Florida: Star Island, Downtown Disney and Medieval Times

Blogging is great if you have something to write about. Yesterday, the day was spent sitting around the pool at Star Island, reading books and generally relaxing. The girls slept and napped and played so there was little motivation to leave and for once, I decided that THAT was okay.

Star Island has been a great resort. There are pools and hot tubs, tennis courts and mini golf centrally located in the middle. There are bar staff and activity staff, with the convenience store so it feels safe to let the children loose a little so that they have some Independence. So much so, that I decided to go for a massage to fix the wicked pillow headache that I acquired on being here. No idea what villains stalked my sleep but I sure woke up worse for wear. The masseuse was amazing and managed to get my neck from terrible to not bad. The kids won ice cream and got sun kissed through cloud cover.

In the evening, the rain came so it seemed like a good idea to venture to Downtown Disney to get a small boy a birthday gift. With the construction and lack of map, I missed some great places to visit but managed to get thoroughly frustrated by Lego. In there, you can lose children in 1.2 seconds flat and they don't seem to have the stock that you would think they would. Disney Lego....out of stock. I wound up in a cloud of blue depression that just about killed my mood for the day. However, the bright side came with finding Pluto for my eldest and baby aristocrat for the younger so that was at least one mission accomplished. I think it would be a great place to eat and hang out sans kids, but with them...not a good idea.

This morning proved to be a lazy one as well. There are some great outlet malls near here so I stocked up on clothing for the coming birthdays and such, found fabulous coffee and shoes. From there, it was time for the girls spa appointments at Star Island. I was impressed. It was bibbity bobbity boo without the price tag. They were thrilled and looked lovely. Tiaras and magic wands were included.

Why? Medieval Times. My eldest loved it so much the last time we came to Disney that I promised to go back. It was just as good the second time. We had seats in the front, and cheered on the Yellow Knight enthusiastically. We were a party of 13 so we were loud and medievally. The food was delicious and plentiful as was the ale. They ply you with photos for purchase and allow you to walk through their museum exhibition beforehand. All in all, it was a great evening out for our last one together.

Tonight finished off with a birthday celebration for the wee man who is 4 and the party continued until, well now. I don't think we really got the hang of this time change. Our body clocks have just gone with the flow.

Tomorrow it is back to the Magic Kingdom. Everyone else, please stay home...love me.

I don't have a lot of images for this one that are any good. So much for that.

Kissimmee on Dwellable

Florida: Doing nothing and trying to be good at it.

The post-traumatic stress syndrome of traveling blues usually leads to sleep deprivation of some sort. This journey was no exception, but I was stunned to find out that this morning, I was the first to wake up. Really. That never happens by accident and I am usually offended when it has to happen on purpose. However, this morning I woke up bleary eyed at 11:45 am and realized that yes, I was awake. Yes, I was in Florida. Yes, that was sunshine outside and yes, I was wasting it. Snuggling in to try and get more sleep, that information went to my brain and no, more sleep was not possible. Getting everyone out of bed, showered, clothed and breakfast/lunched, it was time to catch up on the Olympics. There was a hockey game on between Canada and Finland so that finished my motivation. We watched and then went for a walk through the resort. I tried ignoring the sunshine but it didn't work. We are at the Mystic Dune Resort which has a lovely vast expanse of golf course to walk. There are hills and fountains, plus three pools. For the children, we found the activity centre and the mini golf course. There were even two ducks.

In the midst of trying to enjoy the surroundings, I found the front desk and lodged my complaint about the buglings. They are a sweet ant, apparently and while they have sprayed, they are not gone. They seem to be attached in some way to the toaster. I love the beauty of the resort and the spaciousness and the rooms are gorgeous. I hate the ants in the kitchen. I have nicely expressed my concerns and well...that timeshare presentation tomorrow? I am NOT going. However, if this is the worst part of the accomodation, I guess I can lump it. I am only a pretend princess after all. After strolling back to the room, it was time for some poolside fun. The pool is shallow enough that I can gleefully wander into a book and only have to glance at them from time to time. It was lovely and warm. However, in the process, I discovered that my eldest had outgrown her shoes. Now, I only packed last week. Last week, her feet were sized 5.5. This week, they are definately a 6 to 6.5. Gak. Areosoles was beckoning and so that let to outlet shopping for the family. We took four hours at the Premium Outlet Mall looking for shoes, watches, t-shirts and hats. I am also sulking because I managed to leave my credit card at the last store. It's a good thing that I don't really need it here. Sigh. It is cancelled now, and I will just have to make do. Around 9:00, supper became a concern. We Yelped restaurants and came up with the Smokey Bones as a choice place to go. Ummm...great plan but the traffic had other ideas. So, we stopped at another Yelped place called Carrabbas - which served very yummy Italian. Service was relatively quick and the bill was relatively painless. I would recommend it for families that are traveling anyway as all kids seem to be welcome there. So, today was a day of doing essentially nothing. But, a day of doing nothing seemed to be counter productive so in the end, we did quite a lot. The groceries are also done as we stopped on the way home. I have to say, the elder girl is very helpful in the grocery store, remembering all the things that I was forgetting. She schelps bags and organizes the counter too. All in all, it was a great day. St. Augustine will be tomorrow.

Kissimmee on Dwellable