Florida, Part 4: On Safari

Yes, I know, it’s been a while.  I’m easily distracted, and it’s been a busy spring.  We enjoyed a long spell of unusually nice weather, and I’ve been spending a lot of time running and cooking.  It’s kept me quite busy.  Plus, I don’t know about you, but looking at my vacation pictures started making me sad that I was not still on that wonderful vacation.  But the time has come to get back to Florida pictures.  I haven’t even shared the best ones yet!

My favorite of all of the Disney parks was Animal Kingdom, which is ironic, because initially I didn’t want to go there.  But we loved it so much that even after spending an entire day there, we park-hopped back to it the next day too!  The park combines nature and animals with roller coasters and other Disney shows.  It’s fantastic.  Animal Kingdom contained Nathan’s favorite Disney coaster, Expedition Everest.  We also got to see a live musical Lion King performance, which was very well done. 

 

But obviously, the best part of Animal Kingdom are the animals, and the twenty minute safari that you go on to see them.  We loved the safari so much that we went on it twice!

 

Hakuna Matata, warthogs sure aren’t the prettiest animals, are they?

 

The giraffes were the animals that we saw at closest range.  They would walk right next to the safari car.  It was incredible to watch them move – their legs are so long that even at a run, they look like they are going in slow motion.  They also make for pretty hilarious pictures.

 

The lions were easily the most boring animal.  Did you know they sleep 18-20 hours a day?  Rough life.

We also learned that flamingos are not naturally pink, but get their color from the shrimp they eat.

 

This ostrich really wanted to be left alone.  (Dude, Where’s My Car flashback, anyone?)

 

Outside of the giraffes, this guy was my favorite.  He REALLY wanted something in that tree.  I felt so bad for him.  He did this for a couple minutes before he realized people were watching him, and then he gave up.  I hope he eventually got what he was looking for.  Never give up on your dreams, big guy!

Amazing animals, amazing weather, amazing fun . . . an amazing day!

Florida, Part 3: Around The World!

Our third installment of Florida pictures brings us to Epcot, where we rode some rides, did some learning, and visited a variety of different parts of the world (present and future)!

We started the day exploring Future World and hitting the rides, some of which were very memorable.  Mission Space simulated space flight training.  I made the mistake of choosing the most “advanced” level on that ride – for someone who suffers from motion sickness, it was not the wisest choice!  It took a quite a while for me to recover from that one.  We visited the Chevrolet Test Track, where we each designed our own cars, then went on a roller coaster that tested the performance of our cars.  I had some trouble figuring out how to use the computer to design my car, and ended up with a vehicle that didn’t really resemble a car at all (Nathan described it as a purple Batmobile).  Interestingly enough, my non-car outperformed his (I feel this is worth noting).  Then we hit the Innoventions Pavilion, where we got to design our own roller coaster ride, then ride on it in a simulator!  It was pretty cool.

We got a lot of education in Future World as well.  After we hit the rides, we visited the Land Pavilion and took a boat tour through Epcot’s hydroponic greenhouses.  It was really neat to see all their innovative, unconventional growing techniques.  For instance, they grow things like tomatoes and cucumbers on “trees”.  They focus on growing plants in a way that benefits the grower, consumer, and the environment. 

In the afternoon, we made our way over to the World Showcase.  Epcot has many different countries of the world scattered around their huge lake.

One of the best parts about having so many countries to explore?  Having so many different foods to sample! Nathan was particularly excited to visit Germany and sample some of their food, as he has German ethnicity.  He was especially excited when we found an entire caramel themed store there. During our travels through the World Showcase, we sampled cannoli from Italy, caramel corn from Germany, empanadas from Mexico, and the big attraction – bratwurst from Germany!

In Italy, we found ourselves in the middle of the town square just as a live show was starting.  We were right next to an empty table, so we had front row seats to the action!  The show was a performance by the comedy troupe The Ziti Sisters.

The Ziti Sisters were hilarious!  One of their big things was getting the audience involved in the act.  Nathan was trying to act all aloof and unnoticeable, in an effort to avoid getting pulled in.  He kept grumbling about how he would refuse if they tried.  Just then, one of the Ziti Sisters walked over and pulled him into the show!  (And of course, he didn’t say no).  Initially, he was playing a guest at a wedding.

His next “role”/task was to hold this painting while the Ziti Sisters used audience members to recreate it:

But the Ziti Sisters had hidden a surprise under Nathan’s side of the painting!

It was so much fun to watch!  And I think if you asked Nathan, he would have to say he honestly had fun being part of it (even if he grumbled about it at first).

We finished off our day at Epcot watching their amazing evening fireworks show over the lake.  Epcot was Nathan’s favorite park of the four Disney parks.  Fun rides, interesting facts, and good food?  Count us in!

Florida, Part 2: The Happiest Place on Earth

The first four days of our trip were spent “park-hopping” around the Disney Parks.  Our first stop was the Magic Kingdom.

 

It was a beautiful day and a great way to start off our week of fun.  A lot of things have changed about Disney World since I was a kid, but thankfully the magic and excitement of walking down Main Street USA has not.  It was so fun to experience it all with Nathan, who was having his first Disney adventure.

We set aside an entire day for this park, but quickly discovered that as adults traveling without kids, we could get through the place rather quickly, which was really nice.  We were able to get through a ton of rides, including big ones like Space Mountain, in the morning during the “extra magic hour”. 

There are a lot of things you notice as an adult that you don’t notice as a child.  For instance . . . strollers.  So many strollers.  Everywhere.  After a couple hours in this park, I was ready to declare war on anyone with a stroller.  They even have designated “stroller parking” areas, which basically consist of a hundred strollers are parked in a mini parking lot.  People would leave their diaper bags and snacks and purchases in their stroller and go on rides.  Those people are way more trusting than I would ever be!

The park itself is quite a bit different than I remember too.  They have redone Fantasyland, and Toon Town no longer exists.  The new Fantasyland is cool, although quite popular and crowded.  The other thing I noticed is that you didn’t really see the characters wandering the park.  When I was a kid, it seemed like they were everywhere and you could just walk right up to them.  These days, you either see them in a parade or you wait in a half hour line at designated times and places for a Character Meet & Greet.  That is definitely something I missed this time around.

Thankfully, the best and most classic rides were still there.  Teacups, anyone?

Jungle Cruising . . .

Magic carpet flying!

Our favorite rides of the day were Space Mountain and Thunder Railroad.  Least favorite?  Winnie the Pooh.  Nothing against the Winnie the Pooh ride . . . in fact, I love Winnie the Pooh.  It was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid.  That, and the fact that it was only supposed to be a twenty minute wait, were the whole reason we went on the ride.  But sixty minutes, a pushy mom, and a crazy child on a leash later?  I’d had enough.  So at that point, we parked ourselves at the train station with a prime view of the parade route and the castle for the evening festivities.

We had the best seat in the house for the Electrical Light Parade and evening fireworks show.

The Electrical Light Parade is such a great show!  The best part of it is that it pays tribute to some of the oldest, most classic Disney characters and stories.  Even though you don’t see them as much throughout the park anymore, you see them in the parade.  It was fun to watch.  After the parade, they had a show called Celebrate the Magic, where the castle is lit up to tell the stories of Disney’s most popular and beloved stories along to music.  I had never seen this show before, and it was really cool to see them transform the color of the castle and actually reflect the stories and images on the castle.  Finally, we kicked the night off with the fireworks shows over the castle, another first for me.  My husband, the fireworks connoisseur, gave the show two thumbs up. 

It was an amazing, happy, and magical first day!

Florida, Part 1: Resort Relaxation

I know, I know.  I promised Florida pictures last week.  Clearly, I had other things to get off my chest.  Also, it turns out that I enjoy the actual taking of the pictures more than the editing of the pictures.  That being said . . . I hope you are ready for a ton of pictures!  I am going to have to break this into several posts due to abundance of said pictures.  Besides, some places were just so magical (hint, hint) that they deserve their own dedicated posts.

As previously mentioned, Nathan & I were lucky enough to escape to Florida for seven wonderful days (nine, if you count our travel days) in the beginning of February.  It was a combined vacation/honeymoon/bucket list sort of trip.  And it was a blast.  It was sunny, warm, responsibility-free, and fantastically amazing.  We had a pretty busy itinerary on this trip, and we were up by 6 AM every morning to start our day.

We stayed at a Disney resort, which was SO convenient.  The Walt Disney World Area (parks & resorts) covers 40 square miles.  The place is HUGE.  I can’t imagine renting your own car and staying offsite and trying to drive all these places.  We had free shuttles to every park (and we never waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle), free transportation to and from the airport, extra hours at the theme parks, and a lot of other perks that made our trip incredibly easy.  Our resort was the Port Orleans Riverside, and it was beautiful.  It was always pretty quiet (as evidenced by these pictures, taken in the middle of the afternoon).

 

One thing we liked best about the resort was how pretty it was.  Our resort was huge and our building was a 5-10 minute walk from the main building, but the walk was so scenic and enjoyable.  The river running through the resort is man-made and only about five feet deep.  They had outdoor moves every night (kind of like a drive in, except you walk in), which was really cool.  We walked to the movie screening at the Port Orleans French Quarter (resort right next to ours) one night and watched Tangled.

Our building was called the Acadian House.  It had wonderful views and quiet courtyards surrounding it.

Our resort had six pools.  There was one big pool near the main building that had the waterslide and walkup bar, and it was the crowded, noisy one where all the kids and families went during the day.  The rest of the pools were scattered throughout the resort between buildings and were referred to as “quiet” pools.  There were no kids there, and you could just relax on your lounge chair, read a book, and take a nap.  Ahhh, relaxation.  That was where we spent our pool time.

The other awesome part of our resort was the riverboat transportation.  Because we were on the water, we had the option to take boat transportation to Downtown Disney, which is basically a big touristy area with restaurants, shops, and shows.  About a month before our vacation, we made dinner reservations at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney for the fourth night of our stay.  We were lucky enough to get to take the riverboat cruise directly to House of Blues!

 

 

It was such an awesome night, even though the wind picked up and we had to ride the shuttle back when the riverboat closed early.  It was our one sit down dinner out, so we spoiled ourselves with drinks, dinner, and dessert.  House of Blues was a really cool restaurant with incredible food and a great atmosphere.  Downtown Disney had some live music that night, which was pretty cool too.  But the most memorable part of the evening came in the form of some chocolate-y goodness.

This triple chocolate cheesecake is literally the most incredible thing I have ever eaten in my life.  I got so excited when it was placed in front of me that I started eating before I remembered to take a picture.  This cheesecake is so good that I have not been able to stop thinking about it.  And it’s been a month and a half.  I even had a dream about cheesecake.  Seriously.  I may have a problem.  Anyhow, if anyone has a recipe for a triple chocolate cheesecake, please share it with me.  It’s my life mission to recreate the deliciousness.

And that concludes round one of the pictures.  Stay tuned for more!