Nomad Feet: Doing the Downtown Disney

Last Saturday morning had the wife, daughter, and myself motoring down I-95 down towards sunny Orlando, Florida. The trip down itself was easy, except for a heavy thunderstorm that spent twenty-minutes driving through with several motorists slamming on brakes a couple times scaring the Hell out of me.

For my family any trip to Disney requires an ubiquitous visit to its retail capital, naturally named "Downtown Disney." If you have a desire for some product associated with the mouse it is here and usually quite expensive.

Case in point is this painting depicting a Jedi version of Mickey Mouse. It was selling for over five-hundred dollars. Frankly I've never really cared all that much for Star Wars. I always thought of it as simplistic space opera, and after the introduction of the character of Jar-Jar I think even less of it. So this picture doesn't bother me, as compared to Star Wars purists who think Disney buying the franchise was some sort of crime. Now if Disney assimilated Star Trek, that would be a whole other thing. 

    

That day we had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and got a very different show. Several little lizards living in the foliage just outside went about their daily lives unaware that we were watching. There were a couple of fights, an apparent courtship ritual, and a couple of the little reptiles seemed to being carrying on a conversation. It was all so eerily human-like that I forgot to take a picture of the food we ordered. 

      

As usual we are staying at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Sunday had us waiting for the arrival of my wife's niece requiring a trip to Orlando Airport. Somehow I forgot to take my camera but as with all things associated with air travel the trip there and back was a pain. Monday morning though we were part of the human tsunami entering the Magic Kingdom when it first opened. More about that part of the trip tomorrow.