Trudy here. Because of the fun day everyone had shopping and taking pictures, we’re breaking this into two parts. This is Part 1 of the installment for Nanea & Benny’s “A Day and Night at the Polynesian”, part of her Dream Vacation series. Hopefully, you remember that we’ve been publishing Nanea’s vacation diary entries with Sarah’s trip photos here in The Islandshire Gazette. It’s been a long time getting back to this, but that Main Street roadwork ended up disrupting things down here beyond anyone’s reckoning. And don’t forget, just click on any photo to enlarge!
It’s been such a wonderful day! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the flowers were more colorful than they’d been before! We had a quick breakfast in the room and then packed our bags for the journey back to GreatGrammy’s. We only spent the one night, but how did all my stuff get spread all over the room? It took me ages to collect it all. Auntie says it’s because I had to try on twelve outfits to get ready for bed last night and again for today. I don’t think she cares much about what she wears, so she just doesn’t understand how important it is to a little girlie to be looking her best. And accessories. Gotta have accessories. Anyway, Sarah took Benny and me down to the lobby, while Grammy and Auntie finished packing and checked us out of our beautiful Moana room. Ohhhh . . . only the thought of shopping for souvenirs before we left kept me from crying over having to leave. I’m going to come back here one day. Maybe on my honeymoon.
The lobby was even more gorgeous than when we checked in yesterday. Some kind person had spent the night cleaning up and rearranging the flowers (there were some bad boys in the lobby yesterday who should have been spanked and sent to their room). Even the Tiki statue on top of the lobby waterfall had a new flower lei! And Benny looked so handsome. I picked his clothes out, of course, but he’s such a good brother. I love him so much!
There was so much to see and do at the Polynesian. Who will believe that we spent the entire day in just the lobby and its stores? After yesterday’s heat OUTside, the grownups thought we should finish our resort trip INside, and boy were they smart (as always, of course)! It was so much fun, and there were ever so many things to look at. And ever so many remodeling ideas for us. (Sssh, it’s still a secret.) I have to say, though, that even Benny found a few things he thought would look good in our house. He wanted to buy this little mask as his souvenir, but the lobby lady said it wasn’t for sale. She told Benny he might find something like it in one of the stores, but Benny thinks he’ll just make his own when we get back home. I told him he’d have to make it less scary looking, maybe with a little smile, if we’re going to have to look at that every day. He only said, “Just like a girl.” I can see I’ll have to stay on top of our remodeling plans myself. Maybe Sarah can delete the picture before Benny sees it and remembers.
In the lobby, they had this amazing map of the Polynesian Resort grounds. (I wonder if Bethany would paint a map of Islandshire for us to mount somewhere on the island?) Looking at all the places we’d walked to and around, it’s no wonder our feet were a little tired last night. Benny asked the man at the desk for a printed copy of it to take home with us, and he gave us EACH one! Everyone is so kind and . . . and . . . AMAZING at the Polynesian! They’re all so friendly and happy! It made our “Dream Vacation” even dreamier!
Oh, I almost forgot! Auntie had a picture drawn of ME! The person who drew them called it a Caricature, but it looks just like me! The lady was SO friendly, and she smiled a lot. Maybe it was my fashion accessories. I changed my ears for the picture to my favorite flower clip. It’s more the real me. (Toni says it’s my “signature look”.) Well, I can’t wait to show it to everyone. It’s amazing! Maybe Trudy can print it in the Gazette, so everyone can see how happy I was on vacation!
Just as the artist was signing my Caricature, Grammy and Auntie appeared with Flossie and all our bags. (Flossie was still sleeping when Benny and I left this morning.) My suitcase was the smallest, but Auntie said it weighed the most. She just doesn’t understand. Anyway, while the two of them headed to the check-out area, the three four of us did more lobby sightseeing. Flossie didn’t seem very interested, so Benny put her in her little carrier. But Sarah and I could hardly control ourselves, because what we wanted to see most were the SHOPS! SOUVENIRS! Lots of Polynesian Resort souvenirs! Benny said we had to wait for the others, so we just peeked inside at the doorways until we found the store of my dreams. And it had the cutest name — Boutiquetiki. The sign was so amazing! It was made to look like the name had been “Boutique”, but two little “tikis” were changing it to “Boutiki”. Get it? Oh, I hope Sarah got a picture of it. It’s very hard to describe.
We sure did pick the right place. This shop had TRUE souvenirs! I mean souvenirs that were only right for the Polynesian. I wish they had made more things in our size, but it was fun looking. Oh, and they even had HAIR FLOWERS like mine . . . well, larger. I have a very small head, you know. Grammy and Sarah really wanted to bring home some of the water glasses, but we didn’t have that much room in our luggage for something that fragile. That’s what they said, anyway. I don’t know what to mention. Fridge magnets and clothes and puzzles and . . . ooh, ever so many amazing souvenirs!
They had this amazing matted print, but Benny said it was as big as the side of our house. Too bad. It would have looked perfect over our table. Hmm . . . maybe that’s where we should hang my Caricature. I wanted Benny to have his likeness done, but he said he couldn’t sit still that long. Boys.
Flossie woke up to eat (we always carry cornbread for her, you know) and choose her own souvenir. After looking around at all the displays, she ended up back at the first two things she’d spotted. Isn’t it funny how we all do that? You see the perfect item straightaway but have to look at everything else, just in case there’s something better. Well, Flossie had a terrible time deciding. First, she tried a Moana-themed, round canvas container that looked like a nest to her. It was a bit large, but Benny thought that Mabel could cut it down to Flossie’s size. Second, there was this adorable chicken planter. It even had a plant inside already. But we think Flossie was just hung up on the idea that it looked like a chicken. Maybe she was confused and felt sorry for it. Whatever, she wisely chose the new nest and asked to go back into her carrier. A full tummy and souvenir shopping finished, she was ready for a nap. And we still had some souvenir shopping to do!
Continued in Part 2. Look in our next blog entry for the second half of the Polynesian Resort installment of Nanea & Benny’s “Dream Vacation” series.