We didn't make it to Disney on our regular day so we went on Wednesday instead. To Epcot this time, which may be our favorite park here. This park uses space so well; when you go through the gates you are in a big open area that isn't boring because it's got a few kiosks, a big fountain perfect for photo-ops, commemorative slabs with names and photos of people who donated for the park, and that amazing big golf-ball thing rising above it all. On a sunny morning (which most Florida mornings are), the feeling is expansive and uplifting, like something good is about to happen.
We started the day with a Fast Pass on Mission:Space. It's a virtual ride that, in spite of my borderline claustrophobia, is quite beautiful.
One of our regular stops is the Club Cool, where there are unlimited free samples of eight Coke products which are popular in other countries. These taste nothing like Coke. I've settled on Sparletta, a raspberry cream soda from Zimbabwe, that is pretty good on a hot day.
Epcot has a lot of Festivals throughout the year, and right now it's the 3rd annual Art Festival. They have a big paint-by-numbers mural to be painted by guests. Last year it was a different picture and Janice and Lance helped paint it.
This year we found several rows of chalk art on taped-off sections of the sidewalks. Some were pretty good!
Walking is one of the main activities at Epcot. The English section always lifts my heart because it really does look like a condensed version of sections of England. And one walkway between sections of the park is banked with beautiful little roses, which smell wonderful.
Overhead a local skywriter was busy today. We've seen his work a few times. This time he was writing "Trust Jesus", although the breeze carried much of it away before he finished.
We stopped for lunch in the French area at the Boulangerie Patisserie, which is one of the best places for both quality and value. In spite of our love of trying new things, we often get the cheese plate because it is so good! Today we sat near a friendly couple named Gwen and Willie, who live in Wisconsin but have been Snowbirds to Orlando for several years. They are going to France next month; we all marveled at the incredible blessings we are enjoying in our retirement.
Later we decided to try some shaved ice from a funky-looking stand in the Japanese section. The art work here doesn't say "shaved ice" to me, but I enjoyed our multi-flavored ice.
At Epcot the big rides are grouped together in one category so we can get either a Fast-Pass for Soarin', Frozen Ever After, Test Track, or the nighttime IllumiNations. For us it's usually a choice between Soarin' and Test Track and today we went on Soarin'. We go to Disney once a week and there are about 3 months where we don't go. So, rotating between the parks, that means we go to Epcot about 9 times a year. Switching between the big rides, we are not worried about getting bored.
As we walked to the front of the park to leave, we paused to watch the acrobats in the "Art Defying Gravity" show.
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