Overnight, the clocks went back over here, which meant Neil lost an hour for the second week in a row. It did, however, give him an extra hour to get over the jet lag, and gave me a chance to catch up on the disturbed sleep I had suffered the night before.
The weather, though, was not great on our first morning in Kissimmee and was forecast to get worse as the day went on. This made Neil grumpy and us sad.
I sat outside for a while. Although it was cloudy, it was still lovely and warm, and I caught up on even more admin that had arrived overnight, including updating the credit card linked to the transponder used to pay the Florida toll fees. Even though I still had credit on the account, the email advising me from the Toll Authority was unnecessarily aggressive, telling me to get it sorted – now!
Whilst sitting there, I mused about how relaxed I was feeling about this trip. There was a time, especially when we were here with the boys when they were younger, that I felt an intensity to make every moment count for everyone. We used to have an almost minute-by-minute schedule, which was fixed and had little flexibility. Now I feel differently and am really quite chilled about it all and it was rather nice.
Karen and Neil soon joined me, and we had a pleasant couple of hours outside, hoping the sun would break through. It didn’t, and the forecast was becoming more certain that rain was on its way later in the day.
The decision was made to get ready and head to the outlets, as the weather wouldn’t matter too much while we were shopping. We set off on the 30-minute drive in the Sunday morning traffic at around 10.45am.
We parked in the usual place on the ‘other’ side of the road, wandered across and arranged to meet Neil on the usual benches whenever he was ready. Karen and I wandered around a few shops, but at that point there was nothing in particular we were looking for, and certainly nothing we necessarily had the space in our bags to take back with us.
Karen had a look in Lululemon, a shop I had never ventured into before. I am not sure whether it is named after the wee Scottish singer or the Brazilian politician! It was rammed with women hunting for bargains. Karen found none. The prices were still eyewateringly high. Leggings that were originally $180 were still being snapped up at $120. Just plain black leggings, with no discernible label on them. Quite ridiculous.
It felt as though rain was in the air as we found a table undercover to wait for Neil. I wandered off to get a Starbucks for Karen, without realising that it had also reopened at its original location, right behind where we were sitting, which was a tad annoying. As a treat, I got Karen one of her much-loved blueberry muffins, which, after she had devoured it, she said she didn’t actually want. Sometimes my mind simply cannot compute her.
Neil rejoined us with some purchases, and we walked back to the car to drop off the bags before having a look at the shops across the road. Karen disappeared into the new Primark and reported that it was just as busy and chaotic as at home. Neil and I waited for her in the North Face shop, where Neil pointed out that some of the original prices for coats were for more than his car was worth.
We drove back to the villa, by which time it had started raining. Karen used the time before we headed out for dinner to catch up on the Strictly results show. I continued reading my book.
At 5pm we drove to Outback for dinner, which was quite empty for a Sunday evening. We all had the usual steak and, as usual, it was quite top-notch.
As we drove towards Disney Springs, the rain started again, although very lightly. We parked in the Orange Garage and walked out. The rain was more of a mizzle than a drizzle. It was a lovely temperature for walking around and all rather pleasant.
We popped into the usual places. I was pleased that the soccer shop wasn’t stocking any Scummer shirts, which would have put a real downer on the evening. Attanasio needs to use his influence to get a Canary display in the window ASAP.
In the full-price Columbia shop, we just laughed at the prices. There was some lovely stock, but unless we could get it at least 50% off, there was no way we could justify the cost. Karen reminded us that it was this time last year that she found the shorts she really liked in here but baulked at the price. She had subsequently purchased them last week at the outlets for just $9 – a 70% reduction.
In the Lego shop, I admired the new Downton Abbey house, something I would like to build in the future. I’ll keep an eye out for it on eBay when we get home and then resell it again later.
Whilst we were in the largest Disney shop in the world, the rain became heavier, meaning our walks between each of the shops got much quicker.
By the time we left the Christmas shop, it was proper, normal rain. On the way back to the car, we saw that the Gideon’s Bakehouse shop had a relatively short queue. As I had never been into the themed shop, I queued for about seven minutes with Neil, and we purchased some of their expensive but oh-so-good cookies, one for each of us.
When we came out, the normal rain had turned into Florida rain, and we got quite soaked getting back to the car.
It was not a fun drive back in the torrential rain and, typically, it eased just as we pulled into the drive.
We all had half of our individual cookies with a drink in the lounge before retiring, one by one, to bed for the night.
I just hoped that the wet forecast for all of tomorrow would turn out to be quite wrong.
