Yesterday was fabulous, and thanks to my Disney-mad daughter, a two park day. We started the day a bit later than planned at the Magic Kingdom. Grandma rode Space Mountain for the first time in about 20 years. For the last couple of years I've been the Delaney watcher while her parents did Space Mountain, but yesterday we mixed it up a bit. Daddy and Delaney went off to drive the race cars, while my daughter and I had fastpasses for Space Mountain. It was fun, but it'll never be my favorite roller coaster. Space Mountain's big thrill is the speed and the darkness and sharp turns and drops, and the non fastpass wait time yesterday was over 90 minutes. It's popular, it's a classic, I like it, but I don't think I'll spend a fastpass on it again anytime soon. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is much more fun.
We ate lunch at Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn. Their new menu is fajitas and burritos and nachos, and there is a big "fixin's bar" with tomatoes and beans and corn and peppers and sauces and, and, and...where you can, if you choose, transform the nachos into a huge taco salad, as my son-in-law did. Griping about the food prices is as much a part of the Disney experience as sore feet and sweat, but we really feel we got our money's worth out of our "overpriced" (My fajitas and large Diet Coke came to about $17) lunch, and we were stuffed for the rest of the day.
And it was a long day. Around 4 p.m. we rode the monorail over to Epcot. The Flower and Garden Festival offers freebies to passholders, and we wanted to get this month's print of Goofy working in the garden. (Last month was Donald, next month is Mickey.) We got our prints, then spent more time there than intended. It was just such a lovely day we couldn't bear to leave. Delaney had to visit the butterfly garden, which is just dazzling - the profusion of flowers, the butterflies fluttering by and occasionally landing on visitors - we spent a long time in there.
My daughter told Delaney, "We can order a cocoon for you, you can watch your own butterfly grow!" Delaney responded, "It's called a chrysalis, Mom." She's four and a half. Yeah. 13 is going to be fun.
The Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival is famous for its amazing Disney-themed topiary displays:
It was quite late in the day and we had a long slog back to my car: a return trip on the monorail, a long hike from the Transportation and Ticket Center to the car itself, the drive home. We expected her to fall asleep; it was, after all, nearly 8 and she'd had a very full day. She didn't fall asleep, and sang and chatted all the way home. She's so grown up.
My Fitbit said I got 23,000 steps yesterday. I need to hit Target and buy groceries today. I'm going to get that done really early, and my plans for the rest of the day involve knitting and a couch.
2 comments:
Those topiaries are adorable! I can see why you wanted to go there--it looks like it was a beautiful day.
It was a very good day. Very crowded, but we did the things we wanted to do, didn't have to wait in huge lines for anything, and did leisurely things like the butterfly garden. I was VERY proud of my adult daughter with a master's degree and professional career, but who is still on record as freaked out by bugs, including butterflies. She endured a long time in the butterfly tent, while thinking "Ohpleasepleasedonotlandonme," while Delaney was fascinated and hoping one would land on her. My daughter didn't transmit her insect terrors to her daughter, so parenting WIN.
(I'm not that afraid of bugs, other than yellow jackets and hornets and things that are always in the mood to bite the hell out of humans. Butterflies, honeybees, even the large but harmless kinds of spider, we're cool. Just don't sleep on my pillow,'kay? My daughter was born and raised in Florida, a very insect-rich environment, and turned out afraid of all bugs, including butterflies. No idea how that happened.)
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