Day 3- Animal Kingdom

Gommie, Grandpa, Todd, C&G at the entrance to the park

Day three was probably by far the worst day in terms of rain. There was really very few times when we were not being rained on! Since much of the day is spent looking at and for animals in their "natural habitat" it was a little more difficult to see. The kids overall still had a good time as did we. Lunch was a bit challenging as the only place we could find to eat was an outdoors type of place. The park tries to be eco friendly so there was no lids for the drinks and the straws were made of a recycled cardboard type material. We found a table and quickly tried to wipe it down so we could sit and eat. It was to say the least a bit interesting! The plants and landscaping at Animal Kingdom were very interesting and beautiful. They have the park divided up into "continents" each continent tries to have plants and animals native to the region and the architecture is in keeping with what you would see and find if you were actually there. It was very beautiful.

One of the topiaries throughout the park.

A view of Mt. Everest

This is "The Tree of Life". It is a huge "tree" which you can see from most places in the park. Up close you can see it is very intricately carved. It is quite stunning in person. Towards the end of the day we went inside the tree for a 3D movie themed after Disney's "A Bug's Life", it was really cute.

While walking through I believe "Asia" we were stopped by some cast members (that's what Disney calls it's employees). Apparently Disney has extended it's Year of a Million Dreams Celebrations and they were giving out free mouse ears, we all got some and they took our photos! This turned out to be Gavin's first real ride. He had been on the Nemo ride at Epcot but it wasn't outdoors and didn't go off the ground! Turns out he really loved it! Cole took a little more convincing to get him in there but once he tried it he really loved and and wanted to go again. Since we were literally the only people on the ride they let us go twice. Tropical Storm Fay has it's privileges!

Grandpa and the boys headin' straight for Dino-Island!

While in Africa Gavin got down with some "locals" who were playing drums etc... in the street

The boys

Despite the fact that I don't like birds close up and especially ones flying over head we took in a bird show. It was pouring rain and honestly we all needed a break. The show was cute and I think the kids liked it.

Animal Kingdom turned out to be a great place to meet Disney Pals. Only thing that really stunk was in order to meet the Pals the kids had to remove their ponchos. The "cast members" as Disney likes to call them will be sure you adhere to this. No kids are allowed close to any of the Disney pals if they are wet or have their poncho on. I'm sure it goes without saying what a pain in the butt this was. They also expect you to have your autograph book out, ready, turned to the proper page, pen in hand. So.... while it's pouring rain we had to disrobe the kids, get their autograph book ready, pen in hand and me with the camera quickly..... and then get out of the way for the next kid and redress... and get everything back into my carry along bag and get that quickly covered in plastic so the camera, and everything we brought didn't end up soaked... it was all a very interesting dance to do each time the kids wanted to meet a character!

C&G with Jimminy Cricket

C&G with Baloo the Bear and King Louie from "The Jungle Book"

Flick from "A Bug's Life" with the boys

The boys hangin with the Donald!

Timon and Rafiki from "The Lion King" with C&G

Cole and Gavin climbing on two brass elephants!

On the Safari Trek...
An X rated Disney educational opportunity

We went on the Kilamanjari Safari tour, which Disney toots as "not to be missed." It was quite interesting, the fact that it was raining did make it more difficult to see. However, as you can see from above we had no trouble finding animals "in their natural habitat!" Funny thing was while everyone was laughing and talking about these two monkeys I didn't realize that's what they were doing when I snapped the photo. After we passed them I turned to Todd and said, "I didn't see what everyone was talking about!" It wasn't till much later when I was looking through the photos that I realized I had been taking a photo of it the whole time!

What theme park experience is complete without having yourself immortalized on paper by a caricature artist. We bit the bullet and busted the bank and had the kids pictures drawn. He really did a great job and of course the kids hammed it up for all the onlookers!


While we were eating dinner I noticed something in Gavin's nose. Earlier he had been playing with the wrapper to a straw.... well I found the wrapper. There were a few unsuccessful attempts to remove this wrapper during dinner before I finally gave up. He was able to breathe and it didn't seem to be bothering him. Once we returned to the resort I performed a "minor surgery" on my son and removed it...just another day at Disney!