Munich Summer Workshop, Day 1

Today our summer workshop started and I got the chance to take photos of the Open class - yay! 

Disney Hollywood Studios

So today it was finally time for Disney Hollywood Studios!

We got up very early to get ready for a long day at the Disney theme park, then we got on the hotel shuttle to the Magic Kingdom. From there we took a ferry to Epcot and then a motor coach to Hollywood Studios. 

The Magic Kingdom from the ferry

Naturally, one of the first things we had to do was try their Star Tours - a Star Wars ride. It's a 4D ride where you're "flying" with an inter galactic airline. However, problems arise once you've boarded and C3PO and R2D2 have to guide you through a action-packed flight through the universe. 

It was pretty awesome.

This was right outside the entrance to the ride and is a recreation of the Endor forest (that's where the Ewoks live!)

In the queuing area.  

We also found the Wandering Oaken's Trading Post (yes that trading post - the one from Frozen), where you could go ice skating and build your own snowman from real snow. Note: it was around 33°C outside

After that, we had a look around and soon found the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Basically, there were a bunch of people who showed you how you would go about filming stunt scenes for movies. 

It was pretty awesome.

Naturally, the show included aeroplanes and fire

After the show we were all pretty hungry, so we decided to go for a bite

We'd been given Olaf fans to fan ourselves with. 

We also got some sort of special "sneak peak" of Marvel's new movie, "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Do you dig our 3D specs? We dig our 3D specs. 

 "The Great Movie Ride" a nice and slow narrated ride, that took you through themed rooms

Frozen lemonade with a "hint" of mint (I have a feeling it was more a frozen mint water with a hint of lemon...)

Pretty Typography~ 

We also had a go on the Toy Story Midway Mania - another 3D ride but this time you got to shoot at things with your little canon. 

In the queuing area

Close up of the Viewmaster reel 

Still queuing 

Got our 3D specs~ 

Michael decided to go back to Wandering Oaken's Trading Post to have another go in the snow pit.

While Michael was building his snowman, Philip and I tried the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster which was pretty cool. The ride was set to Aerosmith music and it starts by you being catapulted into a dark tunnel, which leads you to "outside" by night (ie, a completely dark room) and you're flung up, down, upside down and sideways. It might have been a super awesome rollercoaster f you could actually anticipate what was coming next, unfortunately, since it was dark, you kind of felt you were just being flung around randomly. However, since it had loops and twists, a quick start and was set to Aerosmith (I mean c'mon, can you even get a better soundtrack?) I would say it's an 8/10 in my rating of rollercoasters ;)

After Philip and I had been mercilessly flung around, we swapped with mum and dad and took care of Michael while the parents braved the 70 minute queue for the rollercoaster. Once they had been chucked about, too, we decided it was time to head home.  

It's the camping life for me

Today we drove on to the Smith Lake State Park in Virginia to start camping.

Home for the next three days

Washington DC

Today we took a day trip to Washington DC.

We started off by taking the metro from our hotel at Eisenhower Avenue to Smithsonian

We had to change trains at Pentagon. Metro stations in Washington are generally very dark - it's very atmospheric but make sit hard to see things...

New York

So today we ventured into New York City - definitely an experience.