Epcot

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The billboards in Tampa about the Flower & Garden Festival caught my attention, so we went to Epcot today. And walked around for 6 hours. I'm beat tonight!

It was a beautiful day. And not all that crowded. Towards the end of the day, it seemed more crowded but not unbearable.

We'd hoped to stick around until 5:45 and see Gary Puckett perform. But we were done about two hours before that and just couldn't do it. He's there as part of the Flower Power series at the America Gardens Theatre. I'm sure I've mentioned this before - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap is the very first concert Gretchen and I ever saw. I think I was 1968; I was 12, Gretchen was 9. Mom and Dad took us. Do we have great parents or what?

Had we been visiting here on May 12, we definitely would have stayed for the concert. Davy Jones. Yes!! Mom and Dad took us to see the Monkees in concert too - but the Monkees didn't show. I don't know if we ever found out the true reason. Probably money. (I no longer even remember the reason they gave for not showing. Mom? Dad? Gretchen? Fill in the gaps of my memory?)

The thing I loved most about the stuff we saw today - everything is soooo colorful!

We went on the Spaceship Earth "ride" - very cool. I had no idea the animatronics were so good. (Do they still call them that?) But it was audio overload for me. There's a speaker in the headrest of each car, narrating constantly. Most of the displays you ride by have sound too. It didn't bother Steve but I'm sort of sensitive to sound, I think. We loved it though.

Our timing was exquisite as we walked through the World Showcase, we happened upon a drawbridge just about to go up. We had a front row view of the three barges that went through. It turns out they were for use in the fireworks display for tonight. The first barge was painted totally flat black with all kinds of contraptions. We had no idea what that was until the next two came through with all the firework cannons (?) lined up. Pretty neat!

These types of topiaries are all over the place. This was by far the most dramatic and colorful, as evidenced by the many people who were taking pictures in front of it. Not easy to get a picture that wasn't full of tourists.

I love this photo - how lucky I was! This is Tinkerbell, who resides in the Fairy Garden (I think that's what it's called). Peter Pan and Wendy were there running all over the place, playing tag with the kids. Too bad I didn't catch one of the characters but this running kid is cool too. Note the little chairs made out of tree trunks in the background.

This is sort of a before and after shot. The right figure is the armature that's inside the ostrich on the left.

We rode the monorail, which was fun but kind of a disappointment. Mostly the view was of trees and parking lots. Seems it would have been better if it went through other parts of Disney World to entice us to visit there. I'm sure there are reasons why that's not done - expense?

More flowers!

These stamps were in the Flower & Garden Festival building - all made of flowers. I felt very at home in this building. This is where various garden-related artists were set up selling their wares.

While this piece isn't strictly garden-related, lots of Cheri Riechers' other work is.

The Egg Man, Alan Traynor, confirmed for me that Gretchen did indeed order cooler weather for our visit. (Seriously, we wondered what all the fuss was about - didn't seem all that hot & humid to us - and Lord knows I'm always hot these days!) Anyway, he paints wooden eggs in any subject under the sun. Nice work.

We ate dinner at Petey Brown's, one of the restaurants in the hotel. This is the "casual dining" restaurant - still pretty fancy. I had lentil chili and the salad bar, so I could save room for the ice cream sundae bar. Delish! And the ice cream dishes were so cute I wish I'd taken my camera with me so I could show you.

Tonight is a veg-in-the-room night. I can't believe how stiff my legs still feel! I have some questions for Floridians and seasoned Florida travelers but I'll save those for another entry since this one is pretty long, with the pictures and all. I'll probably have more questions tomorrow anyway.

It was a full, wonderful day!