Heading West to the "Original": Flight Home & Final Thoughts COMPLETE 4/10/06 About This Page:

[DawnDenise]

[b]Day 4, Part 3: Phone Tag, A Couple Drinks, and Finally Meeting a Friend

<font color="navy">We head into DTD and make our way over to the House of Blues to check on the wait time. They tell us it will be an hour and give us a buzzy thing. They tell us we can go as far as WoD but that’s about it. I have some time before I am to meet Karen so we head to an outdoor coffee bar. Everyone but myself order some kind of specialty coffee with some type of liquor. I go with a white Russian.

The conversation is good. We go over Judy’s list to see what she still needs to buy. She says she wants to go back to the Crystal Arts place in the Magic Kingdom after the fireworks as there are a couple of things she saw there. Chuck tells me he is glad that I am going away for awhile as he wants to buy me something. I cannot help but smile as he can never surprise me especially when it comes to Disney, but I sure do appreciate his attempts! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

We order a second round and then decide to go ahead and pay the bill as we are sure we will be getting called. Now I am not a coffee drinker in the least but Judy really wants me to try hers. It’s called a B-53 and has amaretto, Bailey’s, and Kaluha. If all coffee tasted like this, I would be addicted. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] I have to keep myself from not drinking more of her drink. I deal with my simple white Russian. At about the 50 minute mark, the buzzer goes off, and we make our way to House of Blues. I say good-bye to the gang and head over to Ralph Brennan’s.

I have not checked my cell phone so I decide this would be a good time. Well, looky there. I missed a call and have a message. My ringer is not the loudest one, so I am not surprised I missed it. It’s Karen, and she is telling me that they are stuck in LA traffic. I get her number and call her back. She tells me that they are going to miss the PS but would call me when she hit property. Her and Zack were going to renew their APs and grab a bite to eat within the park. She tells me to use the PS for Brennan’s if they haven’t already gotten something to eat. (I can’t remember the exact details but I think this is what happened.)

Well, I go into the House of Blues in search of the rest of the gang. I want to offer the chance for Brennan’s but they are already into appetizers and drinks when I finally find them. I take a seat and a waiter appears out of nowhere. He takes my drink order. How he heard me, I have no idea. The atmosphere of this place is rockin’ to say the least. I have my first taste of catfish as the appetizer of choice was catfish bites. Not bad!! The waiter returns with my drink and we go ahead and place our entrée orders. I go with the open faced turkey Manhattan. Yummy!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] We really enjoy the food and the atmosphere at the HoB. Chuck and I plan on checking out the WDW version on our next trip.

I have one more drink with dinner so the current count is 4. The rest of the gang wants after dinner coffee but since I do not drink coffee, I have another White Russian. So now we are at 5. I do not feel the effects at all. Well, not until I stand up after we pay our bill. The world starts to move on me and I take it nice and slow outside to get some fresh air. All I can think of is that I am going to be buzzin’ when I meet up with Karen and Zack and how embarrassed I am going to be. Luckily, the fresh, cool air perks me up. I notice that I miss another call from Karen. Darn loud music! I mean, it’s not like I could have switched the phone to vibrate. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] Anyway, I call Karen back and she tells me they are going to grab something to eat at Pizzaport. I tell them I will come find them there as we are headed back to the parks.

We get to the entrance and there is a huge line to get back into the park. It probably takes about 15 minutes for us to get through. Once inside the gates, I kiss the husband, tell him where I will meet him and the in-laws, and a hobbling off I go. I am amazed at how fast I am moving in and out between people. CMs are already blocking off Main Street for the fireworks. You cannot go against the grain. If you need to get back to the right side of Main Street (Facing the Castle), you have to go all the way around the hub and down the left side. I could already predict that it was going to be very interesting finding the rest of the gang.

I make my way into Tomorrowland and boogie my way back to the Pizzaport. I immediately see Karen and kind of skipped my way up to her. There is no hesitation and hugs are immediately exchanged. Zack is standing over by the entrance to Pizzaport and is a little hesitant about coming over. Well, that doesn’t last long. I call him out and make him come over and give me a hug. We start chatting back and forth while we are walking. We stop at the store with all the Star Wars stuff in it. I make a mental note to come back here because I want to pick something up for Zack, but I unfortunately never make it there. I vow to get something to send out to my CA friends. Anyway….

We walk all the way around the hub just chatting away. As we are walking down the left side of Main Street, I luckily hear Chuck yell my name. We duck under the rope and find ourselves standing in the middle of Main Street. Introductions are made all around and we are within 5 minutes of the fireworks beginning. Judy is the short one of the group and all the people around us are so cool about making sure she can see. We hear the opening sounds of the music and the dimming of the lights. YAY!!!! I am so looking forward to “Remember…Dreams Come True.”

Eileen described these fireworks in great detail so I won’t bore you with that. I’ll just let you know that I love them. The perimeter fireworks, the lasers, the music….awesome. I video some of the performance but then just watch it in amazement. Since we were leaving the next morning, I could not think of a better way of capping this vacation off. Here I am standing in the middle of Main Street with my hubby, my in-laws, and some good friends. I am definitely in my happy zone! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Once the show completes, Chuck and the in-laws go into the stores while I continue to talk with Karen and Zack. I wish I could remember exactly what we talked about but I know it is so easy to talk to Karen. We eventually get around to taking pictures. Zack takes pictures with both our cameras of the two of us.


Now as we are talking about this and that, I grab a picture of Zack. Well this turns into a mini photo shoot of the many faces of Zack!!







I have to tell you. Zack is an awesome guy! He is going to be famous one day. I know it in the bottom of my heart. So, we here at Passporter can say, “I knew him when”. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] We talk for a little while longer, and we have to say good-bye. Zack is tired due to staying up late the night before. We go into the store and find my gang and we say good-bye. Now, I did not cry during the fireworks but when they left, I had tears in my eyes. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zcry.gif[/img] Judy looks at me like I am from another planet but Chuck just nods and understands. He knows from all of my reports that Passporter people are incredible human beings that have made my life even fuller. &lt;Big sigh&gt;

Ok, now that I have dried my tears yet again. I apparently ruin Chuck’s surprise by walking up about 5 minutes too early. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] I have an idea about what he bought. All of you will get to see pictures of it in the next update. (Mostly because I still need to take a picture of it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] ) Judy makes her purchases and she says she needs to go to World of Disney for a couple of more things.

We say good-bye to Disneyland and make our way back into DTD for the last of our shopping. I pick up my scrapbook and a kit. I pick up a shirt for Chuck that he had been eyeing all week. We all walk out of the World of Disney with our wallets a little lighter and our arms a little heavier with all the bags. It’s closing in on 11:00pm, and we still have to pack. We make our final journey from the parks to our hotel. Can you tell I am getting a little sentimental here? We head to our separate rooms and make plans to grab breakfast the next morning. Our shuttle is to be at the hotel at 11:45am.

Once Chuck and I make it back to the room, we both just crash on the bed for about 20 minutes. We sit and talk about the vacation and how much we really did enjoy it. Then Chuck asks if I am going to take off my shoes. Now…I have not complained about my toe for the past 3 hours. I do not want to take off my shoes though. Being the wonderful hubby he is, he takes off my shoes and surveys the damage. I am actually impressed. My bandage job held up great. Kudos to me!

We finally decide to do the sad task of packing. We grab some Cokes from the fridge, the package of Fudge Stripes, and open the suitcases. It took some creative packing on our part but we get everything in and hope that they make the weight limits. Chuck has to carry one of my surprises as it’s too big. (He did question why he didn’t have it shipped home.) We both take showers and climb into bed. When we first planned this trip, we didn’t think we were going to come back again. We decide that night as we are drifting off to sleep that we will be returning.</font>

Coming up: Our Flight Home and Final Thoughts