Our second full day was at the Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9:00a and we had every intention of being there when it opened. Unfortunately too much sun the day before caught up to Callie and she was showing all the signs of sun stroke. We managed to get her hydrated and on the bus by 9:00a and to the park for around 9:30a. Kerry had our day all planned out and we headed to the Safari ride as soon as we got there though we did have time for a few pictures in front of the 'Tree of Life'. It's a rather impressive concrete tree with dozens of animals carved into the trunk.
We got on the Safari ride and got great seats in the front row. Our tour guide made a few jokes but it wasn't the same sort of tour guide humor I was expecting. I think we saw all the major animals including lions, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants and monkeys. We even saw a giraffe thanks to Kerry. She has a poor track record of spotting animals when we travel. She usually sees things like stumps and says they are bears until we get closer and sees that they aren't. She excitedly reported the giraffe but no one else saw it so I was worried for a moment, however we turned the corner and there it was.
We've only been having very simple breakfasts each morning so we stopped by for a quick snack on our way to Dinoland for our next ride. There we met a duck that Carter named Popcorn. I'm not sure why but we always seem to make a duck friend on our family vacations. There was "Baby Duck's Cousin" the first trip to Maui and then "Ducky" on our second trip and now "Popcorn". I suppose the name Carter picked for him is a good indication of why we keep making friends with ducks.
Callie wasn't interested in the ride in Dinoland and with all the spinning it had I wasn't very excited about it either so we went on to "The Boneyard" which is a play structure for kids with ramps, slides and grottos. I sat in the parent area and Callie started to explore. At one point she was gone for about 10 minutes without me seeing her. Turns out she had found a nice little alcove behind a waterfall to take a rest. After all the sun yesterday, this was a very good idea.
We had lunch scheduled at "The Rain Forest Cafe" and headed there after Dinoland. To be honest, the food isn't that great but the atmosphere can't be beat, with vines and animatronic animals everywhere. There is even a thunderstorm every 15 minutes or so. I went with the Mojo Bones because you can't really mess up ribs. Kerry had a coupon for an appetizer and had the left overs from the kids. We seem to only really need to purchase two or three meals for the four of us and there is still food left over.
Animal Kingdom closes early at 7:00p so rather than leaving and coming back we stayed an extra hour or two before heading to our hotel for a nap and a dip in the pool. Kerry did a load of laundry and read by the pool and the rest of us were out like a light for at least an hour. We then headed to Downtown Disney in the late afternoon. It's not a park but it is a fun place to go for dinner and there was a Christmas Time shop with a great billboard for Callie to get her picture in front of. (I really need to see that movie.)
After dinner we headed to Ghiradelli for desert. Again, we only had two to share between the four of us. Between the Sea Salt Caramel Sunday that I wanted and the Banana Split that Carter insisted on we only finished the Sunday and about half the Banana Split. Disney is going to need to take as serious look at increasing the width of all the seats on their rides based on what we've seen so far and based on the food choices you have.
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