Vacation

Vacations are so much fun. This year our family took a much anticipated trip to DisneyWorld in Orlando. I have decided that I would like to journal that trip and so, every now and then, I will post a bit about our family vacation.

We went to Epcot on our first day. I took this picture as we were walking from the parking lot. The monorail track is on the left side of the picture. Anyway, we went to the Living Seas exhibit. It was OK, but since we went to Sea World a few days later, we could have easily skipped this. Lesson learned. However, we did get to see some dolphins and manatees, which both of the girls enjoyed. Later we moseyed over to the Imagination Pavilion, where Emily tried to catch the dancing waters and ended up getting wet. We also watched the "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" 3D movie, which was a lot of fun, if a little freaky in places. (Some people say that it is 4D because you get to experience some extra effects such as rocking seats and water mist in your face.) I won't spoil the surprises, but I will say that it was fun.

We spent quite a bit of time in the World Showcase portion of Epcot. This is the area where different countries give a miniature taste of their culture. We "visited" Canada, United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, Italy, Germany, China, Mexico, Norway, and the colonial United States. It was interesting to see the different styles of architecture from each country and to visit with the natives who worked there. We also enjoyed the entertainment in some of the countries. Our favorites were the child acrobats in China and the street mime/juggler in Italy. However we were somewhat disappointed that there wasn't more information about the countries--it was mostly shops and restaurants. While we would have loved to buy souvenires and taste foods from each place, our pocketbooks and stomachs just couldn't have handled that. I don't know what we really expected--I guess that it would be a little more educational and less commercial. But, I guess people don't go to Disney for education! So, we contented ourselves with browsing and taking pictures . Also, Emily and Anna got to meet several Disney characters while we wandered around--Belle and the Beast in France, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), also in France, Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco, Mulan in China, and Dopey near Germany.

When we finished with World Showcase, we headed back to the Future World part of the park. We wanted to ride Test Track, but the line was very long and they had stopped giving out Fast Passes for the day. Bummer! But this time we were tired and hungry and decided it was time to head back to the condo for some supper. After we ate, we went for a nice evening swim in the pool. A relaxing end to a fun first day.

PS-- I took my pedometer along each day. At the end of the day at Epcot, we had logged over 11 miles!

Trivia question: What do the letters in "Epcot" stand for?
Leave your answer in the comments section. I'll post the answer in a few days.