Day 3 began with a raucous drive over to EPCOT, where we entered the park and quickly bypassed Spaceship Earth and made the traditional “send someone to get soarin’ fastpasses while the rest of us ride Test Track” – thanks Uncle Monkey!
Unfortunately, Test Track was in its usual down-for-repairs mode, so nobody got to ride it early on. Grandma Jan bought herself a pair of sunglasses, which happened to be the same sunglasses that Will bought himself the day before:
I would also like to point out that I love Will’s semi-permanent bedhead. Test Track came back up, so I took our girls to a Cars-themed playground near Mousegear that is part of the Flower and Garden Festival while the bigger people took to the track.
We then split the group and most headed to Soarin’ while Will, Doug and I headed to Mission Space. I shot these pictures while we made the short walk:
"don't feel bad son, we both get bedhead"
"I know you've been terrified since you rode mission space four years ago, but you're riding it again whether you like it or not"
"Yes, Grandma Jan makes us both wear these shorts. Still."
In case you are curious how long Doug has desired these types of pants, I offer this:
I then grabbed a quick shot of Will and Doug before we entered the ride so we could contrast Will’s happy face with another expression in a moment:
As we walked through the queue, I explained to Will about the Green and Orange sides of Mission: Space and why we were going to ride the Orange side. We had only a brief wait, and here is the picture I referenced earlier, which was shot shortly before we boarded our rocket to Mars:
That, dear reader, is pure unadulterated fear, and the death of fingernails.
We headed back across Future World towards Soarin’, with a brief stop to have some Beverly at Club Cool. We caught up with the group and several of us took advantage of a Rider Swap pass to take another ride on the excellent hang-gliding simulator.
By the way, it’s Mother’s Day
and we had three mothers with us, so we had a reservation at Coral Reef, which is one of the better restaurants in all the World, and sufficiently fancy for such an occasion.
Coral Reef seated us nearly immediately which led to Leah freaking out nearly immediately. I had to take her actually all the way outside the restaurant to get her calmed down – and even then it took several minutes. Remember how Aly loved the orange ginger glazed salmon back in October? She’d been talking about it ever since, and ordered it off the adult menu this time around, eating one bite before pronouncing it the worst thing she’d ever eaten. Sigh. If I ever needed evidence that I spoil my children too much, this trip was providing plenty of it. Happy Mother’s Day, Rachel, Ann, and Grandma Jan!
With a group of ten, there’s a lot of random waiting, so you may notice a lot of random waiting pictures from this trip. Here are some.
Note the shorts and Will’s apparent displeasure once again in Canada.
[insert Perry the Platypus noise here]
We made it through the UK and as we crossed the bridge towards France, we set Will up with an Agent P mission, which Aly had loved back in October. As Will, Maggie, Rachel, Ann and Aly worked on their mission, Leah slept in the stroller, Grandma Jan & Grandpa Bill relaxed on a bench, and Doug got a Grey Goose slushie at my recommendation, which earned me a snide comment from Grandma Jan.
"Can you believe Doug fell for the 'You and Will have to wear these shorts today' trick again?"
The Flower and Garden Festival topiary sculptures were lovely as always, but just made me think about how much weeding was waiting for me back in Michigan.
We made our way to Japan, where all the kids participated in the Pick A Pearl activity. Aly went first, and complained about only getting one non-silver pearl, unlike last time. Maggie went last, got the only silver pearl of our group, and she’s wasn’t even there – she had gotten something in her eye and was getting treatment from Ann.
We then headed to Mexico, rode the Three Caballeros boat ride (I can’t decide whether I like Panchito or Jose Carioca better) and then headed back to our vacation house for some Giordano’s Chicago-style deep dish pizza and pool fun well into the evening hours.
