It's a Small World After All

Yesterday, the boys and I went to Epcot. My sister had mentioned that she wanted to take my nephew to Sea World, but since Shamu is one of our neighbors in San Diego, the boys and I wanted to do something different. So we woke up early, borrowed my dad's car and made the two hour trek to Orlando and the wonderful place called Disney World.


The last time we were in Florida (13 years ago), we spent four days in Disney World and had a great time. We only had one day this year, so we decided to return to Epcot since it was the one theme park that was different than anything we have in California. Both Joe and Zach remember a little of our last visit, but David who was only four years old doesn't have any memories of our previous trip. I was curious to see how much the park had changed.

France

Epcot is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. That little tidbit of information comes from Joe. He is the king of trivia and regularly shared his knowledge with us throughout the day. We had a fun time exploring the two main areas of the park: World Showcase and Future World.

Morroco

World Showcase was very similar to what I remembered. It didn't seem like it had changed much at all. Even the movies in some of the countries were outdated. It became really obvious when we saw anything with technology. The computer monitors were monster-sized and looked like they were from the 90s. Still, it was fun to meet people from different countries and to learn about the history and culture of 11 places around the world. 

Germany

When we were in France, we took pictures of us wearing berets, and then decided that we needed to take a picture of David wearing a hat in all of the remaining countries. So as we entered each country, we looked for a traditional head covering that David or someone could model. 

Japan

Joe and David enjoyed a refreshing Japanese soda with an intriguing lid and method to open it. The lid was actually a marble that was pushed down into the soda bottle. It rolled around and stayed in the bottom of the bottle while they drank. We were so fascinated with it, that both boys saved their bottles to take home. And the rest of the day, they would shake the bottles and it sounded like they were shaking a can of spray paint.


We were making good progress around the lagoon, until it started raining. We huddled in an alcove eating our lunch and watching the rain come down. Joe bought me a rain poncho, and right on cue, the rain stopped and we resumed our journey.

Norway

After the World Showcase, we spent the rest of the day and evening in Future World. This part of Epcot was more updated with some fun simulator rides and interesting exhibits. The boys designed their own simulator rides while I experienced the effects of high winds on houses. 

China

One of the most enjoyable activities was in Innoventions. We each had our photos taken while running in place, jumping, and doing a victory dance. Then our images were loaded into a video game, and we got to play a game with our own images as the player in the game. We even e-mailed a link to the game so that we could play it over and over.

Mexico

We made it home and the crawled into bed around 1:30 a.m. All in all it was a fun day, and I'm glad we went. I always enjoy the time with my very grown up sons, and when I get to learn something too that's just the icing on the cake!