Day 3: Animal Kingdom

The phone rang far too early this morning, and I answered, only to be greeted by Stich, yelling at me to wake up. I tried telling him that it was far too early, but evidently, he doesn't listen. Oh well. Good thing he called when he did, because we needed to get going in order to make our breakfast reservations at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had early reservations at 7:30 in order to make the most of our time in the actual Animal Kingdom park, and I made it abundantly clear by calling the front desk on more than one occasion that if we were at the bus stop in front of the hotel by 6:45, we would be at Boma right on time. Did that actually happen? No. No it did not. 

We were at the stop right on time--early, in fact-- and the weather was not much nicer than it was the day prior. In fact, it might have been a little worse since I recall the day as being slightly drizzly. But I digress. We sat at the bus stop and saw several busses to all destinations, barring our own come through. I even asked one of the drivers when the Animal Kingdom bus would come by. He assured me that he had just spoken to the driver and the bus would be at the stop momentarily. 

We gave the driver the benefit of the doubt and waited at least 10 more minutes before I took things into my own hands and called the dispatcher from the phone provided at the stop. The dispatcher had no idea why the bus hadn't come by yet, but he would send one right away. After that, I called Boma and told them that we would be a few minutes late and would that be ok? They were more than gracious and told us to get there when we could. Almost immediately after I called, the bus pulled up. We grumbled a bit, but climbed on and sat down for the trip to the Lodge.

I personally love the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is an amazing resort, even barring the fact that there is a savannah full of animals right outside the windows. I have no true desire to ever really stay anywhere other than one of the Epcot resorts, due to the easy access to Hollywood Studios and the fact that you are practically at the International Gateway by rolling out of bed. All of that to say, if I were to stay regularly at any of the other hotels on property, Animal Kingdom Lodge would be my choice. It is just so neat!

Tangent aside, we arrived at the Lodge and were mere minutes late for our reservation and we were seated almost instantly. Keeping with the theme of the hotel in general, Boma's breakfast buffet is an amazing experience. It combines traditional breakfast items, such as pancakes and omelettes with more adventurous African style foods. The staff starts you out right at breakfast by offering tall glasses full of "jungle juice" which is a combination of pineapple, mango, orange juice and lemonade. I love jungle juice. In fact, while researching the ingredients of the drink for this blog, I found a recipe, which inspires me to attempt to make it at home. When and if this happens, I will let this blog's readers be the first to learn how the experience went. And now, back to your regularly scheduled blog. I recall downing the first glass of jungle juice like I had not had anything to drink for days and days. I had.

Also at the buffet, I tried all kinds of new things, including a ham and cheese omelette, which I did not know that I liked. I realize that is probably not the most adventurous thing that I could have eaten, but, whatever. It was good. I also recall thoroughly enjoying the banana bread, to the point of grabbing a piece or two to enjoy upon my exit. 

All in all, Boma is one of those dining experiences that will be repeated in many future visits, perhaps even for the dinner buffet at some point, since that is the option that I hear the most praise for. 

After stuffing ourselves (sense a theme?) we walked upstairs to the main area of the hotel to just wander a little bit and soak it all in. One of my favorite parts of the lobby is the enormous window that looks out onto the savannah. Tres cool! We made our way down to the gift shop to look at the resort merchandise, and Lauren found a package sort of like the one at World Showcase the day prior. In this one, you answer questions and get stamps. This was not nearly as successful as its brother with us, but it was pretty neat and we had good intentions with it! Also, a dollar of the purchase price went to saving animals, so that was one good way to justify it. The cashier also got me to donate an additional dollar to the same cause upon checkout. What can I say, I'm a softie. 

We then hopped the bus for the trip to the actual theme park and the bus was packed! I remember being irked by a family with some small children and annoying grandparent types, but I cannot recall why and I don't believe that information is in our notes either. Pity.

Until this trip, Animal Kingdom was by no means a must see park in my mind. Yes, there were certainly some interesting and fun things to see, but growing up with the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park very close, I had done the zoo/wildlife thing. This trip changed that. Maybe I'm growing too docile in my old age. Previous beliefs aside, I was really looking forward to Animal Kingdom this trip for one reason. Reason, thy name is Everest. I had seen so much on Everest in all of my Disney internet research and fanboy-ness. I could not wait to ride it. And I didn't have to!

We ventured straight back to Asia and right into the queue where we went through far too quickly to take in all the wonderful story details that Joe Rohde and his Imagineering team put in. Not to fret though, we would get that opportunity later in the day. But now, the order of the moment was to try this beast out. I could practically feel myself shaking with excitement as we waited to board our train. By the time we heard the bird on the ride, I was sold! What a ride! I was quite literally speechless upon exiting. I could only make semi-coherent noises and grunts. This fast became my new favorite Disney ride!

Needless to say, we hopped right back in line for another ride! This time we requested the front row and with a minimal wait, were granted our request. The ride does NOT lose anything with repeat visits. Also, sitting up front I managed to get a good video of the entire attraction. When we exited, we grabbed fastpasses for an hour or so in the future and after several pictures of the area, Lauren dragged me down a little side path by the Finding Nemo show building. I had no idea where she was taking me, but she was being awfully coy about it. Now, keep in mind that we had not grabbed a map on the way in, and Lauren had never been in the park before. All of a sudden, lo and behold, in front of us was the back entrance to Dinoland.

How did she manage to find her way there? She swears it was the attraction, a long-lost brother of her own baby, Indiana Jones, calling to her. I'm not certain that there weren't certain internet searches before we left home. Regardless, there was something eerie about the whole ordeal. 

Needless to say, we made our way into the queue for Dinosaur! and boarded fairly quickly. The noise notwithstanding, it is a great ride. The fun part for us Indy cast members was being able to tell exactly where we would be in our attraction, since Dinosaur! took not only replicas of our jeeps, but they took our exact track map as well. As we arrived back in the station, the people behind us on the ride asked the ride op if we could go again. I hate that question, especially since even on insanely slow days at Disneyland, we virtually always have some sort of a wait, and we have to say no. However, the ride op said ok, but never told us to re-buckle our seat belts, so that the safety system would allow the car to actually enter the attraction. I made some comment about that to her and mentioned that Lauren and I were Indy cast members. She gushed for a moment and then sent the car. As we returned, she was standing in the exit and asked if Lauren and I would like to go up and see their tower console. Ummm.....yes! It is nice how there is no regulatory board in Florida like there is in California. It allows for more fun opportunities for visiting cast members to experience. The tower is very very similar to ours and along with the tower cast member and a guy, who I can only assume was a manager, we compared notes on the differences. The one that caught me really by surprise was the fact that to be on the track, all the cast members would have to do is sign out on a dry-erase board. For us, it is this whole process involving locks, keys and physically ensuring that the ride cannot be started while any of the locks and keys are not together. The casual nature in Florida certainly intruiged me. 

After our tower visit, the cast member (whose name escapes me at this point, but let me check notes)--found it! It was Irene. So, Irene asked if we would like to go again. Would we ever! So, for the third time in a half hour or so, we ventured back in time and just barely missed being Carnotaur breakfast. Lucky us!

Still riding the high of that amazing experience, we headed to Primeval Whirl, a ride that Lauren had been talking about non-stop since she had either seen some video or read something about. In all honesty, I think that she was more excited by this than by Dinosaur! or even Everest. 

Given the deserted nature of the rest of the park, the ride had about a 10 minute wait, which surprised me. We got in our vehicles with another couple our age, and spent the next few minutes debating our sanity as we were jerked, spun and generally made to feel unpleasant. Basically the kind of feelings that I can imagine you would experience in the moments before death. Somehow we walked off under our own power and took a moment or two to recover.

We didn't spend too much time in Dinoland, just enough to get another cheezy photo or two, before we headed back to Expedition Everest to use our fastpasses. Things hadn't changed in the past hour or so... the ride was still incredible! I sort of wanted to just repeat it over and over, but there was a whole theme park to take in. So, I waved goodbye to the Yeti for the time being and we continued on our trek.

We opted at this point to enter the Pangani trail to look at some animals... it was their kingdom after all, and both enjoyed it. In the "research facility," there were naked mole rats, which provided much amusement, in addition to assorted animal skulls. Lauren wanted to prove that she had teeth just as nice as a hippo. I allowed her that opportunity.

She also felt that she was just the right size to be a gorilla. This would also prove to be true.

Basically what I got from these particular exercises is that I'm dating a gorilla with hippos teeth.... interesting.

Also along the trail was an aviary. I'm frightened of birds. Don't know why, but I am. I think it comes from having inadvertently seen "The Birds" at a very young age, but I digress. We, of course, entered the aviary. 

One of the nice things about this particular aviary was that it provided a laminated sheet with pictures and names of all the birds housed there. Great. Now I can know exactly the genus of whatever creature it was that would most certainly be murdering me later.

While I somehow managed to make it out alive, there were several fish who were not so lucky. Also, several chunks of melon, which I am fairly certain do not occur cubed and on branches in nature, but they certainly were here. Weird.

We decided to grab Fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, and it's a good thing we did. There was some sort of drama going on with guests who didn't know how to use the machines (yes folks, it IS bi-coastal) and guests who tried telling Lauren and I that the machines were broken, with us nodding patronizingly as miraculously the demon machines worked for us. Huh. Funny how that works. Our return time was fairly soon and we went on our way.

After all of this excitement, we decided that it was time for lunch. Before we had left home, we watched a lot of Disney special programs from the Travel Channel, Food Network, and basically anything that we could get our grubby little paws on. On one such show, the host spoke the praises of Pizzafari. "Oh, they actually hand-make their own pizzas! Oh, they have a wood-fire oven! Blah blah blah!" So, on these recommendations, we decided on... you guessed it, Pizzafari for lunch. 

I did not like Pizzafari for lunch. In fact, I venture to say that I hated Pizzafari for lunch.

Let's begin with the line waiting to be order. It was long! Albeit, we were at a peak lunch time, so I will allow it. No real strike against Pizzafari at this point. Strikes against the unwashed masses patronizing Pizzafari? Certainly. But none really against the restaurant itsself. However, this does put me in a slightly annoyed mood to begin with. (Sidebar: If you are standing in line for 20 minutes, that should allow yourself AND your children to decide which of the 2.. that's right, 2 different types of pizza you want.) I'm just saying. 

We eventually got our food and were hard-pressed to find a spot to sit, but we did eventually find a table and sat down. I don't recall what room it was, but i think there were... lizards? on the walls. 

Here comes the really crummy part. I happen to love my pizza Chicago-style. Nice tall crusts filled with all kinds of extra cheese on the inside. Yum! Pizza here seemed to be the exact opposite of that. I was not pleased. There was very very little crust, thus, very very little topping and what little topping there was, managed to all come off at the same time when I took my first bite. Thus, I was left with hard, thin, tomato sauce-covered bread. Blech!

Lauren liked it, however, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, that is all that really matters.

After "lunch" we returned to Harambe to experience Kilimanjaro Safaris. We had a fairly short wait, maybe 10 minutes, and then we boarded our safari vehicles. We were seated about two rows or so behind the driver and one row behind a kid who kept interrupting the spiel to ask a lot of questions. I was videotaping, but had noticed my battery was starting to run low, so I don't have a full ride-through. I do have selected bits and I guess they are the most important part...I don't need 10 minutes of assorted bamboo... we have that at home! 

In one of my more clever moments, I came to a realization as we passed the camp of the poachers that we were allegedly chasing. Why didn't we just burn the camp to the ground? Not only would we be treating them with a bit of their own medicine, but we would essentially be forcing them to play into our humanitarian hands. With nothing to shield them from the elements, they would be forced to seek out any sort of human support that they could...i.e. us! Then we could catch them and judge them accordingly. And that, my friends, is why I should be writing for Imagineering. I catch the little things! Overall, we enjoyed the ride and were impressed with the size and overall theming. It was neat. 

Following the Safari, we headed to the Harambe train station to hop a steam train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. I do thoroughly enjoy the train trip there. The trains are very intricately detailed and I would love to be able to look at all of the tiny little details contained within. The one crummy thing about the Planet Watch is that the only way to and from it is via train. There are only two trains. Not really the best use of time to wait for the train. I guess since there is little to no wait at the Planet Watch proper, the wait for the train makes it all a wash as far as waiting is concerned, but still...it just don't seem right.

We wandered up to the main housing of Planet Watch and entered to find it virtually empty. Of both attractions and guests. The main excitement was the large windows where sometimes there are veterinary procedures performed for the amusement and delight of children. Yes folks, you too can have the privilege of watching a sloth colostomy! Tell your friends! Actually, were there any procedures occurring while we were there, it would have been pretty interesting. Suffice it to say, there were not. We were somewhat entertained by the various things that were concocted for the animal's diets. The monkey biscuits in particular struck our fancy. I think dares were set forth, regarding the consumption of aforementioned biscuits, but we were unable to acquire one! I totally would have eaten one too!

Another attraction that caught us pleasantly by surprise was "Song of the Rainforest." Basically, in the attraction you go into a small booth, put on headphones and hear ambient sounds of the rainforest. It is dark, cool and oh-so-nice on those hot, Florida days. Pure bliss. 

However, the real treat was yet to come. As previously alluded, there are certain costumed characters...err, Disney screen legends, who appear in Florida while maintaining no presence at my home park of Disneyland. One of these is the official conscience of Disney, Mr. Jiminy Cricket!

 

To the best of my knowledge, I have never gotten a photo with Mr. Cricket. Needless to say, this, in and of its self was well worth the hassle of trekking out to the Planet Watch.

We then went out to the petting zoo, referred to as "The Affection Section," hoping to find some sort of exotic animals to pet. I was sorely disappointed. The zoo contained the standard menagerie of critters contained in most petting zoos throughout the country. That is to say: sheep, goats, llamas, a cow or two and, from inside a fenced off pen, a donkey. The donkey was wonderfully loud and disruptive, traits that I can certainly get behind! We spent only a short time giving affection before heading out to catch the train back to the main portion of Animal Kingdom.

One of my main goals for Animal Kingdom, even before leaving the West Coast was to see "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade." I had found a video online and fell in love with it! We still had an hour or two until parade time, so we decided that we needed to spend some time exploring the Tree of Life. Before we could do so, however, we found a Photopass photographer (a trend throughout the trip) and got our photo taken with the Tree in the background. The photographer then asked us to hold our arms as if we were cradling a baby and we would have a surprise when we saw the picture.

  Best. Picture. Ever.

Anyway. We enjoyed wandering and seeing the big tree up close and personal. It was here that Lauren was able to assuage her disappointment at the lack of touching the "big ball" at Epcot, the day prior, and actually honest and true, touch the real Tree of Life. Needless to say, she was thrilled.

After some extended wallaby watching, we decided that it was time to head down to Camp Minnie-Mickey. I had never been before, and was curious to see what I had been missing! 

On the way to the Camp, I was able to spot a remnant of the not-quite-realized Beastly Kingdom portion of the park. 

See the dragon-shaped rock formation to the left-hand side? Neat!

Camp Minnie-Mickey was virtually deserted as we crossed the stream to enter. This may have had something to do with how close we were to parade time, plus if I'm not mistaken, a show of "The Festival of the Lion King" had just gotten underway. This was fine by us, since we basically had characters to ourselves, which made for some very amusing interactions. 

After exchanging pleasantries with Goofy, he tried to take Lauren from me. I was having none of this.


 

After a brief confrontation, we shook hands, and then eventually even hugged each other and all was forgiven.

We then went to the next gazebo to meet the big cheese, Mickey. He also took the opportunity to hit on my girlfriend. I was not liking the way that these meet-and-greet sessions were heading. Mickey, being Mickey didn't have time for too much horsing--or, mousing I suppose, around, so we did the classic photo and headed right next door. 

 Had I known then what I know now, I might not have joined the line to meet one of my favorite characters, Donald Duck. If I hadn't, I might have been saved some heartache. But, alas, hindsight is 20/20 and it was with a light heart and spirit that we queued up.

There was a young man in front of us who was thrilled to be meeting the Duck as well, chanting in a tone deaf manner at which even the deaf Beethoven would have cringed, "Donald Duck, Donald Duck, Donnnald DUCK!" It was cute at first, but quickly lost it's camp appeal. Proving that there is indeed karmic balance within the universe, his family was ushered fairly quickly through their meeting and it was our turn. 

No sooner had I placed my backpack on the ground and handed the photographer my camera then the Lothario Duck started to put the moves on Lauren. What was up with that? I was standing mere feet away!

With Donald, I had some ammo though. I told him that it was fine that he try to steal my girlfriend. I was going to tell Daisy. That sobered him up, right quick!

He then implied that we were buddies, which was true, and why would I have to be a hater like that?

I told him that we were friends again and he seemed to take to the news with great aplomb. Unfortunately, not everyone in the Donald gazebo was so happy about that news!

I thought all was well and good. I thought Donald and I were cool. I was sorely mistaken!

This isn't over, Duck!

After this disgusting display, I decided that we were done with Camp Minnie-Mickey and needed to go and get seats for the parade. Even arriving with less than twenty minutes until parade-time, we were able to get great seats in the front seating section. Try that in Disneyland and be prepared to either be killed by mothers trying to stick their kids right in front of you or people who feel it is THEIR right, dangit, to sit right up front.

We wound up next to a nice lady in a wheelchair and some very obnoxious children (not with the wheelchair lady) who hit Lauren with a stick repeatedly, and went outside of the seating area into the parade corridor and got in the way of a few of our photos. It is kids like this that are one day going to be running this country. That is of course, unless karma and survival of the fittest team up to eliminate these little buggers. I'm just saying!

Anyway, the parade was incredible! I loved the music and may or may not have sung along rather boisterously. In addition to the "big" characters (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy and Grand Marshal, Rafiki) was an assortment of other favorites, including Chip and Dale, Baloo and King Louie (!) and Brers Bear and Rabbit. Unfortunately, Brer Rabbit was taken off-stage before he arrived to us. The only thing we could speculate on was perhaps heat exhaustion. After the parade had passed us, the nice wheelchair lady showed us where it looped back around to exit, so all in all, we got to watch it twice! And that was OK with me!

After the parade, the day was beginning to while down and we were beginning to feel a bit hungry, especially me, after that oh-so-delicious lunch, so we weighed our options, and decided on the Flame Tree BBQ. There was absolutely no line and we were able to get our dinner rather quickly. We had the rib platter, which consisted of ribs, beans and cornbread, all of which were quite good and we also ordered a key lime pie (my favorite!) for dessert. Unfortunately, I was unable to really enjoy this meal. 

It was as if I was experiencing a sense of foreboding. The dining area for the restaurant was outside. With lots of birds. As mentioned earlier, I don't like small, vegetarian birds. These were not small and I doubted that they were vegetarian. In fact, unless I am sorely mistaken, there was at least one that tried to take a bite out of Lauren. And again, these were BIG birds. Not like the guy on Sesame Street. He's cool. These were just... scary. Not only that, but there were some idiots sitting a few tables away who, despite the plethora of warning signs strictly forbidding them to, spent their meal feeding the darn things! It was ridiculous!

After we ate, and barely made it out alive, it was time for the Extra Magic Hours. We decided that all we really wanted to do was ride Everest. We did just that. Three times. In less than an hour. It was incredible. We browsed the Everest shop, since I wanted something to commemorate my new favorite ride, but there was nothing subtle enough for my taste as far as shirts were concerned, and I didn't really want a pin or anything so I left empty handed. In retrospect, I should have gotten a yeti stuffie, but hey, maybe next time.

We could have kept riding until the wee hours of, ten p.m., I think, but I realized that since I loved the ride so much, I didn't want to get burned out on it on my very first day. So we decided to leave wanting more, rather than being sick of it, and though it was my idea, took every bit of my willpower not to turn around and sprint back into the amazing queue, but I did it!

We took a few more night photos, and boy, is this park beautiful at night, and headed out the main gate.

We decided that since it was still early, that we would head over to Downtown Disney, since we didn't know when else we would be able to make it over, since our nights were pretty much booked from here on out. 

Downtown was a lot of fun, especially when it is combined with delicious Ghiradelli ice cream! Lauren had a root beer float and I had an incredible butterscotch sundae.


There was a mini-debacle when I told the ice cream maker that I was allergic to nuts, in order to evade the chopped walnuts that should have been sprinkled on top. However, I forgot that the base ice cream of the sundae was supposed to be butter pecan, which I was excited to sample. Oh well, it was just as good, if not better, with the vanilla base.

We proceeded to spend the next few hours window shopping but managed to escape without too much damage to the ol' pocketbook, so, good for us! Downtown is a lot of fun and a great one stop shop, especially at the very end of a vacation. We still had four more days in the parks and lots of opportunities to blow our cash.

We returned home to the Boardwalk and partook in our new ritual of a hot bath with the jacuzzi jets going. It was wonderful. We then headed to bed since we, again, had early morning reservations at the Crystal Palace and you do NOT want to meet the Hundred Acre Wood gang tired!

 

  

 

Day 3d: Epcot!

We had just finished our limey lunch and decided to continue over the International Bridge into France. Lauren is a fan of most things French, including Beauty and the Beast and Marie, from "The Aristocats" (I always have a hard time typing that word, often getting it mixed up with another film, which is quite a different film altogether), so it was apropos that after feeding her anglo-philia, that we continue to her other passion.

To be honest, I had heard that the film in the pavilion was very good, but aside from the "O! Canada" film that we would watch later, we did not see any of the films from the countries. This even includes the Norwegian movie that those brutish Nordics try to force you into after "Maelstrom!" Take that, you Aryan filth!(author's note: Love them Norwegians...at least Norwegians not in Epcot Center...but we shall get to that later! And now, back to your previous blog experience)

We wandered our way back into the Kidcot passport center, located in the main gift shop and spent some time there browsing the various items and Lauren made me wear a beret. Suffice it to say, I was adorable. Annoyed at the display, but adorable.

We wandered the assorted streets and there was a wonderful Beauty and the Beast display in the....perfume shop, I believe. Lauren was smitten, and after FINALLY figuring out how to make my camera do what I wanted it to do, we took a myriad of pictures to commemorate the occasion.



Somehow, I assume due to still being stuffed from lunch, we managed to avoid the boulangerie patisserie and made our way over the Straits of Gibraltar into the Kingdom of Morocco. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the most interesting pavilions in World Showcase. Whereas almost everyone has experienced some aspect of France, or Mexico or even Norway, there is not a whole lot of Moroccan influence that is commonly available, so to enter the kingdom was to completely enter a new place. From the open air market to the crowded, narrow streets, Morocco is a unique experience and one that we thoroughly enjoyed. Although Lauren would not let me buy one of the plethora of instruments available, she could not stop me from "testing them out" to my little heart's content. After the "concert," we got the passport stamped and signed and continued on our merry international journey.




Following Morocco, we found ourselves in Japan, drawn to the loud sounds of drums. It was a musical troupe, known as Matsuriza, which consists of 3 or 4 drummers drumming on gigantic drums (Right there, that seems like an awful lot of derivatives of the word "drum") They were quite good and we enjoyed the display. After the performance, we entered the gigantic Japanese department store, called the Mitsukoshi Department Store. I had been looking forward to this stop for awhile. 

See, Lauren typically hates buying things for herself. I, on the other hand, love treating myself, and her as well. However, in the past, many occasions when I have tried to get her even a small little gift have been met with resistance. I made it my goal that I was going to get her a neat little present while we were at DisneyWorld. Something nice for her to have and remember the trip by. Well, during my pre-trip research, I learned that in Mitsukoshi, they have a live oyster tank, with each oyster guaranteed to contain a pearl. They were all different colors, sizes and qualities, but they were all pearls. I decided that I would like to get Lauren a ring, with one of the pearls as the gem. We went over to the tank and watched a few people get their pearls and I asked her which of the settings she liked best. She found a nice simple silver one and I told her (I'm sure she had already figured it out at this point) that I wanted to get her one of the pearls and give her a ring. She tried futilely to put up a fight, but I insisted, and eventually won. She picked the oyster and it contained a pink pearl of pretty decent size. We were both pretty happy with that, her, because it was a nice looking pearl and me, because it was like buying a pack of baseball cards, what with the randomness of what is going to come out of the package. We gave it to the ringmakers along with what setting we wanted and set our watches to return in the 45 minutes that they said it would take them to fashion the ring. Lauren handed me a penny, because it is evidently bad luck to recieve a pearl without giving a gift in return and we didn't want any bad luck to befall us on the trip! 

We continued through the department store, amused by the prevalence of Pokemon and Hello Kitty items, and found our way to the back room, where we found the grocery portion of the store. In addition to other funky treats, we found one of my favorite sodas:Ramune; originally discovered on one of our Cost Plus or Bristol Farms jaunts. (Yes, despite the fact that we are poor, we frequent high-end snack distributors. What can I say?) We had only ever experienced the original (lemon-lime?) in the past, so finding strawberry and orange flavors here was a definite highlight! Lauren also indulged her tea addiction by purchasing a box of Jasmine Green Tea. 

After touring the "Tin Toys" exhibit, featuring classic Japanese tin toys and enjoying our Ramune, it was about time to pick up the ring. They informed us to allow a day or so to let the glue holding the pearl to set and sent us on our merry way. While exiting the pavilion, we saw that Miyuki was making her candy animals. We joined the throngs to see the amazing feat that is Japanese candy sculpting. It was truly incredible what Miyuki was able to do with just a ball of white rice dough candy, turning it into dragons, tigers and sharks! Upon returning home we found that not only is this a truly exclusive art, but that Miyuki is the one and only female candy sculptor in the world. Very impressive.

Unable to get ourselves selected to choose and receive one of Miyuki's creations, Lauren and I trekked on to the America pavilion.

Unfortunately, one of my favorite attractions in Epcot, The American Adventure was down for a short rehab for the duration of our trip, so we were unable to go in and see the wonderful rotunda and the amazing show contained within.

Our American Adventure consisted of getting the passport signed (and mis-spelled) and a visit to the America shop. No funnel cake for Andrew, and we headed toward China, with all good intents, but we were slightly detoured. Right next to the pavilion in, what can best be described as an alley, was a wonderful cornucopia of characters. I practically dragged Lauren over to see some more old friends of ours. Friends who we haven't seen in California in quite some years!

I told them how much we missed them out with us and they seemed sympathetic. Hugs and tears aside, we ventured further down the alley to see Donald, who loved my Ducktales shirt and was more than happy to pose with us!

After Donald we met one of my many Disney dopplegangers, Stitch, and got a photo with him too. I wonder what mischief we could be planning?

Lauren got into the action, too, finding herself in the company of these two ne'er-do-wells. I'm not entirely certain that I'm OK with that...

After we got our character fix, we headed down the World Showcase trail. It's a good thing we stumbled upon our friends when we did, because for the duration of the trip, anytime we were near that area, I would do a quick check over and there were never any characters there. 

Italy was up next. We wandered back to get the passport signed near the Neptune statue, which I believe is a representation of the Trevi Fountain. It was here that we experienced one of the things that one will only experience at Disney. A family was preparing for a big group photo and as they were walking up to the fountain, a gentleman shoved his video camera into Lauren's hands and requested that she take some video of the family. No big deal, but handing the camera to us before saying a word? Interesting. I was seeing shades of "European Vacation" where Chevy Chase gives his camcorder to a guy at the Trevi Fountain, who has the family pose further and further away until he has a chance to turn and run with the camcorder. Ah to be ensconced in the Disney protective bubble!

While a very beautiful pavilion, there isn't too much to Italy so aside from wandering through the shops, we didn't spend too much time here and thus, continued on the the next of the Axis countries, Germany.

Outside of the Germany pavilion is an amazing model train display. Why Germany, you may ask? Well, were I to be a less diplomatic person I would say that they were excellent at making the trains run on time.

However, not only is that not only not true, but it is attributed to an individual in the country next door. Also, I am diplomatic, so there's that!

Germany is a nice pavilion, again with not too much to it. Had the Imagineers followed through with the conceptual Rhine River Ride, that would have certainly spiced things up a bit. But, as of now, aside from the obligatory shops, including a Hummel shop--which I visited as a tribute to my Grandma, a big Hummel collector-- the pavilion essentially consists of the Biergarten Restaurant. Neither Lauren nor I are very big drinkers, so we passed on this one.

However, we did not pass on the candy shop! Lauren had always wanted to try marzipan, and lo and behold, the German candy store featured bars of marzipan! I got a chocolate bar, hearing that German chocolate was amazing. While pretty darn good, I was crushed to find the same chocolate at Cost Plus on our return home. At least I fared better than Lauren, who realized that there was a reason she had never tried marzipan. Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

As we left Germany, we saw a long line that appeared stagnant. Upon further inspection, Dopey was at the head of the line, but curiously, it was not moving at all. The character host came back to us and said that Snow White would be a few more minutes, but if we wanted a picture with Dopey, we could move to the front of the line. We instantly obliged. Who needs Snow White, anyway? Not us!

We stopped by the Equatorial Africa/ Coca-Cola pavilion for a quick picture, where Lauren tried to upstage the polar bears as Coke mascot. I'll let you be the judge.

Following that, we were in China.

China was a really neat pavilion and though sticking to plan, we missed the film, we actually ended up spending quite a bit of time and money here. You're welcome, Chinese GNP! The shop in the back of the pavilion was immersive and before I knew it, was the proud owner of a Chinese walking stick/cane for less than five dollars! Can't beat that with a stick!(insert studio laughter here)Please keep the fact that I am wandering World Showcase with a cane in mind for later. It becomes important. Lauren also found some things that she wanted to buy for her family and herself, including a little bird wine glass balancer thing for her mom and a box of lychee berry...you guessed it, tea! and a postcard celebrating the year of the rat for herself.. Also, I was slightly offended by the T-shirts featuring Mao. I'm just saying.

At this point we realized that all of our jet-setting had just about managed to work out our collective lunches from our collective systems and it was time to eat again! We decided against trying to get into Nine Dragons and went for the Lotus Blossom Cafe. I had my Chinese food stand-by, orange chicken and Lauren opted for the beef noodle soup bowl. Both were good, though Lauren has been obsessing about the soup since we got home, and has attempted to duplicate the experience with no luck. It was not the actual meals that excited us, however. Like any good kids-at-heart, it was the dessert that had us thrilled. We decided to continue our "new taste experiment" theme and have some red bean ice cream. Wow was it good. We need a way to find that back here at home as well!

After eating, we were right on time to see the Dragon Legend acrobats. Talk about an impressive show! Normally with acrobats, I find myself cheering for failure and possible harm, but with these guys, I actually wanted them to succeed. What a weird feeling! They did not disappoint!

Norway was up next and was the closest thing I could find to my Danish heritage. No real Scottish pavilion and no Danish. I feel slightly gypped. Ah well. If I can count part of my heritage being in the Norway pavilion, I'll be happy, if only for the Maelstrom connection. It was a relative walk-on and I was able to show Lauren the hidden mickey in the Viking mural at load. We hopped in the boats and prepared for our journey into the history and economy of Norway...oh, and of course TROLLS! I love this little ride and it inspired one of our catch phrases for the remainder of the trip whenever someone--including eachother--annoyed us. "Back! Back! Over the falls!" 

As mentioned previously, we ditched the movie and still wound up in a gift shop. Thanks, Disney. The store was pretty neat though. Very soft sweaters, lots of trolls and it smelled like grandma. I don't know how to quantify that, but it smelled like grandmas. It's my story and I'm sticking to it! As Lauren went to get her passport signed, she had to wait for a few kids to get done with their little art projects, including one small boy who was thoroughly excited about the prospect of something to do. Upon seeing the little table, he proclaimed "Oooooo! Activities!" Kids, I tells ya!

We were still hungry, but I guess battling trolls and managing not to die over the falls makes one hungry, and I had heard great things about the Kringla Bakeri og Cafe. We went in and the cast members were actually quite short with us, something I was none too pleased with and it made me glad I skipped their stupid film! Take THAT Norway Tourism Board! Foodwise, I ordered something called Lefse, which is described as traditional potato bread covered in butter and cinnamon sugar. Sounds right up my alley. I was to be sorely mistaken. Lauren, on the other hand, ordered what was essentially two waffles with some sort of jam in between them. I wish I had gotten what she had. I still snuck some bites though!

After our snack it was onward to Mexico! We entered the pyramid and enjoyed looking at the Oaxacan animal carvings in the foyer. We also really enjoyed the interior of the pavilion, which is setup like a little twilight market. We shopped around for a bit, and then proceeded to walk onto the "Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros!" I love the three caballeros! First Figment, the Country Bears and now these guys?!? Wow, I love Disney World!

The ride was fun, in a cute sort of way. Kind of Small World-esque with some fun new technology to incorporate mis tres amigos into the attraction. Well, I enjoyed it, anyway!

It was getting to be time for Illuminations at this point, and we ventured back over to England, since I had heard that one of the best viewing spots for the show was right behind the Rose and Crown. Well, standing in front of the little walkway down to the water were two guest control cast members. I asked them if there was any more seating down there. They kind of looked around and some jerk in a Patriots hat, who apparently knew them, told them not to let me in, due to my Chargers cap. I made some diplomatic remark, managing to contain my venomous hatred for anyone and anything remotely associated with the cheater...err Patriots. The guest control people asked if it was just the two of us and when we affirmed that fact, handed us two tickets for the VIP viewing section. I kinda felt bad, not knowing that we were asking for something special like that, but I certainly wasn't going to say no. They told us to return in 30 minutes or so, so we wandered over to Canada, where Lauren bought Maple tea and smarties for me. Not American smarties, the British ones, more like M&M's, but with a flavored candy coating, and we continued into the English store for some snacks for the show.

We got some crisps, and Toffos (my new favorite candy!) It was right about time to report to our spot, so in we went. 

We were sitting there, preparing our cameras for the show when we realized that I had my cane, and whenever I have some sort of walking stick, I manage to subconciously affect a limp. We both laughed at the premise that this may have been what made the cast members decide to give us the tickets. Is this indeed true? Probably not, but the world may never know.

Illuminations was a really great show, and I'm glad we got to see it, and from such a great vantage point.

After the show we realized that we had been in Epcot for over twelve hours and had a nice early morning the following day, as well as several more days in the parks, so we trudged back to the hotel and enjoyed the whirlpool tub and just relaxed.