Disney: Day 6 The beach and Epcot round two

Since we had a rental car (TOTALLY would do that again!) we decided to take half the day to drive over to Cocoa Beach.  It was overcast but not rainy, which actually made it pretty perfect.  I would have been fried crispy on the beach if it were sunny--turned out I got burnt anyway even though I did use sunscreen and it was cloudy!  Kendra LOVES playing in the sand and the waves.  I have decided I'm not as much a beach person as I thought.   I really don't enjoy lake and ocean swimming, and playing in the sand only holds my interest for a limited amount of time.  Luckily, I have the BEST KID EVER, and she didn't mind that we only stayed for two hours.

I learned from some locals that Ron Jon's offers free parking with access to the beach, whereas most of the other parking areas charge for the day.

"Toes in the water, toes in the sand..."

Our sand tribute to the Head Mouse.  Don't laugh too hard.  We had limited resources!

One disappointment of the beach was that Kendra adores sea shells, and she wasn't able to find any worth keeping.  We did find these little shells that still had the creatures alive inside!  Kendra put some wet sand in a bowl we brought, and she'd collect these little creatures, set them in the sand, and we'd watch them burrow themselves down into it.  It was fun to watch, and a great lesson as to why we didn't take them with us.  If we took them, they'd die and then stink!!!  We ended up going in to Ron Jon's before we left, she bought a neat shell for a dollar as her keepsake from the beach.

We drove back to Orlando, de-sanded ourselves and headed over to Epcot for our last park excursion of the trip.  Our plan was to enjoy a few more things in the Future World then finish our tour of the World Showcase.

Here is Kendra in the Mission Space ride.  I know it is sideways---I was strapped in next to her and did my best to angle the camera to even get the shot!  Note the slighly concerned look on her face---she was pretty nervous about this one.  We did the "mild" version--the other version comes equipped with air sick bags due to the g-force effect! 

A very neat thing Epcot does to help kids enjoy the more adult-friendly World Showcase is a Kim Possible mission.  You get a "transmitter" as shown here, and they send you on a mission with clues.  Our mission was in Japan, and we had to figure out which cultural displays and landmarks in the area were involved.  When you figured out clues and used the transmitter, it would do things like light up special images in the rocks or other such things.  Kendra really liked it, but she LOVED World Showcase so this was just a bonus.

We had only three countries left to explore in World Showcase.

Here is Kendra in a cute little cottage setting in Great Britain.  We enjoyed fish and chips for dinner here.  They were pretty yummy!  We sat next to a family from England, and I commented that they were eating their "home" food instead of trying other stuff.  The mom said they really had been disappointed in American food! 

Knight-ess Kendra, defending the Realm.

Queen Mom.  One reason there aren't many photos of me (besides the obvious reason that I was the only adult and hence behind the camera most of the time) was because I HATE that my face sweats when I get hot!  I am always so shiny looking--ugh!! 

Kendra decided to try out some new faces/poses on this day.  Here she is with France and the Eiffel Tower behind her.  We went to the French Patisserie for dessert and OH MY WORD.  It was so difficult to choose amongst the ginormous selection of pasteries.  Kendra ended up with chocolate mousse, and I got a dessert called Napoleon which was by no means small!  It was vanilla creme layered between crispy, flaky pastry.  I'm craving it now as I type.  I think that place alone warrants a return trip!

The gift shop in France had this cute little photo set up.  I thought it was hilarious that Kendra wanted a serious shot.

Now, THAT'S more like my girl!

We finished our tour through Canada.  Kendra got a stamp for each country and every representative wrote her a message in their native language in her autograph book.  Very neat souvenir that didn't cost a dime!

On our way out we took this "holding the camera in front of us" picture.  I know it is a little dark but I really liked how the lights of the fountain showed up here.  Plus you can't see my shiny face!  :-) 

We were leaving the next morning and had much packing to do, so we decided not to stay for the Epcot night display.  It was an AMAZING vacation--one I hope neither of us will forget!