Tell me - what’s the most popular tourist destination in the world? If you guessed Disney World in Orlando, you’ve been reading my mind. Over 50,000,000 visitors, from every nationality and from every age, annually visit Disney World. Imagine that. You can go to Disney World, the quintessential American Theme Park, and hear just about any language in the world. Because Disney is so popular and draws such crowds, other theme parks sprang up in this area to capitalize upon this business., But the most amazing thing is the number of mega-highways, hotels, motels and resorts, restaurants, diners and fast food emporiums, gift shops, t-shirt shops and discount malls, and, oh, yeah, more mini-golf courses that in in all of Iowa. Is this tourist heaven or what?
And today, we entered that tourist heaven and visited Downtown Disney, the section of Disney World devoted to shops and restaurants. As if the rest of Disney World is not dedicated to these two money-makers. But at least these other parks did have rides.This section had no rides, just lots of opportunities to spend money. We got there on the day of the big marathon. There were hundreds of medal wearers cruising the streets and shops, men and women, young and old, many with their families, all proudly wearing their medal and congratulating others. They had a beautiful day for a race - we were in t-shirts and shorts as we walked around, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Of course, at 8:30 pm we heard the rain and it was not just a short, light rain but a heavy one that lasted. Those who had lingered here got wet.
We arrived here at 10:00 and, following the hordes of other cars, snaked around the orange cones to find a spot in the nearby multi-layered parking garage. WE followed others out of the garage, down the 2/4 lined walkway, around the corner and there we were in Downtown Disney. All those cones and those 2x4’s were for new construction. They had a lot of it around here and I imagine that there is lots of construction all over the Disney Park. Walt Disney himself believed in change and improvement himself. Crowds, crowds and more crowds. But it was a happy crowd and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. No frowns here. We checked out a few shops - here is the display inside the Lego shop. What color of block do you want?
But we were impressed with the Lego projects that ringed the Lego building. A friendly smiling green and yellow serpent lording it over the small pond.
A flame-throwing dragon and a cute prince fending him off.
Cute.
But then we decided to take our walk for the day and even found a nature trail that had hardly anyone on it.
Winding through trees, alongside a canal and - we even saw a bobcat along the trail. We turned a corner, looked ahead and there was something cat-like hunched on the trail. It got up, looked at us and walked into the forest next to the trail. It had to be a bobcat, too big to be a cat, too small to be a mountain lion and certainly not a dog or coyote. What a thrill. All the times we’ve hiked in the deserts and we’ve never seen a bobcat. But, put us in Disney World walking between the hotel complexes surrounded by thousands of people and there we spy one. How strange.
You can tell when you’re in Disney World when the railings on the balconies have mouse ears cared into them.
And mouse ears in the flower beds.
Dinner was at the Earl of Sandwich. We had heard good things about it, it suited what we wanted and - hey, it wasn’t exorbitant. Very good. I got a turkey club and Gary got a turkey/dressing/gravy sandwich. We were both full and had enjoyed it a lot.
I then walked over to a shop where I had bought a silver hanging twirly thingy of Mickey Mouse which I had engraved with 2015 to pick it up. There I stood in line with all the runners picking up their medals with their race time engraved on it.
Oh, did I mention that we had indulged in a Ghirardelli sundae? No - silly me. 2 scoops of ice cream, loads of thick hot fudge, mounds of whipped cream, topped with a cherry and served with two spoons. Are you drooling yet? I am - just writing about it. Back to the RV.
Entertainment of all kinds. This guy is walking on stilts. Judging from this position, I thought he was down for good but he popped right up.
We have stayed in loads of the over-55 resorts and parks in our brief 6 years of RV’ing. But. one of the reasons I like Thousand Trails is that there are kids here. We like to hear their laughter, see them biking around and watch them play. Right now, I’m listening to a baby giggling. Their energy livens the campground up and energizes us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment