EPCOT Future World

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 Today was our day in the "lower half" of EPCOT.

We Arrive

Half of the 30,000 people there ran directly to the Test Track ride.  The other half (including us) ran to the Land Pavilion to ride Soaring.  It was crazy.  But we got on and every one loved the ride so much that we decided to try again later in the day.

Russ dashed over to Test Track to get us Fast Pass tickets for that ride.  We then met him at the Space Pavilion for the Mission To Mars ride.

Ready For Blast Off!

It was a fun ride.  The highlight of the ride was that Garry's job as Engineer was to press the button to put us into hypersleep for the months-long journey from the Moon to Mars.  We had a few tense moments as Mission Control said, "Initiating Countdown.  7-6-5-4-"  And Garry shouted "HYPERSLEEP!" and hit the button.  Hahaha!

Then we headed over to Test Track and enjoyed that ride.

Granison Assume the Crash-Test Dummy Pose

...then Finds His Dream Car.  "Will You Buy It For Me, Unca Damian?"

We paused for a smoke-break at the center fountain and watched it put on a show.

Then it was off to the Imagination Pavilion where we played and played and played...

Lunch was back at the Land Pavilion.  We all had our own choices of food.  Russ picked this one:

Beets and Goat Cheese....yummm...

Russ found a Coca-Cola shop that gave out free samples of soda from around the world.  As much as you could drink.  We filled up on free fizzies...

Then we did a couple of tours, such the as Living With The Land boat tour.

We Found this Hidden Mickey on One of the Boat Tours

Then we spent some time shopping for trinkets.  Damian found a hat...

I'm a Bit Disturbed that it Looks So Natural on Me..

We went to all the other pavilions and had a good time, for the most part.  One of Damian's favorite pavilions has been The Living Seas.  Sadly, they've completely dumbed it down and totally ruined the magic of that area. <sigh>

 Then we were done and headed out to dinner.  Russ called and made reservations to the Outback Restaurant...only to discover it was the steakhouse franchise, but rather a nice "regular" restaurant.  We ate up, including the alligator nuggets and alligator sausage.  Every one enjoyed...

The Result of the Devastation...

Then the alligators got revenge!

After that we drove home, soaked in the hot-tubs, enjoyed a few glasses of wine.  Then collapsed in bed in preparation for tomorrow!

Disney Movie Lot

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Today we spent the day at the Disney Movie Lot.  

We dashed off to the retooled Star Tours ride.  It was great and we wanted to go again but the line was crazy long, so we didn't go 

We rode the Tower of Terror, which every one loved...except Richard.  I bought the picture of the group because Granison's face was priceless

Then we rode the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster.  Every one loved that.  I didn't buy the picture, but should have because Granison's face was priceless.

Then we watched lots of shows.  Such as the "motor vehicle" stunt show.

We did the backlot tour...

We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Show:

We rode The Great Movie Ride and went through mock ups of some sets of famous movies, including:

And posed with a few characters from our favorite shows.

We also saw the Muppet Show in 3D which is still hysterical--if a little dated.  We wandered through a Walt Disney retrospective, did some shopping for trinkets, and caught the Beauty and the Beast stage show.

After that, every one was worn out, so we packed up and went to the resort to rest up.  Tomorrow is a full day at Epcot!

Magic Kingdom Pics

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(The Family Assembled) 

(Garry Can't Fit His Giant Legs Inside the Kiddie-Sized Space Ship)

(I Believe A Couple of Dreams Have Been Fulfilled)

Orlando Trip Begins!

And what a trip it was.

We have this fancy alarm clock that lets us set an alarm for each individual day.  During the work week, it's set for 430am.  During the weekends, it's set for: OMG are you kidding me? No alarm at all, I'm sleeping until noon at least!

So to get this trip started, we needed to be up at 430am in order to get packed and on the road by 5, in order to get to Garry's work by 530am to catch the shuttle to the airport.

And so Garry woke us up by saying, "Boys, the shuttle leaves at 530...and it's now 520."  Yes, we trusted our alarm to go off at 430 and since today was Saturday...it didn't!  We jumped out of bed, jumped into clothes, threw stuff in the car, and took off!  We were late to the shuttle, but caught the next one, got to the airport, and got on our way.

We made it to Orlando, got the car, met the family.  My nephew was confused to find us waiting there, because he had no idea that Orlando was our actual destination.  We bundled into the car, got to the resort, to the room.  We unpacked, swam, then headed to the Magic Kingdom for an evening of just getting a couple rides in and watching the fireworks.

We were surprised.  In just 4 hours we managed to ride Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean.  We had a bit of dinner, then scooted to Main Street to watch the light parade and fireworks.  We had horrible location, really, for the light parade, although we got to see some of the floats.

But this year they added something new!  Prior to the fireworks, they projected a display onto the castle.  Let me clarify a bit:  Big castle...being used as a canvas for a laser show.  And what a show it was!  Using lights, they projected images onto the castle utterly visually transforming it into many things including a castle made building blocks, paint sketches, a rocket ship in which the tallest tower blasted off!

Honestly it was surreal, amazing, unbelievably imaginative.  If we'd got on the plane and come home right then, that show would have made the trip worthwhile.

But then we watched the fireworks and headed home.

No pictures at the moment as it's now 7am on Sunday and we've gotta get on the road to the Movie Lot. I'll try to get some processed and posted shortly.

Oh, Rapture!

Well, the dumb-asses were wrong again.  Of course.  I guess that comes with the territory of being a dumb-ass.

But the Rapture came and went.  Either it was a complete and utter hoax (which it was) or no one was taken to the skies (which is also very likely!)

The boys and I sat around the house, drinks in hand, and enjoyed a wild display of absolutely nothing happening.

Then on Sunday, I mowed the lawn.

Later that day, Russ came in with a Robin Rebreast wrapped in his shirt.  The poor dear had gotten his leg tangled in some twine or some such and was flopping around trying to get free.  Russ grabbed it, brought it in, and I grabbed some scissors and cut the twine from its leg.  Then we took it out and set it free.  Hopefully it's OK.

(Poor Baby!)

And that's it for our excitment this week!

Spoiled, or What?

It took some time and some determination, but each of The Three Of We have our own iPad2.  (Don't go there, or I'll slap you!)

Here we are with our iPads closed and our (ahem) smart covers in the colors of our choosing...

We've set our home screens to the image we like to see when we're working...

Damian ordered special back "stick-ums" that (a) matched our home screens, yet (b) protected the metal back of the iPad 2.....

And here we are running some program or other... 

Kitchen Updates

Russ continues to work on the kitchen.  It's slow...slow..slow going now that the weather is warming up and he wants to work outside.  But...he's making progress.

He's changed the old laundry area into the bar area.  Here's a couple of shots...

Colorful!

The Wine Rack

May 1 - Happy Anniversary to Us!

18 years ago, Russ and I named May 1st as our anniversary.

So today...was our anniversary.  18 years!  Wow!

We went to a sushi place and had sashimi and sake.  It was lovely.