Basking in the relaxing glow of having no My Disney Experience work to do we slept in. Rebecca and Tom had less opportunity to do so of course with the boys in their room, so they were down for breakfast first. They dropped their cases off in our room on their way down, as they were checking out this morning. We arrived in the lobby as they were finishing, and we, as they had done, got some stuff from the Constant Grind coffee shop thing in reception.
I had Granola. That would require another visit to CVS to clear that up. I also had a large muffin but I’m not one to brag. Louise had Granola and a Danish and Mum had a Danish and some toast. That was not the most entertaining food review you’ll read I’ll grant you but they were all fine.
Rain was forecast, but we took it on by going and lying down in expectation of sun. It was a bit blowy and overcast but no sign yet of any moistness.
We all did variations of swimming, relaxing and reading and mid-morning, Dougie succumbed to a nap. The pool was salt water and heated and it felt lovely.
So it was mostly this for the rest of the day to be honest.
At some point, we ordered a light lunch from the wandering waitress which consisted of a Chicken BLT wrap, a Hot Dog and some Mozzarella Sticks shared between me, Mum and Louise. Rebecca, Tom and the boys went for a sit down do at the bar.
Still no rain.
The afternoon unfolded pretty much as the morning did, around the pool not doing a great deal. It was lovely. I do love a full-blown theme park day but I am equally happy doing absolutely nothing. The trick is being able to switch between the two and behave accordingly. If we’re doing a full theme park day, then there’s a requirement to be up early and to be motivated to get around and do stuff. There is no mix-and-match here.
Dougie had another nap mid-afternoon once I had wheeled him around in his stroller for ten minutes and then rocked him to sleep in my arms in the hotel’s reception. Rebecca, Tom and Freddie took it as a chance to leave Dougie with us whilst they went into the sea for a bit.
With Rebecca, Tom and the boys only staying one night at the beach they were now room-less so around 5pm, we took the boys up to our room and bathed them. Rebecca and Tom went to have showers in Mum’s room, narrowly avoiding Mum walking in on Tom whilst he was showering!
We were all ready to go by 6.10 and we had an appointment at the baseball.
It was a short drive to the stadium and we paid $5 to park up.
As we entered, shortly after I had realised that all those tickets I had printed off back home were still sitting in Ryan at the hotel (I was able to scan the versions from my email), one very lovely gent on the gate gave Freddie a baseball, and then he met the mascot. It was a strong start to the evening. We’ve been here a good few times over the years and there is always a warm welcome from everyone working at the stadium.
We took our spot on the bleachers and settled in after a stop at the food window. It’s a complex business ordering food for seven people at a window in a noisy baseball park without any knowledge of the menu. I spent ten minutes shouting things at a man on the other side of the counter whilst people shouted things from the menu at me. We managed to get everyone something.
There is a slim chance that Freddie may have just demolished an ice cream just before this photo, as evidenced by the state of his mouth.
As the lights came on, the atmosphere changed and there is always something lovely about being outdoors at night, under the floodlights, in warm weather.
Rain was still forecast but refused to arrive.
During the game, Freddie managed to accumulate three baseballs. I’m not one to boast but one of them could have killed one or more of us as it flew towards us at ridiculous speed. It was only my natural ninja skills that allowed me to instinctively stand up and catch it/knock it away from everyone. Frankly, it did not get the recognition it deserved.
Daytona won by one run as far as we could make out. It was a lovely way to spend the evening but like a lot of things at the moment, it wasn’t quite as fun as the first few times we went. I have no idea if the omission has anything to do with the pandemic or anything specific but a lot of the fun and games between innings were no longer done.
We left at 9.00 and the rain finally came. This was timed perfectly for Tom’s drive back to Orlando. It was important he had the full, dark and rainy experience for his first long drive in the US. They dropped us back at the hotel, we said our goodbyes and they set off for the villa. We insisted they give us three rings when they arrived safely and they did around 10.30.
We retired to the hotel bar for a couple of drinks, watching the rain as we sat on the covered patio. Mum went off to bed. Being the big burly man that I am, it was Baileys for me. To be fair, there had been no dessert with dinner so it felt right.
Relieved that they had made it back to the villa safely, we went to bed around 11pm.
Till the next time…..
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