I Want Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere

My immense Canadian apologies yet again for the spiderwebs collecting on the blog. Yet another promise that it shall not happen again.  It's been an incredibly busy and tiring week-and-a-half. I'm currently congested and my legs are still terribly sore. You'll find out why.

Mary and Ashley, aka my nerdy besties from Canada, visited last week, arriving on Sunday and departing very early on Friday. I was able to get Monday though Thursday off, plus a few extra hours on Sunday (thank you, ERs). Sunday evening, I was able to show the ladies a bit of Downtown Disney before they were ready to pass out in preparation for a full day of Hollywood Studios on Monday. I was able to get them into/onto most of the park's highlights, like Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Star Tours, Rock'n Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Muppet Labs 3D. We had a very fancy lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby, the park's signature restaurant and headed back to Downtown Disney for the evening.

Epic Muppets Prop Room

We built lightsabers at Once Upon a Toy. It was awesome. We were at Epcot the next day for a trip around World Showcase and my long-awaited first meal at the stellar and infamous Le Cellier (the restaurant in the Canada Pavilion). We set off for Universal Studios Resort, specifically Islands of Adventure, the next morning in the rain. I finally purchased my annual pass, which includes free parking and discounts. Yes! Discounts at all the parks! We spent a good long time at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, riding the Dragon Challenge twice (there were two dragons, we had to ride both), Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey twice (Universal, why you no have Fast Passes? Pssh 75 minute wait), tasting out first (and not my last) Butterbeer, and in my case finally purchasing the Hogwarts robe I've wanted for pretty much the last 7 years.

Champions of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang...and Canada. 

If we're friends on Facebook, you know I legit went to school here. 

Thursday was another rainy day, so we all took it easy and made another trip to Downtown Disney for lunch and a movie at Fork & Screen as well as some more souvenir shopping. The ladies took off for a 24-hour marathon drive back to Canada the next morning, and I was back to work for a marathon six days.
Monday night was the second round of the Amazing Race - Magic Kingdom.  In spite of all my exhaustion, I somehow got roped in again, this time with one of my managers as a partner (they all want to to play too, it's so cute). It was another grueling evening of running, sweating, dodging guests, rides breaking down (I'm looking at you, People Mover and Splash Mountain) and in my case, very loud trash talking. Tasks this time included tracking down the Orange bird, (Sunshine Terrace, for future reference), riding Splash Mountain, researching the elevation of Magic Kingdom, locating the Fuente de la Fortuna (near Pirates of the Caribbean) and finally ending up at the TTC. By some freaking miracle, and the fact that a lengthy task included American history, Chase and I totally freaking won! By a good ten minutes, too. Up side - Chase won't terminate me. Down side - I am still so freaking sore. The adrenaline of winning only masked the muscle pain for a day.

Chase and I with our Amazing race Winner Mickey ears.
Not pictured: Severe leg pain and fatigue 

Amazing Race - Magic Kingdom participants
We burst into O Canada as the pictures were taken.

This week Canada had another round of new lumberjacks arrive and that means another few had to leave. I drove one to the airport earlier today. It's quite the bummer.

TTFN,

Note: It's officially hurricane season, meaning we can expect a thunderstorm here every single day sometime in the afternoon. Preferably, when I'm not down at the cart.

Thanks to: Chase for being a slave driver/ Amazing Race champion, and Arin for the two dozen Aero bars.