Once into World Showcase, it was time for more food! Knowing Mexico would only get worse as the day went on, we stood in line for that one. We got the Taco Vampiro (so good!), the enchilada (very good), and Nick wanted the hypnotic margarita (drinkable…). We got our food, enjoyed the topiaries, and proving we were at an Epcot festival, found a trash can to act as a table.
Having enjoyed our food (seriously…get that taco and make that the food you don’t split with your family…), we moved on. But not very far. Norway has topiaries, and the troll is looking way less creepy this year than in years past!
Next stop? China. Here we got the Tang Dynasty drink (strong but delicious), and the wontons, which Nick said were the best crab rangoon he’s ever had. I took a bite, having had no experience with crab rangoon (years of shellfish allergy concerns), and was all set with that particular food. All for you hun! We also found Mulan in a really perfect distanced character sighting spot.
We continued trekking around World Showcase. I see everyone rave about the pineapple with tajin, so I stopped at the Refreshment Outpost for that. That went in the trash after one bite. WAY too much tajin on that!
Next up was Germany, home to a bunch of great topiaries, the potato pancake with applesauce (delicious, and thankfully way less oniony than last time I had this, and the apfelschaumwein (sparkling wine and apple liquor) which was lovely.
On to Italy, home of the most expensive food of the festival, and the one topiary I didn’t take a picture of, according to my festival passport. I got us the ravioli, which involved sausage, veggies and cream sauce, the arancini, and the Italian margarita. The ravioli was delicious. The flavors of the arancini were really good, but they were ridiculously dense, which is not how arancini should be. The margarita was awesome as always, but has definitely gotten smaller since the last time I had it. Chappek!
After mostly enjoying our snacks in Italy it was time for some air conditioning. And thankfully we had perfect timing for Voices of Liberty, who are back to performing in the rotunda! Another must do! Their set was fantastic and too short as always!
Then it was time for more topiaries and a Bayou Cocktail. Guys…fruit punch, orange juice, spiced rum and coconut rum. You can’t go wrong with this one!
While drinking this lovely cocktail (thankfully), I saw a work email pop up on my phone, and it was clear it was an urgent announcement. So I read it. There had been a fire at the bus barn and they would be in touch about the status of school on Monday after meeting with the bus company the next day. Oh shit. This freaking school year!
Better go eat and drink some more. Next up, Japan! Here we ended up in line behind someone Nick went to high school with. We chatted through the short line, where we got two orders of fruishi, because fruishi is not shareable! Japan’s topiary was apparently hidden from Nick, but I found it!
Then it was off to Morocco, where I got the chicken kebab (YUM!) and a small pour of the pomegranate hard cider. This festival a lot of booths offered small (5 or 6 oz) pours in addition to regular pours. Obviously they were cheaper, and allow for trying more beverages in FL heat. This cider was pretty tasty.
From here, it was time to exit the park for a break. It was getting really hot for us northerners, and we’d tackled about ⅔ of the food booths so we were in good shape for the evening. So we (I) took topiary pictures as we made our way to the exit.
We were pleasantly surprised to find a loading bus at the Port Orleans bus stop, and even more pleasantly surprised to see just how close to the park exit this particular bus stop was. I’m used to trucking out to the back 40 of bus stop land with my usual stays at the values, so this was awesome!
It was a quick ride back to the hotel where we filled mugs, and headed back to the room. Nick napped, and I got on facebook, where I found out that the bus barn fire was perhaps a bit more than a fire. It was actually an explosion, the fire went to 5 alarms, and two of our bus company’s maintenance guys were med-flighted. The investigation remains ongoing, but it sounds like they were performing maintenance on one of our propane buses when the explosion occurred. My district began trialing a handful of propane buses this year at the urging of one particular school board member.
We DID return to school on schedule, thanks to the generosity of districts around the state. Obviously surviving propane buses were pulled out of rotation while the investigation continues, and we lost multiple full sized buses as well as at least one van bus to the fire itself. Districts around the state have lent us their buses to keep our kids in school. We had already consolidated bus routes due to driver shortages, so between that and the fact that our buses cumulatively drive to Utah and back in terms of mileage, every day because of the geographic size of our very rural regional district meant we couldn’t consolidate further to absorb the loss. Bus duty is currently a game of "where's that district?!" as we check out the labels on the buses. I had to drive by the burned out bus barn this past week because a tractor trailer roll over shut down the highway/my usual route home, and it was pretty eerie to see the burned out shells of buses that used to transport my students.
Needless to say, I absorbed what information was available while Nick napped, and then did my best to switch back to vacation mode, because until the district met with the bus company, there would be no more information about the status of school, so might as well try to live in the moment. So I plotted the rest of our day and then eventually woke him from his nap to get moving back to Epcot.
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