Sorry for the delay in posts, it's been a bit of a whirlwind over here. Don't worry, I have tons of blog material for you over the next few days. Gear up, here we go! Last Tuesday, Chris and I miraculously had the same day off, so we decided to take advantage of our proximity to the Most Magical Place on Earth and headed for EPCOT. Yes, it does have to be in caps as it is an acronym. While I agree with most tourists that it means "Every Person Comes Out Tired", the actual meaning is "Experimental Prototype Community Of Trivia". This is the place Disney does a lot of research and tries to help the world, in addition to taking it over. Chris had never been and I hadn't spent more than 2 hours there since I was 14, so we figured, what the hey!
Let's first say it was again a Tuesday in October and it was raining. As the parking attendant stated, "It's a Florida day!" Apparently only natives are either a) smart enough to come during the week in the off-season or b) stupid enough to brave the rain even though they live across the street and could very well wait for another day. Either way, it was indeed a Florida day for us. I apologize we have no pictures of us in our sexy rain gear and poncho. I waited for Chris to ride the two extreme rides (yes, this is really the reason Chris had not wanted to go to EPCOT till now- not enough "thrill" in an amusement park for his taste) .
After the rides, we walked through the House of the Future or whatever they call it now, since you can actually buy the things you see inside. I was literally drooling over the kitchen. And not because of the fake cookie dough in the oven. If and when we ever buy a house, I would like to just transplant the EPCOT kitchen into my house, thank you very much. Chris liked the TV you talked to. Never worry about losing the remote again. It's great advertising (and shameless I might add) for all of their corporate sponsors. It's just too bad that only Brad and Angelina can afford any of it.
Then we headed to the new Nemo ride, which was fairly lame and low-key. I guess they have to have rides for all the little kids too. It just would've been nice to realize that before we stood in line for 30 minutes. Although, I have to say, the highlight of the morning was being corralled around these giant rocks where the ocean splashes and some tin seagulls start saying "Mine! Mine! Mine!" We were laughing really hard. If that's not funny to you, you really need to see Finding Nemo and probably get out more in general.
Soarin' is the cool ride I could go on, so it was clearly my favorite. They sit you in a Hang-glider and fly you up to an IMAX screen where you fly all over California. Very cool. 
But in payback for waiting around while Chris rode all the other rides (I figured sitting in a spaceship that puts you against 3 G-force + my pacer = a bad time) I made him stand in line for 35 minutes to take pictures with the characters. It's highly possible we were the only people in line without children. But we were also the only family in line who wasn't whining, crying, screaming, climbing, or in any other form bothering everyone else. So that has to count for something, right? He paid me back by flirting with Minnie Mouse and kissing her on the cheek every time the photographer tried to take the photo. That poor rodent was so flustered, even I was laughing.
We eventually headed to The World Showcase and of course spent the most time in Canada where Chris had to play the "Do you know so-and-so?" with all the employees of Canada. He is definitely getting pumped up for Christmas in Canada. He is trying to teach me the words to the national anthem and is increasingly discouraged by my lack of enthusiasm for the task. I'm sorry, I just discovered the soundtrack to Legally Blonde: The Musical- yes, seriously, and which would you rather?
So on went the day, dodging in and out of rain. We had a lot of fun and it was great to just relax and not worry about anything. Oh, we did meet a giant troll in Norway, who we thought really more resembled the House Elf, Dobby. May he rest in peace.
The Disney photographers (a.k.a. money-hungry commission-based thieves) took some fun pics that you can check out for the next 3 weeks. They disappear after that, so don't say I didn't warn you! :) I'm crossing my fingers this works...
, but when I found out that local chefs and restaurants were having a cook-off at the event and we would be voting on the food, well, I'm no idiot. Dina and I went to the event and had a great time. I will say, the biggest challenge of the night was trying to find me a non-alcoholic beverage! All off the restaurants had wine pairings with their food, so the servers weren't bringing drinks to the tables at all. I asked for a water and was completely scoffed at as if I had requested a free-night in the Penthouse Suite. I tried to explain the situation and was told the cash-only bar had soda. This plan had 2 loopholes. 1) I never carry cash and 2) I hardly ever drink soda. Nice. Dina is now very distressed that I will become dehydrated and pass out before the night is over so she is on a mission to find me a drink. She goes to the Blue Martini (a very trendy club in town) booth and convinces them to give me a martini glass of ice and orange juice- yes, straight. Everyone at our table was dying to know what my fun drink was. And no one believed me! The Playboy bunny-esque bartenders did not want to refill my 5oz of juice so we were back at square one after my ice melted. Hmmm, what to do? We eyed a coffee cart and saw a pitcher marked "Skim Milk". I poured a coffee cup full of skim milk and it was possibly the most satisfying dairy drink of my life. The moral of the story? Don't bring a hand bag that won't pack your own bottled water.
