We rolled out of bed with cranky overtiredness abounding and weighed our breakfast options. We decided to walk around the lake to the Boardwalk Bakery, which has been redesigned and expanded since we were there last in December 2011. One bagel, one cinnamon bun, and one sticky bun, plus chocolate milk and coke completed our breakfast-of-champions order, and we ate our breakfast while we walked into the back entrance of EPCOT through the International Gateway.
There was a massive line of people with luggage, wheeled display cases and other gear, which we quickly figured out was for some sort of pin trading show that was taking place that day in EPCOT. Thankfully, these folks were in a separate line of their own, so we didn’t have to wait for their large bags to be inspected by security.
We made our way to the Land pavilion and literally walked on to Soarin’. The two adults enjoyed the ride as usual, but the smaller member of our party was in a bit of an overtired funk and stated “I didn’t like that at all.” It was already hot at 9:30am, so we entered Innoventions so Rachel and Aly could play the game “Where’s The Fire?” which is a pretty cool interactive team competition using flashlights on big screens to spot fire hazards in a makeshift house.
We crossed over to Innoventions East and the girls took in the Storm movie/experience, while I watched people riding The Sum of All Thrills, which is a virtual coaster that each rider can design themselves. Our next stop was at the Test The Limits Lab, which reproduces some of the UL testing facilities for ensuring consumer product durability. Which is a fancy way of saying Aly likes making hammers smash into TV screens and 55-gallon barrels smash into hard hats.
By this point, Club Cool was open, and Aly had been asking to go there all morning. We had to cut her off from the Vegita Beta to prevent a belly bomb stomach ache.
We headed out the back exit toward World Showcase, where we ran into Mr. Smee and Belou with no lines whatsoever.
We wandered past Mexico, Norway, China and Germany before wandering around Italy ahead of our lunch reservation. Aly hit a Kidcot station to color a Duffy Bear while I took a few pictures of the area.
We ate lunch at Via Napoli, which I had adored back in February. We had the Arancini appetizer, which was wolfed down by all members of our party. We also discovered the joy of Via Napoli Acqua Fresca drinks – the strawberry one is brilliant, especially on such a hot day. We followed that up with two pizzas, the Margherita and Piccante, which were both excellent. The crusts are delicious and we made quick work of both pies. We wrapped up with Zeppolis for dessert, and the little fritters were tasty with the rich chocolate dipping sauce. I had been planning on getting a funnel cake at the American pavilion, but the zeppolis ruined any desire for further sugaring. Well, at least for now.
After lunch, we wandered past the American pavilion.
And to the Japanese pavilion.
We saw the Illuminations globe parked near Japan as well. Pretty amazing how plain this looks during the day compared to what it delivers at 9:00 every night.
I paparrazi’d the girls while I waited for them to catch up to me at Japan.
For the third straight Disney trip, Aly got to play “Pick a Pearl” in the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan. She picked an oyster that yielded a 7mm white pearl, which then became part of Rachel’s 40th birthday gift – shhh, don’t tell her. It’s now mounted in a sterling silver pendant and chain.
We had a blast looking around the store for the twenty or so minutes that it took to have the pearl mounted. They have all kinds of great video game products and Hello Kitty products, things like Legend of Zelda books, Super Mario socks, etc. We got a few things for Leah back home and headed back to the Beach Club for another few hours in the pool.
