Disney World

Today's blog is written jointly because we are lazy:

Disney World was fun because we got to share it with Dad, Tori, Uncle Dan, Aunt Cathy and cousins Colman and Aubrey.  We will also get to see Downtown Disney with Benny and Boo.  Disney is best shared with friends and family.  It is bigger and more crowded and spaced out.  But, there are things that are more fun than Disneyland like Animal Kingdom and Epcot but overall Disneyland is much more magical and our favorite.  Tori came for her 11th birthday so she got free shakes, funnel cakes and  it was fun celebrating with her.  She is a good pin trader and gets into it like us.  So it's fun to share.  Colman and Aubrey have become good pin traders too and we all found some great pins!!  Two most common we found ...cheshire cat and Jiminy Cricket.

We spent the biggest chunk of our time at Epcot traveling the world at their world showcase.  There you can visit countries like Norway, Mexico, Morocco, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, France, UK, Canada.  We watched the films about the country, ate the food, listened to the music, saw their Santa and how they celebrate Christmas and talked with people from there.  We loved France!  We also enjoyed the UK a lot with the band Off-Kilter and the players comedy group on the streets.  We may have started a new idea in our heads that maybe we should take this Road Trip to International places next year.

Animal Kingdom is our favorite park in the group of parks here.  It's got a special place in our heart because it's the park that our little Jimmy got lost in, shutting down the park when he was only five!  It's broken into tow parts: Africa and Asia.  Africa as Lion King and a Safari trip as well as river rapids.  Asia has Mt. Everest, Birds of Prey show and Nemo musical production.  We liked this park because one of the two days we spent there it MONSOON rained!  We saw that park empty so fast and we stayed and braved it riding Mt. Everest over and over SEVEN times! We also decided since we were wet already we should ride the river rapids a couple times in a row because it douses you with water and we couldn't get more wet.  It was still warm even with huge ankle deep puddles.  The Yak & Yeti restaurant had great food and we saw active animals up close on our safari because when it's hot they just lay there.  It was a perfect day in the park even through it rained.

Hollywood studios is a weird place but they added a cool Star Wars refurbishment where the ride has 50 different combinations of missions so every ride is different! Our favorite...the ice planet of Hoth.  We ate at the Fifties Diner where "Mom" or Uncle George in our case seats you at a table wit an old tv playing shows like Fathers Knows Best and they nag you to keep your elbows off the table and to eat your vegetables!  Very Fun place to eat!! We also saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and rode the corkscrew Rockin Rollercoaster.  Our last night at D World was spent here and we saw the band Mulch, Sweat n Shears and had a blast with them.  We also saw the Walt Disney movie about his life and enjoyed seeing Marceline, MO again and familiar things like the barn of his and his school desk.

The last park is the Magical kingdom which we don't feel is as magical BUT we will say this... the new castle projection show they have is astounding and technology unlike we have ever seen.  Using projectors they transform the castle into a snow globe, gingerbread house, pirate castle, rocket and a scrapbook of the day and guests doing things around the park.  It was a sight to see!  We like the people mover that takes you inside a couple rides behind the scenes and the Comedy Floor with Monsters Inc.

The thing about Disney World is finding the out-of-the-way stuff, the things people don't really know much about in their frenzy to hit all the big rides.  At Epcot we found a place called The Land.  Being farmers and eco people we took the behind the scenes tour where we saw how the grow their own food and seafood for use in their restaurants. They grow food hydroponically and in small spaces very efficiently and use the fertilizer from the fish to feed the plants. It was a great tour and after we ate at the cafe the food goes to.  We had the best key lime pie we have ever had! We also enjoyed the Epcot ball ride that takes you through the first 30,000 years of civilization and explains writing, literature, Renaissance and communications.  Nerds..I know! We liked it.

Our feet, however, don't always like Disney World.  You are walking from 9am to midnight some days and day after day your feet get sore and you get tired.  So, our remedy...swimming!  We sure got our exercise.  We enjoyed the parks and sharing it with family and pin trading...oh and Dole Whips!  We are glad to be done though as the holiday crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger.  We took a break from school and historical places and nature and we are ready to get back to it.  Only this time we have an emphasis on art, music, poetry/literature and nature/science.  We are looking forward to the string of natural places coming up in next few months.

Drop us a line and tell us how your holidays were!  We hope you are all enjoying the holidays!!
Happy Trails!
Jack n Jenn