Thursday, July 3, 2008

Animal Kingdom

Sunday morning, Keith and I took the bus from SOG to the Animal Kingdom. We were both pretty excited.
Yikes, check out the crowd! This is a tough park to be at during opening hours. Animal Kingdom is set up like a Trivial Pursuit board, similar to the other parks, but because of the waterways and large trees - there are very few walkways to navigate around the crowd.
Eventually, while everyone else was making a mad dash back to Everest, we (and the few other non-thrill riders) walked around looking at the plants and animals.
This tree's carvings were really very cool to look at.
The flamingos made us think of Megan. In Kodiak, our neighbor next door had a plastic flamingo in his yard and Megan would greet the "mingo" every time we'd walk by.
The ride we enjoyed the most was the safari. It was awesome riding along looking at the animals. Our tour guide was a little cheesy, he was really into his role, but it made it all the more fun.
Some of the animals were hard to see, since they are just roaming around. This rhino got a little close.
Keith talked me into going on a water ride. I should have known better when I saw how soaked most people were when they were getting off the ride.
The que, or waiting area, for the water ride had many cool things to look at. Again, this was another ride that we just walked right onto. In fact, I felt guilty stopping to check things out and take pictures. I knew I was in trouble, when we sat down into wet seats and the man across from us grabbed a trash bag and put it on with just his head poking out. Let's just say, after the ride, he was the one laughing!
Keith thought it was pretty funny that I got so wet. Most of my hair was soaked, as well as my entire right side was dripping wet. Keith was sitting to my left, and he was perfectly dry at the end of the ride.

We ate a lot of snacks and drank a lot of water during our trip. I wished I had worn a pedometer to track my steps and that I had logged how much water I drank during the trip. It seems like every time I walked past a water fountain, I was filling my bottle of water. I knew I was on vacation when it was just past 10am on Sunday and I was eating a Mickey head ice cream.
We enjoyed all the live performances that Animal Kingdom has to offer. While we were snaking in Africa, a group of musicians came walking up and started making some music.
We also watched a really cool bird show. It was funny and informative at the same time. I will admit that it almost seemed a little too doom and gloom toward the end when the emcees were discussing the depleting rain forests and how the Earth is just going to heck in a hand basket. I seriously expected Al Gore to jump out from behind the bushes to really drive the point home.
Heading over to the Dinosaur area of the park, we found a huge children's play area, and a few other fun adult things. I forced Keith to go on this twisty little ride - he does not do twisty tilt-a-whirl type things. It was fun, both the ride and seeing if he would really do it. :)
Even though the park itself is set up to be a traffic nightmare, I have to hand it to Animal Kingdom for the mass amount of street performances that were throughout the park helping to ease the flow of traffic. When we stopped to watch these awesome acrobats, the mess of traffic ahead of us was gone and we were able to exit the park. We really enjoyed this park and will probably bring the kids here some day. Again, we were back to the resort and in the pool with some food ordered for poolside delivery by about 1pm.


4 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

When I saw you had been to Animal Kingdom I couldnt wait to read through this to ask how you enjoyed the safari and to tell you that was our favorite part. And lo, you said the same thing! Isnt it just amazing?!

Rachel Holloway said...

I honestly would not have ever thought about doing that kind of vacation for an adult vacation, but you make it look SO awesome! Not just a kid-zone~

hey--just curious...I am still on my quest for a digital camera--what kind do you have? Makde and model?
I am desperate to find soemthing....and you always have great pics! :)

Anonymous said...

Poolside delivery? Where do I sign up for that? :)

The Little Wife said...

Looks like you had a great time at the AK. We are definitely going to check out the safari!