Goodbye Disney (For Now)- Friday, February 21, 2025

     Today was the coldest morning yet, sunny, but with temperatures in the 40s.  Still, we know it's going to be worse when we get back to Buffalo.  Scott finished typing yesterday's blog while Julie packed the room up.  

    Scott and Emma had been talking about taking a walk ever since they arrived here but hadn't found the right time to do it.  They went for a long stroll this morning that took them around Hourglass Lake, which took them over to the nearby Pop Century Resort.  Scott had seen it several times before but only from a distance.  Julie hasn't wanted to visit it because she says it is "dooky."  It's not, really.  It is set up the same way that the other "value resorts" are.  In this case, it has areas that are themed to the decades of the second half of the 20th century.  The giant characters in the courtyard areas go with the decade their movies were released- Lady and the Tramp in the 1950s, Baloo and Mowgli in the 1960's, and so on.  There are also giant versions of objects associated with that time.  The 1970s were Scott's favorite because of the gigantic Big Wheel that looked just like the one Brian used to have and the giant Mickey Mouse telephone that looked almost exactly like the one that Julie had right after we got married.  As they walked, they read signs that mentioned trivia and events for each year from 1950 to 1999. 

    After they circled back around the lake, they went to the one part of the Art of Animation resort that they hadn't seen anything of yet.  It was the Cars section with all of the characters from Radiator Springs sitting around the area, and traffic cones by the pool.  Lightning McQueen and Mater were there, but Emma was most impressed that Doc Hudson was there too.

    At the main building of the Art of Animation, Scott stood in line by the baggage area and signed up for a trolley to move the luggage, since it was such a long walk from the room.  By the time he got back with it, Julie had the room packed and ready to go.  We put the luggage on the cart, with Abby riding in the middle of it, and headed out.  We had to check out by 11:00, but our Mears bus to the airport wasn't due to arrive until after noon.  (Actually, since Julie had signed up Emma at separate time from the rest of us, Emma was scheduled for an earlier bus.  The rest of us were signed up for one that wasn't due to arrive until after 1:00, but the driver let us get on the earlier one, luckily.  The same thing had happened when we came from the airport on Monday.)

    Things went relatively smoothly at the airport.  We were afraid of how Abby might react to getting back on the plane, but she was in a great mood the whole time.   The plane itself was truly a budget flight with seats that were way too small.  Abby did fine except for one or two little times when she started to whine, but we kept the window shade down, and she used her iPad to distract her.  Once we were airborne,  she napped for much of the way, and at the end of the trip she was proud of how brave she had been. 

     Once we disembarked in Cleveland, Julie bought Emma and herself some strawberry refreshers at Starbucks.  Unfortunately,  Emma lost most of hers when it got bumped over when she sat it on the floor in the baggage claim area.  It left a big pink puddle on the floor.

    We got the shuttle to the place where we had left the car, and we headed out to find a place to eat.   We eventually found a Denny's.  While we were waiting for our food, we each listed our highs and lows for the trip.  Mom went first.  Her high was the weather.  Even though there there were some cool times and some cloudy times, there was also sunshine and times we could just sit outdoors.  Her low was how much her knee bothered her, especially on the last day at the Magic Kingdom.  Abby said her favorite part was the swimming.  The part she liked the least was the Figment ride.  That makes sense, because it was the first one that she was on and the darkness and noises through her for an unexpected loop.  Emma's high was Epcot, with the food and drinks.  Her low was how her feet hurt.  Dad's high was seeing his girls happy and spending time with each of them (the three that could make it, at least).  He hesitated to say what his low was, but Emma and Julie speculated that his low was how much of the original plans had to change because someone was scared of rides and someone else couldn't walk well. 

    Julie was ready for the drive home, as long as the weather was better than when we drove to Cleveland on Sunday.  It was, and we got home a little after midnight.