Monday we were back to our park touring schedule, so yours truly again got up first so we could all ready ourselves in time for the Epcot rope drop.
At the turnstiles, we again headed to the queue-less ones, though this time Melneth found out from a CM that our section of turnstiles would be opened only if the others got really crowded. After a bit of deliberation, we stayed put.
And were rewarded when the turnstiles two rows to the left of us were opened. We scooted on over and got behind about five people, I think.
After being let through the turnstiles, we joined the masses headed for Test Track or Mission: Space. Our touring plan directed us to the former, so we headed over there.
I enjoyed Test Track, really. I truly, truly did. But I don't remember it that well, and my notes (which again were written a week after I go home) say only "Test Track. Fun!" And that's it.
I can hear you now, readers. "And she calls herself a writer. Ffft!" That, or more optimistically: "Okay, not the best of beginnings, but she's done well in the past. Surely this installment is bound to get better."
Well, my apologies because on this dreary, wet day in Colorado, I'm not feeling incredibly creative. But as a
writer (yes, I do call myself one, ffft! back) I did learn long ago that writing is work, and like any sort of work, there are going to be times where you have to do it even if you don't feel like it or even if you feel uninspired. And since I've committed to posting on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and since writing does require discipline, I'm doing it anyway. So you get to suffer along with me, whereas with a bona fide book, I could cut out all the crappy bits. You get what you pay for.
Anyway. I blame my lack of inspiration on the weather. You heard me. I blame it on the rain. Yeah. Yeah.
And now, having dated myself horribly and possibly alienating my readership both due to my bluntness regarding lack of inspiration and revelations of past poor musical taste, I will move on to Mission: Space, since that's what we did next. My notes here: "Mission: Space. Green version. Nice set up, but I prob. could've done orange."
We'd agreed the night before to do the green version since we'd read that some persons had become nauseated on the ride, and Nevi and Melneth could've risked it. I do think that as long as I'd eaten about an hour beforehand I'd have been fine, but I didn't care about it enough to try to do green by myself.
Regarding the "nice set-up": Though Nevi, in particular, was flabbergasted by my non-knowledge of Patrick Warburton's personage at Soarin', it was Melneth this time who didn't recognize Phylicia Rashad, or, as Nevi called her, "Mrs. Huxtable." I at least remembered her name started with a P, but I think I said "Phyllis Somebody."
From there, we moseyed over to Universe of Energy with Ellen. I didn't fall asleep. But does anyone else find it somewhat ludicrous to travel in a gigantic section of seats? Maybe the Imagineers sought to make guests feel like slow-moving behemoths to better fit in with the dinosaur scenes--I mean, to draw less attention to ourselves as we traveled back in time. Because if the guests
feel like a gigantic, sluggish prehistoric creature, perhaps that perception works upon the inferior brains of the dinosaurs and they see one of their own.
Yes, I'm grasping at straws here. And I just heard thunder. So I still blame it on the rain. Yeah. Yeah.
From there, we went to Spaceship Earth. Ahh, the beloved giant golf ball that somehow represents the future.
I liked the updates. Nevi and I sat together (I think), leaving Melneth alone behind us. Nevi and I enjoyed making our little futuristic underwater world.
Or maybe it was me and Melneth. I sat with someone, anyway, and we enjoyed making our futuristic underwater world.
We--well, actually Nevi and Melneth--browsed a bit around Project Tomorrow. Being the medical people that they are, they stopped at the Body Builder to play with that. Everything had queues, though, and none of it was something I wanted to wait on. Plus it was crowded, and I don't like feeling crowded. So even though it was hot outside, I told Nevi and Melneth I'd wait for them outside. I wandered a bit and took a couple of pictures of the golf ball looking pretty:
Once we joined up again, we trekked on over to the Gran Fiesta ride in Mexico. I took a picture, which took me a few minutes this morning to realize was
not from IASW. ("But we didn't go on it again! How did that get there? ...Oh wait.")
Around now I started developing a headache--a combination, I believe, of lack of sleep, bright sunlight, and eating lots and lots of junk. But I'd mentioned earlier that I wanted to catch the JAMMitors, so we back-tracked to Future World for that. We arrived late, but I had enough time to take this picture:
And before that I found occasion to take this one:
Then along the way back to World Showcase I took this
and also made Nevi or Melneth take this
because I thought Lady's ears were really cool. Seriously. If I had a garden with some nice bushes, I might try my hand at topiary myself. But I doubt I'd do as well as the Disney people or Edward Scissorhands. I'd likely end up calling all my topiary InterTop (as that sounds more avant garde than Interpretive Topiary) since then, whenever someone said, "Dear God, what is that thing?" I could complain that they don't understand my vision.
But the ears on my topiary will be perfect.
Yes, that I was a reference, and I'm more proud of that than blaming it on the rain. Though I still do.
I also took a picture of Nevi and Melneth:
In real life, they do like each other more than this picture implies. The separate benches were a shading issue.
At some point we stopped by the train in Germany so we could pretend to be Godzilla stomping and kicking it. We also mimed the laser-breath.
But of course we actually touched nothing, since if Nancy at MK got so worked up about moving a block, just think of the hordes of CMs who would've descended upon us if we stomped the train.
Plus, the train was cool and we don't like destruction
that much.
Next up was Maelstrom. Strangely enough, we did not have to make use of the FastPass to ride it. Go figure. As our little viking boat neared the waterfall, I kept proclaiming "I remember this. I remember this" as if people would care that I did. And I repeated my litany as we started to go backward. "Yup. I remember this."
It wasn't raining at Epcot, so I can't blame that. But I do blame my killer headache.
We stopped at the Norway bakery because I had a nagging feeling that I'd read on the Dis somewhere about a tasty treat it has. Upon seeing the School Bread, I had an "Aha!" moment and announced to Melneth and Nevi that a bunch of Internet strangers said it was sooo good.
But since it was almost the size of my head, I chickened out and didn't get it. Instead, Nevi and I got, according to my journal, "tower-thingys." I'm not sure what to blame that interpretation on, since I think a certain form of precipitation is probably being overused by now, but in looking at the menu on allears, I believe "tower-thingy" was actually the cloudberry horn.
We sat outside to eat our goodies and Melenth traded me a bit of her school bread for a bit of my cloudberry horn nee tower thingy. I recommend both.
I can't entirely recommend sitting outside to eat, however, as there were points at which I envisioned a WWF-style smackdown to keep the birds from stealing our food. That's why people shouldn't feed them. Even aside from the whole it's-not-their-natural-diet thing that any zoologist will tell you. The birds start to expect handouts and will brazenly wait
on your table to get one.
That was pre DBAG, of course, or else it might have freaked me out more. Then again, the birds were alive, so maybe note.
And so I fizzle to a close. Guess what? It's still raining.
Up Next: Mulan, Mushu, Voices of Liberty, and a valiant attempt to stay awake during American Adventure.
It can be a great time.
but I will join you in defense of Disney Quest. 
Thanks for joining in!
