Today is part three of the EPCOT adventure, in which we explore the UK and have a coulda-been-better experience in France.
Between Canada and the UK, there was a nice service animal relief area. It was a pretty large one, which was unusual and welcome! We stopped there to let the pups have a break. Felix the Japanese Chin, Callie Mae the Brussels Griffon, and Lulu the Golden Retriever all got their turns in the mulch.
Right next to the relief area, they had some old red UK phone booths! I tried to get inside one, but my wheelchair was just too wide. Still, we got a couple of cool pictures of us in them! From left to right are Emily with Lulu, Karin with Callie, Misha, and me with Felix.
We had a lot of fun exploring the shops in the UK, and then we found a little courtyard that was nice and chill. They had a shrubbery maze on one side, and Brad decided it’d be fun to take his wheelchair through it. Of course, we all followed him to join what he said would be an adventure! The path was so narrow we couldn’t really turn around in our wheelchairs, and we had no idea where we were going in the maze! We had a challenging search for the right path several times, and for a while I thought we’d never make it out! Karin ran her wheelchair into a speaker going around a sharp corner. But that was nothing compared to me! As we were exiting the maze, I was so happy I put my arm up in victory…only to smash right into the shrubbery with my wheelchair LOL!
When we were almost done with the UK, we saw on our maps software that the Tolles (Sabrina, Russ, and Faith) and Deanna were close by! So we hung around outside the UK for a while. Deanna and her husband Chris quickly found us, and we started chatting! Brad snapped a picture of us when Deanna was opening Jaxson’s Public Access Test medal and a crystal Minnie pin Brad got her. I got to see Deanna’s new wheelchair, which is the same as mine, only blue!
We seemed to lose Sabrina in the UK shops. We sent word to her through a UK-scouring search party of Brad that our whole friend group could all meet up for the first time, but she had to finish a heraldry purchase for Russ. Deanna left after we hung out for a good while, then after another while we headed to France and figured we’d see Sabrina there when she was ready!
We were excited to go to France because I wanted to try their salmon and dill brioche that was special for the holiday season, and Brad had heard they had gluten free macarons! I got my sandwich without too much of a wait, and gobbled it down so fast Brad didn’t have any time to take pictures of it! Oops!
Then we headed down to the bakery in France to see about the macarons. We waited in a loud, long line to get to the place to order. When we got there, Brad asked to see their allergy binder. Just about every restaurant in Disney World is supposed to have a binder that lists all the ingredients for every item they sell. Since Brad has so many allergies, it is imperative he check this binder—especially for something like baked goods!
The chef insisted they didn’t have an allergy binder. Brad argued with him for a few minutes about how they have to have one, and they kept saying no they didn’t and tried to take his order. So we just decided not to order anything. But we were stuck in line and had to go towards the cashier behind a bunch of other people getting yummy pastries. At the last moment, as we were getting ready to leave, they magically found the allergy binder and brought it over to us. Unfortunately, the macaroons had ingredients Brad was allergic to, so he couldn’t get anything. We were bummed. And kinda upset about not being shown the allergy binder when we first asked for it!
Distracted by the fiasco in France, Brad only got one picture there. It is of Karin, me, and Emily resting with the Skyliner (air gondolas) in the background.
We have an exciting blog entry coming up. Our next stop, Morocco, was the sole place we were able to get the whole party all together! Yay!!!
