Animal Kingdom exceeded my expectations.  It was especially cool because Justin had never been to that park, so it got to be his first time too.  I had numerous friends tell me that this was their favorite one.  It’s a theme park, mixed with a zoo, mixed with the Lion King, mixed with a little bit of Epcot’s world showcase all over again.

We made a beeline to Expedition Everest when we got to the park.  We had heard that this was the ride NOT to miss.  It was by far our favorite of the whole trip.  We did it twice.  How cool to actually feel like you are walking through little towns somewhere in the Himalayan mountains – aside from the Florida sunshine.  This ride is amazing and you CANNOT miss it.

The river rapids were closed… weird, we missed out on a water ride.  We enjoyed icy drinks through and then walked through the bird areas and saw some beautiful tigers.

We headed to the safari ride next.  We did that one twice.  It was so amazing.  I love animals and hearing what Disney is doing no matter how sugar coated it was.  The animals were so beautiful.  We saw lions, elephants, hippos and giraffes.  This one was worth the wait.

After all that fun, we enjoyed some African beers and the best show Disney had to offer – The Lion King.  After the show, I finally got to meet some real characters.  Justin and I picked very carefully – whoever had the shortest lines and looked like they needed someone to excited about them.

My husband literally walked up to Baloo and King Louie and told them that the work they did in the Jungle Book really changed this life.  Now, sometimes I just laugh at his ridiculousness… well this move paid off.  See, once we were wrapping up our day, we decided to take in the parade.  We were sitting there watching and enjoying something with an obscene amount of sugar and we see our friends, King Louie and Baloo, coming down the road on their float.  They were doing their normal handshakes and high fives, until they see my husband.  His kind words obviously made an impact on them because they embraced him.  Literally, made all the five year olds a little jealous.  I was so proud.

 We will be back to visit our friends again soon.  Now, I can’t wait to read everyone else’s travel stories – I need to add a few to my bucket list.  I swear I’ll finish these Florida posts eventually.

Helene in Between