Blogging from Orlando - Day 2

Sometimes you're just hardwired to wake up at a certain time. Laura is, I'm not. We had till 12:30 to check out and she was awake at 6. Old habits are hard to break. Up and at them!

FRIDAY

• Had breakfast in the massive Pop Century food court. We had surprisingly good portions of eggs'n'bacon crossiant and a standard egg/sausage/bacon/hashbrowns plate. Very tasty and great way to start the day.
  
  
• Decided to walk off the breakfast by taking a leisurely stroll around the resort, taking in all the decorations and gaudy kitsch. It was freakin' hot. By 10am it was likely pushing 90 degrees. We were able to walk the whole resort, keeping in the shade when possible and taking several photos.
  
  
• After checking out, we drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to look around. This resort, one of the most upscale of all the Disney resorts, is unique in that several animals routinely roam "savannahs" closely visible from the guest rooms. Giraffes, zebra, gazelle, bongos, buffalo and many variety of birds move here and there in full view of the guests. We explored all over this resort, just watching and seeing what was there. The theming of the Lodge was gorgeous, in African motifs and pleasany native music. We took our time and enjoyed the lodge. It would be great to stay here someday, as the lobby and restaurant area, plus the pool, are beautiful. Unfortunately it's pretty much out of our price range in our life time. Onward.
  
  
• Next we drove over to to Port Orleans resort and had some lunch. The section of Port Orleans that we visited has a Mardi Gras, French Quarter feel and as we at lunch in the on-site restaurant, giant decorations stared down at us from the walls. Huge masks and over Mardi Gras decorations filled the walls and ceiling. We bought some beignets and a ham and cheese sub and people-watched.
  
  
• It was time for check-in at the resort where we will stay for the rest of the trip here - Wyndham Resorts at Bonnet Creek. There's a lake behind the resort, pools, a lazy river floating area and walkways - more importantly it's a place to dump our stuff. On the way to the resort we stopped and got some groceries and somehow in the process of getting from the store to the room we lost one of the bags. Cheese-it Crackers, Chips Ahoy cookies, bandaids and camera batteries - gone. Crap. Anyway, we rested in the room for a good while until around 5pm.
  
  
• Drove out to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the House of Blues restaurant. I had a pulled pork barbecue sandwich and Laura had corn chowder and a salad. We took the boat launch from the West Side around to the Market Place, shopped for awhile then walked back through Pleasure Island and back to the car. Not only does Downtown Disney have the world's largest World of Disney Store (since the one in Knoxville moved locations it isn't the same), a Lego Store and (Laura's favorite) Disney's Days of Christmas, my favorite place is the Art of Disney where they sell artwork, cels, sketches and other renderings of Disney characters and movies. There are some truly breathtaking works in there, and we will probably return and purchase some Tinkerbell prints for our Tink's room....
  
  
• Got back to Bonnet Creek about 9, just in time to watch the Epcot fireworks show from our balcony. I shot some video and will try to post it eventually as well.
  
  
• Early start tomorrow as we hit the Magic Kingdom and Animal Planet. 999 Happy Haunts wait for no one - there's room for 1,000... Any volunteers?