I suppose getting out with Diana for the first time without Simon for a significant number of consecutive days was reason enough to craft activities that were truly adult in nature. That's why we originally were thinking Las Vegas. But as things go, we were thrilled to go to Walt Disney World instead, and stay in a room that was about 350 yards from the Epcot International Gateway entrance (seriously, check this map out... the location was the tits).
Drink-around-the-world is a juvenile challenge to go around the International Showcase and have an alcoholic beverage at all 11 of the countries represented there. It seemed like a good idea, if a little frat-boyish, but as we got closer to the trip, I decided that I was too old for that kind of debauchery. However, I spontaneously decided on Tuesday afternoon to go half-way. We spent the morning at Hollywood Studios picking up our Toy Story Mania credit, and we hit Epcot for nachos and margaritas in the Mexico pavilion. We had reservations for dinner at Tokyo Dining, half way around, so that would get met to six drinks, and I could do that.
So it began, and from there we went to Canada, the UK, France, Morocco, skipped Japan, and went to listen to Doogie Howser read at the Candlelight Processional in the American Experience. In some cases, I had crappy beers (Canada and US), others familiar favorites (UK), and even great wine (France). I had some crappy red wine in Morocco, listed as "Moroccan wine" on the menu, which was suspect since Morocco is primarily Muslim, and Muslims don't drink. That said, the Google says French influence and investment has produced some good Moroccan wine, but that's clearly not what I had.
After dinner, I had seven countries down, and we went back to our room briefly. When we got back to the park, with about 90 minutes to closing, it occurred to me that I only had four countries to go. I wouldn't characterize myself as drunk, but I was far from sober. With great disregard for my kidneys, I decided to go for it.
I ended up stacking the last few drinks, because I wasn't sure when they'd stop serving, and cranked out Italy, Germany, China and Norway. I did it! We took a celebratory ride on the boat in Norway, which seemed shorter than I remembered.
As Illuminations began, I definitely felt it, but again, didn't feel particularly drunk. The 11 drinks occurred over seven hours, which is a pretty good spread. I think the buzziest I felt was watching the British Revolution perform, and that was after the first three drinks. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.
This was the run-down:
So there it is! One off the bucket list.
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