The Magic Continues - Days 8 & 9

Earlier we had mentioned that we were on the Dining Plan, and wondered whether it would be too much food. We can officially say that YES, it is an awful lot of food! We had been saving our 20 snack credits since we arrived for two reasons: 1) we never really felt like eating anymore, and 2) the International Food & Wine Festival was to start on Sept. 28th.

For those of you who don't know, each year this festival is held at Epcot for approximately 6 weeks. This is its 12th year but the first time we've attended. It offers many wine and culinary events each day. A number of world renowned chefs are on hand to give cooking demonstrations, book signings, and private dinners. As you explore World Showcase, you can sample inspired food and beverages from more than 25 international marketplaces which are available to purchase. Something that is not readily advertised is that those on the Dining Plan may use their snack credits to enjoy the different food items from around the world. So off we headed to Epcot with our 20 credits and walked around the world enjoying different samples. We had Roast Duck with Cilantro Rice at Peru, Marinated Seafood Salad and a Lamb Slider (roasted lamb with mustard sauce on a toasted roll) at New Zealand, Shrimp on the Barbie and a Grilled Lamb Chop with Caramelized Onions at Australia, and the Maine Lobster Roll at the United States. We also stopped at Morocco, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Greece, and Argentina. We managed to use 16 of our snack credits, and along with a few beers from England and a couple margaritas from Mexico, were full and feeling no pain.

The following day (Saturday) we headed back to the Magic Kingdom where the highlight was me singing with the Dapper Dans on Main Street U.S.A.!! Russ had mentioned that I was a Sweet Adeline, and they asked if I knew San Francisco Bay Blues. I declined singing with them initially, but when they were done singing another song and I asked to have my picture taken with them, they started singing SF Bay Blues while I was standing there. Their lead was filling in on that part and didn't know this particular song in lead, so it was just me singing lead! Talk about a magical moment as many other guests and cast members stopped to hear us sing! They even gave me a card making me an honorary member of The Main Street U.S.A. Chapter.

Dinner was at the Coral Reef at Epcot, where you can dine in front of windows 50 feet long, eight feet high, and eight inches thick looking into an incredible panorama of the vivid undersea world of the world's largest man-made saltwater environment, which is 35,000 square feet and stretches 203 feet in diameter. This amazing environment contains nearly 8,000 specimens comprising of approximately 85 different species of Caribbean reef fish . Also from time to time scuba divers would appear in the tank, and one of them was writing notes to guests from inside the tank and entertaining by doing somersaults and blowing bubble kisses. Another excellent meal though the acoustics weren't very good. The noise level was unbelievable...Russ wondered if we were in Chuck E. Cheese!

After dinner we headed over to the America Gardens Theater for the Eat to the Beat concert series, which coincides with the Festival. The artists change every couple nights, and this night we saw Al Stewart, best known for his songs "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages". Of course, we finished the night watching IllumiNations.