Hollywood Studios

On Sunday we used the last day on our Disney passes to visit Hollywood Studios. Leslie, our tour guide, had a full day planned so we left the RV Park early. Even at that, the parking lot was pretty full and we parked at FILM 32 --

It's a good thing the trams were making lots of trips. We only waited for a couple of minutes.

There's the Sorcerer's Hat.  It's THE landmark of Hollywood Studios --

The entrance to Hollywood Studios with everything built to look like the heyday of Hollywood --

The haunted Hollywood Tower Hotel --

Designed to look long empty with dust and cobwebs throughout the structure --

We passed through the empty lobby to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror -- What a ride!

We spent time in the Animation Studio learning how to draw Dopey --
 

 

We saw the musical, Voyage of the Little Mermaid --

Went on a tour of the backstage lots and saw how many of the special effects were done --

Bill went over to the Brown Derby and returned with slices of this luscious Grapefruit Cake --

This is the set for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular --

The Streets of America -- How about New York?

Or San Francisco -- Doesn't that hill look real?

We saw another parade -- this one featured many of the Pixar characters -- 
 

 

We went on rides that took us past many of the iconic movie sets --

We had lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe -- just look at all that chrome!

What else did we do? Let's see - we saw the Muppets 3D; Walt Disney: One Man's Dream; Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage; and the Star Tours ride. It definitely was a busy day.

This head cold is not being very nice to me. I am pretty miserable and have spent most of the day in bed. I am going to go right back there now...

Postponed Until Tomorrow...

We have been at Disney's Hollywood Studios Park since early this morning. I'm tired and I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. So I'm going to bed, I tell you about Hollywood Studios tomorrow!

Resting Up

We have passes for one more day to visit the last park on Leslie's Disney World tour. She's warned us it's going to be a busy day tomorrow, so we spent most of today just resting up...

It cooled off enough by late afternoon that I could sit outside with my Kindle and read. Towards evening Bill and Leslie came over. We topped the chunk of Brie we had gotten a couple of weeks ago at Costco with some pecan halves, then wrapped it in Pillsbury's refrigerator roll dough and baked it. When it was nicely browned and all gooey inside, we divvied it up and ate it with pear and apple slices, blackberries and grapes. (Leslie tried it with a slice of cucumber, but decided that wasn't a keeper...)

We had a rematch of last night's Hand and Foot game. It was close, but Leslie and I got our revenge and beat the fellows by some three hundred points!

Hand and Foot

Since it was 2:30 AM this morning by the time we got home from Disney's Magic Kingdom and I got my blog posted, we did not get up very early this morning. (Not that we often get up early, but this was even later than usual for us...) We didn't accomplish very much after we go up either. After all, we are retired, you know.

Late this afternoon we made a quick trip over to the nearby Publix grocery to pick up milk and orange juice and restock my blueberry supply. Leslie and Bill were bringing over her shrimp and avocado salad for supper. It was a very hot day today, so I decided to make Grandma Hardt's pear salad as well. It's a true 1950's salad: canned Bartlett pear halves on a lettuce bed with a dab of Miracle Whip in the center, topped with shredded Colby cheese and chopped pecans. I haven't tasted that combination for over thirty years, but it was actually pretty good and every bit of both salads disappeared.

After dinner we decided that it was about time we had a rematch of Hand and Foot. Leslie and I had soundly beaten the fellows the last time we played and they were out for revenge.

Things got pretty heated there for a while --

I was getting frustrated as I had this handful of cards with not enough meld to get down on the board!
(I'm ten points short of the 180 I need...)

It didn't get a whole lot better and the fellows definitely won this round! Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

The Magic Kingdom

So today, we finally made it to the Magic Kingdom, the iconic park of Disney World. We parked in the "Villain" parking lot -- ZURG 105, then took the tram into the transit center --

This time we took a bus for the mile and a half trip into the park itself --

 The entrance to the Magic Kingdom --

Our very first stop was at the Bakery on Main Street. The four of us shared this cinnamon roll. Had to stock up on energy, you know...

THE Castle, the iconic center of the park --

The founder, Walt Disney, and his partner --

We went on the Silly Safari Jungle Cruise --

And then to the Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner --

We ran into this portrait of Grumpy -- he's the one on the right!

Or is it the ones on the left?

As it began to get dark, the Castle was bathed in many different colors --

At six o'clock it was time for the parade on Main Street!

Goofy was driving the engine that pulled the trailer with Minnie and Mickey --

Lots of bugs and butterflies --

And the Cheshire Cat --

This was my favorite!

He even blew smoke --

Look at the Castle in the dark as we prepared to watch the fireworks --

After several more rides and a couple more shows, it was time to head home. We had been at the Magic Kingdom for ten hours and we were tired. That seemed to be the theme as we boarded the ferry that would take us back to the trams and the parking lot.

 

It was another fun day. This is definitely the park you would choose to go to with children -- or with adults who are still children at heart?

3.14 -- "Pi" Day

The fourteenth day of the third month, 3.14 has become known as "pi" day.  At first it was a day celebrated mainly by Math Nerds, but it is becoming more widely known.

And there is only one way to celebrate "pi" day and that is by eating pie of course! Late this afternoon our friends Leslie and Bill showed up at our door with lots of pies. They had gone to a nearby store run by an expatriate Brit called Perfect Pie.

We divided and shared Steak and Kidney pie; Steak and Onion pie; Steak and Mushroom pie; and Steak and Cheese pie. They were very similar to the pasties I had eaten in London many years ago except that they were made in individual portion size pie tins.

The smaller pies that Leslie is holding (note her pi shirt!) are the dessert pies. We shared blueberry, apple and apple/blackberry. But that was NOT enough for Bill! He drove over to Perkins and brought back a chocolate cream pie as well.

If this is the first time you've heard of Pi Day, you might want to mark it on your calendar for next year. Then, you can enjoy pie with us!

Our Last Day at Epcot...

We went back to Epcot for one more time today. Leslie immediately ushered us over to get our pictures taken with Minnie and Goofy. I had put my hair into two ponytails today and Goofy thought that was quite funny. He kept showing me his ears and then checking out my hair.

This is our crew: Minnie Mouse (who was really flirting with Forry!), Forry and I, Goofy, Leslie and Bill --

Forry left his hat at home today and it was too hot to be without one. There are little and big shops all over the place in the park, so we went looking for a hat for him. He wanted a Grumpy one and found this one that said, "Being Grumpy ROCKS."

Leslie had had a great idea and suggested that we rent scooters for getting around the Park. It's a lot of walking. We just got one for Forry the first day and I ended up with blisters, so after that we've gotten one for each of us. They've really made it nice!

The first topiary we saw today was Flower --

And Bambi --

And, of course, Thumper!

Next, near the Butterfly Garden, was this creation --

This sand sculpture was created for the Flower and Garden Show in honor of Disney's latest nature movie --

I understand it tells the story of a male chimpanzee who stepped in to mother a baby after its mother dies.

One of the gardens had these baby pineapple plants growing -- they are striking plants.

We next went over to the Canada area where we saw this Mama Duck with her young'uns --

Leslie continued to add to her laurels by getting us hard-to-come-by dinner reservations at the Canadian Steakhouse. We started off sharing this delicious bowl of beer and cheese soup --

Followed by a shared bone-in rib eye for us and a New York strip steak for Leslie and Bill. Take note of the "pretzel" dinner rolls -- they were sure good!

 There was no debate about what to have for dessert, they had maple creme brulee!

After dinner we spotted the Winnie the Pooh crew --

There were Eeyore and Piglet --

Rabbit --

And good ol' Tigger --

We saw an impressive 360 degree movie about Canada, then went to on to Norway where we went on a Viking boat ride called the Maelstrom and marveled at how much their pictures of Vikings looked like Forrest!

This is one of the teacups in the Tea Garden sponsored by Twinings Teas. Each teacup was planted with the plant that was on the teabag. This one is peppermint tea --

The flower and topiary displays at Epcot have been wonderful to see. They must have incredible green houses as well as landscape architects and gardeners!