Around the world in 12 1/2 hours

I know you were all on the edge of your seat for part two of our Orlando Adventure. Wait. No. Longer!

So...Epcot. It's kinda like 2 parks in one. Future World--rides and activities involving space, technology, environment, etc.--and World Showcase--11 "countries" to sight-see, eat, be entertained, shop, etc. Once again, I made my family get up early and get to the park before it opened, because I had heard that if you didn't get in a ride Spaceship: Earth like 10 minutes ago, you were going to have to stand in line for 3 hours and then you would never get to eat at the French bakery EVER. So, naturally, we had to be first in line. Well...we must have gone to Epcot at the intersection of a full moon and the summer equinox and I'm sure pigs were flying somewhere because, I kid you not, there were no lines ANYWHERE! I mean, there were lots of people, yeah, whatever. But we waited longer in said French bakery than we did anywhere for rides. We walked straight onto Test Track TWICE. So, I felt kinda dumb for doing all this research and making a big deal about how we have to get fast passes and do this and then do this. But in the end it all worked out. We did just about everything (I mean, not EVERYTHING...seriously the place is massive), but I have very few regrets about what we missed (a little more time in England, Italy, and Germany would have been nice).

I won't bore those of you who have been to Epcot by explaining what each of the activities and rides are. Well, maybe a bit. We got to lead our own space mission to Mars (kinda made me sick, but kinda cool that it was like space training, we got assignments and things), got to design and ride our own rollercoaster (I think ours was like the Frozen Ostrich or something), rode through the Epcot Greenhouse with some freaky looking plants, like dragon fruit and a huge tomato tree, and saw dolphins play in the Nemo Aquarium
.

But the real fun, of course, was the countries, and the real fun there, of course, was THE FOOD! French quiche and eclairs, German brats and beer, Moroccan couscous and falafal, Italian cannoli--Yum! And yes, Mary had a cheeseburger in America. Awesome. The Voices of Liberty Choir was really good, as was The British Invasion. And one of my favorite things was playing the "What do they call that in Britain?" game with another set of twins from Florida and after we ran through the whole list (including me shouting out "Torch" for "flashlight" in a VERY British accent by accident--I got excited, ok?), we all got celebratory Epcot buttons. Thank goodness for watching too much Harry Potter and James Bond.

Wish I had more pictures to show you. I just have a few that are on Facebook, nothing really exciting as we were literally too excited to get around and do everything to bother stopping for pictures.

So, there you go. Until next time...