Part 2 of Day 1 (section A, paragraph 4B) is HERE.
It was getting close to the return time for the Soarin FP's, so we started heading over that way. On the way we saw this one:
Re-rode Soarin and loved it even more this time! Sheri contemplated getting FPs again, but I steered her away from them because we were going to be back in Epcot at least 2 more times. Now, the plan was to eat at Sunshine Seasons, but we weren't too hungry yet, and nothing tickled our fancy on the menu, though it all looked good. No problem. Hey, Living with the Land is a walk-on! So we rode that. I commented that I'd like to do the Behind the Seeds Tour sometime here…probably the one park tour I'd want to do most. (hint: foreshadowing).
Hungry yet? NOPE! Hey, there's no wait at Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Sheri completely freaked out with the mouse (won't ruin it for those who may not have ridden it yet). That one's getting better, but it's definitely a no-go for the boys at their age.
Hungry? Starting to…let's head over to Canada and see what we can find. On the way over there, we found Tinkerbell's garden:
Nearby was a water garden:
We kept strolling along, not worried about crowds or times or anything. The Magic Kingdom is my favorite park, but Epcot has become a very close second. We get to Canada and see Victoria Gardens. WOW!
There's nothing to eat here as Le Cellier is closed, but wow the gardens are beautiful here! We start walking back up to the promenade of World Showcase when I hear the wifey let out a shriek. I turn around, thinking that she got stung by a bee or something, and I see 2 characters from Brother Bear walking by and mimicking laughing at her (I think I heard actual laughing from within one of the costumes too). They snuck up behind her without her knowing it and walked right past her. You could say she wasn't expecting 6-foot tall bears to be walking by.
The Bambi crew was also out there.
Over to the U.K. We weren't sure if the fish & chips place was on the dining plan or not, so we walked past it. We did see several Pooh character topiaries there.
Hungry? YEP! How about France? Maybe, but let's keep looking.
Morocco? The Tangerine Café didn't appeal to us at that time.
Japan? Nah…too much Japanese food back home.
How about a burger at the American Pavilion?!! Nearly got slapped for that one. We heard Davy Jones singing Daydream Believer in the theater but had to crane our necks to actually see him (he's still short…just ask Teebee over at the Lodge). We snapped a pic, but everyone knows what he looks like.
Sommerfest…we were going to eat there later on…let's just do it now.
I had the brat (no kraut…I think the CM cringed and almost shed a tear when I asked them to hold the sauerkraut) and some black forest cake for dessert. Sheri got something loaded with kraut and a warm apple strudel. Mine was good, and her dessert was awesome.
We didn't feel like sticking around a couple more hours for Illuminations. We wanted to make sure we were rested up for tomorrow…the Magic Kingdom. On the way we saw another great topiary:
The DVC sign was calling my name several times, but our finances just aren't to the point where we should even consider looking into buying there. We couldn't even sell the Fairfield points for a profit (still paying that off), and we have lots of left-over points this use year alone.
The wait for the bus back to Pop was about 8 minutes. I got re-keyed (they had problems getting my DDP credits off of one of them) and found that we were in room 2451. We headed into the food court for a Mickey Rice Krispie treat fix and headed over to the 50s section. I know that some rooms have great views of all the fireworks at Epcot, MK, and MGM. I looked for our room and couldn't find it, nor could I see the fireworks. Then I heard a BOOM and knew that Illuminations had to still be going on. We went down another hallway where we saw a bunch of people looking and pointing. Yep, there are the fireworks! Oh, and right behind us is our room. We had to have one of the best views to see all the fireworks at the theme parks! I looked down, and a towel doggie was there looking up at us…our first towel animal ever!
This was all kind of secondary, however, because I wanted to make sure that, with us in another room, the flowers that I had ordered for Sheri would make it. That, and something else that I knew about but didn't quite know about.
I made Sheri open the door, and she immediately saw the bouquet of roses.
The card read:
It's a day late, but Happy Mother's Day!
It's a bit early, but Happy Anniversary!
It's right on time to say I'll love you forever!
All my love, Chris
Right next to it was the other thing that I was curious about…a basket from Pat right here on the Lodge. In those PMs that we were firing back and forth to each other, she asked if she could make a gift basket for us to help celebrate our anniversary. I offered to pay for it, especially since our anniversary technically isn't until June, but she refused anything from me. She said she'd make me look good.
She made me look great!
The first thing I saw was a stuffed Dumbo.
I started to get nervous.
Sheri didn't quite know what I was laughing about…she initially thought everything came from the Disney Florist. Then I explained to her who Pat is (I describe all you imaginary folks by your siggies…Pat has the one with Tink that changes the name bigger) and what she does for a living (works for Gifts of a Lifetime).
Along with the Dumbo plush were 2 Dumbo candy bars. Ya know, the first time RoutemanDan (the instigator of all the elephant stuff…too long of a story to add in here) and I actually meet, we're either gonna pummel the hell out of each other or buy each other drinks until neither of us can stand up and then go golfing like we're best friends and have known each other for years. Also in there were 2 Anniversary pins, a bottle of champagne, 2 glasses with Mickeys etched on them, a really nice picture frame and an autograph book.
I chuckled at the autograph book because we weren't gonna be seeing many characters on this trip.
Then Sheri opened it and noticed that the pages had stuff on them already.
It was my turn to be knocked over by the slightest breeze.
In there were greetings and well-wishes (and @#$^$^$^@$$!#$!#@$ elephant pictures!!!) from a number of the lodgers. Two things crossed my mind: 1) How in the heck did she pull that off?; and 2) I seriously thought I had ticked off more people here on the Lodge and couldn't believe how many entries there were in there. I was and still am at a loss for words with what y'all sent to Pat. I immediately wanted to call her, but it was past 9:30 already, and I knew she was going to be at MK the next morning. As we went through the book, Sheri was asking about who was who in there for the names she didn't recognize. Pat, what you did truly was a gift of a lifetime. Thank you so much for that. And thanks to the rest of y'all over on the Lodge for participating.
After staring at everything for a few minutes, we ate our Mickey treats, took showers, and watched the Cubs lose to the Mets (grrrr). We hit the hay well before we usually do (10:00 Central). I'd say it was a pretty awesome day, overall!
Tomorrow, we do the Magic Kingdom, and I face my arch nemesis in Fantasyland.
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