Day Two - In which Alisha goes off on her own

Alisha Is Easily Distracted

Look, I found Weebo!! I love Weebo! :D

I can't remember the reason, but mom and dad went off to check something, and so Daniel and I decided to head over to Norway and we'd all go on the Maelstrom when the parents returned. But they were taking an unusually long time, soooo.....

I wandered over to the stunningly beautiful China instead. Because Norway is boring and I wanted to see if the acrobats were performing. XD

I was out of luck for the acrobats, but as it turned out, I was just in time to wait in a ridiculously long line for my favorite Disney Princess (shut up, she's a princess in my eyes), Mulan!

Since the line to meet Mulan took nearly an hour to get through, Mom and Dad and Daniel were already boarding the Maelstrom once I was done with my little meet n' greet. So I killed some time in the gift shop at the exit of the ride, waiting for them to come out. And I found this really cute parka that I loved~ Maybe I'll ask if I can get it since winter's creeping up on us back home....

Yowza. Then again, maybe not. O.o;;

Alisha could spend all day at the Mitsukoshi store, and very easily rack up a debt that would rival your second mortgage.

After lunch and some very disappointing Green Tea ice cream in Japan (which mom and I determined was little more than vanilla ice cream with green coloring; it was super lame) I snuck down to the Mitsukoshi store while the rest of the family finished their meal. 

I'm a China fanatic, and lookie what I found! My Neighbor Totoro China set! They had a whole huge section of Studio Ghibli merchandise I'd never seen outside of Akihabara. It's a good thing Mitsukoshi doesn't have a website or anything I can purchase from, otherwise my future paychecks would never again see the light of day... >_>;;

They had a to-scale model of the house from My Neighbor Totoro, as well! If I could live in any house, I'd want to live here! In fact, I was such a fan of it's whimsical design, that I constructed a full 3D, fully-textured model of the house and surrounding property for one of my gaming classes at the Art Institute.

Sure wish I'd had this little model during that beast of a project, that would have saved me a lot of grief....

 Studio Ghibli Art Books!! I adore art books. o.o I'll take one of everything, please!

Alisha loves Art

Speaking of Art, I found another Art of Disney Store on my way out of the park, after the rest of the family went to pick up the rental car and head to the grocery store. Even though I'd been in one last night at Downtown Disney, I couldn't resist... and wasn't disappointed! So much great stuff!

Lookie here! They have a little model of the Bakery and Ice Cream Parlor! (though if you ask me, it's not quite accurate... the Ice Cream Parlour's sittin' pretty, but if the artist thinks that tiny little yellow building is our bakery, then I think they need to come visit us again. (And treat themselves to a cinnamon roll while they're at it! )

Ursula was an awesome Villain~

Of all the paintings I've ever seen at Art of Disney- during this trip and in years past, this one is easily my favorite. I think if we were to have any piece of Disney Artwork added to our collection, it should be this one. It feels like home...

Man, I gotta find out how to score myself this sweet job drawing disney sketches all day long. I'd rock at that. Maybe I should make a portfolio and send it in to....... someone. Mom says they'd hire me in second.

This pin caught my eye when I was browsing. What the heck am I looking at?? o_o Why is Scar giving baby Simba this adoring look?! That whole Circle of Life intro was to Scar what Lily and James' Wedding Day was to Snape! Psssh.... Get on your game, Disney. Scar should be off tormenting mice or something.

Gah, I loved this portrait of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Even if I still can't figure out what in the world Pan is sitting on. Super-firm clouds? Very strange-looking rock? We may never know.... 

Delightfully clever take on one of the infamous Haunted Mansion's stretching portraits, featuring Nightmare Before Christmas' Lock, Shock and Barrel

The really wonderful thing about this painting of Snow White is that it's done in a paint style that is accurate to the time period AND country from which Snow White is from. It's a german painting technique called chiaroscuro that was popular during Snow's alleged time period, which juxtaposed dramatic contrasts of very light values and colors with deep, dark shadows.

In which Alisha gets two priceless pictures of her Elizabeth costume, from Bioshock Infinite
Now then, since the rest of the family wanted to rest up back at the resort for a while, I decided to seize the opportunity to get into my Elizabeth costume, from Irrational's video game, Bioshock Infinite, and somehow get my dream pictures of that costume.

 Here's what the real Elizabeth looks like, by the way.

And one more from the front. :D She's my favorite character out of every video game I've ever played.

Now in the game, Elizabeth is a girl trapped in a city in the sky called Columbia, and all her life she's been dreaming of one day being free and traveling to Paris, France. And ever since playing the game and creating this costume completely from scratch by myself, I've always wanted to get a photo taken with her in France, Epcot. For the past year it's just been this rather unrealistic pipe-dream, but today, it became a reality! And we love that, because Disney is all about making dreams come true!

I found a very sweet and kind girl to take the picture of me, and even though the light wasn't optimal because the sun was quickly setting, it's easily my favorite picture of Elizabeth. Totally worth getting all dressed up in a period-accurate 1912 corset and gown, getting on the disney bus, and walking my happy butt through 3 miles of crowded streets to get back to France. Lots of people stopped me for pictures too, and a few people even recognized the character! One gent caught sight of me while I was still in France, did a double-take and said, "Oh my gosh, it's Elizabeth! Elizabeth, you're gorgeous!" to which I happily replied, pointing up at the Eiffel Tower excitedly, "Thank you! Look!! I finally made it to Paris!!" I was delighted, and he said that just made his whole week.

Now, Elizabeth also visits a place called Soldier's Field, which is a boardwalk leisure and amusement destination for the residents of Columbia. And there isn't any place in the world that looks more like that setting than Disney's Boardwalk. Unfortunately, by the time I got over there, it was too dark for any pictures to really turn out well, (not to mention that doing a photoshoot of yourself, by yourself is basically impossible. I did, however, get this one picture that turned out beautifully, so it was still a worthwhile trip!

Here, see what I mean? It looks exactly like the Boardwalk! Well, apart from that whole City-in-the-Sky bit. But that would be a hard detail to replicate. XD