Day 3 : Sunshine State my A$$

 On the day after Christmas, we dragged our rear ends out of bed early to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, expecting the holiday masses to arrive with us.

 Apparently Orlandons and other assorted visitors decided that Boxing Day would be better celebrated indoors. Where the temperature was above freezing the entire day and not just for a few hours in the afternoon.

It was cold. Very cold. And windy. And a little rainy.

On the bright side, there were no crowds. All day we were able to walk right up to rides and attractions. And walk, we did. We haven't used a stroller for Trystan in well over a year and didn't even pack our one remaining (mostly broken and probably covered in cobwebs) umbrella stroller. My husband and I are evil, evil parents who made our children walk. Helped them stay warm :)

 We had fun, despite the cold. We all got to try out our cameras on the safari ride, and caught the Finding Nemo and Lion King shows. Trystan went to town taking photos in both shows though his little camera doesn't handle low-light situations that well. We had playtime in the Dinosaur area where there was a huge (and relatively well-contained) play area with slides and stairs and rope ladders and a giant sandbox. After a long (and warm) lunch in the Rainforest Café, we rode the train.


In the conservation area, our kids got their first close-up view of some of the Disney characters. Pocahontas, Jiminy Cricket, and Rafiki were all there. Charlotte and I nearly ran over Pocahontas in fact. But the kids were too scared to meet any of them in person. I'm not sure I blame them--Pocahontas is one of the few Disney movies we don't own, and man-sized crickets and monkeys are kind of freaky.

 Towards the end of the day, Charlotte and I rode Dinosaur the Ride. In retrospect, that was not a good idea. But, though I think I have ridden it before (on my one trip to Disney nearly 20 years ago), I didn't remember it at all until we were actually on the ride. The motion wasn't a problem so much as the emotion. There were too many scary dinosaurs and an asteroid and she may not forgive me for that for a few years. And it freaked her out for half the week--she kept her face hidden on a little mermaid ride in Epcot the next day, even though cartoon fish are very far from scary.

By the time we left, Trystan did not even make it out of the parking lot before falling sound asleep. I call that a successful day.