc.

After lunch, the girls wanted to hit up that giant, Disney merch store - The World of Disney.

Different sections of merch in this place (if you've never been there before) - it's almost like a mall unto itself.

Finding others in this store is next to impossible - if you lose them, you'll probably never see them again.

After everyone picked up what they wanted, we decided to head back towards the bus pick-up area and head back to Pop Century.

Passing over the. . . pond? Pool?

Sadly didn't get a beer from this place at all this year, but Erik and I did use the restroom here at one point. So there's that.

Awaiting the shuttle to the resort. It was now about 1:30pm, so the Johnsons needed some time to finish packing up all their stuff and double-checking their room before they headed out.

Only ten minutes later, we were back to the resort.

We decided to stay out of the Johnson's hair by going down to the pool and hanging out there until they were cleared out of their room. After a bit they came down and hung out poolside with us for a bit before it was ultimately time for them to head to the front of the resort.

Courtney scheduled an Uber driver and we waited with them and all their crap until they were picked up. Fortunately, aside from a bumpy ride on the flight, they didn't have any major pitfalls on their return journey back to Michigan.

We spent all, damn day down by this pool, from 1:45pm 'til about 8pm. The weather was perfect for it, and it sure as hell beat being cooped up in the hotel room all day.

Taking a snack break.

These squirrels show no fear when it comes with interacting with humans. Adam told us this year that when Covid shut down all the properties for a couple months, TONS of animals - birds, squirrels, etc. - were found dead from starvation. They've lived their whole lives on a diet of french fries, dropped ice cream, and what not. I'm sure that's super healthy.

This guy rarely left us alone. I wanted to crush it with a rock.

Adam popped by after work for a couple beers and to visit some more, and ended up hanging out until we were done with the pool (around 8pm.)

The girls were pretty pooped after a full day out shopping and swimming in the sun, so they were content just hanging out in bed and ordering out for dinner.

Kris and the girls, checking out the online resort menu (you could order your meals online and they would make them for you to take back to your room.) Since I'm the Dad in the group, I offered to walk down to the cafeteria and pick up our crap.

Alayna's loaded fries. I went with that roasted chicken meal again - wanted something healthy after snacking on barbecue and snacks all day.

We found some energy later in the evening, however, so we decided to venture down to the Hippie Dippie Pool one last time to just beat outside under the palm trees. Along the way, Kris and Alayna found free bracelets outside someone's room (there's a Facebook page dedicated to this resort, and one of the things people do at this particular resort is leave small trinkets for others, whether to give away or trade.)

Poolside family selfie.

Abby takes an artsy palm tree pic.

We didn't hang out down there long before folks started getting drowsy, so we wandered back to the '50s.

Stay tuned for the Hough's Journey Home, coming up next. . .

- to be concluded. . .