** Magic Mirror ** Back from the World! VIDEO ADDED!!!

We were almost done eating when the rain started. We moved the tables into the center of the room and the guides went and got us parkas to wear (the same parkas they sell in the park for $8, and they never asked us to pay for them).

A lady came in a work truck and got out and stood on the driver side window sill. She had branches to put up in the tree which are used to help attract the giraffes in closer for viewing. One of the giraffes saw her and was very aware that the truck had it's food. It came loping across the field at a fast pace till it was right beside her. It was a comical moment (for us) to watch her balancing on the truck door, trying to stuff the tree feeders and the giraffe not 2 feet from her trying to rip it out of her hands. This is the reason I could not do her job, I'd forget about the food and want to pet the giraffe! The giraffe finally won and got a couple good sized branches. It didn't go far and stood there chewing and chewing and chewing..the employee left..and the rain picked up until it was coming down in sheets. Poor giraffe! She walked back under the tree for what limited protection it provided and just kept eating away.

And mother nature, as if on cue, settled back down to a drizzle and we left our little piece of Africa heaven and ventured back onto the safari bus. We came across the rhino and her baby. Mama rhino was very happy to have had the rain as it filled her mud hole right back up with sludge.

She laid right down in the mud pit and leveled herself off as flat as she could get to the ground. It reminded me of being a kid and sitting outside making mud pies. She finally got up and you could see the mud sliding off her side.

Next we pulled over to watch the Cheetahs. The cats at first glance seemed lazy and sleepy but that lasted about 40 seconds. Out of the wooded area to the left a cheetah came running out, full speed and ran right up a tree! It didn't stay there long as it turned on a dime and lept back off, running right back into the tree line. She came out several more times and our guide was ready for her next time with his camera. The guides were having a blast and they said they had never seen the cats this active. They were running and rolling and playing .. just when we thought they were done they started in again. We sat there longer than we had time set aside for and Frankie had to call and advise the upcoming Trek we were still there with high activity with the cats. Daniel finally said we had to go but you could tell he didn't want to leave either.

My pictures don't do any justice to the powerfulness of these cats and I'm really hoping when I get the Trek photo disc that Daniel was able to capture them with his camera. These cats are the farthest away from the vehicle, with good reason I suppose as if they really wanted to, I bet they could leap the (**SPOILER ALERT**) built in gulleys made to keep them out of the safari area. While these cats were all born in captivity, they are still hunters and the guides told us an occasional rabbit or fowl had made it into their lair and they were very adept at killing their prey.

Next we moved onto the Lions. The male lion had two females to keep him company. While they did not run as fast as the Cheetah's, they certainly were up and ready to entertain us. The male was very active, leaping from rock to rock and walking back around the females. The females took turns washing each other and washing the male.

The male lion decided it was time for him to go look grand and stately and he took a couple impressive leaps and stretched out on the rock closest to us. He laid down, feigned a couple yawns (oh these boring tourist, why don't they send me some that do something exciting for me to watch)..he gave us his most hauntingly noble looks and silently watched us as we watched him.

and while we were breathing in the scent of lion royalty a very amazing thing happened.......

As we were all completely drawn into the pride of the lion we had neglected to watch the other side of the safari vehicle. Someone had glanced over and coming our way was the baby black rhino. I'm the first to admit I've never given rhino's a second thought. They aren't cute and fuzzy and they seem rather..err...bulky. But the baby had apparently become quite interested in what we were doing and had been following us along our Trek. The guides explained that rhinos do not see well and often have to get very close to an object to try to determine what it is. In Africa he had even been on a safari vehicle where the rhino had hooked its horn onto the truck and attempted to rock it.

Well this was all cute and fascinating until the shrubbery moved and mama rhino, all thousand and thousand pounds of her appeared. She was not as endeared to us and was downright pissed that her baby was venturing our way. She stopped and than charged. If you want to talk about adrenaline rushes- WOW !! She was formidable and all business and for a bulky animal, she can move on out! We were all watching her and you could feel the collective holding of our breath as she made it to about 10 feet of our truck and stopped. She gave us a good, cold stare and turned around.

Baby rhino was still curious and even though mom turned around, baby came venturing closer again. Mom whipped around and took another charge at us. She came within about the same distance and stopped. She stood there longer this time, blocking her baby with her body, just looking at us as we snapped photo's of her. By now baby had lost interest and headed the other direction, mom cast one more warning glance and turned around, sauntering away across the fields, baby running in front of her.

I can tell you I will never again just cast the image of a rhino to the side! They have my interest and my respect!

The park was to close at 5pm so we headed right to our bus (no waiting) and went back to POFQ. AJ was starting to get a bad headache from the sun, heat and breakneck schedule I had us on so while she cooled off in the room I went to the quick service cafeteria and ordered cheese pizzas and salads. I was surprised they made them to order and I thought they were really good. I took them back to our room and we ate. It was after 6pm and Mousekeeping had not been to the room yet. I called down to the desk and asked for fresh towels which were promptly brought up. Knowing that we were going to be in for the night I told them we didn't require any other room service. I had pre done tip envelopes for Mousekeeping and Table Service so I just took the decorated envelope and gave it to the nice man who brought up the towels. He truly seemed shocked and just kept saying god bless you god bless you. It makes me wonder how many people don't tip ? By 8:30pm AJ had taken her headache meds and was tucked in bed for lots of rest. I grabbed my cell phone and headed off into the park to snap a few pictures and took the boat over to Riverside.

There is something mysterious and magical about Port Orleans at dark. The lights dancing off the water, the quiet purr of the ferry boat engines, the clip clop of carriage rides, the way the air has a faint mist from the Florida temperatures cooling down to a refreshing 72 degrees. I loved it and enjoyed walking thru the courtyards.

I also noticed two employees, one of which was the nice man who had brought me the towels, on two golf carts parked strategically in the courtyard, I assumed for security? To at least keep any eye out for guests in need of help.

I checked out their gift store and grabbed a boat back. By 10:30pm I was in bed and out cold.

The next day was Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival. It was also quite possibly, AJ's most magical Disney moment!

Day 3-Epcot:

We decided to sleep in a little bit and didn't get to Epcot till about 1030am. We went straight to Soarin and took a Fast Pass, then we got in line for the same. The line was the longest we stood in the whole time we were there, about 40 minutes.

After we rode Soarin (which was incredible and very cool) we were able to turn around and use the fast pass with only a 5 minute wait! Yahoo!

We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli in Italy and were pushing our time so we took the ferry boat across the lake from the entrance to Germany and walked right up to Italy.

Via Napoli had a wonderful atmosphere. I had the Magherita Pizza and AJ had the Chicken Parmesan. I was so hungry by that time that I ate 75% of my pizza before I remembered to take a picture of it!

We had a cozy window seat to look over the courtyard.

Venice and Paris are both on my bucket list..so most of my photo's were from those countries. Just as we were getting ready to walk to the next country, several performers came out.

The Morocco area was quite pretty too:

and now a few pics from France...

We spent the rest of the day just walking thru the countries, viewing their rides or attractions and dodging in and out of rain. It rained every day while we were there. Usually the routine Florida afternoon cloud burst and also thru out the evening a nice shower or two or three.
But it was never enough to dampen our fun and was easily kept at bay with the swoosh of our umbrellas.

We ran across Alice, looking for her rabbit hole.

And Donald in the Mexico Pavilion.

I suppose you are all waiting to see a few pics from the Food and Wine Festival?

I still have pics from AJ's camera to unload but here are a few to tide you over.

Hot Cheddar Soup from Canada. I thought it was delicious AJ thought it was a bit peppery but it wouldn't stop her from eating it!

Godiva Iced Coffee Liqueur from Belgium OH YUMMMMMMMM
(sorry no picture but one coming soon)
(it went down so fast, I wanted a whole pitcher!)

Italy-Cannoli al Cioccolato (Chocolate-Covered Cannoli filled with Ricotta, Chocolate, Candied Fruit)

From Desserts & Champagne-Dark Chocolate Mousse with Chili and Salted Caramel

It was gone too fast!

I was wondering how the chili powder would taste but there wasn't a strong taste of it, mostly it just heated up the back of your throat in a pleasant way.

From Germany-Apple Strudel with Karamel-Vanilla Sauce
Excellent!

and from France-Creme Brulee au Chocolat au Lait -

AJ and I made important revelations during the Food and Wine Fest, mainly that all the food we were picking were desserts or foofy alcohol drinks! Hmmmmmm........

The Eat to the Beat Concerts were going on and AJ was excited because Sugar Ray was performing while we were there. She made me listen to their best hits CD before we left to refresh my memory of those classic songs.

There were several concerts playing that night and we missed the first one as we were on the far side of the lake. So about fifteen minutes till the 2nd show started AJ was in a hurry to get there figuring all the seats would be gone. We lucked out and found seats on the side of the stage on the end and just under the pavilion canopy.

We took our seats and the concert started.

The lead singer, Mark was very good with the crowds. He often went down the middle of the aisle and posed for photographs with fans while singing. He seemed pretty down to earth and the concert was great.

AJ kept whispering to me about how he always ended up down the middle or the opposite side of the stage, making it hard for us to get pictures of him without zooming and blurring. He did spend most of his time on the opposite side it seemed.

and thats when it happened.....some of that magic Disney pixie dust flew our way..

Mark started singing AJ's favorite song. I did not realize that she had decided to video tape him. I thought she was still taking photographs. So I'm taking photographs and he starts to walk to our side of the stage. He jumps on the cement wall and walks down the side of the pavilion.

I realize he is getting closer to us so I put my hand up behind AJ's head, without her knowing, and frantically start pointing down towards the top of AJ's head. *Add pixie dust here*.

Mark sees me and walks right up to our row. He walks down our row and I see AJ, who is still video taping, starting to lean backwards because Mark is getting too close to fit in her camera screen. At some point, she actually takes her eyes off the camera and looks up to realize he is walking right to her.

Mark sits down next to her, wraps his arm around a stunned AJ and turns her towards me so I can take a photo. The whole time he is still singing and hasn't missed a note. I mouth a "thank you" and he is off again to the stage.

That smile was not going to be wiped off her face for days!

It had started to rain fairly steady again...we stayed for the fireworks and headed back to the resort.

The next day was Hollywood Studios...

I'll leave you with a few of the Evil Queen displays..

Allie-the Via Napoli pizza-It was wonderful! It was the perfect combination of doughy yet thin crusted... I loved it ~

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and yes.. the smile is still on AJ's face, but now that we are back to work, it might start to disappear! The only fix for that? Plan another trip to Disney!!!!