Day Four
DAY FOUR – Monday, March 17th (Saint Patrick’s Day)
Awake at 7:30, I find that I’m not the first person awake today, and once I’ve showered and dressed, Dad and I zoom down Highway 192 to pick up a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. This made everyone quite happy and has started Krispy Kreme addictions in 3 poor unfortunate souls who’d never before experienced the delight that is a warm Krispy Kreme donut first thing in the morning. Everyone is ready to go and out the door by 10am. Mom, Dad, Dennis, and Amy are taking a quick detour to scout out the location of the Palm Golf Course (where Dad and Dennis have a tee time for Tuesday morning) while Sofia, Tosh, and I head directly to Epcot. Once, there, we head over to the Land to ride Living with the Land (another one I’ve never done before). Just as we are exiting the ride, the others arrive, having successfully driven past the golf course, so we head over to the Imagination Pavilion to ride Journey Into Your Imagination with Figment and see HISTA. We ride JII (I rode it two years ago, after the initial refurb, but before they added Figment back into it, and it’s much better, never having seen the original, I’ve got no idea what it is I’m missing) While we played around a bit in the Imageworks, I decide to pick up a Figment pin and a Figment Lanyard (the lanyard itself is a rainbow strap with a sort of rubberized Figment at the end. I’m thinking that between the Rainbow Mickey pin from Monday and the rainbow lanyard, I should be set for my trip in June.) When we’re done at the Imageworks, Mom and Dad really need to get something to eat (actually we’re all fairly hungry, as donuts are yummy, but not the best fuel for walking around Epcot) so we head over to Germany to eat at the Beirgarten. When we get to Germany; Dennis, Amy, Sofia, and Tosh decide that they don’t want to eat a big meal, but would rather snack they’re way through W.S. Mom and Dad wanted to sit down and eat something substantial, and I (never having eaten at the Beirgarten) decided to eat with them. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere inside (along with the air conditioning) made it a very pleasant experience. After lunch, we went over to China because Mom was looking for a jade ring to go with the jade pendant, bracelet, and earrings that Dad had given her for their anniversary. She found one that went very nicely, but at $250, she wasn’t sure, and told the lady behind the counter she’d think about it. (I told her that once we got around the lagoon, we’d be back). A quick phone call determined that the rest of the family had made their way all the way to Morocco, and we told them we’d meet them there. We stroll over to Morocco to find them waiting for us, having just finished eating or drinking something. A quick glance at the show times guide tells us that we’ll have just enough time for a glass of champagne in France before seeing the Impressions du France movie. After the movie, we stopped at the Patisserie where Mom and I split a napoleon and a chocolate éclair (the others had stuff, too, but I was too busy with the stuff I was eating, I didn’t really notice). Just as we finished, it began to rain. Just as we got to the bridge between France and the UK the sky opened up and it started pouring. We ran over to a group of trees for shelter, and I offered to run and get ponchos, or even back to the store in France that sold umbrellas. Dad however, gets a smug look on his face and says that he doesn’t need anything, at which point he pulls a small bundle from his pack. (A little history on the bundle: A few years ago in San Diego, Mom and Dad caught without raingear when the forecast called for storms, found a shop that sold rainsuits that fold up into little bundles. Mom has used her rain coat several times, but doesn’t have hers with her. Dad has never used his, it’s always in his golf bag until this trip.) He begins to unfold the bundle and says “I have this” at which point I say “sweat pants?” Dad looks down and sure enough, he’s holding a pair of nylon pants. Apparently he and mom bought a set, and mom has had the top, and he’s never discovered until now that he had the bottoms. Dad utters a few choice profanities while Mom, Sofia, Tosh and I are literally doubled over laughing at the look on Dad’s face as he stares at these pants in his hand. Dennis and Amy (who had been over at the smoking section adjacent to the France pavilion )come up and ask what all the commotion is about, which of course just sets us off laughing again as the rain starts to subside. This is easily the funniest thing that happened on our trip, and from then on, Tosh would look over at Dad at various different times and say “You sure you don’t need your pants for this?” which would crack us all up again. (To his credit, Dad can take a joke and laughed along with the rest of us after the first time.) From there, we make our way, wet but smiling, to the UK pavilion where we split up for a little while. Dad, Dennis, and Tosh head over to the Rose and Crown for a pint while Mom, Sofia, Amy and I hit the shops. After shopping for a bit, we meet them at the R&C where I pick up a pint of cider (something that neither Sofia nor Mom has ever tried before, well not the alcoholic kind anyway) and Sofia drinks a “Shamrock” A frozen, green concoction served in a half-yard glass in honor of Saint Patty’s Day. So we all toast the patron saint of the “homeland” (Dad’s side of the family is full-blooded Irish) and enjoy having drinks together (something that we enjoy wherever we are, but for some reason it’s particularly “right” to be at that place on that day, and to be all together.) When we finished at the pub we strolled over to see “Honey, Shrunk the Audience” (another first for me) which is quite an interesting experience when the entire family has just the slightest buzz going. After HISTA we went over to Test Track, but decided that the line was too long and Tosh (who races stock cars for fun in Odessa on the weekends) says “Heck, I drive faster than that in my car on the track at home”. So we head over to the Living Seas for a very pleasant relaxing stroll through the exhibits and the aquarium. By this time it’s 6:30 in the evening and we need to decide what we want to do for dinner and stake out a place for Illuminations before it’s too much later. Since Mom has decided that she does want to buy the jade ring in China, we decide that we’ll meet at the Lotus Blossom (counter service) for dinner as Dennis and Amy depart back to the parking lot to get warmer clothing. As we make our way back to China, Sofia and I stop and get Margaritas in Mexico. Mom buys her ring, and I wink at the lady behind the counter and say “I told you all it would take is a walk around the lagoon, and she’d be back” at which point Mom laughs and says she should have realized I was right when we left and just bought it then. After a pleasant meal at the Lotus Blossom, we staked out a table and left Dad and Tosh to hold it for us (Tosh is 6’10” and nobody is going to give him any grief about holding seats for us, LOL) while we run to get desserts and drinks. We were staying at Epcot to see Illuminations mainly because Mom and I wanted to see it (it’s another thing I hadn’t done before) but once it started all seven of us were just awed. It’s amazing and I found it to be very moving. It’s going to be a “must see” on every trip from now on. As we left the park and made our way back to the cars, we decided that the next night would be a night where we’d eat at the condo. Dennis (he is a chef after all) would cook dinner for us and Tosh would make his amazing cheesecake for dessert. This raised one problem. Tosh didn’t have all the supplies he’d need for cheesecake, so he, Sofia and I would have to go to the store on the way back to the condo. Between 10pm and 11:55 when we got back to the condo we hit two supermarkets, a Wallgreens and finally the Super-Wal-mart way down on Highway 192 before we found everything he needed. Then they both fell asleep for the 15-minute ride in the car back to the condo. I was a very tired and cranky chauffer when we got home, and I was very quickly in bed by 12:15.
