| Commissioner's Academic Challenge - 2008 |
| April 10-12, 2008 |
| Tuesday, April 8, 2008 |
| The 23rd Commissioner's Academic Challenge, Tom's 12th, was at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. This annual event is a competition among the school districts of Florida and affords us another opportunity to enjoy the fine WDW cuisine. To learn more about the tournament, click here. We secured the convention room rate and drove down to WDW on Saturday, April 5, for a few days of frolic before the tournament. |
| Today we took the tour "The
Magic Behind Our Steam Trains" at the Magic Kingdom and then had dinner at Narcoossee's. |
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The Magic Kingdom
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| At 0645, the attendant at the monorail station was not optimistic that we could get to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail by 0730, so we decided to walk.
We hoofed it over to the Magic Kingdom and arrived on time. When you have a
special event you enter through a special gate. |
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| Tom with Pirate Mickey |
Lyd and the train station |
City Hall |
An empty Main Street |
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| The Magic Behind our Steam Trains |
| At 0730, George and another 15 train enthusiasts joined us in a 3-hour tour of the Disney Steam Trains [about an hour too long]. |
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| George was our tour guide for the morning. |
The Lillian Disney came to take us back to the roundhouse. It is only used for opening ceremonies,
as it does not have guard rails on the left side of the train. |
Small pewter miniatures are in the Main Street station. |
The roundhouse has four bays for the steam trains on the 1st floor and 6 bays for the monorails on the 2nd floor.
[I'd really like to look upstairs, but there doesn't seem to be a tour for
that!] |
A monorail passes over the Walter E. Disney
on it's way in for maintenance. |
The Roger Broggie blows its top
as they test the steam escape valve. |
The Roger Broggie is headed out into the park
for the daily rides. |
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| Inside the roundhouse |
The cab of the Walter E. Disney |
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| The Baldwin Locomotive Works |
The diamond stack |
The lamp mural |
40 lb per yard rails |
Walter E. Disney is headed out |
Blowing off steam |
Walter E. Disney at Toontown |
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| Grand Floridian Cafe |
| We walked back down Main Street and took a launch to the Grand Floridian and the Cafe,
therein, for lunch. |
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Narcoossee's |
| We took the monorail from the Contemporary to the Grand Floridian and then walked out to Narcoossee's.
menu |
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| Our drinks included a scotch and soda (6.50), a pair of Maker's Mark Manhattans (8@) and a glass of Fess Parker Riesling,
Santa Barbara '06 (8.50) |
Lyd enjoyed the Seafood Bisque Maine Rock Crab and sourdough crostini (9) |
Tom enjoyed Romaine Salad Caesar dressing, croutons, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (9) |
Lydia had the Prince Edward Island Mussels with white wine, roasted garlic, tomatoes and basil (15) |
Tom had the Fried Calamari with pepperoncini relish (12) |
Lyd finished with Warm Chocolate-Almond Gâteau with vanilla bean whipped cream (7) |
Tom finished with the Key Lime Crème Brûlée (7) |
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