Lisa and Kristin's Blog: Orlando Day 2: Animal Kingdom and Epcot

Waiting outside the hotel for the bus to take us to Animal Kingdom

The Tree of Life

Riding the train to Rafiki's Island

Isaac was so excited to see real animals. He kept calling them "amilos." So cute!

Each kid got a card with pictures of different bugs and they had to do a scavenger hunt to find them all.

Next was the safari. Here is where we were going to see some BIG amilos :).

This is a termite mound.

We were lucky to see that not only were the lions out that day (which I guess is somewhat rare by itself), they were having a love fest and were being so cute!

Everyone agreed that the best part of Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. It was an awesome rollercoaster that went forwards and backwards as we tried to get away from the Yeti, a giant monster.

We thought the kids would be scared but before the ride was even over they were asking to go on it again. Thanks to Catherine and her Guest Assistance Pass, we got to ride it 4 times in a row without waiting in line.

Starting to get tired, but Riley is so happy with the Yeti he bought at the Expedition Everest gift shop.

We went on more rides in the kids area including a little roller coaster that broke down just as we got to the top so we had to walk down (a first for all of us) and a really cool Dinosaur ride. Isaac's favorite was the ride similar to Dumbo, but with dinosaurs instead. We saw Santa Goofy and Reindeer Pluto as we were leaving the park.

Eventhough we were exhaused, I really wanted to make it to epcot and see the Germany exhibit in honor of my mom. See my cute Germany mouse ears in the photo?

Inside the Mexico Pavillion

They had a cute Donald Duck boat ride that was similar to It's a Small World. The loading dock looked too much like Pirates of the Carabian thoug and Isaac was concerned that we were going to show him more pirates. Apparently, he didn't like that.

It was very cute though.

The viking ride in Norway

Hooray! We finally made it to Germany. I kept expecting to find unique and interesting things that I'd never seen before that would leave me feeling more connected to my German roots. That didn't exactly happen. Except for the things that had a Disney twist (like the snow white dresses you can see in the background), the place looked pretty much like my uncle Helmut's store. Still I bought a chritmas music CD and some cookies that reminded me of Omi and left happy.