Episode 9: Wait a minute- this doesn’t look like Italy….
So we headed over to Italy to pick up our Kimmunicator, and quickly located the KP mission both. I was looking forward to going a mission in Italy because I have been partial to the pavilion ever since my Dad dropped our camera, that contained two weeks of WDW vacation photos, into the Neptune fountain on our family vacation in ’86. Good times, warm family memories!
Well, much to my disappointment, when turned on our Kimmunicator it directed us to go to Japan for our mission, psyche!
Where does this say we're going?
Well, at least I got to make a pit stop at the Sam Addams kiosk for some fortifying Cherry Wheat beer on the way. I think foiling plans at world domination are best done with some liquid courage, don’t you?
So we proceeded into our mission, and it was a pretty good time. The only real problem we encountered was that they didn’t space us out too well, and we were right on the heels of another family doing the same mission.
the mission apparently involved some deadly windchimes
This sorta ruined some of the effects for us, but it was still pretty cute. I don’t think I liked Japan better than the one we had done previously in France, but it may have just been because I was disappointed we didn’t get Italy.
Once we were finished we really had to hunt for the drop off location for the Kimmunicator, in fact the end location was probably one of the few things we found before the family in front of us. They were pretty grateful we showed them, I wonder how many Kimmunicators “walk off” because people get frustrated looking for the drop point at the end.
After all that, it was time for more food! New Zealand was right around the corner from Japan, and DH was dying to try out the lamb slider. It was one of his favorites from previous years, so he was really looking forward to trying out again.
looks good
tastes good!
Its a winner!
After that it was time for one of my favorites, the chocolate lava cake! Yes, it is approximately the size of a quarter, but it is one tasty quarter!
doesn't the trash can make it look even more appealing?
The verdict, heavenly!
About that time we figured it might actually be time to ride something, so we swung by Test Track to pick up some FPs,
Meandered by some people stuck in a cranberry bog
and then headed into Spaceship earth, which was just as fun as always! This time around I noticed that some backlight triangle were added to the decent. Maybe they had been there all the time and I just didn’t notice because I was too busy building my future? They certainly don’t make up for the unfinished descent, but at least they are something to look at!
When we were finished DH decided to try out one of the other games in the post show area, some driving game.
Truthfully I don’t remember too much about it, and it wasn’t really all the exciting, so feel free to skip in favor of power the city.
After all that, our FPs for Soarin’ still weren’t ready, so after a little wheedling, I convinced DH to go on a nostalgic favorite, Universe of Energy- at least that is what the sign still says.
I hadn’t been on this ride in a while, because I always worry about how Everett would do, and 45 minutes is a long time with no chance of exit in case of meltdown. There should be some sort of emergency temper tantrum kill switch in that ride, so parents can get off in extreme situations.
But, since I’m still waiting for that upgrade, I figured now would be my best chance to visit my dinosaur friends, who are cool, not like the ones that try to eat me in Animal Kingdom!
I remember being so unbelievably impressed by the dinosaur scene as a kid, and really, it still is pretty awesome. It is a dark ride on such a grand scale, something you’d never see built today.
Dh was less than enthusiastic, but even he had to agree that it did a good job of eating up time, and when we got off, we were able to head over to Soarin’
I was really glad I got my chance to get on today!
Once we were done with our hangliding tour of CA, we were feeling a little peckish. Yeah, I know, its not like we’d be eating all day or anything! DH loves those giant sandwiches at Sunshine Seasons, and since we were right there, it was the logical choice for dinner.
DH got one of the afore mentioned sandwiches, and I got a chicken Caesar salad, a good Disney staple. I can’t say that my salad wowed me, but it was fine and it did the trick.
blurry food pictures
The logical choice after dinner is always to go on a fast or spinny ride, and since our TT FPs were now good, that is exactly what we did.
We went through the FP line fairly quickly and we were matched up with a kid from the single rider line. I was guessing he was a first time rider, but I knew for sure when he started screaming right before we “crashed” into the wall. It was pretty funny.
redneck ride photo alert!
It had gotten dark by the time we were off TT, which meant only one thing, there was time for a dessert loop around WS, and then it was time to settle in for Illuminations.
DH wanted Baklava, so we headed off in the direction of Morocco. DH hit up the F&W booth, while I stood back and caught a little bit of Mo’rockin’ .
They are one of my favorite WS performers, them and Off Kilter, so it was nice to get to listen to them for a little bit.
Baklava consumed, it was time for me to make my dessert choice, and there was one thing that I just had to try- a chewy caramel bar. This treat was made famous by PirateKate in her TRs, and on our last trip I thought I had one, but as it turns out I was mistaken and ate a chocolate caramel, which while chewy and bar shaped, was not the real deal (still delicious by the way!).
This time I was not to be thwarted by wrong signage, I knew what I was looking for and I was going to find it. We made our way into the Karamel Kutche (or however you spell it) and I saw it.
I had a momentary lapse where I considered trying the caramel cookie instead, but I kept the faith. I trusted Kate, she wouldn’t steer me wrong.
Boy, was I ever glad! It was delicious, with shortbread goodness and chewy caramel, completely heavenly!
After all that we were not done, we had one more dessert to try out before we settled in for Illuminations, the white chocolate macadamia mousse with dark chocolate pearls that was at the desserts and champagne booth.
I don’t have any photos of it, for some reason, probably because we were too busy scarfing it down to bother with pictures. If I learned one lesson from the churro incident, its “eat now, take pictures later”.
Dessert loop complete, there was only one thing left to do- get our traditional pre-illuminations margarita and settle in for the fireworks.
We ended up in Norway, which I think it a great place to watch from and took a seat. I broke down and called my Mom to check on how things were going and was happy to hear that everything was going swimmingly.
We had to watch our backs for spot poachers while we were waiting, but luckily no one tried to muscle in front of us and we had a great viewing of Illuminations.
Once it was through we headed back to the busses and back to AKL. We had discussed getting a drink and sitting outside by the firepit, but we nixed that plan because we were both pretty tired.
Also tomorrow we had to be up bright and early because tomorrow was the day that we would run with the bulls, in the Toy Story Mania dash.
.... I can't imagine doing all of that on my own without any help.
We will actually (probably) be visiting not too far north of you after our DL trip in May. We are combining that vacation with a visit to see DH's aunt and grandmother who live in Washington. His aunt lives on Camano Island, which it looks like is about 45 minutes north of Everett! I feel like maybe we did something in Everett on our last visit a few years ago, but I might just be remembering road signs with Everett on it and thinking how much I liked that name! 
But seriously, I'm sending good thoughts your way for the upcoming move and deployment. And, of course, looking forward to your next update! 
Thanks for asking though! 
