Day Three, Animal Kingdom

We got off to a late start on Day 3 and arrived at Animal Kingdom around noon. Animal Kingdom is a super fun park full of animals and, of course, a train. Only one train mind you, but a train none the less. Big C was appeased.
We rode the train, and it actually doesn't seem to really go anywhere or help you to view anything. Big C didn't care though, it was a steam train and that was good enough for him.

The Parks perennial Icon, the Tree of Life is truly a work of art in the best Disney tradition. At 145ft, this 14 story artificial tree has the images of more than 300 animals hand carved into it's trunk. The base of the Tree of Life is home to the 3D film "It's Tough to be a Bug". You can see the tree behind us in these next two photos.
We went on a really cool safari ride where we saw animals that we've never EVER seen before. We saw giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, ostrich eggs, crocodiles, and many, many more. Dave took an endless amount of pictures as you can see.

We took a stroll through the Pangani Exploration Trail and saw birds, fish, a troop of gorillas, and hippos. This was a 6 or 7 out of 10 for the kids. Big C really liked the huge fish that you can see in the water behind us. He pointed at him for quite a while with great excitement.


We went around to the back area and met Mickey and Minnie mouse in the flesh. This time, luckily, we got photos on our own camera as well as on the photo pass card. Monkey was very pleased to get to see his friends again!

Big C passed out mid day in his stroller and we carted him around.We noticed that people were starting to gather at the sides of the main walkway/road. It turns out there was a parade coming in 15 minutes. The parade featured all of the chracters that he recognized including Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Pluto et al. Monkey was blown away, and big C slept right through, the Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. I got a great video of the noise and commotion that big C slept right through.

When presented with a child friendly map with lots of pictures on it, the boys each got to pick where they wanted to go for the day. Big C picked out the train and the dinisaurs. When the parade was finished we made our way towards dino land. Big C woke up about half way there and was very pleased that his request for dinosaurs was being answered. We hit the Triceratops Spin ride. This is the exact same ride as Dumbo and Alladin's flying carpet, but this time it has dinosaurs on it. Much fun. The line was non-existant so Daddy and Monkey went 6 or 7 times in a row. Big C went once and then wanted to stand and watch the Primeval Whirl ride which he called a train. Monkey isn't tall enough to ride it, but he was fine with that. Big C and I sat on the pavement and watched the "trains" while Monkey and Daddy rode the dinosaur.
We wrapped up the day with supper at the Rainforest Cafe (oh my goodness, so yummy!!) and went back to the hotel and put two sleepy little guys to bed.