Well, after that fun, we realized we had another thing we needed to do. Pirates!
So we headed over to NOS.
This is what the light-up, makes-noise, blue Mickey-accent lightsaber looks like in the dark part of the queue for POTC>
That was at just after 1.
Had a great ride. Missed the pirate with the cats, and I hear he is still missing. Yo ho yo ho.... At some point during the trip E realized that Santa says "ho ho" and pirates say "yo ho" and he started saying them together.
I have here a receipt from 1:32 showing that *someone*, someone who is a nightmare fan and who didn't yet have these gloves, got matching gloves to his son.
Some women dress like their daughters. I have a husband who gets all matchy matchy with his son.
After we were done at Le Bat en Rouge, Robert went to get us some Veggie Gumbo in a bread bowl, while I basically forced E to head to the bathrooms. There was much hesitance, despite my knowing that soon he would need need NEED a bathroom, and aside from the "you must go with me" there was also a bit of "but Pirate Eamon, I'm a damsel and I need you to protect me" in there.
We met back up and ate over looking the river. Ahhh, veggie gumbo. By the way, we shared. All that bread isn't good for one of us, and with half the bread and half the gumbo, it's quite filling! E had more of his cookie, as the gumbo looked funny to him. Had some sourdough too, the parts not sullied by funny looking soup.
And so it was time to run over to DCA. We were approximately two hours behind my little schedule, and I was kinda of really trying to hide how stressed I was. We were sauntering through Adventureland when E saw Jungle Cruise. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the cruise! But we've gone on it several times in the last couple years, and it really doesn't change, and I thought we could get away with skipping it.
Ah, E really wanted to go. All of you family types here say that we really shouldn't do the commando thing and make our kids upset, so we checked the board. It said 5 minutes, though it looked longer. We said "if it's really 5 minutes in line, we'll do it". It was agreed upon.
In front of us, we saw...
And so we moved a little bit, perhaps made one turn. And then we stopped. Stopped. Stopped....no moving. No moving no moving. Just as it hit about 5 minutes in line, they announced that the ride was closed, and we should turn around and head back the way we came.
Well, we said, it certainly was only a 5 minute line!
And so we hopped.
This was a very short jump to DCA. I had pretty much one thing on my mind, now that I knew bug's land was NOT going to happen (no time!). And that was the Muppets AP hunt doohickey. I had to find the rest of my answers (I'd done some number sequence thing over in the Golden State area already), and those answers were in Hollywood. So off we went.
I don't even remember where the bulk of the questions were, all I remember was that one bunch was in the Muppets waiting area, and the other bunch was in the Animation/Crush building.
Forgive me but I don't know the order here. At some point, this was taken, after playing hide and seek with E (who was absolutely rejecting my need for speed):
And after that I have a blurry picture taken in Monsters Inc, so I suppose we went on that!
I also know that Robert went on TOT, which was probably while E and I rode Monsters. OK it's coming back to me. IF I haven't mentioned this already, IF E and I hadn't already been on monsters 18 million times, then that is the time we went on it. Many many times. If I've already mentioned that, then it's a false memory and ignore it, because it obviously happened earlier in our trip.
Regardless, R did go on TOT and E and I must have done something.
Although I meant to watch Muppets, we got there just as it was starting. So R and E went on in, and I hung back, doing the little answers I was supposed to do for it. It involved looking in the 'box office' after the CM/turnstile area, and then comparing that to something in the waiting area. There were 3 of us working on it.
After that, I waited outside. Finally got bored and waaaay too antsy, text Robert where I was going, and went to the animation building.
I saw the zoeotrope! It was very very cool. At first I really didn't get it, but then it slowed and stopped and I could really get the coolness of it all. I went in to the area where more questions could be answered, and that's where my guys met me. With more of E's help than I care to admit, I got my questions answered, texted it all one by one, and was finished with that and could relax.
Showed them the zoeotrope, went into the Belle's library area. The guys figured out which character they were...I didn't want to. Too antsy. Had to carry E through Ursula's Grotto. Too scary.
As we got to the main area, the Animation Academy was starting! That was VERY fun.
E was having troubles following the instructions, and instead of asking us (he refused our offers) he popped his hand up and told them he needed help. Actually I think he asked a detailed question about how to do what he was trying to do, or explained why he coudln't do it, but ultimately asking for help is asking for help, and Bryant (?) came over and helped and encouraged him. Yay for Bryant.
We all finished up, and a family below us went up to Bryant to talk to him. OK actually we were first, but they jumped in.
Their little one, younger than E, had made noise throughout, moved around, paid little attention. But then somehow knew to ask the animator for his picture of Mickey. Sorry if you're a Dis'er, but dude, uncool. The kid didn't know what he was asking for, and also, you cut in front of us.
At last everyone else cleared out and Eamon wanted to thank Bryant. Totally on his own, without being asked, B gave E a drawing he had made. That was very cool. Way better than if we'd asked for it. And he appreciated E's thanks. We were all very proud of our pictures of Mickey Mouse.
We headed over to Crush, but I could tell that Robert didn't want to do it. He wanted to draw some more! So E and I went to Crush and we went Robert, the wannabe animator, back to the academy. Because of that we now have 3 pictures of Mickey, one picture of Goofy, and one professional's sketch of Mickey on our wall.
Crush was good. I sat in the front row of seats while E sat on the lily pads. Completely against what I had JUST told him AND what the CM had just said, E popped a piece of chocolate in his mouth.
The adults next to me had kids near E. For some reason the dad was talked to by Crush, and Crush of course was saying how few kids they had. At the time and even now I have NO idea what exactly the dad said, but he basically told Crush that he'd had a vasectomy. Something about his coral being snipped? I dunno. Crush got the most hilarious look on his face and basically just said "duuuuude, TMI".
E really wanted to be called on, but he wasn't. When Crush came out with the bikini top and asks what it is, E was saying clear as day "a bra! a bra! A. Bra.!" Kid isn't an extended nurser for nothin'. He knows his female undergarments well. But Crush officially asked someone else.
For some reason I was having a huge reaction to E asking for help in the Animation Academy and wanting to talk in Crush. During the AA I went bright red, as though I were asking the question myself. (I'm very shy and I blotch easily and school was an absolute nightmare for me) I need to disconnect in that way, and boy oh boy was that shown to me! He's a kid, a person of his own, he's not ME, and his asking a question in "class" shouldn't embarrass me. Whew. Personal growth AT DCA! Who knew?
He enjoyed Crush, but will enjoy it more when he gets called on some day. Perhaps we should work on some good questions to ask, so when he does get called he doesn't just "um, um, um, um" like I'm afraid he's going to do.
omg I just won't quit! It's OK Molly, you'd think it was cute if another kid did that. Seriously woman.
After that we all met back up!
It was getting seriously late. Really late. Badly late. We really really needed to go.