Day 2 in Orlando was spent at Disney’s Epcot theme park. This park was actually the one I was most excited about! I have always loved learning about other countries and cultures (and the thought of traveling to them) so I couldn’t wait to see the World Showcase area at Epcot. Side note: Notice the child hiding in our picture below?
We arrived when the park opened so we were able to hit all of the rides in the future world area right away without any waiting for any of them! It was awesome – of course our first ride was the one that took us inside the giant golf ball looking thing :) Lance and I really enjoyed the Mission Space ride – it simulated taking off into space (by basically spinning you) we thought it was one of our favorite rides during the whole trip. I have heard that it makes most people ill because of all the spinning so I guess we were lucky!
One of my other favorite rides at Epcot was this one that took you on a little boat ride (think “It’s a small world” style boats) that took you through the green house they have at Epcot. It was so awesome! I took a TON of pictures of all the plants. This below is a fluted pumpkin, from Western Africa – most commonly grown in Nigeria. The seeds are high in protein and the edible part (or most widely eaten portion) of the pumpkin.
I had no idea what Sweet Coltsfoot was but I thought it looked/sounded cool!
I thought this was a cool set up of different grains. In the picture you can see the Millet and Amaranth. Amaranth is grain similar to rice. Millet is a grain that has a similar protein content to wheat and is high in B vitamins (and a few other nutrients too), but it contains no gluten so I like to use it when I do some gluten free baking!
Coming from Arizona where we have a ton of citrus – I thought that these 9 pound lemons were pretty cool!
On our way over to the World Showcase area we stopped into this place called Club Cool, sponsored by Coca-Cola. They have self-serve soda machines where you can try different soda products from around the world. Best of all – It’s FREE!!
We had fun getting to try out all the different flavors (and keep out of the rain hehe). My favorite was probably Mexico’s drink called Lift, it tasted similar to sparkling apple juice. They were all pretty tasty, except for the Italian one – Beverly. In Kevin’s words he said it “tastes like you mouth after you throw up”. Classy, I know huh? Basically it didn’t taste good at all – it was down-right gross!
If you look closely at this photo you can see Sheena and I standing in front of the Mexico showcase :)
While we were in “Mexico” I bought a big huge bottle of Mexican vanilla extract. I was in desperate need of some good quality vanilla since I ran out of my last bottle, so I was super excited when I came across it. Also the girl at the register said that this brand is the best in Mexico – which was cool to hear since all of the people that Disney has working in each country showcase are actually from that country.
Norway was also a lot of fun! We went on the little ride they have there – and watched a short film about Norway
Then played around in the gift shop where there was this uber creepy troll thing. Lance and I took full advantage of the props (I died laughing at the hat that had fake blond hair attached to it!)
We also stopped in the Norway bakery to get some School Bread – holy cow this stuff is good. If you go to Disney World do not pass this up! It is one of the best things we ate while we were there. I am thinking about creating my own recipe for it cuz it was that good!
We spent most of the afternoon going from country to country checking out some of the exhibits and the little shops in each.
I got chocolates in both Germany and France
And this awesome German Christmas wine – it intrigued me and it was only $6 so I couldn’t resist…we’ll see how it tastes when I crack it open in December ;)
While taking a break in the US we got to see this marching band – they played some patriotic music
This photo looks like Lance is reading a map – I can assure you he is not. He fell asleep like this for about 15 min. After about 5 min we all started to wonder why Lance was looking at the map so long, then I realized he was sleeping! So I took a photo haha
I think Morocco was my favorite country – it was the most charming one. I was sad that it was one of the smaller countries to check out. With all of the off and on rain we had in Florida ponchos started to become a fashionable article of clothing ;)
While I was looking at some of the desserts inside one of the Moroccan shops, Sheena and I started chatting with one of the girls who worked there for few minutes. When I had finally decided to order my baklava she ended up giving it to me for free – how awesome is that? I don’t think they get much foot traffic in that shop and I definitely don’t think people are genuinely nice to the people who work at theme parks so I am sure she was glad for a change of pace. I took the baklava back to the hotel with us to eat for dessert later that night :)
The last country we visited was Canada – so I of course bought some maple syrup. I can’t wait to make some yummy desserts with it this fall!
So that was it for day 2 of our Orlando trip! The next two recaps will be shorter…I promise! :)
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