a simple life: Disney-Day 6

ok--let's wrap up this disney trip.
day 6 was spent at epcot.
we were on our feet for 13 hours straight. i don't think my feet have ever hurt that bad before!
long, long story about how we walked there from our hotel, went to the entrance tour guide mike said not to go to, but couldn't get to the other one. spent an hour being a little disgruntled thinking my whole planning thing had gone awry. then getting to walk through the park to the very entrance we needed to be at and actually being one of the very first in line!
we knew it was going to be CRAZY to get to soarin' (one of the most amazing rides at disney and their very best attraction, i think. it's a hang gliding simulation and it's fantastic!) so i didn't dare waste any time taking pictures of all that commotion, but i did turn around once as we were briskly walking to the ride (cast members, as the workers are called, wouldn't let you run) and there were hundreds if not 1000 people behind me!
anywho, we got our fast passes first and then went to ride soarin' and it was just amazing!

looking into future world

looking into world showcase from the same spot

chris & mck in front of spaceship earth

mck and i in the uk, i think?

this was neat. it's called club cool and you get to taste coca-cola from around the world. the one from italy was horrible. it was this clear, bitter stuff that mckinlee said tasted like the stuff she had to drink at the dentist when she got her teeth pulled!

mck was trying to collect all the pressed pennies that she could through all the different countries. we were in this gift shop forever with her figuring where the penny presses were and how many she'd be able to do.

while we waited, chris and i tried on silly hats!

i am going to do a scrapbook page of this one and the picture where mckinlee was wearing the same hat in animal kingdom.

his dark side. ha!

so we were just dying of heat this day, so we decided to ride spaceship earth. the signs said it was a very slow, long ride that would last 15 minutes. that was fine with us. mck was in the space in front of us and chris & i were in the back of the car. when you get in, it asks you to choose the language you want to hear the whole ride in--lots of informative info.
anyway, chris was playing around with it and just before the timer went off to select your language, he pressed japanese. we had to sit in that slow-moving car for 15 minutes listening to japanese. i was so mad! i kept leaning up to mck's car to hear the english version. pretty funny!

as we rode, they took our picture and put it in the display on our screen. we didn't know they were taking our picture and chris' turned out so funny!

all morning it was our plan to go have breakfast in france so chris could get coffee. we didn't realize world showcase didn't open until 11. so by the time we got there we were so hungry, hot and tired we weren't really even hungry anymore!

we stopped so mckinlee could get marie's autograph and picture.
here marie is looking at mckinlee's marie paws--so cute!

i love this one!

here are our treats from a darling patisserie in france.
mck's chocolate mousse...

my creme brulee...

chris' chocolate cake.
eating all that sugar in the broiling heat made us all a little sick.

probably the closest chris & will get to paris!

morocco had some of the most beautiful things to take pictures of.
this fountain could have been ours for $4000!

love this old door/window frame

pretty buildings in japan

buildings in america

now we are in italy

one of the many kodak picture spot locations in the park

still in italy...

cutest miniature village

germany, i think.

china

loved this building in norway with the grass on top

back to club cool because we were about to pass out!

i didn't take pictures of the great rides we rode--sun getting to me obviously. but using fast passes and knowing what to do because of tour guide mike made our wait times hardly anything at all. test track and mission space were the other good rides in addition to soarin'
so we were somewhat unprepared for the 1+ hour long wait to meet the characters here.
but mck really wanted to do it, so we waited it out and we were glad we did!

long, long wait...

but finally got to meet mickey.
because, really, who can go to disney world and not get a picture with mickey...

and minnie...

and donald???

afterwards, mckinlee, her eyes filled with excitement, said, "that was worth it!"
that, to me, was worth it right there!

then we went back to morocco to eat here:
and it was wonderful!
i had shaved chicken, chris had lamb and we both agreed it was the best meal of the trip!

i am so proud of this picture.
i think the light, shadows, color and that one star is just perfection.
this will be hanging in my house soon!

we stayed for the big fireworks show and i tried to take some pictures--but they just didn't turn out very good and frankly, once you've seen the fireworks in magic kingdom, this one just wasn't anything great.