Sugar Rain

According to the order of pictures in my directory we went to the Studios this morning.   Each trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios starts with the death march to Toy Story Midway Mania.   Dave has a system to walk with cast members that puts him in the fast pass line ahead of most.   This time Holly filmed the march and we've determined it's just as stressful to watch as it is to participate.  In the end, we got our fast passes, rode the ride, went onto the Sunset Blvd attractions, then Star Tours (we've now viewed all scenes).  The park crowds were light today so we took it easy and spent time with the characters in the Animation Academy.

Today was threatening rain so there were more characters hanging out in here than usual.   And they were bored.   Goofy was playing one of the computer games.

First, we visited with Pooh.   He was the feature character at this time due to his movie.

Some of the characters were dressed in their Hollywood Glamour outfits.  No idea what look these two were going for.....

Got to check something else off the list:  a visit with Sorcerer Mickey.

Lunch today was at Sci-Fi Drive-in.   You sit in cars and watch a loop of B-movies from the 50's.  Bad films but entertaining.   The food was lackluster today - we both had burgers.  Very salty.  The glowing margarita was very good.

Not sure what else we did here today.  We walked back to The Boardwalk before heading to Epcot.  This was the day of our cheese deminar.  The deminar ended around six.  The plan was dinner around the World Showcase at Festival booths and see one set of Sugar Ray.   We did manage to hit a few booths before the rain came.

Hawaii was a new booth this year.   We tried the pork slider with pineapple chutney.   We skipped the spicy mayo since Dave does not do mayo.   This was very good even without the mayo.   The Pipeline Porter (also featured over at the Poly) was very good on draft.  We'd like to find that one around us in Illinois. 

Canada was our next stop for our favorite item, the chicken chipotle sausage with sweet corn polenta.   Everything works here with the spicy sausage, creamy polenta, sweet onions and peppers.  We ate a few of these during the week.

 

Ireland is where you can get the popular Fisherman's Pie.  We have to say it was better in other years, but still good.   We also sampled their cheese platter and chocolate cake on another trip into the fest but didn't take a picture.   Both were very good.

After picking up the pie the rain started to come down.   We ducked into the Rose and Crown Pub to wait it out.   We got a bit of a break after 20 minutes and went for it.   As soon as we got to the France Booth it kicked back in again.  Escargot and coq au vin were water-logged.   We ate them on a trash can inside the pavilion where the movie lets out.    We milled around in stores for a while then the rain stopped.  

We caught the last Sugar Ray set from the third row.   We weren't "excited" to see Sugar Ray, but many people were.   We couldn't name more than one hit before the set started, but then realized they had a string of big songs for a while.   They were entertaining to watch and Mark (the lead singer and guy from Entertainment Tonight and the show where people gotta remember song lyrics) seemed into it.   But boy did he sweat.   The people in front of the little outcrop stage had to have been soaked.



We must have eaten something else because tonight was supposed to be dinner around the festival.   We have no photgraphic proof though.   Oh well.....   We caught Illuminations from the front of World Showcase Plaza.  This is where the show was designed to be viewed.   It was just sooooo close.  We left the park and headed to Jellyrolls.   It was just an off-night there.   The songs, crowds, performers just weren't that entertaining.   We headed over to Atlantic Dance Hall and enjoyed a nightcap from the outdoor seating area.

Dave's Artsty Photo of the Day