Epcot

Day 2 of our Disney World trip was at Epcot, and it was Christopher's Day!

By far, Christopher and John's favorite ride at Epcot was Test Track.  And even though we had to wait two hours for the ride, it was worth it to see the smiles on the boys' faces when they were finished.  My guys also survived Mission: Space, which they rode with their dad.  Not with their claustrophobic mom.  :)

And yes, we did Soarin'. 

And yes. It was cool. :)  

But of course, we all come to Epcot to walk through the countries.  

It was a toasty 85 degree walk on that February Day...

Japan: 

In Japan Anna got one of her vacation souvenirs at Pick-A-Pearl:

These Japanese goldfish were well over a foot long.  

I bet my father-in-law would like to have some of these in his coy pond!

In England we saw Mary Poppins, both in vegetative form and in real life:

 China:

 And I didn't even know what country this was, but Anna joined a group of kids in playing some drums:

Canada's gardens were beautiful, especially considering it had been freezing in Florida only a few weeks earlier.  How did Disney get those spring flowers blooming so quickly???

One of the things that made Epcot enjoyable for us was that Christopher purchased a passport book, and at each country we went in and had a worker sign their country in their own language.  Here was Christopher getting his passport signed by a French girl whose accent was so thick we could hardly understand her.  Cool.

 Here we were in Morocco, which looks like a Middle-Eastern open-air market.  Morocco was my favorite country.  It was there that the kids and I learned that in the Middle East, people write from right to left.  We didn't know that!  (So that's an Instructional Day, North Carolina Department of Education!)

That bottom line is Christopher's name in Arabic:

My favorite part of "America" was the marching band that played flutes and pipes just like in Revolutionary times.  Tim says his favorite country was America because he didn't feel like he needed to look for an Embassy while he was there.  Ha.

And once again...I got wished a happy birthday!

 Italy:

We ended our day at Epcot at the laser light show on the lake.  Believe it or not...the Barnette family was out -and-about watching a show at 9:00 at night!  But it was worth staying-out late for that one.  Pretty amazing fireworks, lasers, and pyrotechnics.  In fact, I got so caught-up in the show that I forgot to take a single picture!

One of the things we'll all 5 remember about Epcot was how much we walked that day.  Whew! We were tired little monkeys by the end of the night.  But one of us found a comfy ride back to the bus...

Next Stop: Animal Kingdom.