Welcome back to the ongoing RSS Feed from the future - September 12th, 2006 to be exact. As you can see in today's post, my trip takes a turn towards the normal as we finally enter the Magic Kingdom and confront Herr Mickey.
Rolling, rolling, rolling...
Wisely, I think, I decided not to jog today and I think Disney Security forgave me for my faux pas of yesterday. I slept in this morning, exchanging wilderness views for comfy sheets and blankets. Dave has come down with a hacking cough - a mixture of humid days and A/C nights. I've got him on a treatment of cough drops and I've started drinking more OJ and taking Halls as a preventative measure.
We decided to slow down our pace a little - having run ourselves a little ragged the first four days, even though we haven't seen a great many attractions. Today is Carl's Disney/TAC day and the rest of the famdamily is heading over to the Magic Kingdom for a visit with Mickey Mouse. But first, we all boarded the boat for Fort Wilderness Campground and breakfast at the Trail End Buffet.
This delightfully woody campground restaurant is filled with all the wonderful things you remember eating for breakfast, or at least, that you think of as breakfast food (there were no googly bacon sandwiches, or TIC TOC Burgers, or Wheatabix cereal, so it wasn't entirely a trip down memory lane. Thank God!) There were pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit, cereal, oatmeal, waffles, eggs, omelets, corned beef hash, etc... We all ate our fill and had a delightful meal.
Next up, as everyone else climbed into the boat for the trip to the MK, Carl and I headed through the campground at Fort Wilderness towards the bus stop. Being after the summer vacation, the campground were pretty empty. I stopped and interviewed him in front of the horse corral and then we went and boarded the bus for EPCOT Center.
At EPCOT, we went immediately to Innoventions and looked around the place. This is Carl's thing. He likes new toys and new technology and he was looking around for the latest thing. But after ten minutes he turned to me and said, "This is all old stuff - like last year." I told Carl that this technology was more for the average consumer and that we liked to see things like larger flat screen TV's like the 9 foot outdoor screen Andy bought for his ranch up near Davis - it does double duty as a jumbo tron screen for the little league field he built in the former corn pasture. But I digress...
After a few minutes in Innoventions, I looked at my watch and realized that we had only a short amount of time to get where we needed to be, so I grabbed Carl and we took off to Guest Relations at the front of the park. Here, I checked us both in to the Around The World Tour of EPCOT.
They first took us into a class room with about 20 other guests. We each selected a safety helmet and watched a short film about the Segway vehicle and how to ride one. Then our instructors taught us how to ride. Carl took to it right away - this being his third or fourth time on one. I, on the other hand, promptly ran over my instructor's toe. But, I stayed on - at least until I ran into the wall. Anyway, I was content to just walk the rest of the way, but they made me ride as punishment. After about an hour of learning the basics of how to operate this thing, then we formed up single file and headed out of the classroom and into the World Showcase - which had not yet opened to the public.
They took us around the world, stopping in each country of the World Showcase to talk a tiny bit about each pavillion. Mostly, though, they gave us an excuse to just ride the things to our hearts content. As a tour goes, it was a great drivers training course. I won't say that I didn't have fun, though. After my initial jitters, I was soon riding with the best of them. Don't tell Heather, but Carl was flirting with the CM's - I think he was trying to schmooze them out of an extra pin. Half way through we were able to stop and take pictures and video and I whipped out the camera and got plenty of footage of Carl driving around and nearly running down the CM's. He really does look like he belongs on the special bus in that helmet. Anyway...
When the tour was done and we were given our pins, they allowed us to go back in to the World Showcase a few minutes ahead of the rest of the crowds. We headed straight towards Maelstrom - the backwards boat ride in Norway. And then, as soon as the ride was over, we walked over to Germany and I bought Carl and Brat and a Beer. Our snack now done, we returned to the front of the park and hopped on the monorail for the trip back to the MK.
We joined up with the rest of the family for lunch at Tony's Town Square. Nobody was very hungry after our big breakfast, but we all managed to eat. Carl and I got caught up on what they'd been doing while we were gone - mostly Fantasyland stuff - and now we were ready to move on.
We first went to Adventureland and climbed up the Swiss Family Treehouse. Then we rode Jungle Cruise - which Natalie enjoyed (finally starting to get the concept of rides). After that, we rode the Aladdin Magic Carpets and Natalie loved swirling around and around in the sky and Joshy got to control Uncle Will's carpet. But we pushed our luck when we went to visit the Tiki Birds and Heather and Natalie had to duck out halfway through the show. But Joshy, on the other hand, started talking back to the birds - telling them off for scaring his sister. It was funnier than the show.
Mom and Heather and Natalie decided to do a little shopping, so Da Boys went on Pirates of the Carribean together (ARRRGGH!). We all loved it - though as much as I enjoyed the new technologies on the ride, part of me still longed for the old fashioned Pirates before they started monkeying with the ride. Joshy did really well through the dark passages, but that may have been because Uncle Dave kept tickling him. Afterwards, we went to the Pieces of Eight Pirates Store and reoutfitted Joshy with official Pirate Gear. We returned him to his mother with a hooked arm, wooden leg, eye patch and henna tatoos. Arrrggghhh!
We rode Big Thunder and Splash Mountain, taking turns with the kids, and stopped and had ice cream (which was really the first "snack" we'd had on the trip so far). But then it was time to send the kids back to the room for a nap. I volunteered to take them with Mom so that the rest could stay and enjoy the parks a little longer. We took the kids back to the docks and rode the boat back to Wilderness Lodge.
That night we took the boat over to the Contemporary Resort and ate dinner at the Concourse Steakhouse - with the Monorails sailing overhead every few minutes. After dinner, we waddled upstairs to the Monorail and rode it into the Magic Kingdom so that we could watch the parade and the fireworks show. The kids loved it and it made for the perfect end to a long day.
When I got back to the hotel, I made sure the arrangements had been made for my own Disney/TAC Day and asked Carl to accompany me the next morning so that someone could interview me and film my exploits for the website. But that's tomorrow's blog. Tonight, I'm actually going to bed early. See you then.
Well, that was hump day. Tomorrow the blogs begin to take us to end of the trip. And things begin to take some interesting turns... but that's still in your future. So I'll let you wait to read them later.
7 comments:
You fail to mention the 20 foot outdoor screen in the amphitheater I built on my property in Kauai.
And the amphitheater is adjacent to the chapel that's currently under construction - it seats about 50 people, perfect for renting out for small weddings.
I understand congratulations are in store for you, too...Heather tells me that you met a wonderful redhead at the ESPNZone the other night. Let's see...she's from Palo Alto but a Cal grad (big plus), working as a venture capitalist, currently attends Menlo Park Presbyterian, 32 years old, never married, likes hiking in the San Mateo county hills, and has Giants season tickets.
Dude...that's awesome. I understand you guys have gone out the past couple of nights and have made plans to attend the World Series together if the Giants make it that far, eh? Niiiiice.
Chapel on Kauai will be finished by Christmastime, FYI...
I'm not sure whose fantasy life I like better... mine or yours ;)
Yeah, Andy. I went with Will to introduce him to the red head whom I'd been chatting with for a little bit about the kids. She always wanted kids. Oh, and she was a Top Gun fanatic.
So, I convinced Will to sign to her - only, this time, I stayed around and did back up... ;) A little awkward, but sometimes, a sister who wants her kids to have cousins, will do a lot...
Will...you DAWG....that's excellent. Nothing like pulling a Maverick and singing the song, although you're more of a Goose kind of guy (but hey, Goose was married to Meg Ryan, so it's all good). Heather, you are an awesome sister. Too bad you guys didn't call me - I would've sung over speakerphone.
So what was the redhead's name? Heather failed to mention it.
I also hear that she's a part-time fitness instructor, too. Excellent, dude.
When you guys get back, invite her over and I'll get the owner's suite at AT&T Park. You, the redhead, Heather and the 3 kids, me, Page and my kids. Wear your Orange - it'll be an Orange Friday at the ballpark!
Yeah, not sure if the typo in my post is funny, or if I should tell the story based on what it really says (i.e., Will SIGNED "You've lost that loving feeling", rather than SINGING it.)
I've been working with my hands a lot lately, trying to get the motion for a dipthong down. ;)
Nice write up Will. Heather, I saw some of the outtakes of Top Gun. There actually is one of Tom Cruise dancing and using American Sign Language (ASL). ;)
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