By now you have figured out I'm a Disney nut....and thankfully Denny indulges my habit....so off we went to spend one night at Disney's Dolphin Resort.
 |
The entrance to Disney property ....I could feel the excitement......LOVE IT |
It's just so nice..and an easy 2hr drive for us. We took our bikes this time and had a blast riding around the Boardwalk area. The Yacht Club and The Boardwalk Inn as well as The Swan and Dolphin are all part of The Boardwalk, so it made for some nice riding and viewing.
 |
Denny on his bike and ready to go |
 |
The big Dolphin on top of the hotel....had a great view from our balcony |
We rode around the entire Boardwalk and made a wonderful stop at The Ice Cream shop that's in The Boardwalk Resort, we split a grilled cheese and a tomato bisque soup lunch....but I was not into sharing my chocolate shake!! But he had his root beer float so he was just fine.
 |
The lighthouse in the lake....you can ride boats to EPCOT, or downtown Disney |

 |
The Yacht Club....a lovely resort
The Boardwalk is built around a lake where they have but sand to create beaches....at The Boardwalk Resort they had a blow up big screen on the beach for movie night....pretty cool. We enjoyed our ride, but it was a bit windy and a little cool so it was soon time to go get some Mexican for dinner. We'd seen a restaurant many times near downtown Disney we wanted to try...Chevy's...so off we went. We had about a 15min wait, but it was worth it. This was amazing food. We even had the guacamole cart make some fresh Guac tableside....YUM....we will be back. After dinner we headed back to the hotel....we sat in the huge lobby in the comfy chairs and just enjoyed for a bit. Then I decided to do a little shopping. I didn't make any purchases, but I found a piece of Pooh art work that was really tugging at me...but alas I resisted...but it was really cute. We headed to the room and slept like babies.... The next morning was gorgeous....so I took a few pics from the balcony. |
 |
There was a wedding happening on the beach across the lake from us.....they had a beautiful day |
 |
The pools are awesome, with slides and hot tubs and a lap pool....or you can jump in a Swan Paddle Boat
Now it was time to head to EPCOT.....we like to go in the back entrance since that is the World Showcase side and where the Flower & Garden Festival is held. Disney also started hosting a small "Food & Festival" during this time, so we plan to hit some kiosk for some interesting tastings. The coolest thing about this Festival is all the topiaries. The Master Gardeners that make these creations are amazing.... Here are some Princesses..... |
We went to the French Pavilion and kiosk first and this guy was doing a balancing act using chairs, pretty cool
We ate some yummy lamb and a French Macaroon and kept moving.
Very soon we saw these from Beauty and the Beast. France had a wonderful theatre with a fantastic film about their country...thoguh we've both been to France we saw some things in the film that stirred some interest to go back.
On this trip to EPCOT we decided to do some things we hadn't ever done....like actualy go into the different countries pavilions....so we headed around World Showcase
China was next ...and these amazing female drummers were performing.....WOW
China has a museum, some shops that carry things from China and some great restaurants, but no film about their country.
 |
This Koi pond was nice and we like the bonsai tree in the middle of the pond...very cool.
Next was the USA pavilion...and some more really cool topiaries .... |
We went inside the USA and heard some wonderful music performed by a small chorus of men and women dressed in top hats and hoop skirt dreeses...they were great. Then we went into the theatre to watch a 30min show about the history of America. It started with Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin and came forward. There were 35 "animontronics" used to portray the famous people in our history and it was fantastic....we'd never stopped to do this before, even though we worked at EPCOT a few years ago...shame on us. We are so glad we did it.
This quote by Walt himself was posted in the pavilion...I thought it was kinda cool
Moving on around....we saw these....Snow White and the Gang...here ya go Shea!!
 |
Sleepy.....is sleepy |
 |
Don't ya just wanna hug him??? |
As we moved towards Japan we came across the Lion King characters...
All along this walk we are nibbling at the different kiosk. We try to get 1 or 2 samplings and share them so we can taste more....We got a frozen mango drink in China...a BBQ sandwich and a Bacon Muffin with maple icing in the USA....YUM....
We were in no hurry and the weather was perfect, so we'd stop, people watch, enjoy the flowers and just being.....was a delightful day.
Making our way on around to Japan....we went inside to see their museum and film. TheseWarriors are known as the "Terracotta Warriors (or Army)"...are a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China
Very fascinating...then we went in for their film which was a 360 film....so you had to remain standing so you could turn around and see everything. It started and ended at The Great Wall, was very good.
I saw this sign just before going in to se the film......very true...
We'd been in the park several hours by now so it was time for a rest. We wisked past the Mexico pavillion, we've been in there and done the boat ride....and we've done the boat ride in the Dutch area so we kept moving and found a bench to plop on, while we pondered the rest of the day.
We had gotten a few fast passes when we came in, but were not sure anymore of the times, so I went on a mission to find this out and ran into the "man"....or shall I say "mouse" himself....
We made the decision to not even go to the Future World side of EPCOT...so we kept going. We'll catch Crush and Soarin' again next time....
We stopped to just view the beauty of the flowers, and here's my first video...hope it's not too bad.
By this time we'd nibled enough that we were not even stopping at the kiosk..they looked and smelled good, but we were stuffed. It was still fun to see the flowers and just be there. We mad our way past Canada...we've seen their 360 film before, so we skipped it and headed towards Great Britain....saw these guys on the way..
I think Disney could handle The Rose Bowl Parade.....
THEN....the highlight of my day....we heard some music playing so we followed the sound and found a pretty good band playing back in a corner....BUT....in a small room next to them were..... POOH & RABBIT......my day was complete...
What a wonderful surprise....then as we were leaving the area we saw....
What a cool way to end our day at Disney....we went out the back gate, got our bikes and rode around the Boardwalk one more time and then back to The Dolphin to check out....sunset was approaching and the lights had come on around the fountain...pretty cool
We headed to Downtown Disney in hopes of a hot air balloon ride but the wind had kicked up and they had shut it down...
Maybe next time.......so we headed home....what a great day....and tonite we rolled our clocks ahead 1 hour and now we'll have lots of daylight after I get off work to walk the bridge or ride our bikes....I love daylight savings time.
Enjoy the extra daylight....wherever you are!!!