Disney Vacation: Day 4

We spent the day today at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Today has been the warmest day this trip and Sofia managed to reinforce that she is a Minnesota girl at heart. She's just simply not a fan of heat, sun, or sweating. But she again spent the day warming up to the camera as well and, again, I was able to obtain proof that she is in Disney World with the family.

We left for the park with a game plan in mind--we would head straight to the back of the park and go on the safari ride first. Problem we encountered today, though, was a later than usual start. So, Kevin went to get fast passes which ultimately left us with a little over an hour to kill. So we took a train (Rafiki's Planet Watch) to a small petting zoo that offered us the chance to pet some rare animals from around the world (you know, sheep and goats). A little underwhelming, all said and done, but Ethan did get to meet Rafiki and Pocahontas. After a minor Ethan-related bathroom emergency, we utilized our fast passes and went on a safari through an African jungle and savannah and saw some pretty cool animals in their "natural habitat" (you know, Orlando, FL) including giraffes, hippos (awesome!), black rhinos (only 4200 of these exist in the world!), white rhinos, cheetahs, and ostriches and their eggs (Ostrich eggs weigh 3# each!). We rode over rickety old bridges and saved a baby elephant from some poachers. A fun ride overall and the kids really enjoyed it.





Here Ethan found some African drums that distracted him from going to the bathroom in an appropriate location...

After our Safari, we walked over to Asia (they are only a hop, skip, and a jump away from each other, after all) where we saw a species of fruit bat with a wingspan of 6' and a fair number of tigers that were napping and sunbathing in the hot afternoon sun. We also had the chance to go white water rafting on the Kali River. Sofia was extremely hesitant at first, but ended up having a great time (she and Ethan got SOAKED!) and asked if we could do it before we even got off the ride!





We also watched Finding Nemo, the Musical and did some digging for fossils in Dinoland USA, which Ethan loved and did NOT want to leave. Our first lost child incident occurred here when Ethan pulled a fast one on Kevin (no worries, Gram. He never left the exhibit). Ethan ran ahead, ducked into a tunnel that Kevin did not realize had more than one opening, than back tracked back to the fossil dig site where I found him several minutes later climbing on some stegosaurus remains. I carried him away kicking and screaming uttering promises that we will return soon. Luckily we've got 7 day passes!





Finally, with two overtired children that we knew would crash and burn during the car ride back to the hotel, we had dinner at Sofia's favorite restaurant, Rainforest Cafe which was on the premise and said good by to Uncle Kyle and Auntie Jaime. Thanks for coming to see us! We had a great time!






Tomorrow we plan to go to the last of the four Disney theme parks with the hopes of meeting Lightning McQueen at Hollywood Studios.


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Location:Canada Ave,Orlando,United States