If the early part of our trip was a bit over-scheduled this ending part maybe went too far in the opposite direction. Although, that may have been exactly what was needed.
We woke up on Sunday morning with nothing on our agenda. After a leisurely couple of hours in our rooms - okay, leisurely is probably pushing it, the children were jumping on their beds. Bill and I were attempting leisure, but yelling at the kids to pipe down every 5 or so minutes - we made our way down to breakfast. We were sat in a different part of the dining room looking out along Middle Road. From our new vantage point we saw a really excellent playground just across the way. When we finished eating we headed right over there. It was brand new and had all the latest and greatest in playground equipment and the kids had a ball. Unfortunately it was I don't know how hot and the humidity was somewhere around soup. By about 11:45 we called it quits.
Having missed our dinner on the water the night before we decided to try for dim sum brunch at a resturant called Jumbo. It is in the habor and we had seen it while on our tour the day before. We took a cab to the ferry pier and the ferry to the boat. Devlin found it quite confusing. "Is this the boat we are eating on?" "No, honey, that one." The food was good, but the service was not exactly what we are used to. In Chinatowns in most US cities you don't order during dim sum, ladies come around pushing carts and show you what they have. Here you had to order most of your food and the carts really didn't have much variety - and what they did have was not what we are used to.
After brunch we returned to the hotel and got the kids in the pool. We then walked to a resturant maybe half a mile away at a local mall. The hotel staff recommended it when we told them we wanted some American kid friendly food. The place was called Dan Ryans Chicago Grill. Very bizarre to be eating in resturant themed to home - or at least their interpretation of home. They did serve chicken strips and french fries and pasta, so there was happiness. On the way home we stopped at a Nikon store where I was sorely tempted to purchase a D300. The price was very nice, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. One, this trip has already gone way over budget, and two, I am just not taking enough pictures, and not doing it the right way, to warrant that level of equipment.
Today was our second day at DisneyLand. Bill and I decided to be adventurous, something we always were before kids, but a little less so of late, and take the subway to DisneyLand. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. There were two transfers, but they were directly across the platform. The final train that just goes from the main subway one stop to disney and back, is a disney themed train with mouse shaped windows. We went in with a little more of a plan, or at least a list of things that we did not get done the first day and an idea of how to get them all done. Devlin wanted to see characters, get autographs, be photographed - the whole thing. The boys have decided that they are too old for that and wanted nothing to do with it. Mac wanted to ride Space Mountain again and again. Liam wanted back on the Buzz Lightyear ride. We all wanted to see the Stitch ride/show and the Festival of the Lion King. We also decided to get out of the park and eat our meals at the two Disney Hotels in the area. The plan actually worked quite well. We checked off everything on our list, and even were able to watch the fireworks from the hotel resturant. Mac is the family champ at the Buzz ride ( you get to shoot lasers at Zurg) more than doubling the best score of any other family member. We returned to our hotel happy, sweaty and tired. Bill is shaking his head over the Disney pins the kids and I all purchased.
Tomorrow we depart for home. Our bags are packed. The shuttle is reserved. The kids have one last chapter of their summer review books to complete and they will do it before we leave so that we don't have to lug them home. There has been good and bad in this trip. We have learned some lessons about how to plan future trips for the family. Things we learned will have a lasting impact on us. All in all, despite some earlier rantings, I am glad that we came. Keep in mind I say that before our flights home. Depending on how things go I may have a diffent outlook 2 days from now.
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