<Paul Harvey voice> And now... The rest of the story </Paul Harvey voice>
At least this will be the rest of the first day's story.
When I left off we were headed back to POFQ. One of the things I didn't mention is that on the way out I grabbed another set of FP's for test track. I usually try and do this if we are going to come back to the same park later in the day.
Our room at POFQ was in building 4. While we didn't have a river view we were close to the parking lot, CS food and the pool. I think we'd definitely try and stay in this building again.
After a exploring the resort for a bit and taking a little rest, we headed back to Epcot. This was much to the chagrin of sis and bro who really wanted to go play in the pool. As I write this DisDadDoc's comment "it's their vacation too" from the last disdads podcast is wringing in my ears. Ohh, well sometimes you've got to be a parent and take kids away from the fun thing thats glistening in front of them so they can go have more fun somewhere else.
So we headed back to Epcot. We hadn't done our obligatory Spaceship Earth
picture that morning because we were rushing for rope drop. We posed and got a couple pics.
No, Mr. Photopass person we don't want to see both our kids in our pictures.
We then ventured deeper into the park taking lots of pictures all along the way.
They had added Cars themed features that I didn't remember from the last time we were there.
A Lightning McQueen made out of flowers? It's something masculine in a more feminine environment. It's a disdad.
In addition to Lightning McQueen they had also added "Racing around the World". You get a passport and go to certain countries to get it stamped. If you get all the stamps, they give you a button. It was good fun.
After taking a fair number of scenery pics we headed for our Disney Visa Character meet and greet. We hadn't done this in the past and were pleasantly surprised. You are ushered back one family at a time and get quality time with the characters. The only issue is you have no idea what characters are going to be behind the curtain until they call you back.
This photoshoot was one of our favorites. The characters spent lots of time playing with the kids.
Armrest, now that's Bro's kind of job.
Both Minnie and Goofy had fun playing with the kid's Pookaloos. They seemed to be a good way to provide an interaction point for the characters beyond the autograph books.
After getting our pictures taken we walked down to the photo place near Spaceship Earth to pic up the 5x7 you get with the Disney Visa. Once we picked up the picture Mom was happy, and since we were right there we rode SE. The kids liked their future's, but I am going to have to write Disney a sternly worded letter, if I am not vacationing on the bottom of the ocean in the near future.
We then headed to the Kim Possible station near Mexico. We picked up our Kimmunicator and were assigned the mission in Mexico. The kids had fun solving the clues and it was neat to see the things that had been "hidden" throughout that country. I don't have any pics of the cool ways the exhibits changed so instead I submit this pic of us staring at the Kimmunicator
Note the extremely manly pink backpack Mom picked out for me. Funny I don't remember an argument, but it looks like I lost.
If you haven't tried, it I'd definitely recommend it. (If you get the mission in London, they give you a teabag. Free Stuff...Disney? thats unpossible) The kids wanted to do more adventures after we solved the one in Mexico, but it was already time for dinner.
We then headed to La Hacienda for dinner. We got a great table by the window and while we enjoyed dinner, our friends enjoyed the view.
We had heard bad things about La Hacienda from some friends that had eaten there recently. While there were things we didn't really like, the chips weren't very good, the salsa was kind of bleh, we still enjoyed the meal. Mom and I shared the "Del Mar" Parrillada. It was a two person entree described as a "mixed grill offering mahi mahi, shrimp, scallops and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsa". I think thats a pretty self explanatory description so I'll just call it delicious and show you a pic of it.
The description above leaves out "includes a spicy pile of grilled corn mixed with cheesy goodness". The shrimp kind of reminded me of Ohana.
The kids had taco's. I won't insult your intelligence and show you a picture of a taco( but we did take them). After dinner dessert came. Mom and I each ordered the Empanada de Manzana. I had to fend our friends off from mine.
We left dinner full and did the obvious thing. (Obvious that is, if you are a hobbit) Yup we headed to Germany in search of 2nd dessert. If you think the desserts in France are great, you need to stop in Germany. They had things like this:
While those would be a very worthy use of a snack credit, we knew there was a golden treasure hidden in that shop and we wouldn't be distracted until we got it.
Karmel Kuche (Umlautes are for sissies, also I don't know how to make them). Your life would be better if you were eating some right now.
Kuche successfully aquired we headed around the park to take some more pictures, complete the race around the world and give the kids some time to color their Duffys ( insert confused grunting sound here, I have no idea what the purpose of this bear is, maybe one of yall can enlighten me.)
Our first stop was in front of Rapunzels castle. Our kids have commented that they arent sure how she fits in there. I need to convince them the its actually 200 feet tall and its just another Disney example of forced perspective.
By this time the kids were starting to get tired. (One of the adults might have been getting tired too **cough** MOM **cough**) So we picked our pace and only stopped at the WS Kidcot stations we needed in order to complete the race around the world.
When we got to Great Britain we slowed the pace down a little bit. Mom went tea shopping (apparently we are in our 30s going on 60) and I took the kids to find the kidcot station. This was our last stop in our Race around the World. Sis, Bro and I each had our completed passports so we got Lighting McQueen buttons. Hurray! Free stuff. When mom finished up in Twinings we headed over the phone booths to mess around a bit.
I have all the phone booths on speed dial in my Cell so I can call them as people walk by or get into them to pose for a photo. It makes for good fun as people are usually a bit confused at first, but everyone seems to be pretty friendly. (The kids and I also have fun calling them during the year when we arent at WDW to wish people a magical day)
At this point we were all pretty much done so we started heading back to the parking lot. On the way back we swung by TT to use the FPs I had grabbed earlier in the day. Unfortunately everyone in the park must have had the same idea or the ride must have been broken down. The FP line filled the entire length of the queue inside and stretched out a fair bit outside. At this point no one wanted to wait in a line so we opted to skip the line and just head back to the room. Boo for skipping rides so heres a pic of me riding TT with "Cousin it" earlier this year.
We were heading to MK tomorrow and we wanted everyone to be well rested.
Yes we did skip illuminations. Its a good show, but we stayed at the Beach Club a while back and we kind of got our fill of it. Wishes is the must see show for our family.
Your children are too cute! And I am beyond happy for your wife, you and your children that she is a cancer survivor! I can't wait to hear all about the Dream. Was this a first cruise for y'all? We leave for WDW in 26 days and then we'll leave there to go to the Dream. I'm so excited!
Wait a minute, aren't you the one who offered to buy a pink DIS Dad's shirt if somebody would wear it to the parks and get their picture taken in it??? 
