WDW Sisters' Trip II -- Day 6

...And after an EXTREMELY long hiatus...I have decided that it is time for me to FINALLY finish writing about the trip that Shannon and I took to Walt Disney World last NOVEMBER! We were able to visit the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT during our trip and because the 2014 Food and Wine Festival has now started, I thought the mood fit!

Onwards to day 6 (7 November 2013): We started our day a little bit early, taking the 7:30 am bus to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours (lasting from 8-9 am). Our first ride of the morning was Space Mountain (no line, yay!). This is a classic, must-do ride for us, but I am really not as much of a fan now as I was when I was younger—it’s just so jerky! Next, Shannon and I rode one of our ultimate favorites: the People Mover! We hopped across the path to Buzz Lightyear’s ride next (which is always fun...I think we also got stuck during one of our run-throughs of this ride and we were able to keep shooting to accrue super-high scores).

One of our missions during this trip was to rind the “lost wedding ring” of the bride from the Haunted Mansion. This ring is embedded in the cement in the queue area outside the ride. We searched for it each time we rode the Haunted Mansion, but this time Shannon found it—next to a garbage can! At this point we needed some fuel for the rest of the day so we stopped by the Sleepy Hollow refreshment counter for a delicious strawberry waffle (and milk to wash it down).

Properly fueled by our waffle, we wandered over to the waiting area for the Liberty Belle riverboat and took a quiet tour around the “river.” Of course, because we were in the area, Shannon had to have another pickle break and I tried a citrus swirl—I love the Orangebird, but Dole Whips are better! I guess we were on a snacking binge because we took the train from Frontierland to Fantasyland where we had lunch at the Pinocchio Village House (the flatbread pizzas for both of us were only OK).

After lunch, we walked around for a bit and eventually found ourselves at the Jungle Cruise. This trip down the rivers of three continents was especially memorable because the skipper was scared of the dark tunnel and asked me to drive the boat through it while she hid her eyes! We survived that trip and rode Pirates of the Caribbean—always a favorite! After that we hit another favorite—People Mover again! While we were still in Tomorrowland we decided to visit a ride that we always bypass: Stitch’s Great Escape. This used to be the old (VERY scary) Alien ExtraTerrorEstrial Encounter and really is pretty lame.

It was almost 2 pm by now and we had an afternoon tea reservation at the Grand Floridian so we rode the monorail (monorail salmon) over and wandered around the hotel for a bit until it was time for our reservation. We had a great time as usual and waddled back to the monorail station to again take monorail salmon (that is the color of the stripe on its side) back to the Magic Kingdom where we took a bus back to Coronado Springs (it was ~ 4 pm at this point in the day).

Shannon and I spent our hotel break relaxing and doing laundry (exciting I know!) until we took a bus to EPCOT around 6 pm. Trying something new, we hopped on a Friendship Boat and rode it across World Showcase Lagoon, from Mexico to Germany. We wandered around Italy and USA (hearing Styx at the Eat to the Beat Concert Series) until it was time for our dinner (7:40 pm) at Via Napoli. I had a candele and tiramisu and both were pretty good. At this point, Shannon and I were pretty tired from a very full day so we took a bus back to the hotel around 9 pm. Tomorrow we planned for a mostly EPCOT and Food and Wine Festival day!

We're in México...how did we get here?

-->

Wow, it has been an extremely busy past four months and this blog has definitely suffered for it! Carlos and I have been living out of suitcases/duffel bags pretty continuously since the beginning of May (when we traveled to Costa Rica for a month of field work). After visiting Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, and Mexico again (this time including a road trip from DC), we are finally able to catch our breaths in our house in the city of Coatepec, México (outside of the much larger city of Xalapa, all in the state of Veracruz on the gulf coast of the country).

Although I am VERY far behind on posts here, I thought I would take the time to post something new rather than reach into the vast backlog (e.g., I still have to finish the Sisters’ WDW trip report...from last NOVEMBER, sheesh!). Anyway, Carlos and I left Washington, DC on 30 August 2014 with the goal of reaching Knoxville, Tennessee before nightfall. The drive was easy and we stopped at a couple of rest stops along the way (for gas, food, and leg-stretching breaks). We also were able to enjoy our first dinner at Cracker Barrel when we arrived in Knoxville. We really enjoyed it and would eat there again at our next stop in Louisiana.

On 31 August, we left after an early breakfast to make it to Slidell, Louisana for the night. Again, the drive was easy and speckled with plenty of breaks and we had a delicious country-style dinner at another Cracker Barrel (unfortunately our last of this trip).

We made our way from Slidell to Beeville, Texas on 1 September (Memorial Day) and spent an extra night there to take a break and recharge before crossing the border into México and starting the second half of our road trip. Beeville was a pretty small town, but we enjoyed the break and left on 3 September, heading to Laredo/Nuevo Laredo to cross the border.

The border crossing was surprisingly easy—especially considering that we had to complete some paperwork for the temporary import of our car. I think in total, the crossing took less than half an hour (we didn’t have to wait in any lines). The biggest “hassle” was on the US side of the border, with one of the guards asking a few questions, but it was really nothing too annoying. We drove to Monterrey for the night and again, we were lucky with weather and roads.

From Monterrey, we had an 8-hour drive to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Querétaro, where we spent another extra vacation/break day. At this point we ran into a few remnant bands of the tropical storm Dolly that hit the coast the previous day. We made it safely to Querétaro, toured around historical downtown, and planned the final leg of our trip: about a 5-hour drive to Coatepec!

We arrived to our house on 6 September and have since been settling in. Overall, this road trip was very easy (definitely easier than expected) and we were able to see some beautiful ecosystems and transitions from desert to wet montane forest. I hope to post more pictures soon (including some of our house and the city of Coatepec)!

Random Mexico photos

Carlos and I are getting ready for our third trip of the summer (heading to a tropical biology conference in Cairns, Australia for 2 weeks!), but I thought I would post a few more (very random) photos from our time in Coatepec.

We ate a LOT of delicious food and really go to know our new town. It is a really fun and cute place!

 This fellow is looking for a girlfriend:

Garfield appears to be the mascot of a local dentist:

Piñatas are everywhere!:

This pig in his fancy Mexican hat is in a play area near a huge grocery store called Chedraui:

This "Donald Duck" is in the same play area:

Coatepec has wonderful seafood, we had a great meal of rainbow trout (this one is covered in dehydrated garlic and Carlos' was wrapped in a leaf from a pepper plant):

This is the park in the center of town--it is really busy and full of food carts and toy vendors on the weekend:

This is the courtyard from our hotel:

I enjoyed the fresh paletas (found everywhere), my favorite so far is watermelon:

 

That's all I have to post for now. I have many more pictures that I should post (including some pictures of our new orange house!), but I still need to download and edit those and I probably won't have time to do that before leaving for Australia. When I get back, we will be in the midst of packing and planning our escape from DC!