Today was the last day of our park admission (but not the last day of our trip dont leave yet!) so we jammy-packed it full of activity. We didnt have park hoppers, so for our last park we picked Epcot (does this mean its our favorite park? Maybe it does, dear reader. Maybe it does....).
The plan was to get to World Showcase right at opening so we could videotape DH dancing in front of each country as an homage to the
Where the Hell Is Matt? series of videos of a guy who quit his job to video himself dancing in front of landmarks around the world. (I hadnt heard about these until DH showed them to me on YouTube, and I find them to be such a profound affirmation of humanity that I cant watch them without getting teary. Our video, however, will probably be more of a profound affirmation of my complete lack of videography skills).
Note: because my cameraman, DH, was doing the dancing, we dont have a lot of photos of this day. So I had to borrow some from the Internets....
Although we spent a leisurely morning getting ready and merely moseyed over to the International Gateway, we still got to Epcot well before the World Showcase opened. We wracked our brains trying to think up something to do in Future World to kill time.
When in doubt, why not pick the ride that might possibly kill you?
Yesssss!!! I scored a shot of the 3 seconds during which Gary Sinise actually looks away from the teleprompter!
Our breakfasts thoroughly scrambled inside our tummies, we wobbled off Mission: Space and headed toward MouseGears so I could return my threadbare Disney gloves.
My gloves pretty much looked like this
I would have been happy to exchange them for another pair, but all the shops mustve had a run on the pink ones during the cold snap. The CMs were very understanding about the obviously shoddy workmanship and gave me my money back.
When it got closer to World Showcases 11am opening time, DH and I wandered over and began debating which country to start in to have the least amount of people walking through the shot. We were hanging out near Mexico waiting for rope-drop, but I got nervous about the number of people amassing there, so we decided to start with Canada. This also seemed like a good idea because Id read that people generally start with Mexico and Norway and work clockwise. But when we got there, there was a huge group of people doing a scavenger hunt, and we kept having to stop shooting cuz people were running through our shot. I got kinda anxious about it, so we went back to Mexico, skipped it, and started in Norway, then went clockwise with everyone else.
In general, people were pretty aware of what we were doing and conscientious about not walking through our shots. Because DH was the talent, I had to wear the backpack and lug the camera and our free-dessert magnets, so I guess that makes me the cameraman, grip, and costume assistant. I also spent a lot of time crouched on the ground trying to hold the dang camera steady movie-making is darn unglamorous, if you ask me!
Our last stop was Mexico
Super-Top-Secret behind-the-scenes shot of DH dancing around the world....Showcase!
Well who should we run into just as we got the last shot off, but Lacey & Eric! This was a good thing because A) I had Laceys photo-caption contest prize to give her, and B) I still didnt have their contact info. (In fact, when we met this time, I finally asked for their info, put it in my iPhone, and then unwittingly erased it as we left them doh!). It was nice to catch up with them again, but I didnt want to interrupt their lunch at the Cantina, so we bid them farewell (this time, for reals!) and went inside the Pavilion for our lunch at San Angel Inn.
Imagine you can see San Angel Inn
When we ate here on our honeymoon, we were pleasantly surprised by how tasty our carne asada was. This time, the food was as blah as everyone says it is.
We started with two side orders as appetizers.
Guacamole - Avocado dip mixed with onions, cilantro, chile serrano and lime
Bland!
Cazuela de Hongos - Mixed wild mushrooms topped with fresh cheese
Meh.... OK, I guess.
Carne Asada Tampiquena - Grilled beef tenderloin served with a chicken enchilada topped with ranchera sauce and esquites
Carne Asada Tampiqueña is my favorite Mexican dish. What could be better than a steak topped with a cheese enchilada? But this one was not great the beef was tough and not very flavorful, and the cheese enchilada was like mush.
On our way out, we broke down and bought an already-finished Animale Fantastico. This one was a cute little crab.
Like a dope, I forgot to get a picture, so instead I will show you this picture that came up when I searched for Animales Fantasticos on Flickr.com:
Isnt this the cutest thing you have ever seen?!
Its NOT the cutest thing youve ever seen? Well how about this?
Still resisting the bunny, eh? Well try THIS one on for size!
You are powerless to resist this bunny!
Oh, bunnies not your thing? How about penguins in sweater vests?
Ahem! So... lets see, where were we? Ah, yes: As evidenced in the pictures above, we bought a wooden crab.
Pretend we bought the one in the lower right-hand corner of this photo
After lunch we nipped down to the front of the park to get some footage of DH dancing in front of the Epcot ball, and then nipped back up to Norway so I could demolish a school bread.
Unsuspecting school bread, pre-demolition
Our next mission was to assemble a Candy of the World (Showcase) gift basket for our neighbors, who selflessly braved our cats hissing and scathing looks of utter contempt to keep him alive while we were on vacation. We hit on the notion of bringing them one candy from each country in Epcot. Once again, I dropped the ball on demanding DH take pictures, so Ill just have to describe them individually and then show you the gift basket at the end.
In Mexico we got a bag of individually wrapped wafer cookies with goats milk caramel in them. This sounds (and tastes!) grosser than it looks...
In Norway it was pink and white mushroom-shaped candies (which Id hoped would be like meringues but later discovered were chewy and raspberry flavored ick!)
In China it was American Cola Candy which were Coke-bottle shaped gummi candies.
It seems like at least once on each trip we get stopped by the IllumiNations globe as it makes its journey to the lagoon for the big show, and this trip was no exception.
Hey, Globe, over here! Remember us? We were standing in the front row over at UK Pubside the other night...? You were amazing!
Globe: Oh, hey guys...Yeah, I pretty much rocked the face off that show...
Lamp: No more pictures NO MORE pictures! Globe has to prepare for tonights show....
Oh, you want my picture? Well, sure how about I stand in front of the bridge here, nice and dramatic-like...
Barge: Um.... does anybody want MY picture...?
And so, our quest for candy of the world continued. We had to skip Africa because Coke and Cheetos dont count as African... anything. In Germany we found some sort of cherry-chocolate nonsense in the shape of a heart and took two whole pictures.
The choices in Italy were almost overwhelming, especially the colorful bags of individually wrapped candy. In the end we cheaped out and got then a lemon sucker and an orange sucker.
On the way to America we saw something wed never seen before: An American band (unfortunately, it wasnt
Grand Funk Railroad).
Were an American Band
Were coming to your town, well help you party it down.
Were an American Band
In America, we chose a candy that paid homage to America and that for which it stands: The Almighty Dollar. I wish I had a picture its the candy bar with a wrapper printed to look like a $100 bill and Mickey in the presidents spot.