Epcot

Thomas had a later start this morning, so we went to Kona Cafe for breakfast. I got the macadamia/pineapple pancakes, which were delicious. I was still riding my food-high from the night before, so I didn't eat all three of my pancakes, but saved 1 1/2 for later. Thomas got the Big Kahuna, which was more of a sampler. We then went our separate ways - Thomas to The Contemporary, and me back to the room.

I had intended to go the boardwalk aftwrwards, but managed to fall asleep and napped until 11:30. I then went to the bus stop were I had a lovely chat with Nathan, a college student from JMU. He told me a bit about his experience with the college program, so I could pass it into my sisters.

I then took the bus to Hollywood, caught the boat to The Swan and Dolfin resort, and walked to the Boardwalk.

It was a frigging hot day; I thought I was going to faint. I walked around the boardwalk until I got to a gazebo litters with flowers from an wedding earlier. I plopped myself right down, and read for an hour in the shade. It was lovely - hardly anyone wanted to go through the gazebo, but I had an excellent view of the lake. Abut 10 till 2, I boarded a boat heading for Epcot, and went in! I hadn't realized how close those resorts were to Epcot, and couldn't have planned the thing any better myself!!

The first thing I did was book it to Norway to find the goat-cheese waffle I had seen on the Disney foods blog a few weeks ago. It was not there, and I was devastated. I decides to express my frustration by refusing to eat lunch - that'll show them!

I went on Test Track in the single rider line. Supposedly its been updated, but I didn't notice a difference. After that, I walked over to the Cool Room, and tried the pineapple freska. DElish! I had a fast pass for Figment, and I had never been on that ride,so I decided to check it out. After wasting 10minutes there, I walked over to The Land, where I got a cucumber and tomato salad with water. I ate it outside, while reading, and watching the clouds threaten rain.

Thomas told me that he would be there in about half an hour, so I headed to the front of the park, stopping in shops, and art gallery, and watching the fountain dance along to the music playing. Once I got to the front, Thomas was still on the monorail, so I watched the Disney photographer take pictures of families in front of the magnificent Epcot ball. Just as an aside - this ball is amazing to photograph. I enjoy taking pictures of it 10 times more than the castle, just because you simply cannot get it at a bad angle, no matter what the lighting. It's beautiful. 

Thomas finally got into the park, so we had our picture taken in front of the ball (where the photographer did NOT take our picture badly, as had been my experience the last time we went to the parks) and were on our way to France!

I had been craving one of France's gelato sandwiches, and couldn't wait to try one. I got Caramel flur de sel with raspberry sauce. Both were good individually, but I wouldn't try that combo again. The raspberry sauce was sweet, and the caramel flur de sel was NOT, which made for a not very satisfying combination. Ah well, live and learn! Thomas got an apple and brie sandwich with cranberry sauce on wheat bread, which was delicious. 

We walked thought Morocco, Japan and Italy, the caught the boat cross to Future World. We had fast passed for Soarin'! It was the longest we had to wait in a fast pass line, but much better tha the 90 (90!) minute standby line! Of course it was worth it, and we very much enjoyed flying ove California. I've said this before, but they really should make a Soarin' for the world - flying over the seven wonders of the world, or perhans just the US? I think it would be fantastic, AND cut down on the waiting time for Soarin'. Seriously. 

By 8pm I had been walking almost constantly since 11:30am, and was exhausted. I picked out a nice spot in Canada to wait for Illuminations, and read while Thomas went in search of food. The poor dear was trying to find where they sold Dole Whips, but just couldn't find any! It wasn't until he texted my mom that she had to tell him the don't sell them in Epcot, until the food and wine festival, which doesn't start until the end of September. Dejected, he came back 45 minutes later with dumplings from China, and a frozen lemonade. 

As usual, illuminations was beautiful, and Thomas first time seeing it. We didn't see it last time because (as I informed Thomas) it had been cold, and I was pregnant. Enough said. We had extra magic hours after Illuminations, and went around the world once more. It wasn't really worth it, as people were closing up shop anyway. We weren't able to go into the big shop in China, which I really enjoyed last time. I got Nudel Gratin in Germany (which was SOOO good, and perfect to combat the chill in the air, thanks to a passing storm) and we raced to Norway to be able to get Rebecca an Elsa shirt, before the gift shop closed.

After getting Beka's shirt and passing on School Bread, because I had been so full of the gratin, we leisurely made our way out. We got back to the Poly around 11:15, and went to the beach and sat in the swing for a bit. After we realized we were falling asleep on the swing. We stumbled back into our room, and I fell asleep faster than I have in a very long time.