Chris and Jessica Johnson (Trip 2) - December 2004

Day Four- Monday December 27, 2004

Today was our last day at Celebration, and we'd been able to arrange for a late check out. The wake up call came at either 11 or noon, and we got up and got ready. While Chris was getting the car from the valet, I called Deb, to see what she was up to. The night before, we'd made tentative plans with Deb and Annette to meet at Downtown Disney for lunch. Deb was off to Cypress Gardens with Rick and Kayla, so I checked with Annette who was up for lunch.

We threw our stuff in the car and headed off to Downtown Disney. As we were approaching the Marketplace, we saw that Annette and Kyle were in the car next to us, so we sort of raced to find parking spots. After we were both parked, and had gathered our stuff from the car, we headed towards the Marketplace.

We made our first stop at Earl of Sandwich, to get lunch. I grabbed a table, while Annette, Kyle and Chris went to order. Chris got a meatball sub, while I got my usual club, and we hung out and ate. After we ate, Chris and Kyle decided that it was time for boating, so we made our way out, and over to the marina.

After signing the release forms, and loading the boys into their life jackets, they were off. Annette and I took a few pictures, and then decided we would go shopping. We started with the scrapbook store and the Gallery. Then we went to the Christmas shop, and then made our way to the nearly empty Disney at Home store.

Next up we hit the Pin store, and then I made a quick bathroom break. I found Annette in line for the bathroom as I was heading out, and just as I exited, Chris called to let me know that he and Kyle were back on dry land. We met up outside the Pin shop, and Chris ran in to check out a few pins they had, while Kyle told me about their boating adventures. It seems that in trying to jump their own wake, they managed to pretty well soak themselves.

Once we were back in a group, we headed into the Toy Store, where we found all sorts of good stuff. They were sampling the character hot chocolate, so we each tried one of the colors. I had the red Stitch one, while Annette had the blue Mickey one. As it turns out, some of the colors are actually White Chocolate, and it's not so great. The milk chocolate ones are good, and Stitch is one fo them. There was nothing we couldn't pass up, though, so we headed out. Kyle wanted to go to the Lego store, as did Chris, while Annette and I were heading for World of Disney, so we split up again.

Annette and I took our time going through the rooms, as we were looking for a few things. Joanie had mentioned earlier in the week that she'd gotten a Piglet antennae topper, so I'd been looking for one the whole trip. I was beginning to think she'd made it up, since I'd found all sorts of toppers, including Stitch and Nemo, but no Piglet. I checked the bins in the main center room, and no Piglet. I ended up checking the little bin they had at every register- and finally found one in the "men's" room at World of Disney. I grabbed him, and then we continued shopping.

Chris and Kyle stopped in, as they were back from the Lego store, and then informed us they'd wait outside. Annette and I finished the last few rooms, and paid for our goodies. Then we headed out to find Chris and Kyle. We were dreading saying goodbye when Kyle asked if we could go get ice cream, so we all set off for Ghiradelli's.

I'm allergic to milk, so we'd never actually been in this shop before. As it turns out, there are two sides, one that's primarily for candy, the other an ice cream shop. We learned this, because, of course, we chose the wrong side first. It wasn't a total loss though, since they were giving out samples of a caramel candy bar as you entered. So, we headed out and back around to the other side, where we got in a long line. Eventually we were able to order, and I headed outside to find some tables.

Chris came out to meet me with his little table tag, and shortly after that Annette and Kyle came out. Kyle had a giant chocolate ice cream cone that melted faster than he could keep up. Chris had gotten a rootbeer float, and it took a few minutes to arrive. We hung out for a long time, talking and helping Kyle catch up with his ice cream, until it was finally time for us to head out.

No one wanted to break up the fun, but Chris did have to get to work fairly early the next day, so we did have to leave. We said our goodbyes, and left Annette and Kyle to finish shopping, while we made our way back to the car. That was it- the end of another perfect holiday at Disney.

Our trip home was pretty uneventful. We got home, stopped for the mail, then lugged all our stuff up to the apartment, unpacked, and settled in for the night.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4