It's Geek to Me: Disney: Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

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I'm still trying to kick these posts out quickly before...um...I get back from vacation. Whoops. So, before I blog about the vacation I just got back from! ONWARD!

Epcot's gorgeous in the Spring, apparently!

"Spring" being, like, February in Florida.

And it's even more beautiful (and fun) during the annual Flower and Garden Festival.

I got asked a few times whether I'd just gotten off the Dream because of the T-shirt! (It says "Inaugural Voyages".) The funniest thing was all the cast members working far away from the merchandise stands who had not even seen this year's F&GF pin (on my left shoulder)! You will notice from this picture that Michael finally succumbed to his feelings of "I might want my own pins" when we hit a too-good-to-pass-up deal at the pin trading stand.

Floral mouse:

TRON-themed monorail, just because.

And speaking of 80s techno-media...I finally got to see...

I never saw it in the 80s; there was a block of time where we visited my sister in California and therefore went to Disneyland. It was fabulous. Much better "in context" than the clip I saw on YouTube (DO NOT GO LOOK IT IS TOO CHEESY).

Fairies!

Nothing like advertising a new TV series in topiary form.

At least the houses were too cute.

Each fairy had a unique, well-done (and adorable) house.

But enough about Future World, KIM POSSIBLE NEEDS OUR HELP!!!

If you've never done this interactive game, you're missing out. You do a mission within one country in the World Showcase, interacting with the environment in ways you wouldn't be able to without the Kimmunicator. For instance, a poster might flip over, a robot might pop up, smoke might pour out of a chimney, unexpected fiber optics might appear...!

We were out to save Norway, because...SCHOOLBREAD!!

If you don't know about schoolbread, I really almost don't want to tell you, because there might not be any left next time I go. It's this unassuming bun, you can kind of tell it's topped with coconut and maybe a little glaze, but it's FILLED WITH CUSTARD. Nom.

With a snack, we had strength to carry on...and impersonate cover models for Viking Fashion Monthly.

After saving Norway, we went on to save China. I love this picture of the panda topiaries.

After we returned from Orlando, Michael was looking at pictures online of the F&GF, and when he saw a photo of these pandas, he exclaimed, "We didn't see those!" "Well, I did," I replied. "I have a picture of them!"

And the moral of this story, boys and girls, is "Pictures or it didn't happen." =)

Boy, I could really go for some spaghetti and meatballs right about now.

We got to try the new pizza restaurant in the Italian pavilion. Very atmospheric.

I did not create this Hidden Mickey on purpose.

But remember, it is your Key to Quality Blogging. (Oh wait, that's foreshadowing!)

The food was great, but the pizza did not come to our table hot enough for us. I think it's because most people don't know how to eat real Neapolitan pizza (fold the slice in half, and you eat it when the cheese is liquid, it's so hot).

Here's the pizza in its pre-folded state.

These ovens are serious.

After tooling around the World Showcase some more, we headed back to the Wilderness Lodge. The sign outside the magic snack room said there would be "dessert and cordials" until 10 pm. We made it back with some time to spare, and found more cookie mountains, cobbler, brownies and Magic Bars (7-layer bars). OMIGOSH SO GOOD. Also, actual alcohol. Like, for free. In bottles. Right there on the counter. Now, we are not big drinkers (I don't even like the taste of alcohol), but we had just learned how to pour this cool three-layer drink on the cruise ship...