Today would be an Epcot day. After our customary coffee/hot chocolate, we climbed into the van and drove the short distance to the Epcot parking lot. With the low attendance this week, we were able to get a primo spot in the first couple of rows, even arriving at 9:45 or so in the morning.
In preparation for our Epcot day, I had called home the previous evening and gotten my Leave-A-Legacy coordinates, so I now knew exactly where my photo was displayed. Of course, I didn't know where the obelisks were numbered, so I had to walk all the way to the Leave-A-Legacy map posted under Spaceship Earth, then back to the proper row. Frank walked behind me the whole way, making sarcastic comments into the video camera. Frank thought Leave-A-Legacy was a huge rip-off.
I finally found myself, took a picture, took some video, and my quest was complete. Honestly, I like the idea of Leave-A-Legacy, and I like the design of the obelisks; Many Disney purists disagree with me, but then again, I hated the birthday cake that covered Cinderella's Castle for 18 months during the WDW 25 anniversary, so I figure, to each his own.
Finding myself had aroused my appetite, so we were off to find breakfast. We chose the Fountainview Cafe; it's one of the few walk-up food places in Epcot that serve breakfast. Fountainview has a wonderful selection of baked goods and fruit cups; not the healthiest breakfast in the World, but certainly among the tastiest. Since we were nearby, we got on Spaceship Earth. Today, the sound was running! When we had gotten on it earlier in the week, the sound was out. Ever ride Spaceship Earth with no sound at all... it's eerie, but kinda funny, too.
And since we were there, we made dinner reservations, er, excuse me, Priority Seating arrangements, for 7pm.
We also looked through the various shops, particularly the incredible craftsmanship of the glass blowers shop. I watched a carriage wheel take shape in the expert hands of the artisan on duty, fascinated by the seeming ease with which he strung melted glass around like taffy, coaxing it into coherent shapes. This kind of art is something I can always appreciate; the hard work it takes to learn a craft like that is far beyond my lazy ineptitude.
When we left Mexico, and proceeded into Norway, we stopped at the Viking ship to take a couple of snapshots of me, standing proudly in the center of the boat, pointing away at some unseen sight across the sea.
The next shot was me cowering in fear behind one of the shields mounted to the gunwales.
Frank wanted a snack then, so he went into the Kringla bakery and got a slice of their superb strawberry cream cake. I wasn't hungry, so I skipped it; I planned on coming back later for a treat from Kringla.
Then we rode the Maelstrom. At the beginning of this ride through Norwegian culture, history, and mythology, the narrator says, "You are not the first to pass this way..." I always reply, "Yeah, there's another boat right up ahead there."
China was next, where we watched the Wonders of China, a terrific Circle-Vision 3d movie. Frank thought the narrator was Keye Luke; I thought perhaps the voice was, but the actor on screen was definitely not. After the movie, we walked through the shops, looking at the Chinese art and clothing. Some of the jade stuff is incredible.
As we left China, we looked over the menu at the Lotus Blossom Cafe and decided that, when we were ready, we'd have lunch there. Then we walked on into the Outpost, decided we were ready for lunch, and walked back to the Lotus Blossom. The food was excellent.
We skipped Morocco to find a bathroom (Chinese food for lunch does that to me sometimes), and skipped France, too. We did stop for a while in the U.K. to listen to the Beattles-clone British Invasion. They sure do sound like John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
In Canada, we watched Oh Canada, the Circle-Vision 3d movie. I love all the snow-covered scenery in that picture. We haven't been getting much snow in Baltimore for the past ten years of so, except for a few anomalous storms that dump two feet on us at a time, but I love snow. It's the best part of winter.
Next for us was Innoventions. I enjoyed it a lot more before half of it became video-game-land. We also saw a photo display of Walt Disney (I got a picture of him next to a poster of the Florida Project which eventually became Walt Disney World), and a display of Kodak Photographers Award winners.
Wouldn't you know it, we were nearby the Wonders of Life pavilion, so we decided to go get a strawberry slushy again. Well, Frank got a slushy; I got another of those fantastic root-beer floats. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but every float I got from Pure & Simple was just as good as the first. Maybe next year they won't be as good, but for at least one vacation, I had a special treat that was consistently delicious.
We ended the day back at All-Star Music, with dinner in the food court, and a trip to the front desk to set up our express checkout. We knew we still had one more day of vacation, but we didn't want to waste too much time on details. Besides, half of tomorrow would probably be taken up with packing up and preparing the van for the long drive home on Saturday morning.
Our Disney vacation was nearly over; I was getting a bit homesick, but Frank was getting depressed and grumpy, as he is wont to do near the end of a trip. Disney Magic can cure all kinds of ills, but it does have it's limits.