 |
| Before the race. When we looked fresh. With our duckies. |
 |
| Wogging through the bubbles!! When we may not look as fresh. But we still have our duckies!! |
Eventually we did finish and get our medals (yes, medals for a 5K!). There was also a lot of snacks and beverages at the finish - we had our hands full - and A SHAVED ICE MACHINE!!! Did I mention that all this was free? Anyhow, we loaded ourselves up and headed back to the car.
We were hot and sweaty and damp, so as soon as we got back to the hotel, we got showers and cleaned up, just in time to head back to Epcot for some more food and wine. Unfortunately, it was still very warm and sunny, so the walk over pretty much obliterated all the nice coolness and freshness that we had achieved. Our plan was to hit the kiosks at the back of World Showcase. That plan lasted about three minutes, or as soon as we saw the lines at the Ireland station. We skipped Ireland and headed for Canada, Greece, and Hawaii. By this time, the crowds were back at 802 gazillion, as well as the temperature, which was about 802 degrees. We got our food samples and managed to find half a bench on which to put our food to share. The food was delicious, but I was pretty much on a mission to stay in the shade, which wasn't all that great.
We decided to try a few more stations, and I went to the Dominican Republic. Where I was told that the Sugar Cane Cocktail was out (they were running low last night, and nobody had replenished it) and one of the other dishes would be a 20-minute wait, which would have meant another 20 minutes in the oven of Epcot. Instead, when I went to pick up my food, I was told that the fish wasn't ready, so I stood around waiting while holding the two dishes that were in stock. Meanwhile, Molly was at the cheese station waiting for them to restock the cheese and KB was once again staking out a bench in the shade. Eventually our desired foods were ready, so we converged on KB's bench and ate whatever we had been given.
By this time, we had had it with the heat and the crowds and the running-out of foods, so we decided to call today's food festivities over. Molly had a mission to go get a Pandora bead and a Passholder Coin, and went in search of those, while KB and I headed to Starbucks for a long tall shaken iced tea. Once we had those, I went to stand in the hot line to get my second stamp for my free wine glass. Once I had that, we went to join Molly in the Passholder Coin line and stood with her until finally it was her turn. She and KB decided to go to the Magic Kingdom and I opted to return to the hotel with the goal of getting into a nice cold pool. Which I intended to do, until I got back into the nice cool room with the nice comfy bed.
Eventually KB and Molly returned and cooled down and we decided to go look at Pandora rings at the mall, because there was a special sale of buy two, get one free (that way, we could all get a ring). Several hours later, we left with 12 rings. Just don't ask questions. We got four rings free. And tried on every ring in the store. What can I say - I think we all had heatstroke.
We had decided to have a quiet night in the room and went to Target to purchase "Pitch Perfect 2." As we were walking out, I suggested to Molly that perhaps we should change our flights to Sunday night instead of early Monday morning. KB had a client coming in early Monday morning. We decided to table the discussion until dinner, which would be a repeat performance at Shake Shack.
Once we got there, all parking was impossible. We tried the outside lot, but every spot was taken. We decided to try the parking garage, and barely got out of that traffic tie-up with our sanity still intact (well, what was left of our sanity). We decided to try the lot one more time and God found us a place when some dude was leaving and pointed our his place.
Once we were at our table, we discussed changing our travel plans, and KB agreed that it would be a good idea. I pulled up the flights and saw that the change was available, so I changed mine. Molly and KB started the process, but when Molly went to book hers, it popped up that the flight was full. I guess I got the last seat. KB couldn't even begin to change hers, since it was full. Molly tried again, and managed to get a seat - and then noticed that she had just changed her flight to Monday night instead of Sunday night. So, there we were - three travellers with three different flights. Molly's Octoberfest beer finally arrived (they had run out when we ordered but we didn't know until they started to pour it) and pondered our fate. The girl who brought Molly her beer was very apologetic and said she would bring us some free ice cream. We munched on our burgers and fries until someone wondered - why don't we just rent a car and drive? Brilliant!! Ice cream for everyone!!
And so Molly started on that process, and saw that we could rent a car for around $80 for a mid-size SUV, and so the deal was struck. We would return the rental car she had and pick up another and for a fraction of our existing/changed flights, we would be home on Sunday night. We dropped KB off at the hotel and headed for the airport for the car switcheroo. We turned in one, finished the paperwork for the second, and headed to the garage for the new car. The dude out there told us to pick out any car on the first line. Which had several mini-vans. I went back and asked him if they would count, and he said yes. So, now we were going home in a full-size mini van with a DVD player!
We headed back to the hotel to shower and get packed up for our drive tomorrow. Time to head home!
******************************************************************************************
Thankful today for: fun 5K and treats afterward; food at Food and Wine; Pandora ring shopping and sweet saleslady;dinner at Shake Shack and planning travel; car return and pickup and bonus van rental
No comments:
Post a Comment