Day 2 at Epcot

Eating dinner in Norway.
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Today was our most leisurely day so far of this vacation. The kids splashed around in the pool this morning, and we left the house around 12:40. We experienced quite a few “educational” rides today, but we still had time for Miles, Mallory & Stephanie to ride Mission Space again. They are big fans of that one! (Orange Team, of course.)

We started to make our way to the World Showcase around 4:00. We rode a few rides, in Mexico and Norway, then settled in for a meal of Norwegian sandwiches & desserts. We checked out a movie about China, and then spent some time in Italy. Miles had a project in class a few months ago where each student had to pick a country, then do some research, and share a presentation with the class. His country was Italy. He has been a big fan of the country since then. There were no rides or attractions to experience in Italy, but there was a gift shop, and he took advantage of that. Be looking for him in his new “Italia” t-shirt!

A pair of good-looking Norwegians! (Miles took this photo.)
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By this time, it was about 8:00, and we were starting to wear down. We decided to find a place to sit to watch the evening fireworks at 9:00. Once we found some seats, we enjoyed some sno-cones and ice cream. Life is good. The fireworks show was very good. There was a little more to it than we realized.

One interesting thing that happened to us today was that we ran into somebody that we knew from Tulsa. Both of our daughters played Upward basketball together in Kindergarten.

KK & PK bypassed Disney World today, and instead went to the swamps in search of alligator. They got to ride in one of those swamp boats with the fan on the back end (I have no idea what they are called). From what I could determine, the event was “OK”. They did get to see about half a dozen gators in their natural habitat.

Miles in his favorite foreign country - Italy.
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Erin’s parents arrived in Orlando this evening. They drove the entire way in 2 days. I have not seen them yet, but we will undoubtedly be meeting up with them sometime before the wedding. The good news is that our entire, full-fledged, wedding party is now in Orlando. Things are looking good for Wednesday!

Marissa continues to be an outstanding Mouseketeer. She is always upbeat, is ready to skip and hop between attractions, and keeps us laughing with the funny things that she says. She continues to talk about “Triceratops Spin”, the first ride we rode at Animal Kingdom on Day 1.

Our group watching the IllumiNations fireworks program. (Note the Bride Mickey Mouse Ears on Erin.)
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After 3 complete days, I would have to say that the crowds have been quite light at the parks. On our 1^st day at Epcot Center, we did wait in line 30 minutes to ride “Mission Space” (thanks to some delays of a faulty “Test Track” ride), but aside from that one experience, the longest we have probably waited to ride anything over 3 days has been 20 minutes. We have been very happy with the limited time we have spent standing in lines.

Tomorrow is our 1^st day at the Magic Kingdom. We plan to be at the park an hour before it opens, much like our 1^st day at Epcot.