The next morning, we had to check out of GKTW, figure out what to do about our rental car (we wanted to extend our trip, but we didn't want to have to drive all the way back to the airport), and then check in at Animal Kingdom Lodge for our final night in Florida. Checking out was awful. I cried like a baby. It was so hard knowing that this place existed and that while we were able to spend such an icredible week there, we would never be able to go back as actual guests, only as visitors.
Now on to the rental car fiasco. Stupidly I thought we'd be able to simply call up Avis and say, "Well hello there! We'd like to keep our car for an extra night," and have it not be a problem. But as they say, nothing in life is that simple. The problem was that we needed a new contract because the car was covered by Make-A-Wish and in order to get a new contract, we would need to show up at an Avis desk in person. We wanted to avoid returning to the airport, and quickly discovered that there was an Avis at one of the hotels near Downtown Disney. Fantastic. For what was so stressful in the beginning, the process was really quite easy, and we were on our way to lunch and shopping.
Once we got to DTD, I headed straight for the Rainforest Cafe to see if we could get a last minute reservation, while the rest of the family went to the Lego Store.




Next, we met at World of Disney for some shopping. I had to take a picture of this since it's Ali's favorite character.

And then it was over to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. I love, love, love their chicken salad sandwiches.

Maya was all excited to pitch pennies at the crocodile, but as you can see, Ali wasn't too sure.

Of course Ali spent the entire meal with her hands over her ears, but the "thunderstorms" here were much tamer than the ones at the RFC we have here at home.
After lunch, it was time to head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Because of the cost of flights, our chapter was reluctant to send us over April vacation, but because of our work schedule (and Ali's heat intolerance), it was our last chance to go unless we wanted to wait until the next year. We were able to negotiate with MAW a Monday - Monday (cheaper flights) with us responsible for one night of lodging. Since Ali's original wish was to go to the zoo (and see the "real tree"), it only made sense to spend that night at AKL.
The girls thought it was nice, but they wanted to know when they could go back to GKTW. They were enamored with the full length mirror in the room. Go figure.

The view from our balcony.



It was nice, but the girls were right - it wasn't GKTW.
We hadn't had any rain since we arrived, and it looked like thunder clouds moving in, so we wanted to get to the pool before it started. The life guard made a game of throwing little figurines into the water while the kids searched for them.


We had a dinner reservation that night for Boma, so after an hour, or so, in the pool, we headed back to the room to get ready. Then, we did some exploring before heading to the restaurant.



Despite the fact that we paid $14.00 for a single glass of wine, dinner was incredible. After teaching the book
Things Fall Apart for the previous five years, I was thrilled to be able to eat yam foo foo. It was good! After dinner, we took the girls to the playground for a bit.



Then the skies finally opened up and the rains poured down. Garth and I got the girls ready for bed, and G-Ma and G-Pa graciously offered to "babysit" them so that we could go have a drink. Right down the hall from our room was an indoor firepit. We cozied up there with a glass of wine for me and a beer for Garth and decompressed. We did have a good laugh over the fact that they were running the AC so that people could tolerate the heat from the fire. Then, we settled in for our last night in the World.