Monday, July 21, 2008

Around the world in one day!

What a weekend! On Friday afterwork we met up with our group for our first mini-adventure away together. Becky works for Disney and was able to share a few of her perks with us and it turned out to be quite a trip! After we arrived in Orlando, we checked into our villa at the Saratoga Springs Resort, got settled in and then walked the short path to Downtown Disney where we had an interesting dinner at Fulton's Crab House. I say interesting because it wasn't the best meal ever as I don't eat seafood and then the prices were kind of high for the amount of food that was served. We had one major problem that ended with a free meal for one couple - see, even the Magical World of Disney isn't fool proof!

Above: A picture of the Saratoga Springs Resort in Disney
Below: The boys trying out the jacuzzi tub within minutes of us checking in.

Eric is posing in the opening and then it is Kyle, Doug and James in the tub.


Here are Kyle and I posing in front of the crab house after we ate dinner.

The restaurant is inside of a stationary old fashioned steamboat.

After dinner the guys headed back to the villa for some relaxation in the hot tub and us gals decided to go to Pleasure Island (which I just learned is from the movie Pinocchio) and dance a little bit. We had the most fun at a club called 8 Track that played hits from the 70's and 80's and showed the videos on a large screen. Very entertaining! We danced to 'Word Up!" which is one of my faves and also 'She dropped a Bomb on me" along with many other old favourites!

After a little dancing we went to a cigar shop and decided to see what all the fuss was about as all our husbands seem to enjoy a cigar now and again. Well, although I didn't try at first I did take a a puff or two without enhaling basically deciding that I still was not sure what all the fuss was about. But, It was something new and kind of funny to try.When we decided to head back to the hotel it was pretty late and the shops and restaurants in Downtown Disney were fairly deserted. We took sometime to take some pictures with the advantage of not having the swarming crowds around us. Here are Becky and I with one of my all time favorite characters, Mr. Potato Head.And now onto our purpose for the trip! We slept in on Saturday to rest up for the long day ahead and got to the park ready to go at about 1. We went to Epcot which is built circular with a lake in the middle where the perform a laser light show and fireworks display each night. On one side of the lake are some rides and educational type explorative buildings - but we had come for my favorite part. The tour of the world. The other half of the park is a walk through different countries of the world - there are full scale buildings and food and drink of each country as well as all the people working in each country are natives of said country. It begins in Canada and this is where we started our adventure.For each country we picked a leader and that leader was the guide who decided where we took the obligatory group photo, found the cafe or pub, and which sites and shops we would explore. It took us a couple of countries to get the hang of it but it was a great way to keep all 8 of us somehow on track so we would have time to do each country by the close of the park. Above is our group photo in Canada and below is our photo in the United Kingdom.I had a funny thing happen to me in the U.K. as I had wondered alone into the next shop as everyone else lingered behind. I was in a shop that had tea and china and also some perfumes. I love Burberry perfume and a sales lady was showing samples of a few of the new scents. smelled a few of the paper strips with the samples and liked them only to have the British sales lady ask if I didn't want to try one. I should have said no as I was worried about attracting bugs as we would be outside all day and I am allergic to mosquito bites and had already avoided smelly lotions and perfumes while preparing for the day - but alas, the silly girl inside me said 'Yes!' without thinking and stuck out my arm to receive what I assumed would be a single spray. But apparently they do things differently in Britain because before I could stop her the lady has sprayed me six times all over! 6 times! I was gagging on the scent and overwhelmed with shock - wishing desperately that I had had a witness to this bizarre moment. I tried to keep my cool by continuing to look until the same lady offered to let me try another..I was out of there soooo fast! I couldn't believe the cloud of Burberry that I was in. I found the gang and relayed the awful story to their amusement but barely had to tell it as my scent preceded me. At the next available restroom I took a tiny sponge bath and managed to deal with it for the rest of the day.
These are not in perfect sequence as I have skipped several countries pics in order to show you my favorites only. Here we are in Japan.
Here is our karate photo that got a few good laughs from passersby.Here are Becky and Doug in Mexico with sombreroes! This weekend was extra special as they were celebrating their 5 year anniversary!
Here we are at the end of the day after 12 exciting countries and one great fireworks display!

It was a wonderful and exciting trip around the world and overall we had a great weekend together. We spent the rest of the night swimming and soaking our tired feet in the resort hot tub and played cards until we were all completely exhausted. We checked out on Sunday and headed home to relax.


Hope everyone else had a good weekend!