Running (walking) with Disney - Day 11

Our last day :(
Home :)

Hubby and I woke up early to the sound of fireworks??? Oh, yeah, that's how they start the races... so we quickly realized the half marathon was starting.
At first I thought, no problem... I will just go back to sleep... HA!
So the fireworks go off for each corral... tee hee, silly me. [Editor's note: The WDW Half and Full Marathons have corrals from A-P, so it was fireworks every 5 minutes or so for an hour and a half]

Then we remembered they were live streaming the race... oh bother.. now I need to see what I am hearing. And now it's all over... I am awake and thinking of coffee.
So we grabbed a laptop and found the live stream. It was fun to watch the last half of the corrals go and now we knew when to expect the fireworks to stop.

Once everyone was off and running the rest of the family started to wake.... we took it easy and planned on breakfast in the room with some fresh things picked up from Goods to Go to supplement.

Beyond breakfast it was time to pack up and get checked out.

Sooo, Owners Locker - are you ready to hear more?
It's a big plastic purple box, It lives in Orlando at a storage facility and we can fill it with the things we don't want to carry back and forth. They great people at "Owners Locker" bring it to wherever we stay when we check in, and then come back and pick it up when we are done. Awesome!
We have known about it for years, but never felt we had a need for it.. but we changed our minds.
With hubby going out once a year for races and then the whole family coming every other year in addition to that... there are items we could leave in our locker. We didn't think it would be enough to save us a checked bag. But there are items we seem to buy every trip and then have to throw away when we leave... now we can pack them up in our purple box and have them next time - YAY!!!

And boy did we pack it! Wow, the whole trip, we kept thinking of items we wished we had and then decided... hey, lets put that in our owners locker!
Plus the things we already knew we wanted to take to leave in the locker... 'cause we never wear our Mickey ponchos at home :(  - We filled it up and dropped it off at Bell services to be picked up later that day.

Once we were packed we loaded up and headed to the Poly.
I talked hubby into one last table service meal and you never have to twist my arm to eat at the Kona Cafe. We were able to get lunch reservations, so it was easy enough.

We really didn't have plans after lunch, but we had several hours before our flight. During lunch hubby had a great idea to rent a boat and enjoy Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon... sounded perfect. After we ate, we hopped on the monorail - we got off at the Contemporary and headed to the water. Our time our in the pontoon was great fun.

After a short monorail ride back to the Poly we remembered the new Dole Whip window!!!
Gotta have one... and why not share :)

Well, that ate up our extra time, so to the airport we went.
We picked up food to eat for dinner. The flight home was uneventful... which was a nice change of pace :)

Cool plane... this one isn't ours, its headed to Canada

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 10

10K and our last EARLY morning.

This morning was very very early for Hubby. The 10K started at 5:30, which translates to leaving the room before 4 am.
The kids and I didn't follow him to cheer. We talked about it, but ultimately decided keeping kiddos happy while watching and waiting for dad might not be easy :)

Hubby had a good race and returned back to the room to shower and recover, before a Character breakfast at 9:30...  its amazing how long the morning lasts when you get up before 4 ;)

Nice bling!

We had a nice leisurely breakfast with Pooh bear and friends.
Our little lady discovered a new love of Croissants.

On a side note... on our previous visit to the MK our little lady lost her camera. It was a new camera she had purchased for herself with Christmas money. We thought she had lost it on 7 dwarfs mine train... that it might have fallen out of her purse pocket and into the seat pocket, when she put her bag in it.
The day we lost it we popped into guest services twice to see if it had been turned in.. nope. But we were given the number for the big lost and found and told to call the next day. I forgot to call - I knew they kept cameras for a while, so as long as we checked before we left to go home - if it was turned in... we could still get it back. But really what was the likelyhood of all that?
So, this morning at breakfast I remembered!!! CALL LOST AND FOUND.
After we ate I found a quiet place and made the call. And they had her camera. They asked some questions to determine if the camera she was holding was really ours... how old was the person who had taken the pictures... when I said she was 8, the cast member was pleased. Apparently you can tell by the subject matter? Also asked who might be in the pictures and what landmarks might be pictured. Once she was comfortable with it being our camera... it was labeled with our names and set in the front for pick up from the Lost and Found at the TTC.

The kids and I had plans to ride some stuff and maybe shop... hubby planned to tag along... then go get a massage.
We enjoyed the park til early afternoon. Then hubby headed out - he planned to pick up the camera and then go to his massage. The kids and I stayed a bit longer then grabbed a bus back to the room.

waiting for his favorite attraction in MK... no joke. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho.. down the hill we go.

Meeting Elsa

Dinner tonight was pizza in the room, and it was delivered shortly after hubby returned from his massage. Good timing.

Using our new books to learn to draw characters. Forgive the unmade bed :) 

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 9

Race Day - 5K and Kids races

Today is the day I have worried over, prepared for, and over thought, for months and months. It's finally here and it's Freezing!

How on earth could I have planned for that?

38° in Florida, when just days before I was thinking I should have packed shorts.

Well 38° was when I woke up. Over the morning it warmed up to the low 40s.

Anyway. The cold weather was our main obstacle. Yes, the race started early: 6:15 am. And yes there were 10 thousand people... But the kicker for both kids was the cold. And just when you thought you were getting used to the cold.... The wind would pick up.....oh dear me. My sweet boy was fairly certain this was the worst plan we had ever had.

If you've done big race events like this you know about queuing into corrals. This was originally a concern of mine for our sensory sensitive kiddo. But today the only way to stay warm was to be packed in like sardines. And he did it. Mostly burying his head into me or dad. He even wanted an arm around him. So clearly cold trumps all.

getting into the corrals

walking toward the start line

But the race started and our corral went. And he did great. We walked with our friends and it was so nice.

Hubby and our little lady had a faster pace, Running and walking. They finished about 15 mins before us. And then met us at the finish line.

Stopping for a pic about halfway around

Woooo Hoo! Almost done! 

Somehow for the race itself, we weren't really cold. But the walk back to the car it hit us again. Bbbnrrrrrrrrrrr

Back in the room warm baths or showers followed by a second breakfast was a good way to recover.

Next event today was the kids races. And the lady was ready!

It was neat to watch and she had a good time. She did the 400 meter dash and the Mickey mile.

Pic in front of the 5K sign

with her 5K medal

View of the track - Kids Races

There she goes!!!!

Chillin at ESPN Sports 

After all the racing was complete for the day, we headed to Animal kingdom.

We had a short to do list at AK, and we were ahead of schedule.

Great animal viewing on the Safari today! 

Look! We are still on our feet!!! Help us!  

Braving Expedition Everest

We enjoyed the animals and the rides at Animal Kingdom for about 3 hours. Then it was time to eat dinner... and we were hungry. 
Pasta was calling -- to Noodles and Co we went. 

The weather was nice, but really never got warm today. So I guess this is winter in Florida?

We were heading to bed early tonight. We were up early today, but hubby is getting up earlier tomorrow to run the 10K.
Night night.

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 8

Studios day

Each day is harder to get up than the day before.... Oh dear. So eating breakfast in the room today meant my extra snoozing didn't hurt our schedule too badly.

We enjoyed morning at the Studios today. Doing two new things for our son. He resists new things, so he had a few alternate ideas for this time, but reluctantly gave in. In the end both new experiences we deemed "ok" and he might possibly do them again....some day.

Hat is coming down... so this is the last pic I will take of it.
Bye Hat!

After lunch we buzzed out to ESPN'S Wide World of Sports complex for packet pick up. Which means our race is TOMORROW!!!

Pick up went smoothly and we grabbed a few items from the expo before heading back to the room.

We were able to connect with some friends who are also out for the race. They came by our resort and hung out for a while. It was fun to see them here. And we hope to find them at the race tomorrow.

Dinner was take out from Qdoba, a familiar choice from home. And bed early, despite our neighbors' best efforts.

Sunset coming back to resort.

Oh Let's Sleep In!

We had a plan for breakfast this morning, but we all forgot about it - I blame sleep deprivation :)
It was 11 before we were all awake. And after noon by the time we left the room. Our plan today was to go to the Magic Kingdom and Mrs. J and I had reservations for Tea at the Grand Floridan early afternoon.
Well our timing was a bit off with a late start, so we went right to lunch at  Pecos Bills - this was my first time eating there. The condiment bar was great. I had heard about it but I was surprised by the size and variety. I am sure we will be back next time.  From here, we headed across the park to the People Mover, a very low-key ride, that for some odd reason is a favorite of mine. The J's know Disneyland, so riding something that isn't at DL was fun also. Just as our car had entered Space Mountain we stopped... not unusual. But unlike other brief ride interruptions, this one was lengthy... and ended with us walking off the ride with cast member chaperones. This was interesting, as I haven't done it before.

pic one of two in a series.... Our runner asleep around Disneyworld.... 

pic two of two ...... Yes, he looks awake... but is he really?

But the timing meant Mrs. J and I needed to head directly to Tea. The monorail was down for a while so we hoped on a boat and arrived right at our reservation time. I think we were the most casually dressed of the guests, but that didn't matter really.  We choose the Buckingham tea service and settled in to enjoy (what turned out to be) a two hour tea service.  I selected there own blend of tea, called Mad Hatter's something - It was wonderful!

the last course of our tea service was a trifle... soo yummy - pineapple and something. 

We enjoyed our tea and caught another boat back to MK. With just an hour until the MNSSHP start time, we didn't have time for much before it was time to depart. We gave the peoplemover another go, and also went on Buzz Lightyear, before departing.
The J's planned to rent a car from one of the onsite agencies that evening, but we arrived about 7, and apparently they closed at 6... so they will try again tomorrow.
The guys dropped us girls off and headed to Downtown Disney to find some dinner. Mrs. J and I relaxed and chatted, until they returned with Wolfgang Puck Express - Yumm.
After eating it was time to pack and get some sleep - our flight would be early tomorrow.
We said our goodbyes to the J's and set about it.

Race Night - day

Breakfast today was at the Kona Cafe. A favorite place of mine for breakfast, and based on the crowds and wait times, I am not alone. We had a great breakfast with Kona coffee french press and their famous Tonga Toast... what a treat!

We took the monorail tour and I spotted this in the tile floor at the Grand Floridan... I had never  noticed it before. 

Our afternoon included lots of lazy time in the room and a little nap for some of us.  We enjoyed a wonderful spaghetti dinner in the room, thanks to Mr. J. And soon the race prep would begin.
We were able to take a bus right from the resort to the race, which was more convenient than last year. Having done this last year, we knew what to expect, and it was very similar. Based on the bib numbers, it seems that it was a similar size crowd, but it felt more crowded.  We found a piece of parking lot and settled in.  Just as last year the DJ (bellhop) was great and the people watching was very entertaining. The J's and I headed to the spectators' area about an hour before the official race start and hubby wandered to his pacing group.

My favorite runner.

One other thing that we noticed was like last year was some minor issues they had with the speakers along the starting route, that kept cutting out. So the music and commentary was intermittent for those of use back a bit from the front. We hung out and saw hubby's group go by. We enjoyed the first two starts with fireworks and then made a bee line for the park, and the Villains Hollywood Bash.

His pacing group headed to the start... he is back a bit from the camera.

The Studios.. all to ourselves... almost :)

The J's with a local villain, apparently he wasn't very chatty?

Its great fun to be in a park when it's so close to being empty. Two times on Toy Story Midway Mania and one show of the Muppets and we decided to look for some dessert. We found huge milkshakes at the Dockside Diner and took our treats to watch the runners go by - hoping to see hubby.  Using the RunKeeper website we were able to figure out when he was coming by and attempted a few pictures.  Afterward, we were able to find an empty table back by the Dockside and we relaxed a bit until hubby was done. He had less than a mile left when we saw him, so it wasn't long until he found us and had a seat.
With last year's experience he knew a bit better how to recover and spent some time refueling and relaxing. Once he had recovered enough to change, he and Mr. J headed to Tower of Terror and Rock'n rollercoaster. Mrs. J and I did a bit of shopping and waited for the guys.  We headed out to find our bus around 3 am... I think we were all shocked to have made it to 3 am. The bus dropped us at the hospitality house at OKW and we walked back to our room, as the regular resort buses were no longer running. Hubby took a long soak in the tub and sleep wasn't far behind.

Food and Whine ;)

Today was our Epcot day! My favorite park!
We headed out the door about 10 this morning. Our plan was for 9:30, but hey we are left coasters :)
First stop at Epcot with our friends (the J's) was Spaceship Earth, followed by grabbing fast passes for Test Track on our way to the Food & Wine Pavillion.

Huge mobile at the top of this pavilion... how have I never seen this before?

We walked around inside, made some mental notes at the shop and took a look at the chocolate exhibit, before heading out.
(if you go, get the Drinking Chocolate... its amazing!)

Mr. J, tasting the Drinking Chocolate... and he has good taste in T-shirts too. 

All made out of CHOCOLATE, even the background picture is painted in chocolate.
You can say it, WOW!

With plans to come back to Future World for our Test Track fast passes, we headed for the food! Starting with the Terra booth and working clockwise around the lagoon.
Last year one of my favorites was the Chili Colorado that Terra had... and it was back! Yumm. I tried the curry as well, but the chili was better in my humble opinion.

Another favorite was the Empanadas in Argentina... so good!
As we continued our way around the lagoon, we hit the 3 Caballeros ride, and the Maelstrom ride in Norway. We sampled at booths along the way and made a stop in for School Bread - which is a new must have each trip for me. I shared it with Mr. J and we continued along the way. Eating and chatting.

The sky was amazing today. 

We tried Ribbon Ice Cream... Mango flavored.

A note about the food preferences of our little group. My  hubby and Mrs. J are both vegetarians... and as luck would have it both allergic to onions (but in different ways). I eat meat, not pork or fish. And Mr. J eats... whatever he likes :) So the festival had more offerings for some of us than others... but we all enjoyed it.
We found our way to the 12:45 show of American Adventure. And then it was time for our Test Track fast pass. Yes, it's true, you can't get much further away from Test Track than American Adventure, but whatcha gonna do?
After we took our ride, Hubby decided it was a good time for him to run over to the Wide World of Sports complex for Packet Pick up, while I continued to show the J's around Epcot. And we would resume eating when he returned.  So we headed to the Land for 'Living with the Land'. The J's have ridden Soarin', in CA and we choose not to wait in the standby line. After our boat ride through the greenhouses, we headed to the Seas with Nemo.
After finishing up Future World, we headed back over to the food and World Showcase. We hit a couple more food booths and I really enjoyed the pineapple fritters :)
Hubby met back up with us as we exited the circlevision in Canada and our group continued on to explore World Showcase and eat a bit more.  We wrapped up both the eating and the exploring in France and then wandered back to the room.
Tomorrow we hope to be lazy for the day. The race is at 10 pm.. with the post race party til 4 am... so a lazy day and maybe a nap sounds like a good idea.