Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Disney World:: Day 4

We woke up Saturday morning to sunshine! Even though the thermometer read 44*, the Florida sun was in full effect. We quickly grabbed some grapes for breakfast and boarded the bus for Animal Kingdom.



You insisted you wanted to wear shorts like Daddy and threw a FIT when I tried to put you in pants. I get it, you little fashionista, I truly do. That's why I packed legwarmers. This is not my first rodeo!



I was anxious to walk through the wild bird sanctuary. They passed out bird guides, and we tried to spy as many listed birds as we could. I found delicate nests like this all amongst the trees.



From there, we walked through the primate section. Some big guys like him were busy gathering breakfast and stuffing their faces. There was this smaller gorilla who would find a nice, big, lush branch and would seclude himself to sit down to eat, when the bigger gorillas would bombard him and steal his breakfast. It made me sad.



Daddy said the highlight of our day would be to go on the safari tour, so we grabbed our Fast Pass and got in line immediately. The Animal Kingdom staff kept telling us how to capture the best photos from a moving vehicle. Seems some other creatures were excited to see the Florida sun, too. See the birds pestering the lazy hippos?



Your Daddy's favorite part- the gator pit. Seriously, when we were on the shuttle from the airport, the driver kept telling us to look for alligators in the ditches and he was plastered to the windows on the lookout. He has a weird, weird, fascination.



There were tiny, baby elephants further away from the herd I desperately wanted to capture. And not in the photography sense, either. In the real life sense. They were so darling. We got to see baby elephants!



Another surrealistic moment was seeing these big guys. You said that was your favorite part. There were quite a few giraffes lumbering about, heads in the trees. It was an amazing sight to behold.



After the safari, you took stock of what autographs you were missing in your book. We knew we needed to hunt down Minnie Mouse. She was on our hit list.



My hardcore cuties in their shorts. What's vacation without them?



Minnie! In her appropriate safari gear! You were actually excited to see her and when she asked for a kiss, you obliged. You'll be proud to know that I only gave a fleeting thought to how many other kids had their mouths on her snout. Just a solitary, fleeting thought I swear.



We had front-row seats to see the Lion King Musical. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Simba was loud and proud! There were fire eaters and jungle dancers and trapeze artists flying high. It was a sight. The Lion King will always remind me of 8th grade and all your aunties. Simba, Nala, Timon, and Pumba hold a special place in my heart.



When Mama was busy hunting down an iced coffee (I seriously only had coffee twice in Florida, twice!) you and Daddy literally ran into Meeko, a shy raccoon from Pocahontas. He made you laugh, and likewise when he dropped your pen, and you kicked it back to him. Apparently, that made a lot of people laugh.



We saw "Bugs Life" in 3D in the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is 14 stories high, and 50 feet wide. 325 different animals are carved into the tree like lemurs, lizards, and tortoises. It took 10 artists 18 months of full-time work to create.



We wandered into the midway portion of Animal Kingdom, and your Daddy was your hero at the basketball hoops. You, my little dreamer, picked the biggest prize offered to you. Awesome. Even more awesome was you demanding to sleep with the orange snake after you drug it all over creation. When he slipped in between the wall and your bed that night, we didn't move him. Sorry, babe. He was not ready for our harsh winter!



The park closed at 5:00 that day, so we boarded another bus and headed for the Boardwalk so we could eat at ESPN Zone. Your Daddy and I sort of have a thing for those places, we visit them no matter what city we're in. Anyways, we bellied up to a table in a bar and I kept saying, "we have a baby, in a bar," and you two comedians kept correcting me. No baby. Well, no matter. You happily played with your Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip characters, and garnered attention with your orange snake. We eventually made our way back to our resort. You took a nasty fall on the way to our room, and gave yourself a nice little Disney souvenir on your knee.

We all eagerly went to sleep on our final night at Walt Disney World.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

We want to do this. This is a great kick in the pants to seize the day.