Day 8 - Around the world in 5 hours

Friday was Day 8 and we spent most of it at Epcot. For those of you who haven't visited Epcot before, in addition to the usual Disney rides, they have an whole portion of the park dedicated to different countries. So we started out with a Princess Breakfast in Norway. The breakfast was hosted by Belle and featured, in addition to the usual breakfast fare, pickled herring! Now granted our breakfast was more like brunch, but I found it amusing when we returned to our stroller and found our neighbor packing an unusual beverage in the kid seat of a stroller:

Yes, in case you weren't sure that is a margarita with a salted rim. This was apparently one of the specialties in Mexico right next door.

So, the benefit of Epcot was that the girls got to experience a little bit of each country without the travel time. They had a blast completing the "Kim Possible" interactive game in which they followed clues provided on a special cell phone. Their "special assignment" took us through China. You can see the glowing orb under one of the lion's paws. They eventually found the sacred monkey statue and saved the world!

Next it was off to Italy. I unknowingly bought a Coke Icee to help combat the heat and so we were too full for Gelato. I did have the girls pose in front of the Venetian mask shop.

We spent a lot of time in Japan. Here we had the girls pose in front of a Japanese garden. The poses in the first two pictures were our request:

This one was their idea:

Lord help us!

We enjoyed the Mikimoto pearl shop where the girls picked their own oysters. They ended up with pretty nice pearls and decided on a flower pendant and a dolphin pendant. Here they are modeling their creations.

We made a quick stop in Morocco on a search for hidden mickeys. The Disney artist have hidden Mickey heads all around the park. They actually publish a book with location information for hidden Mickeys. Marley really got into this and was able to find a few that weren't in the book. You can see the girls pointing to one in this mural.

Next we stopped for lunch in Paris! We enjoyed quiches and pastries from the Patisserie. Marley had creme brulee - again! The girls tried on these pink barets (or raspberry berets for you children of the 80's) in the gift shop. Ooh la la!

Paris was our last stop on our world wind tour. We spent the rest of the afternoon repeating some of our favorite rides at Epcot. After a quickly pit stop at the hotel for dinner and a bath, the younger two Miyamoto generations returned for a late night evening at the Magic Kingdom.

Unbelievably, on the second to the last night of our trip, we still hadn't rode the teacups. Here is Michelle, Maya, and Macie in their cup. We toyed with the idea of squeezing into one cup, but after spending quite a bit of time in line laughing at other people whose cup overflowth, we decided splitting up was the safest bet.

Here is our view from a spinning teacup . . .

We ended the evening with another ride on "Peter Pan" and one last ride around "It's a Small World". This one never seems to get old! The kids were still pointing out characters of interest. . . I had to ask them to be quiet because they kept waking Marc up (he was taking a little rest in the dark).

At 1 a.m. when the park closed, the kids finally had enough. Unfortunately the adults had to stay awake for the Monorail ride back to the hotel.

This was our last full day in the parks. On Saturday we had to check out of the hotel by 11 a.m., and we spent our last 5 hours in the Magic Kingdom. We were so tired when we finally got on the plane. We had a great trip, but it is a good thing it ended when it did, I don't think we could have kept up the pace much longer. The kids were troopers and it was truly the trip of a lifetime! Thanks Papa Mel and Granny Sandy!