WDW Trip 2016-Part 10: Morning At The Beach/Afternoon At "The Living Seas"

The white Chevy SUV that had taken us to Walt Disney World each of the 3 previous days took a different route to another highway on day 4. James drove 5 miles north on I-4 and then headed east on Rt 528. An hour or so later we were at Lori Wilson Park walking onto the sands of Cocoa Beach. 

Four of us put their toes in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. (Being a born & raised "Jersey Boy" I'd done it before at "the shore" when I was growing up.)

The beach was beautiful and the sun was bright. It was a very nice day. 

Aria was very excited to be on the beach.

She played in the sand... 

...and so did I

While I did keep up with the tradition of drawing a sand heart on the beaches we visit; unfortunately I did not get a picture of Paula and I together. Just one of those things that got lost in the excitement of the day. 

James pitched in and helped Brandi with the task of collecting sea shells souvenirs to help remember their daughter's visit to the ocean. 

Because she loves being by the ocean so much, my wife was thrilled to be back at the beach. But this trip was mostly about the Conner family of three sharing this first time experience together. 

Of course, this was a special day with my family and will always hold a lot of great memories for me. But it was the things common to spending time at the beach that ended up influencing the rest of our day.

I'm referring to leaving the beach and driving home with sand everywhere and later on in the day the effects of spending time the sun. 

About 2 o'clock we left Cocoa Beach and headed back to Kissimmee to clean up, get some lunch and rest up. 

Back on Tuesday morning when I discovered that our plans to visit 2 parks in one day with out the Park Hopper feature was not possible; it was decided that we would visit Epcot on Wednesday sometime after getting back from the beach.  

Other than the first glimpse of Cinderella's Castle from the far end of Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom, the initial sight of the Epcot's icon, the Spaceship Earth geosphere is my favorite "view" in Walt Disney World.

Upon entering the front gates we took advantage of the first of many photo opportunities afforded us by the Disney Photopass photographers stationed throughout the park. 

The annual Epcot Flower & Garden Festival had just started a few days earlier. This topiary greeted us at the entrance. 

Donald Duck & his nephews with their gardening tools were the first of many topiaries that enhanced our afternoon & evening. A lot of them became the back-ground for some memorable pictures. 

As we headed into the park our plan was to just go to a couple of attractions,grab some dinner, and then head back to the rental. We were all tired and sunburned from the beach that morning and really needed the rest. But, as we started to enjoy the park, things changed. 

Our first task was to get something to snack on. Our path took us really close to Spaceship Earth. 

We got our late afternoon snack at the Electric Umbrella on the east side of Future World. Based on our previous 3 Epcot visits, Paula and I like this place. Its location and the food's pretty good. While munching on our late afternoon snacks, I found our first destination on the park map. 

We walked across the Future World, passed the Innovention Courtyard fountain and behind Club Cool. There we found the "Butterflies On The Go" garden.

Since the festival was just starting the garden, didn't have that many butterflies. There were a lot of chrysalises which held the promise of many more but not at the time at our visit. We were only able to get a couple of actual butterfly pictures. This is one of the monarch's that we saw.

Ironically, the most impressive butterfly we saw in Epcot turned out to be made of flowers. 

Upon leaving the butterfly garden we passed a floral display that we all really liked. Although the F&G festival added a lot of wonderful foliage we were really impressed with these "everyday" Epcot flowers.  

Next on our agenda was a visit to "The Living Seas" area and attractions. This was the main reason for spending the afternoon at Epcot. 

Initially, James wasn't all that enthusiastic about going to this park. But I had an ace up my sleeve. 

In the last few years James has become quite the fish keeper. He has a rather large salt water tank at his house. He is really into anything that has to do with keeping salt water fish.  

Knowing this I counted on him getting on board with visiting Epcot once he realized that it is home to a 230 foot wide, 27 foot deep, 5.7 million gallon salt water tank. And I was right. He was interested in both the wide variety of fish and the coral. 

In 2007, "The Living Seas" area was rethemed to include the group of characters from the movie "Finding Nemo". It's official name is now, "The Seas With Nemo & Friends."

This area has a couple of cool looking outside displays featuring the characters from the Pixar film. The above picture features 3 of the animatronic seagulls who continuously repeat their catch phrase: "mine, mine, mine"
Before we went into the pavilion, I wanted a group picture in front an outside display. We found a photopass photographer stationed at one of them.   
He took quite a few shots of us. This one is the best. 

For a few shots he asked us to pose in our best fish impressions by putting out hands up to our faces like fins. 

Aria's pose was more "Home Alone" than "Finding Nemo." Brandi tried to teach her how to do it but she never got it quite right. 

But that's okay she's still my little cutie. 

With only a few minutes waiting, we were soon in our "clam-mobiles" and cruising through the "The Seas With Nemo & Friends" dark ride. The Havens were in one shell and the Conners were in another. 

It was the first time on this ride for all of us. It was a fun trip through the "ocean" with the animated Nemo characters "swimming" among the real fish. 

Next, we went to "Turtle Talk with Crush." Brandi and Aria set down front with the kids. James, Paula and I sat a few rows back.

I don't remember if Aria told me what she thought of the show. I liked it though because Dory was part of it. 

Right next to Turtle Talk is a play area called "Bruce's Sub House" themed to the Nemo shark characters. 

There was a great photo op here. A life size walk-in model of Bruce, himself.  Aria wouldn't pose with me so I "braved it" alone. It left me feeling a little down in the mouth. 

Our tour through the pavilion continued on to Sea Base Alpha, the aquarium area. We walked around exploring both floors. Paula and I got separated from Brandi, James & Aria so I don't know what their first-time reaction actually was. 

From what James told me, he enjoyed it but wasn't as impressed as he thought he would be. Still I'm glad he got to see it. 

Once we left the "Living Seas" pavilion we walked around looking for more topiaries. 
Here are some of those we saw. 

And of course, I save my favorite for last. 

At this point, other than crossing back over to Future World East to ride Mission Space       (I never did get to ride it), there wasn't anything else I had planned to do. 

But as we explored Future World West area we came up with some ideas. Paula said that she would like to see more of the topiaries. James remembered the good food he had in the Germany pavilion back during our 2004 trip.     

Soon it was decided that we would head deeper into the park. We passed the Imagination pavilion heading toward the World Showcase.The 2nd half of our visit to Epcot was about to begin. As the park began to fall into the twilight of evening we would soon have an "Illuminating" end to our day.  

Coming Up in Part 11: Terrific Topiaries, Tiredness, and Taking the long way. Be sure to come back for the rest of our Epcot story.