Our Birthdays! (part 2)

Day 2, my birthday!
(aka Operation Drink Around the World)
For my birthday the following day we did Epcot. And by "we did Epcot" what I mean to say is Epcot gave us the big fat middle finger all day long. My mission for the day was to take a leisurely stroll around the world and drink my way through each country. Epcot's plan was to have it rain, then have it POUR, then close down one of the rides I really wanted to go on early, then send us home with food poisoning.

About an hour after we got in the park the sky opened up and it started POURING. Jason and I were stuck under a monorail-rail, in a tiny sliver of dry protection for a few minutes before we could muster up the decision to make a run for one of the shops a good 100yards away.

Let's just say we got really really wet. Even though we pretty much ran the whole way across to the nearest building.

Now I love Epcot. Epcot is the home to Figment, who is by far one of my favorite Disney creations ever. We went into the shop and I bought my mother a new Figment towel to replace her 15year old tattered one, and then proceeded to use it to dry my hair. I scoffed at Jason's reasoning that in a few minutes we'd have to go back outside and I'd just be wet all over again, and proceeded to dry myself off. Say it with me: futility.

It was soon after this that we ran over to Mexico and got two margaritas to start off our day. I had a fun little exchange with a woman behind us in the line at the margarita stand. When she overheard me order two margaritas and nothing else, she pondered aloud: "Is it too early for margaritas?"

I turned to her and we both answered in unison, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere!" ...despite the fact that it was really only 11am in Epcot. Yes, we started drinking at 11am.

We ran into the Mexican building and admired the art. I have a huge love for any Dia de los Muertos art, so it was nice to see a few displays. We people watched and counted how many people could walk past the maraca stand without picking them up to shake and do a funny dance. The count was pretty much zero by the time we finished our margaritas.

The rain let up a bit and we walked back to the Test Track to use our Speed Passes. We just got on before it started pouring again and they had to shut down the ride until it cleared up. So it was off to Norway for us! As the sweet Norwegian girl poured us our second drink we realized that if we were going to make it around the world, we'd have to share. So after our margaritas, Jason and I pounded back half a beer at each destination.
We were entirely confused when we hit a patch between China and Germany that wasn't labeled on the map. It appeared to be the entire continent of Africa in one little "Outpost" I have to admit, the African beer was one of my favorites the entire day, but I had to add Africa? to the map when I threw together these photo collages.

We decided (or rather, I decided since it was my birthday) that we would have our big meal for the day at the Biergarten Restaurant in Germany. My grandmother's side of the family is German so this kind of food is like coming home for me. The Biergarten is awesome, it's family style so we shared a table with another couple and a girl with her two uncles. We had some friendly conversations and enjoyed the show...which was fantastic as well.
There was one unintentional snafu here though. For some reason Jason decided to try some steamed salmon from the buffet. This was the only food item that he ate on my birthday that I did not also eat. I say this because after Germany Jason was not feeling well and later that night got the worst food poisoning ever. So might I suggest not eating the salmon, and sticking to the traditional schmorgasborg if you ever take in the Biergarten?

After Germany, we slowed our pace to a snails crawl. Jason wasn't feeling well and getting him through Italy, America, Japan and Morocco was a great feat. In France it started raining again. We found an alley to sit and drink our beer in. And trust me, the hilarity of us sitting in an alleyway in France slightly intoxicated while Belle and Aurora signed autographs for little children in the bookstore across from us as we drank beer does not escape me. Perhaps this is why the French hate us..?

After France though, we were in the homestretch! Just the United Kingdom and Canada to conquer and we had drank around the world! We were slowing down though and walked our UK beer over to the Canadian Pavillion to finish it there. The 360-degree movie on Canada narrated by Martin Short gave us enough time to finish, but after that we couldn't find a Canadian stand to buy our last beer. So our last beer was purchased right outside of Canada. Ahwell.

We went to see Figment and were greeted by a man in a silly jacket who told us Figment went to bed for the night. Figment went to bed? This was now the second time I've been at Epcot in my adult life that I have not been able to get into the Figment area...sadness. The last time I was in Epcot the entire Figment area was actually closed off for some reason and I got very upset that Disney might possibly be getting rid of him.

Defeated, we sat down on a park bench and waited for the fireworks. Jason was feeling infinately more sick so we decided to just leave. The ride back to Ron's wasn't the prettiest, and Jason was sick for the rest of the night and slept most of the drive down to the Keys the next morning. So all in all my birthday was fantastic.

Never eat the salmon.