When we arrived at Epcot, I wanted to find my picture on the Leave-A-Legacy obelisks; unfortunately, I found that, in all the excitement and hurry of our early departure, I completely forgot to pack the little card with the coordinates on it. And, despite the fact that Leave-A-Legacy is somewhat less than sold-out, finding one picture among all those hundreds is impossible without the coordinates.
So, instead of finding myself, I chose to eat breakfast.
The Electric Umbrella is an Epcot institution; for lunch or breakfast, there are few places in the park that I like better. Breakfast time is usually pretty slow at EU, so I almost always sit in the middle of the big round... place. Whatever that big round place is called... Anyway, we grabbed breakfast and watched people trudge through the continuing drizzle.
After breakfast, we went through Ice Station Cool, sampling sodas from different lands. Japan has a good citrus flavor, but Italy is the rankest sludge I've ever tasted. I had to down a whole cup of the Japanese soda to wash the flavor of the Italian soda away. I liked all the Coke merchandise, too; I bought a Coke can squeegee for my desk at work.
Now it was time to visit some attractions. Up first was Test Track, always a hoot, more so today because there was no line! Rain always cleans out the parks, and a light mist was still falling, so the place was deserted. Luckily, the mist was not enough to make Test Track close down, as it usually does in the rain.
Next was Ellen's Energy Adventure, which, in the days before Ellen and Bill Nye the Science Guy joined the show, was my favorite nap spot, but is now entertaining and engaging. The crowd was very light, but of course the CMs still tried to cram us all into the first four feet of empty space in the pre-show area, and the first three rows of the ride cars. We spread ourselves out anyway.
After watching Ellen, I felt the urge to have my head examined, so we went to Cranium Command, in the Wonders of Life pavilion. I love Cranium Command, as much for the dialog (Fuzzy, putting you in a chicken would be cruelty to animals!) as for the celebrity characters (Here me now and believe me later, if we were thirty years older we'd be attacking you right now!) Cranium Command was only about 1/3 full.
Body Wars was a bit of a let-down after Cranium Command, but any chance to see Elizabeth Shue in that white jumpsuit... BW was about 2/3 full.
Body Wars doesn't normally make you hungry (at least they don't show the G/I tract!), but after riding it we were in the mood for something to drink, so we went to the food counter, Pure and Simple. In years past, Pure and Simple served nothing but super-healthy foods; while my body may have loved these foods, my mouth did not. Most of them tasted like paint... and wood. These days, P & S carries some more main-stream snacks and drinks. Frank went for a strawberry slushy, while I opted for a root beer float. What a float! It was one of those great little surprises that Disney always brings to you; you're just wandering through your day, and suddenly you find something you absolutely love, right in front of you.
By this time the rain was pretty much gone, but the sky was still a depressing slate color, and everything was still wet. Still, after two solid days of non-stop rain, I was grateful for the brake. Since we could walk around without getting soggy, we headed for World Showcase. Turning left, as I always do, we went into the Mexico pavilion. The Mexican art exhibit at the front of the pyramid was closed for renovation, forcing everybody to go around to the side doors. We stopped for a few minutes in the Plaza de Los Amigos, listening to the full mariachi band playing there, then got on El Rio Del Tiempe, which had no wait. We got our own boat; too bad it wasn't Splash Mountain.
We breezed through Norway and China, taking a couple of pictures here and there, then through the Outpost (are they ever going to replace that with something better?) and into Germany. We looked through the shops in Germany; Frank has a collection of Disney Hummel figurines, and always gawks over the ones in Germany.
Now it was time for lunch. Well, not really, but we were hungry, so we went into Biergarten. No PS required; when the parks are so empty, in the middle of the off-season, you can walk into many restaurants in Walt Disney World and get seated with no wait.
I'd never eaten in Biergarten. Despite my considerable German ancestry, I'm not a big fan of German food, but I found most of the stuff on the Biergarten buffet to my liking. And one thing I've always liked is German deserts; Biergarten had several excellent examples. I particularly loved the apple strudel, and went back for seconds and thirds.
Stuffed to the gills, we made our way through Italy (stopping briefly to try to duplicate my signature graphic, leaning against Spaceship Earth), and into the American Adventure. I don't spend a lot of time in that pavilion, but today the Fief and Drum Corps was marching through; they gave some sort of an award to two little kids, a boy and a girl of about 5; I took some pictures of it, because the whole thing was just so cute.
We shopped for w while in Japan; I bought some of those little puzzles... you know, the metal shapes that you have to get together and apart without bending them. We breezed through the shops in Morocco and France, stopped for awhile in the U.K. to listen to British Invasion (boy, they really do sound like the Beatles), and on to Canada.
In Canada we noticed something peculiar. Actually, we noticed several peculiar things, but they were all pretty similar. For as long as I've been going to WDW, Disney has always gone to great lengths to hide construction and renovation from the guest, usually with brightly-painted wooden walls. But the beautiful waterfall near the back of the Canadian pavilion was under rehab, and had scaffolds and ladders all over it, in plain sight. Because of the rehab, peculiar things number two and three were visible: the pine trees which normally line the top of the artificial rock face were gone, and where they would have screened guests' vision, two odd things were visible in the distance. First was what appeared to be a new resort under construction (and a massive one, too). Second was a tall metal tower, adorned with antennae and airplane warning lights. Seeing the construction, on both the rock face and the new resort, was odd enough, but the tower was a glaring, non-Disney sight. We went into one of the shops and asked a CM what these things were. The two CMs we asked had never seen either object before; one of them went outside with us so we could point them out to her. The resort, she said, was one of several new Disney Vacation Club resorts currently under construction, but she had absolutely no idea what the tower was. We surmised it was a radio repeater tower; centrally located as it was on Disney property, it would be in an optimal position to relay radio transmissions from CMs anywhere in the World.
We never did find out what the heck it was.
After we left Canada, we decided it was time to finish the 'front side' of the park. We went first to Journey into Your Imagination (a cute little ride); afterward, we went into Kodak Imageworks. Neither of us had seen this place before, and we were impressed by the exhibits, and by the range of photo services and merchandise available. I loved the Lucite shapes with 3d images inside them, until I saw the prices (You want how much for that? It's a chunk of plastic with my picture in it!) But then I saw the silver coins. That's right, one-ounce .999 pure silver proof coins that they can put your picture on! For the avid Disney silver coin collector, it's a must-have. I'm not an avid collector, but I do have several coins, and I just had to get one of these limited edition coins and have my face put on it. I only regret that I didn't have a set of mouse-ears to wear, as I did for my Leave-A-Legacy portrait. I sprung for it, signed for it, got my picture taken for it, and had it shipped to my resort.
Frank was less enthused; even though he has enough one-ounce silver proof Disney coins to fund a coup in a small nation, he had no interest in getting one with his picture on it, despite my urgings.
So, after leaving Imageworks, we did Honey, I shrunk the Audience, then headed over to The Land, where we rode The Land (Living With). Seeing all those plants made us hungry, so we stopped at the food court and got some chocolate cake.
We finished our Epcot day at the Living Seas. The pre-show movie was as awesome as ever; I'm not a big seafarer, but the incredible sights and sounds of the Deluge get to me every time. And the hydrolators are a simple but effective way of setting an atmosphere, making them my favorite part of the Living Seas. Once we got inside, we wandered about, trying the various activities, peering at the dolphins and manatees. Frank used to have a salt-water fish tank, so he was very familiar with many of the species of fish in the various tanks. He'd pass by and mention "I had one of those." or "Those are really tough to keep." I have to admit, fish have never been my cup of tea; most of the fish talk went right over my head.
About this time, I was starting to stagger a bit; we'd been walking around all day, the morning had been rainy, and Epcot is huge. All that conspired to make me feel a little taxed, and I guess Frank was, too, so we headed out of the park, and back to All-Star Music. We ended our day with dinner in the food court, and some Disney TV.