No, We Didn't Run Away to Disney World Forever

We've been back in St. Louis since Wednesday...Porkchop has been busy having another cold, and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around having to work.

[I can't get through a workday anymore without being tuned into Pandora. Otherwise, I feel like I'll fall asleep.]

So...to wrap up our WDW stuff...

Monday
Magic Kingdom day.

The worst day.

After riding Space Mountain and other things in Tomorrowland, there isn't much to do. The park gets crazy crowded by lunch, and it isn't designed to handle the number of people that pile in. You can't walk 3 inches without running into someone.

Save for the ice cream, the afternoon was not fun. But we stuck it out for the Spectromagic parade and the fireworks display. (Had we left the park after lunch, there was no way in hell I would have gone back).

Tuesday
A much better day.

We spent the morning at Disney Hollywood Studios, where we rode the new Toy Story Mania ride twice. It was a fun time of playing 4-D carnival-style midway games! By the end of the first ride, Porkchop was just 500 points ahead of me. Quite unexpectedly, I totally dominated the second ride and edged out Porkchop by around 30,000 points.

After doing everything on our list, we left the park around 2:00 and rested at the hotel some. We rounded out the afternoon by playing miniature golf and taking senior class photos:


Porkchop looks cool here, but I won the game. 50-54...what's happening?! Am I becoming good at skill games, or is Porkchop losing her touch?

[I won't mention how I scored over 330,000 points on the Buzz Lightyear ride...compared to P-chop's 50,000-something.]

After golf, we used the Disney bus system to get to Downtown Disney for dinner. Since the waterpark by the golf place had already closed, getting to Downtown was a bit inconvenient. The only bus running went to Epcot. At Epcot, we had to pick a resort bus, take the bus to the resort, and then catch another bus to Downtown. In the end, we lucked out by choosing the Saratoga Springs bus, as there was a walkway from Saratoga to Downtown (no waiting for a bus, yay!).

Not so lucky was that we witnessed a woman fall off her scooter as she exited the bus! It was obvious that the woman couldn't steer her scooter very well, but no one expected her to fall off. As she rode off the bus ramp, she cut her wheels sharply, which caused the scooter to deposit her face-first on the sidewalk. And then the scooter fell on her.

I felt horrible for the woman and for the bus driver, who obviously felt quite shitty.

Anyway, where was I? We did some pin trading at Downtown Disney and had a good dinner.

Wednesday
The day we'd been waiting for! And not because we were leaving that afternoon!

No, Wednesday morning was our Segway tour at Epcot!

After I traded my broken Segway for a functioning one, it was super fun! We had around 45 minutes of training and practice indoors, and then it was off to the World Showcase. Since the Showcase opens later than Epcot, it became our playground as we zig-zagged through the columns at Italy, cruised through the Morrocco bazaar, and traversed the garden bridges in Japan.

Here we are on our Segways:


And here's a little clip of Porkchop riding hers (listen closely and you can hear me exclaim at the end as Porkchop gets a little too close to me):



The Rest of the Week
Blech. We returned to work right away, which wasn't fun.

But, we also returned to sprouting tomatoes! They're a little leggy, but otherwise okay. Oh, and the peppers are quite beautiful:


Other random things...

Friday night after work, I requested a chair massage from the "Chinese Exercise" place in the Galleria. I heard from a co-worker who heard from her dance instructor that, if you don't have time for a full massage, this place is pretty good. While my experience was just fine, Porkchop will tell you otherwise. To begin with, Porkchop didn't even want a massage, the woman there pretty much forced her to sit down. Then, after the woman had worked on P-chop for a few minutes, a guy took over and started punching her calves and quads. Finally, to top it off, the woman asked if Porkchop was my child and, I swear, proceeded to make fun of us in Chinese (newsflash: it's never cool to make fun of people, especially when they can't understand you). When we left, the woman told Porkchop, "I love you, baby."

Huh? We won't be going back.

On another topic, we received radish sprouts in last week's share, and they are amazing!! I love radish sprouts!

I also love the Mexican hot chocolate at Cafe Ventana!


I declare this the best hot chocolate in St. Louis. The cayenne pepper and orange zest make for an amazing drink. The beignets are also pretty darn good. A cinnamon sugar one came with my drink, and next time I'm going to try the chocolate one. Yum!