Disney Adventure - Day 3

Exploration/waiting day. Phew! I'm tired! And we haven't even set foot in one Disney park yet. I think I must be getting old!

J-Mav and I left the condo around 9am this morning with a loose plan -- find the giant Buzz Lightyear and see the Lego sculptures at Downtown Disney. Mission accomplished, and then some!

We made the very short, very well-marked drive to the All-Star Resorts area and gained access through the gate by just showing a photo ID. The very nice gatekeeper told us exactly how to get to said Buzz Lightyear at the All-Star Movies Resort and gave us some other helpful pointers. We hit paydirt! Not only did we see a ginormous (as in, like four stories tall) Buzz Lightyear, but we also saw several large buckets of green army men and a few other very large characters from Toy Story. In another part of the resort, we saw some huge dalmations. And then we found a part of the resort dedicated to the Mighty Ducks movies. Huge hockey sticks! Huge nets! Huge goalie masks! AND a pool in the shape of a hockey rink, complete with lines, faceoff circles, and Goofy in net on the pool deck. Very cool.

While all of this took little more than a half hour, J-Mav was already complaining abou this legs hurting. I was thinking I was going to be in for a long day! So we hopped in the car and backtracked to the All-Star Sports Resort. Apparently the three-minute car ride rejuvinated J-Mav's legs because he ran around the sports-themed resort with no trouble (and no memory that his legs hurt). We saw ginormous footballs, huge baseball bats and balls, very large basketball hoops, and humungous tennis rackets. There was also a big football field, with regulation goal posts. J-Mav showed off some of his moves (with a phantom football).

From there we journeyed down Buena Vista Blvd. to Downtown Disney. We shopped; we checked out the Lego sculptures (J-Mav didn't see there was a whole Lego store, and I didn't mention it); we tried to eat lunch at T-Rex Cafe after more complaining about tired legs, but J-Mav was scared of the animatronic dinosaurs, so we opted for the tamer Earl of Sandwich instead; he rode a carousel; I did some damage on the credit card at the Christmas Shoppe; we tried on goofy (and Goofy) hats and took pictures; and we just hung out and had fun.

From there we decided to ride around on the monorail and check things out. In hindsight, I should've just parked at the Contemporary Resort and gotten on the monorail there. However, I had it in my head to go to Fort Wilderness for some reason. So we went there. We took a bus to boat dock, and a boat to the Contemporary. We got on the monorail and did the loop (Contemporary Resort - Transportation Center - Polynesian Resort - Grand Floridian Resort - Magic Kingdom). When we got back to the Contemporary, we decided we'd switch monorails and do the Epcot loop, too. So we stayed on for one more stop (Transportation Center) and waited for the other monorail. J-Mav thought Spaceship Earth at Epcot was awesome. Wait until he finds out there's a ride inside!

While the Epcot loop seemed like a good idea at the time, when we were done, we still had to switch monorails, ride around the entire loop back to the Contemporary Resort, walk down to the boat dock, take the boat across to Fort Wilderness, and hop on the bus to the front of the campground. All of that riding around took most of the afternoon -- but I think I'm now an expert in Disney Transportation in just one day!

We stopped in the trading post at the campground and grabbed milk and some frozen chicken nuggets for dinner (which J-Mav ate ALL of... 20 of them... I think he's growing). I had promised J-Mav he could go swimming. By the time we got down to the pool at the condo, it was pushing 6pm, and the wind had picked up during the day. So while J-Mav seemed comfortable in a pool that is heated to about 80 degrees, I was sitting on the pool deck in two sweatshirts, wrapped in a beach towel!

Now we're in for the night (at least until we have to go to the airport to pick up Hubby and Keeper Boy), and watching a Scooby Doo movie. Good day! The real fun starts tomorrow...
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Meanwhile in Niagara Falls...
The boys won their game this morning, ensuring them a spot in the championship game this afternoon. They played for the championship against the only team they hadn't beat in the rest of the tournament, giving Keeper Boy another shot at them since he was in net for the game they tied. Long story short, they won the game 7-1 (and the championship!)! A great weekend for the team. :) So now Keeper Boy and Hubby are en route. It sounds like both of them were hoping to snooze on the plane.