I was awake very early today — early enough to be sitting outside by the pool watching a beautiful sunrise over the lake behind us. I know I’ll be tired later, but it was worth it, even if it wasn’t exactly planned.
A couple of days before we left home, the clocks went back. Then we went back another four hours when we landed, and finally, over the weekend here, the clocks went back again. It’s no wonder my body clock is all over the place. I reckon I’ll be fully adjusted about the time we’re ready to fly home.
We were all up, fed, and ready to go out by 9:30 a.m. as planned. Today was supposed to be the coolest of our remaining days, so we thought we’d spend a bit of time at the outlets as soon as they opened. As usual, we parked “over the road” and then went our separate ways — Neil in one direction, and us in another. We were outside another Columbia outlet just as it opened, and I managed to find a nice shirt on the 70% clearance rail.
There were a couple of other things we wanted to find, including a Christmas present for a certain young lady — but we failed, as the shop we were looking for had closed in the last year. We ordered it online for delivery to the villa instead.
There was also a shop Karen wanted to visit to look for a mother of the groom dress for the wedding next year. She tried one on but was unsure, and after a WhatsApp consultation with Ellie, no purchase was made.
Karen went to sit down while I wandered off to get some drinks from Starbucks. There was no queue to order, but plenty of people waiting to collect. The problem was that everyone seemed to be ordering four or five complicated, probably expensive, cold drinks. I waited ages in the now hot sun. By the time I got back to Karen, Neil had joined us and was keen to return to the villa. We finished our drinks and walked back to the car after a quick look in the shops “over the road,” where, again, no purchases were made.
We all had our lunch rolls (with egg, to make up for not having any at breakfast) and then settled in for a few hours of making ourselves busy doing nothing. Karen may have had a little doze before completing her exercise regime in the now quite warm pool. I was feeling much more relaxed about the pool heating, as the owner had refunded the cost — instead of the meal we never had — as compensation for the mix-up when we arrived.
The wildlife over and in the lake kept us entertained. Now, being a wildlife expert, I can confirm there were big black birds, big white birds, squirrels, an alligator, and lots of large fish jumping. One of the birds may have been either a blue heron or a pterodactyl.
At 4 p.m., we headed out again — this time to Disney Springs for the first time this trip. It was great to be back. As usual, Neil went into the Pele Soccer shop, fully expecting to see our shirt for sale after some “hard work” from the NCFC commercial team. As usual, he was disappointed — especially as Wrexham’s first, second, and third team shirts were all on prominent display.
We visited all the usual places and, as usual, laughed out loud at the outrageous prices of everything — and bought nothing.
Just before 6 p.m., we found ourselves near Blaze Pizza, and as there was only a short queue, we decided to have dinner. To quote Karen, “our pizzas didn’t look substantial,” but they were — and quite delicious too.
Our meandering continued, leading us into the largest Disney store in the world. There were several things for sale at equally enormous prices — and none of us had the faintest idea what half of them were. Sweatshirts and T-shirts were at least quadruple the prices at the outlets, yet people were buying them like they were going out of fashion (which, in many cases, they already had).
I was allowed a look round the Lego shop. I still have Concorde waiting to be built at home, but there was nothing new that really caught my eye — apart from the Titanic, which I might look for second-hand on eBay in a couple of years. Neil thought I should go for the 18,000-piece, $999 Death Star, but I had no idea what it even was.
Instead, we went to Ghirardelli’s, where I got Karen a hot cocoa and Neil a milkshake, which they enjoyed sitting at our usual tables, listening to what I thought was a perfectly decent country band playing on the next-door stage.
What was supposed to be the coolest day (but perfect for us) turned into a cool night. Without jumpers, we could feel the temperature dropping as we made our way back round. Not before, however, our traditional visit to the Christmas shop, where we found no ornaments under $25 — and many of them not very Christmassy.
We drove home, with me triple-checking that the car lights came on automatically as we exited the car park. I didn’t want a repeat of being stopped by that very polite policeman last year.
Back at the villa, we all had a drink — of differing descriptions — and, like teenagers, spent a while playing on our phones before lights were out by 10 p.m.
