Trip Report Time for Flowers! Flower & Food (Garden) March 2017

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 24, 2017

Courtney6682 said:
That's so funny! I wonder if it's a regional thing...I'm from Philly. It's a hard crunchy shell just like this....soooo good!!!

View attachment 195719

It might be an interesting option if I have to have a cone. The salty part of it would be a nice option. I'll probably just go for the dish anyway.

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 24, 2017

bee said:
I've never heard of pretzel cones but OMG that looks soooo good! I always liked cones. Maybe it's because I always ate ice cream fast enough that it didn't have time to melt!

ETA: To OP, I've been enjoying your report and photos!

Thank you! I will post more this weekend. I have been tuckered out all week after work, and it just seemed like a lot to do. This weekend I'm staying in my pj's, snuggling with the dog and working on some fun projects (this trip report is one of those.)

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 24, 2017

mlegerto said:
Joining in! Great start.

I LOVE THIS PHOTO. I actually love all of your F&G photos. I'm in Canada myself and it's been cold, snowy and wet recently so these brightened my day! Thanks!

O.M.G....SO good!

Thank you I'm glad I could brighten your day! I'm in Wisconsin and we don't have any snow anymore, but it is just was brown here. The flowers are a nice brightness.

blreinsel · Mar 24, 2017

OMG I cannot wait for Ample Hills!!!! :inlove:

The Chinese acrobats are awesome.. we happened across them last year and I'm glad we stopped to watch them!

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

Day Two: Epcot in the morning!
We got to the entrance of Epcot and the lines were super long, but the AP entrance was open and had a short line so that's were we went. I grabbed a couple pictures of the entrance topiaries before they let anyone into the park.

Then we were held by Spaceship Earth for a little bit. So I just took a few pictures. And I just love pictures of Spaceship Earth.

We had done Frozen yesterday and our fastpasses were for the Magic Kingdom later tonight so we headed with the herd to Soarin'.

Interesting and somewhat funny story: So we all know that there are runners at park open. We are not runners. Heck, I can't remember the last time I ran! Hubs and I think runners are silly and can cause problems so we make fun of them. We are however, fast walkers at park open. Anyway, we got behind a family that was moving pretty fast and they had a stroller. It is important to note that the dad was about 6 foot tall and a very large man. (Not that I'm making fun of large people, we are no skinny minnies.) Hubs and I could hear there conversation about how worried they were about all these people beating them to Soarin'.....blah blah blah. With the amount of people headed to Soarin' we still were going to get through with a limited wait. So their concern amused us. Anyway, the Land building was coming up and the guy with the stroller tells his family to keep walking and he would catch up.

So he takes off at a full sprint with the stroller to the stroller parking area and by the time we make it into the Land's doors (still walking behind his family) he catches up still running. He clearly is not a runner has he is sweating profusely and breathing heavily. His wife is clearly concerned about him and he says he is fine and they have to keep moving or more people will get ahead of them. By now the whole crowd has basically formed the line and we are all walking down the stairs to the ride, no one is really getting ahead of him anymore. The guy is still wheezing and now swaying a little and talking about how light headed he is. So now at the entrance for the ride the mom takes the youngest, who is too short off to the side and we are still behind the guy and his two other kids. The queue is basically empty and he keeps moving super fast and we are still close enough to hear him tell his kids that he doesn't feel so great and that is heart is racing, while trying to pump his kids up about how great the ride was going to be. I'm thinking, great this guy is going to pass out on his kids all because a couple people were going to "get ahead" of him for a ride. We catch up to the line and the guys breathing hasn't slowed and I'm starting to get concerned for him. And he sways a little bit and he looks back at us and the tells his kids, "If I pass out, ask the people behind us for help. They have been behind us for awhile, so it's like we know them. They'll get your mom." I'm like, "WHAT?!" in my head, and then we just laughed a little. I guess hubby and I look trustworthy! Nice to know we don't look like kidnappers. Anyway, by the time we got on the ride his breathing was fairly normal, but then he couldn't get his kids buckled in right away and was a little panicked. I just wanted to tell him to settle down and everything would be alright. Maybe you had to be there but all the actions of this guy was like some exaggerated comedy routine. And that is why we don't run!

We went to Test Track next, but the wait to go on together said 45 minutes so we did single rider and were on in just a little over 5 minutes. Both of us missed the designing the car, as single rider you basically just choose if you want to go for power, efficiency, so really just a basic option. The ride was still fun though.

Next was Mission Space. Both lines were super short, but Brad has a hard time with orange. He get motion sick from spinning and he hadn't taken any dramamine. Spinning doesn't bother me, I could ride the tea cups all day and be fine. But I wanted to ride with him so we did green. The two versions don't really seem that different to me, so it was fine. We ended up having our own capsule, which was nice as we geeked out and really pretended we were the crew and played along and talked in the capsule like we were the crew. It was a good mission.

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

A little more Mission Space. I have wanted to take pictures of the capsule before but hadn't because I didn't want to be the person who held everyone up. So now with no one else in our way, I was free! I took them quick though, because I didn't want to hold us up either.

After the ride, Brad wanted to look at the Star Wars stuff. And I'm sure I've seen this mural behind the registers it hadn't stuck with me. I thought it was pretty cool though.

Then we just meandered over to Imagination with a stop at the pin kiosk.

The fountain wasn't dancing, but I think it is still pretty.

I really like the pink and yellow flowering trees at WDW in the spring. As a science teacher I should know their names, or at least what to know their names, but I don't. I like to call them pink and yellow trees. I also like to call them pretty!

We are nerds, we wear identical shirts sometimes!

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

It was getting close to 11 am now, so the World Showcase would be opening soon. And more importantly, the Flower and Garden food booths. So we headed out that way.

Yellow tree flowers.

Canada! It was neat to see the totems. I know that at least one of them was new. I think it was one the right, that I kind of cut off.

The UK had some hopscotch set up. I won't post the picture of hubby hopping scotch, but let's just say he is better at drinking scotch! We did have a nice chat with the cast member (who is kind of in the picture) before moving on.

We wandered through the UK looking for the Easter egg, we didn't find it, so we think it was in one of the shops that was still closed. We didn't find it in France either as we waited for rope drop of World Showcase.

So once rope dropped our first stop was the Florida booth.

We got the carne asada to share, and although it was very tasty, I let Brad eat most of it. I let him have a lot of it because I got the beer flight and the key lime tart. I love key lime pie and he hates it, so I don't get it often. The tart was delicious. So with that and the kumquat beer in my beer flight I was in heaven.

sheriffwoody · Mar 25, 2017

Enjoying your report! Getting some good ideas of what to get at the festival

That corned beef and cabbage sounds really good, so that's going on my list!

MinnieM123 · Mar 25, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
We are nerds, we wear identical shirts sometimes!

Not nerdish at all -- I think it's really sweet!!

I like your mouse ears, by the way.

Lastly, I was glad to read that the father with the kids didn't pass out in Soarin'. I read that description of what he did, and I just sort of shook my head, thinking that some people put too much pressure on themselves to rush to attractions (in the Florida heat). If he paced himself and they went at a slower rate, they'd wait longer, but heck, it's not the end of the world. He was very lucky he didn't collapse, from the sound of your description. (And the irony of the whole thing is, if he did pass out--can you imagine how much that would have cut into their park time, as he'd obviously need extra time to recover--not to mention, if CMs had to call in medics, etc.)

Tuvalu · Mar 25, 2017

Love this picture!!!!!

The water just looks so pretty and peaceful.

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

MinnieM123 said:
Not nerdish at all -- I think it's really sweet!!

I like your mouse ears, by the way.

Lastly, I was glad to read that the father with the kids didn't pass out in Soarin'. I read that description of what he did, and I just sort of shook my head, thinking that some people put too much pressure on themselves to rush to attractions (in the Florida heat). If he paced himself and they went at a slower rate, they'd wait longer, but heck, it's not the end of the world. He was very lucky he didn't collapse, from the sound of your description. (And the irony of the whole thing is, if he did pass out--can you imagine how much that would have cut into their park time, as he'd obviously need extra time to recover--not to mention, if CMs had to call in medics, etc.)

I kept thinking that about that guy too, that if he had passed out it would take so much more time. I also thought that since the mom sat with the small kid she could have parked the stroller and just wet up with them when they go off the ride and he wouldn't have had to run at all. Some people!

Thanks for saying that it is sweet for us to wear matching shirts. So I guess we are sweet nerds! :geek:

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

sheriffwoody said:
Enjoying your report! Getting some good ideas of what to get at the festival That corned beef and cabbage sounds really good, so that's going on my list!

Thanks, I have enjoyed your reports in the past as well. And you should definitely put the corned beef on your list, it was so good. I usually hate cooked cabbage (like on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being extreme hate it would rank a 20) and I ate a lot of it.

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 25, 2017

Tuvalu said:
Love this picture!!!!!

View attachment 196075
The water just looks so pretty and peaceful.

Thanks! It was actually a weird shot, there were some people leaning against the ledge and just this little space in between. I sure got a strange look from one of the guys, I think he thought I was taking his picture!

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 26, 2017

After the Florida booth our next step was Japan. Hubs wanted the poke and I wanted the beef Udon because I loved it last year. The udon was still good, but a little dry. It needed just a little more sauce. Hubs loved the poke. I don't eat fish, but I tasted a bit of the sauce and that was good.

beef udon

Ahi tuna poke

If you want to know where the Easter egg is in Japan for the egg hunt click the spoiler. I thought I would hide it in case some of you want to find it there yourself.

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 26, 2017

After Japan the next stop was the one Brad was looking forward to the most: the Smokehouse! He really enjoys BBQing and smoking meat during the summer along with eating BBQ so he was excited.

I got the beer sampler here. I was originally just going to get the maple bacon stout and I decided the beer sampler would give me a taste of more beer. It turned out to be the way to go. The maple bacon stout had a nice flavor but it was super sweet and I could only take a couple sips. The other ones were more my type of beer. You can also see the spread of food we had.

The ribs: tasty...

Burnt ends hash:

After the tasting of all the savory items Brad went back for the the warm chocolate cake. It was good. The spiced nuts on it were a little odd but still fit the dish.

Then we found the Easter egg in America, so again click on the spoiler if you want to see its location.

Then we took a break from eating and saw the last part of the Voices of Liberty and then took in the show.

We always sit on the far side of the theater, and no one is ever around us so I took a couple pics. This is one of my favorite scenes, as I think National Parks are one of the best ideas that ever happened to this country.

And we're out. All that patriotism has made us a little hungry.....

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 26, 2017

Next was Italy, we wandered all around the pavilion looking for the egg, we finally gave up, ate some meatballs, and went to Germany. In Germany we found the egg and started chatting with a cast member about our Italy frustration and she gave us a huge tip and since we were still close we went back and found it.

I didn't remember how cool these boats looked here until we were searching for the egg.

The last couple festivals I was disappointed in the offerings of Italy and I have skipped it a couple times, but the meatballs had been given some decent reviews. And really, meatballs are usually pretty awesome. There weren't awesome, but they were tasty. It could have used a little more of the micro-basil and cheese. But overall it was solid.

Like I mentioned we skipped (not literally) over to Germany, and found the egg. Here is a the egg, so if you want to see click on the spoiler.

Then we went back and found the egg in Italy. We basically found it right away, and we both felt silly because we had looked there but both of us had somehow missed it. So if you want to see its location, click the spoiler.

Then we went back to Germany and I stood in line for beer and food while Brad did the Facebook Live of the polka band. Being from Wisconsin, I do love my beer, cheese, and polka. In school polka was one of the main dances we learned in gym class!

So I got the beer flight, I got the sampler. Which again two of them were excellent. They had the same lemon beer they had at Food and Wine, and I forgot how much I hated it. It tastes like how Lemon Pledge smells. I took one sip and remembered how bad it was. I was going to offer it to someone else around, in case they liked it but I thought that might be a little strange and awkward so into the garbage it went after pictures. We also got the curry wurst with paprika chip and the ham and potato pancake. Both were really tasty and favorites of ours. The lemon beer was in the middle.

Mrhappyplace · Mar 26, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
View attachment 195985

Love this pic! Enjoying the trip report! Can't wait to eat from the F & G booths myself.

MinnieM123 · Mar 26, 2017

I was amused that you found so many Easter eggs. (I clicked on all the spoiler alerts to see where they were!

)

Songbird76 · Mar 26, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
After Japan the next stop was the one Brad was looking forward to the most: the Smokehouse! He really enjoys BBQing and smoking meat during the summer along with eating BBQ so he was excited.

I got the beer sampler here. I was originally just going to get the maple bacon stout and I decided the beer sampler would give me a taste of more beer. It turned out to be the way to go. The maple bacon stout had a nice flavor but it was super sweet and I could only take a couple sips. The other ones were more my type of beer. You can also see the spread of food we had.
View attachment 196210

The ribs: tasty...
View attachment 196211

Burnt ends hash:
View attachment 196212

View attachment 196213

After the tasting of all the savory items Brad went back for the the warm chocolate cake. It was good. The spiced nuts on it were a little odd but still fit the dish.
View attachment 196214

Then we found the Easter egg in America, so again click on the spoiler if you want to see its location.

View attachment 196215

Then we took a break from eating and saw the last part of the Voices of Liberty and then took in the show.
View attachment 196216

View attachment 196217

We always sit on the far side of the theater, and no one is ever around us so I took a couple pics. This is one of my favorite scenes, as I think National Parks are one of the best ideas that ever happened to this country.
View attachment 196220

And we're out. All that patriotism has made us a little hungry.....
View attachment 196221

I love love love the Voices of Liberty!! They are amazing!!!

ajrwdwgirl · Mar 26, 2017

Mrhappyplace said:
Love this pic! Enjoying the trip report! Can't wait to eat from the F & G booths myself.

Thanks! I love taking pictures of Spaceship Earth and I thought this looked cool and geometric with the screens.

Trip Report Time for Flowers! Flower & Food (Garden) March 2017

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blreinsel

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Tuvalu

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