Disney

Disney World turned out to be much cooler than I'd thought it would be. In an effort to make the most out of the trip we decided to do the Magic Kingdom and Epcot in one day.

To get to the Magic Kingdom we took a ferry across the man-made lake, passing the Grand Floridian Resort, where George's wedding took place.


The Magic Kingdom was all decorated for the fall and Halloween already. But even I had to admit that the Mickey pumpkins were really cool.

Here are Todd and Melissa are in front of the castle:

The first thing we did was to head to the world of tomorrow and go on the space mountain ride:

Then we rode the kiddie rockets which gave us a great aerial view of the park.

 

We all tried to pull the sword out of the stone, but it looks like none of us is the next Arthur.

For fun we saw Mickey's Philharmagic Show. It was a 3D show complete with 3D glasses and lots of other fun sensory effects, like like a spritz of water across the entire crowd when the animated brooms and buckets were washing the floor, and the aroma of food to accompany a dinner banquet. 

We stopped for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant and Todd quickly disguised himself as a native.

One of the coolest things we did was the Behind the Seeds tour. The Behind the Seeds tour in an extension of the Living With the Land exhibit. Disney does a lot of agricultural work and research at their Biotechnology Lab, which is a joint project with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. They do a lot with hydroponic growth techniques, natural pest control and liquid and gel nutrient-delivery mechanisms.

Of course, since it's Disney they have lots of fun with Mickey-shaped stuff. There were pumpkins shaped like Mickey's ears, cucumbers that look like Mickey ears when sliced, and different colored lettuces arranged into Mickey ears.

Another cool thing they grow are tomato and eggplant trees and trellised vegetables.



In addition to the plants, Disney raises animals, including alligators, sturgeon, catfish, carp, shrimp and eels.




They use their liquid nutrient system for both the trellised growing and for vertical gardens.




The day we were at Disney it turned out to be raining and that was great because there were no lines for anything and I think we hit every ride we wanted to in both parks. We got there right when the park opened and stayed all the way until the fireworks show at Epcot at the end of the day. Right before the end of the day we grabbed a quick and delicious meal of bratwurst and beer in German Land of the park.

Then Todd tried on—and almost got—a funny German hat.