Hi, folks. I am quite aware that most 20-something professionals, when on vacation, usually seek out exotic locales like Hawaii, Central/South America, Europe, etc. A subset of devoted sons and daughters go home to spend time with mom and dad. My sister and I? We went to Disney World. Seriously. It was our first choice. We loved every minute of it. What can I say? We are both very in touch with our inner five year old.
Here's a photo tour.
We stayed at this awesomely cheesy resort dedicated to American pop culture. Very Disneyfied of course. The best part is that they played 1950s-1990s music. Awesome. (They did not bleep Alanis Morrissette! We were shocked!)
My sister and I stayed in the 1980s building. There were even catchphrases on the side. We both say "awesome" more than what is remotely appropriate, so we loved this.
The only picture of me. One, I much prefer being on the other side of the camera. (Even if it is my sad point and shoot...if my friends would stop graduating and getting married and stuff, I could get a digital SLR...ahhhh. I'm just kidding, graduating and engaged friends! I love y'all!) Two, I'm not exactly in a cute phase right now.
At night, Cinderella's castle turns, like, eight different colors. My sister wanted me to take a picture of the castle in ALL of its colors. Which I did. A bit begrudgingly.
EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), another theme park, is awesome for several reasons. First of all, there are learning rides. Be still, my nerdy heart. For example, one ride teaches you about hydroponics and crop engineering. Secondly, Future World, is pretty much the future as imagined in 1982, when the park opened. There have been updates but the spirit of retrofuturism is still there. There is also a certain charm in the faux Mayan temple and German biergarten and Italian sculptures in the World Showcase. Some people may say cheap fake global community, but I do think it's great that kids who can't afford to go to the real countries can see replicas staffed by workers who are actually from the represented countries.
Anyway, photos below:
Oh, also...there was a flower and garden festival! Way fun.
Give it up for the (modified) pentakis dodecahedron!
My sister being especially cute. Jennifer and I definitely went through are period of not getting along that great (basically entire early twenties...). But now we're both coming into our own, fully individual, which gives us a certain freedom to embrace our similarities. I think one of the reasons we get along so well is that we have pretty much the same sense of humor. As in, telling really dumb jokes and laughing enthusiastically at both our own lame attempts at humor and pretty much anything that anyone says that could even begin to approach a humorous comment. We are also both huge dorks and not that easily embarrassed, especially within the anonymity of a large Florida theme park. Some examples:
1. Jennifer wrote out our schedule with Latin abbreviations. For example, "hs: Magic Kingdom." (This was actually unintentional.)
2. While near the front of a rollercoaster line, there were some "technical difficulties" and the ride was evacuated. This frustrated nearly everyone. Jen and I, though, were fascinated by all of the clamor and hustle and bustle of the employees...they were running around all over the place. To which Jennifer commented, "This is like a rollercoaster code! No...a rollercoaster rapid response." This only makes sense if you work at a hospital with rapid response protocol, but I laughed my head off.
3. The same night, I was really sleepy. Jen commented, "We stay up this late all the time for work. Now, we're on call for fun!" To which I did laugh but after giving her a rather incredulous look.
4. On "It's a Small World", the little hawaiian girl animatronics did a hula dance. We also did a hula dance. On the ride.
5. There is a really awesome ride called the "Rock and Roller Coaster" (which is saying something because the rollercoasters at Disney World are kind of lame by thrill standards). Anyway, this ride has an Aerosmith theme and my sister and I are HUGE Aerosmith fans (until their last two albums...). So we sang to all of the songs in line, even the most obscure ones. The kids looked at us with some incredulity, the adults with a certain admiration (I think!...we were trying to be fairly quiet and not annoying). (Disney also does not seem to censor the Aerosmith songs, but Jen and I skipped the more scandalous lines.)
I thought it appropriate to end with this picture of a Utah license plate I saw in my hotel lobby. After a rather arduous journey during which I missed a connection because my plane sat on the runway for two hours and then my somewhat generously proportioned seatmate on the next flight both put up the armrest and then leaned against her window, pushing her bum into my lap, I was glad to be home. But not excited to go to work tomorrow. And missing my sister!
