Reunited

I toss my “honorary bug” eyes in the bin on the way out and try to reorient myself. The exit seems to be on the opposite side of the Tree of Life from the entrance, so I just keep walking around the tree until I find the meeting place Brandon and I have agreed upon.

He’s not there when I arrive. I’m not worried, since it’s only been 30 minutes since we parted. I spot a section of a tree planter that will make a nice bench while I wait, but a young girl beats me to it. Not a problem – there’s a store nearby, so I step it to browse. I can watch the meeting place from the store.

I’d like a new Disney cap, so that’s the part of the store I head for. I find one I like this time, a brown fitted baseball cap with a series of the three-circle Mickey heads, six of them, in colors from yellow to orange to red, with a tangle of similar-colored threads looped in the background. It’s very different from anything I already have. I check out with a friendly cast member who has just opened a new cash register to handle the crowds. She has apparently never handled a Rewards Card from Disney Visa, but she figures it out pretty quickly

After my purchase I step back outside and spot Brandon at our meeting place. He tells me that he’s been there for fifteen minutes or so. Huh? If so, somehow, we missed each other earlier, because I’ve only been in the store about five minutes. He says he was a bit nervous waiting on me to get there, but he doesn’t seem too rattled.

Brandon reports that he was only able to ride Primeval Whirl once, and it wasn’t as fun without someone else with him. I can relate.

I’m ready to exit the park, but Brandon likes my hat, and wants to go shopping himself, so we duck into the store again. “Duck” turns out to be a good choice of words, because Brandon eventually finds a strange stuffed Donald. It’s really more pillow than stuffed animal, because it is spherical, about six inches wide, and filled with the same material as those squishy neck pillows you can get at Walgreens. It’s cute, in a really odd way.

The same friendly cast member is available at the same register, and has no trouble with my Rewards card this time!

Brandon and I set out for the Oasis and head for the park exit. On the way, Brandon spots an ice cream cart, and we each get a treat. We get the reverse of what we had yesterday morning – I get a Mickey ice cream sandwich, and Brandon gets a Mickey bar. Brandon wonders if we’re going to tell the others that we got ice cream. I really don’t think they’ll care either way – odds are they’ve gotten their own snack without us – but it does feel a bit sneaky, getting this by ourselves.

Immediately after getting our ice cream we encounter a PhotoPass photographer and have pictures taken, just the two of us, with the Tree of Life in the background. It’s a fun father-son time. We laugh that there’s no way that we’d be able to hide that we got ice cream now… but maybe we’ll just let everyone else find out when they see the PhotoPass pictures. After the trip.