June 10th, 2008 - Mostly Epcot

We had dinner reservations at the Biergarten at Epcot in the afternoon so that's where we headed after breakfast. Rachel and I rode Spaceship Earth because that's our favorite; it's changed a bit since we rode it last but essentially the them of the ride is the same: communication.

There wasn't much else in Future World to keep our attention so we headed to the World Showcase to begin our way around to Germany. First stop: Mexico.






We rode El Rio Del Tiempo which is always a nice break from the heat and sun of outside. Lileks said it best that inside the Mexico Pavilion, it's always 9:00 in the evening.

Next up, China. Uh, oh, the line looks long:





At Disney, you're always waiting in line. The wait wasn't long, though, and the movie was as good as we remember it.

Norway was next. I enjoy looking around the little Norway seaside village mock up and the tiny sailboat tied up to the dock. Of course, there's always time to pose with the troll:

We were a little early for dinner but they seated us anyway. Joined a nice family who hailed from the panhandle of Florida. No pictures so you'll have to take my word for it that the floor show was as good as always - though we did miss the blonde, crew-cutted guy who sang Edelweiss to us last year and had told us he had once played a gig at Czech Hall near Yukon - and the food tasty. The beer, too.

It was raining when we were finished, and raining hard. We tried for a boat ride but it looked like they stopped running them due to the weather. Seasoned pros that we are, we broke out the panchos and worked our way around the rest of the World Showcase: we skipped The American Adventure, but stopped into Japan where I saw this outside the store window:



I dunno. Something about the after-the-rain light just appealed to me though I wasn't able to cut the glare entirely from the reflection on the glass from the inside of the store. You get the sense of it though, don't you?

We explored Morocco, skipped France and United Kingdom but checked into Canada because it's been years since we've seen the movie. Martin Short yuks it up and the photography is stunning. Like all the pavilions, it does its job and makes you want to go for a longer visit when you're through.

Through with Epcot for this year, then. We hopped onto the monorail and finished out the day at the Magic Kingdom.

We'll do more of it tomorrow. For now, though, we've made a sizable dent in it.