Dear Son's Make a Wish Trip-Day 6-Epcot

Friday, May 21, 2010~Day 6

We decided to start the day with more character photos. Barney was scheduled to be here this morning and Dear Son was very excited to see him again. By now, Dear Son was starting to enjoy the vacation and had a better idea of what was going to happen. Sometimes, it takes kids like this a few times to see something before you can tell they are really enjoying it. After Dear Son's breakfast, we walked over to the Castle of Miracles to see him. Every Friday, they have different characters visit.

We were greeted instead by Scooby Doo! Apparently, Barney was there last week so it must have been a typo. Anyway, it was fun nonetheless. I don't think Dear Son really knows who Scooby Doo is though whereas he definitely knew Mickey and Minnie Mouse along with Goofy. One of his favorite movies when he was younger was, "A Very Goofy Movie". They used to watch it at school and said he would laugh like crazy when he watched it.

More photos...

It was great getting the character photos done here, at Give Kids the World, since it was easier for kids like Dear Son than standing out at Disney and waiting in line. It was great everything was so easy.

After the character photos, we headed over to the Gingerbread House for breakfast. This was the first time all week we came as a family. Dear Son eats via a feeding tube so it doesn't feel right to take him to a restaurant and let him watch everyone else eat so we usually just fed him at home and then came separately to breakfast and dinner.

More photos of Dear Son at the Gingerbread House. This place is packed for breakfast!

After breakfast, we headed over to Epcot. It was hard to believe the week was almost over. It went really fast.

I thought the flowers were spectacular here.

It was a beautiful day however it was still very, very hot. One of the things I wanted from this trip was family photos. I am not photogenic and never would take any family photos. When Dear Son's condition deteriorated, I realized that I didn't have any photos of our family or of Dear Son and I. I always took tons of photos of him. I tried to take some family photos so I could look back and remember how he looked. I realized that one day he will be gone and I wouldn't have any photos of our family. I won't get a second chance so I decided to not worry so much and just take the photos.
Hopefully, I won't bore you with the flowers. I just love them.

Dad and Dear Son...

The first thing we wanted to do was to go on the ride, "Soarin'". This was one of your suggestions; I remember someone said it was the, "best ride, ever!" We were really looking forward to it. This was a big attraction and there was a forty minute wait.

Give Kids the World gave us these passes so that we wouldn't have to wait in line. We showed the pass and they whisked us up through the disabled entrance and to these special lines for wheelchair access. We probably didn't wait more than five minutes in line.

They asked that we transfer Dear Son to the seats. Dad transferred him and then they took Dear Son's wheelchair. What's great is that they had the entire procedure down for people with disabilities. They offered to help Dad get him in the seat. Once Dear Son was seated, they told us he could ride two or three times if he liked, just let them know once we were done with the ride and they wouldn't make him get off the ride. Here's Dear Son checking everything out.

All ready to go!

They took the wheelchairs over to the center of the aisle. They kept them near the ride and told us they would bring them to us when the ride was over. They had plenty of people working there and it seemed like they were each assigned to help certain disabled patrons or whoever needed help.

The ride was a lot of fun! It took us over many scenic routes! All virtual reality of course, but really fun. Here's one of the scenes. I took a picture while we were on the ride so you could see. It was too dark for some of the other pictures to come out plus it was really fast.

After the ride was over, we rode again and then they brought the wheelchair over to Dear Son and offered to help us get him back into the chair. They couldn't have been more helpful.

Next, we decided to check out this ride called, "The Seas with Nemo and Friends".

It was a wheelchair accessible ride and the wheelchair pulled up right into the clamobile. It was nice to have a few things indoors where there was air conditioning. With Dear Son's patch, we had to make sure he didn't overheat so this worked out great.

Once inside, we took to the "seas". It was very pretty and almost as colorful as the movie.

Next, we stopped to give Dear Son his lunch.

After that, we took a little boat ride. They had an exhibit called, "Living with the Land" or something to that effect. EPCOT, is actually the acronym for, "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow". EPCOT was originally designed to be a futuristic model with a community based on a type of utopian communal living. Once you get that, the rest makes some sense. The ride takes you through different ecosystems around the world. The idea is that our natural resources will be depleted over time and that we need to begin looking at alternative farming methods; all of this is branded under the name of "sustainability". Essentially, they show you futuristic methods such as soiless agrilculture where instead of using soil, they use just water and nutrients to grow plants (they state that the soil is unnecessary since it's just a reservoir for nutrients), of course it's artificial nutrients. They also showcase other ideas such as vertical farming where plants are stacked on top of each other in these planters creating an efficient method of watering. (See below photo for vertical farming.)

What I didn't like about the exhibit was that there wasn't any mention of genetic modification. Of course, these plants are genetically modified to produce higher yields and to be grown without soil, etc. I don't care for genetically modified foods and will avoid them as much as possible. I also want to know when an item is genetically modified. To go through this exhibit and listen to the entire tour without any mention of genetically modified fruits, vegetables or plants didn't seem right, although I was certainly not surprised.

Papayas...

Fluted pumpkins...

Cotton...

Bell peppers...

I should mention that Epcot also has a fireworks show every evening, complete with fireworks, lasers and music however Dear Son wouldn't be able to handle that. He goes to sleep at dinner time and doesn't get up until the next day.

All in all, a really great day. We did a few other things and then after Epcot, we decided to head home, rest a bit and then headed back to the pool. It was hard to believe we would be going home tomorrow! We wanted to make sure to enjoy that pool once last time. Have I told you how much we enjoyed the pool, lol!