If youre like me, you really cant believe that this visit to Epcot is taking so many installments to accomplish. But, looking back on that day, it really WAS a long one. It seemed more like two or three days rolled into one. First of all, the day in general started out sunny and humid. Pretty typical of what wed experienced so far at WDW. I had purchased $20 worth of disposable rain ponchos from the dollar store and, at home, worried that I may not have enough for those every afternoon rains. Well, so far, in the three days wed been in Florida, it hadnt yet rained once! Considering I live in So Cal, where it never rains (ok, it does, actually, sometimes) and where the purchasing of a winter coat always turns out to be a bad idea (cause you pay $75+ for the coat to wear it, like, twice), what the heck was I gonna do with all these leftover disposable ponchos?? Today didnt seem like it was going to be any different, but BY GOD, I did tote those ponchos around in my Baggallini, because Id heard the stories about how quickly the rains could come upon an unsuspecting tourist. Well, even by the time we got over to Japan, the sky was still cloudy (ever seen a FL sky that was not cloudy? I did not think so) but not dark and it was still hotter than a
(its a good one, but totally not DIS-approved
or should I say it IS DISapproved, lol). *COUGH* Anyway! All things weather-related looked mostly normal, but DH and I had started to observe some ominous-looking clouds way over to the east. Hmm. Worth paying attention to, but we continued on.
Now, in Japan, we slowed our pace a bit for a couple of reasons. One, DH was actually born in Tachikawa Tokyo Japan, so he has a soft spot for that which is Japanese. First we headed straight for the kidcot station (this was like the touch point for DH
it was the GOAL for each country, and thank god we had it, or wed have sprinted straight from Canada to Mexico at a dead run - toe or no toe - in 10 minutes flat). This was a cool thing, but took us awhile to accomplish. You see, the passport CM in Japan was in no hurry to accomplish her mission! She valued quality over quickness or quantity and so there was this HUGE line to see her and this enormous wait until it was our turn. We took turns looking at the Japanese toys in the display cases. We made friends with the people in line. We memorized all the Disney trivia ever. We knitted a sweater. We alternated sighing and ho-humming, and I avoided DHs eyes that had that lets skip this and move on look in them. Finally, pay dirt! It was our turn and the passport CM definitely gave us every bit as much attention as she did the previous guests. Namely, she was fabulously talented at drawing the patriarch himself, Mickey Mouse! So she drew a Mickey Head on the back of DDs mask:
and wrote her name in Japanese in the passport. My DS, who had been fairly quiet except for constantly teasing DD, found this part of the ritual completely charming.
I shall digress again for a moment here. To understand not only the flavor of this vacation, but of our family experience in general, I must say a few things about my kids relationship. When I found myself pregnant with DD, I and everyone else around me said, Well, at least with 9 years between them and being a boy and a girl, theyre really not going to mess with each others stuff or have anything to argue about all the time. Ever said anything that turned out, later, to be HORRIBLY wrong?? That one was among my top ten. God only knows what there is for a 16 yo boy and a 7 yo girl to bicker about ALL the TIME, but they do! ALL THE TIME! Teasing/drama, teasing/drama. Ryan did (whatever hes doing at the moment)! I didnt do anything! Yes, you did! No, I didnt! GET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER! You know the famous phrase, Im not touching youuuuu! MY kids came up with that! All this to say that, on this vacation, they did not depart from the habits of a short lifetime of constant teasing and torment.
Ok, so anyway. As I have said before, DS is enamored of all that which is multicultural, so he just about swooned when the passport CM wrote DDs name in Japanese and then said, just like she had said to everyone else in front of us in line, OK. Ret me exprain and she proceeded to explain how the Japanese characters spelled out DDs name. My son
he thought this was amazing! Now, he and his best friend practice different accents all the time. DSBF (who, incidentally, is my BFFs son) got me good a few days ago with an East Indian accent while asking for my son on the phone. LOL My BFF is half East Indian (but was born and raised in CA, so no accent like her relatives of the previous generation)
and yet so are the really irritating outsourced employees of my credit card company who call here ALL the time for god-knows-what. Anyway, I thought he was one of them and he got me good and we laughed. So, back to WDW - this super cute Japanese accent just charmed the dickens out of my boy and he must have repeated that phrase a jillion times over the rest of the trip.
After we finally got out of the kidcot station, we went into the gift shop and actually spent a little time browsing for a change. DD and I bought chopsticks. She and I have this favorite Mongolian restaurant we go to without the guys and we usually take our own disposable chopsticks (because theirs are like small knitting needles
long story, nevermind)
and anyway, now we can take the real thing! DD also wanted one of those lucky cats they sell she chose gold, which is supposed to make all her dreams come true and bring her good luck in wealth (hope it works so she can pay for my retirement!). DS bought some Japanese apple candy that I never even got to taste!!
Purchases secured, we set back out into the mugginess to forge ahead to America, where we saw some minutemen guys doing a drill, but mostly we saw the stage for the Sounds Like Summer concert series. Now, let me tell you something. Ive had plenty of girlfriends tell me how dishy it is that my DH works behind the scenes in the entertainment business. Ooo ahh, hes met lots of famous people and gets the backstage passes, etc. Of course this has its charms (eh, famous people are totally overrated), but mostly being married to this guy means that no entertainment setup, no play, no concert, no movie or movie set, no performance of any kind goes unexplained. There is no way to pass a stage without hearing an opinion about how it was built or how it would work. Can you imagine this guy working for Disney? Where is the magic, people? So, anyway, we paid more attention to the Sounds Like Summer stage and how it was built than to any of the American things going on around us and we probably made it from one side of American Adventure to the other in less than 5 minutes, and thats including the stop to the kidcot station, which had absolutely no one else around other than the passport-signing-mask-stamping-dealybopper-putting CM and, well, us. By this time, the ominous clouds in the east have decided move a bit closer. The wind picked up a little. Wow, the first breeze weve had since we got here!
We blinked and were on the other side of AA. I have no idea what is even there except for the kidcot station and the building behind the minutemen in the picture above. Thats it! If there is anything inordinately interesting in American Adventure, I am destined not to know about it until next time we go.
Next up:
The sky gets darker as we head into Italy!
Was that a camera in your ds hand? If so he should have taken a picture of his father taking millions of pictures.
When I came back from the "World" this year I wanted to write a TR, but being an engineer everything I write looks like a user manual
I have to agree with you though, the World Showcase is my fav too
one more time on that trip, I would have screamed.
:
One hour in Epcots Canada and you are already talking Canadian! HEH!
Such pretty colors in Epcot! HEH!
