We got our typical late start this morning (Leah up at 6:30, Aly must be waken at 8:00 and then takes forever to get moving – two kids is so much more work than one kid times two) and finally made our way to Magic Kingdom. Our original plan for today was EPCOT all day today, but after missing MK yesterday during World War Aly, we decided to switch things up. By the time we got there, it was time for Leah’s first nap. Poor thing, finally makes to the place with the magic and she’s conked out in the stroller.
Aly got to ride her absolute favorite ride first thing, and she picked me to ride with her on the Astro Orbiter. I can actually remember riding this with my dad in 1979 when I was five. There was only a five minute wait, which is always great. We spotted Chip & Dale in their space getups (autocorrect wants to change that to ‘fetus’) and only had to wait behind two families. Chip static’d Aly’s hair, which she loved. A quick snack of a pretzel filled with sweet cream cheese and we were off to lunch at Pecos Bill’s. Yes, we snack on the way to lunch, so what? We only do that before first lunch, never second. Don’t judge us.
After lunch, we headed over to another of Aly’s favorites, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. The line was pretty short, so Leah and I headed for some shade while the other two girls waited in line. Leah and I came back to check on how far they’d gotten, and the ride broke down when they were about one group from riding. While they were waiting, I handed Leah over to let her have some mommy time in the covered queue area, where she fishhooked Aly as you can see below – most hilarious. After about fifteen minutes, they got the old girl fired up, and a wonderful 57-second was enjoyed.
Leah was getting pretty hot and tired by this point, so we grabbed a pair if Dole Whip floats and headed for the park exits. We discovered a completely unoccupied Pinocchio under the train station and got a few pictures and the requisite autograph. Twenty minutes of monorail ride later (mid-day maintenance) had us back at the TTC and headed for the long walk back to our rental Acadia. Leah had a four minute nap in the car, and we all headed down for the tail end of the pool party. Leah joined us in the pool for the first time, and when Rachel went down the big pool slide and appeared from the big clown’s mouth, Leah was disturbed for a while. We met a nice English bird in the hot tub who charmed the typically shy Leah with her accent.
We cleaned up and walked into EPCOT as the sun disappeared. EPCOT is a great place just to wander when it’s dark out, and tonight was no exception. We had dinner at the Garden Grill, which rotates and has characters. We were a bit concerned about Leah and the characters, seeing her crying spells of the last few days and the fact that we were sitting down to eat at her normal bedtime and she missed a nap today. It turns out she’s warming up to them. We actually got two rounds with each character, and the second time they came to our table, they remembered she was shy, and took it very slow with her – it was adorable. She actually reached out and touched Dale’s hand, and she also let Chip and Mickey touch her hand.
On the walk back to our room, we came upon a juggler performing on the Boardwalk, and Aly went right up to the front and watched him. We only caught the last ten minutes of his plate spinning act, but then happened upon a bike-riding magician who just pulled up to set up his act as we walked up. Aly was enamored from the start, so I couldn’t pull her away, even though it was way past her bedtime. She was playing along, laughing at all his corny jokes, and even wanted to get her picture with him afterwards. I will no doubt regret this in the morning when I’m trying to get her moving toward our 9:15 Princess Storybook breakfast, but it was truly a special moment to her, so what can you do?
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