The kids don't have jobs but they do have many family members that gave them money for recent birthday's and Christmas. They had saved it up for our trip and were slowly spending it on whatever they wanted. (It is their money after all.) Where Carter has been mostly an impulse buyer, Callie has been much more deliberate with her purchases. As her funds were dwindling she was discussing her final purchases and their costs and the fact that things are always a little bit more than what the price says. Callie's exact words were "I don't like tax." Be sure to say it with a grumpy kids voice as you read it.
Today was our second day at the Animal Kingdom. Our first day had been a bit rushed as Callie wasn't feeling well and we were looking forward to getting to some of the areas that we had missed on the first day. We had a few scheduled events but as we walked in we noticed the line up for the pictures with Minnie and Mickey was almost empty since it didn't open for another 10 minutes. We decided to stop for a quick picture. I like that they take the professional pictures but also use your own camera for a couple. It means we get character shots but don't have to shell out for them.
One item that we hadn't done the previous day was stop and check out the animals. One of the trails was called the "Maharajah Jungle Trek" and consisted of tigers, bats and komodo dragons. As soon as you got started there was a booth with reusable maps which I handed to Carter. He likes to be the leader and promptly informed us of the most efficient route to the tigers. (There is really only one route.) But he lead us down it excellently.
Our first scheduled trip was on the Kilimanjaro Safari. We had gone the first day and really enjoyed it. Our guide this time was actually from Africa and was able to talk the whole time. Not in an annoying way but in an informative way peppered with a few dry jokes. Just outside the start of the ride was a habitat for some 'lesser apes'. They looked and acted like monkeys but since they had no tails it apparently made them apes. They reminded me of the monkeys in a barrel game. They chased each other around the bamboo scaffolding playing tag. Once one was caught the other would take over.
After the safari we went on the "Pagani Forest Exploration Trail." Our guide had informed us that some baby gorillas had just been born. We were able to see the mother but the babies were hiding which is too bad. I'm sure baby gorillas are pretty cute. We were able to see the daddy gorilla. For some reason he was wearing his food bowl as a hat. I'm not sure why but he refused to look at us the whole time. I'm sure he was saying "Go ahead. Make fun of my hat. See what happens."
Just before lunch we all went on the Kali River rapids which is like a roller coaster on a raft. Callie wasn't too sure about it but we convinced her to go on. You get very wet so Kerry and the kids went on first while I held the bag. Kerry managed to grab a rain coat from someone coming off the ride for Callie. She ended up loving the ride and the fact that she stayed relatively dry while Kerry and Carter got soaked was part of that. Our last ride was Expedition Everest. We let Kerry go first and based on how much she loved it we knew it wasn't a ride the rest of us would enjoy.
We said goodbye to Animal Kingdom and went straight to Blizzard Beach. It had been closed up until the 15th. It's a winter themed water park and based on some YouTube videos we'd watched looked like a lot of fun. One of the things that Carter was looking forward to was being able to walk on ice bergs. Floating pieces of foam tethered to the bottom covered by a big net. He was just a little short so it wasn't easy for him. I think he fell off about a half dozen times but managed to finish it, laughing the whole way.
The rest of Blizzard Beach was a lot of fun. I liked the lazy river in Typhoon Lagoon better since it was deeper and wider but some of the water slides in Blizzard Beach were very well done. There were some little tube ones that Carter loved but also some toboggan themed ones that even had a lift for your toboggan so you didn't have to carry it up. We weren't sure what it would be like and Kerry and Carter went first. It was a lot faster than we expected and pretty deep in the end. Carter hasn't had many swimming lessons but he learned to dog paddle quickly when he came off the end of that ride.
We finished the day off with some mini-golf which was located just outside the water park. Our park tickets included one free other event for each day we purchased. This included either the water parks or mini-golf. I think we did all four options. Today's was Christmas themed with an 18 hole winter course and an 18 hole summer course. We managed to have a much tamer round this time with no one getting too mad when they missed a shot. Apparently our family is very competitive when it comes to mini-golf. Tomorrow is the last day of a great trip.
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