Things I Learned Today

We spent today at Disney's Animal Kingdom, which I'd never seen before. It was okay: basically Disney's version of a zoo. If you want a great "Disney" experience, go to Magic Kingdom. If you want a great "see live animals" experience, then go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

The kids enjoyed it quite a bit though. There's a really neat-o dinosaur thing where you can climb things and excavate dinosaur bones. Enjoyed by all--it was nice to let Sean out of his cage stroller every once in a while. And the whole group generally agrees that the safari ride--on small buses into the "real" savannah ala Jurassic Park sans animals who eat you--was the best thing. Very bumpy, lots of neat animals to enjoy. I don't recommend riding it if you are prone to motion sickness or have just consumed large quantities of food or if you really really have to pee.

We had a nice time though, and it was a nice way to begin our vacation--a relatively short, calm day. And like most days, I learn a few new things. I am sure you're intensely curious, so here they are:

• Remembering to charge up the camera battery is a wonderful thing. Forgetting to put that charged-up battery back into the camera: notsomuch. A few of my cell phone pictures can be found here, but the good ones will have to come from my dad, who is the sort of person who remembers to put his battery back into his camera.

• Florida is so humid that even when a downpour--and I mean downpour--occurs, you barely even notice it. In fact, it's somewhat of a welcome change from the usual hot stickiness.

• The Finding Nemo Musical is actually a musical version of the entire original movie, not just some of the characters from the movie singing some songs. My kids hate that movie (because it's so sad when his Daddy can't find him, and plus with the sharks), so are probably going to have nightmares tonight, even though we left early.

• See above for advice about the Safari tour.

• My little girl positively beamed when Mickey Mouse blew her a kiss and gave her a thumbs up during the parade! By the way, she is even cuter than normal in Disney theme parks!

• Be mindful of the environmental "green" themes found throughout this park. I think my kids were mostly oblivious, but nevertheless I am preparing to have a discussion soon with them about why the Earth is not going to wither away or somesuch.

• Having Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents along is AWESOME. Extra people to watch over the little ones (especially Morgan, who tends to absentmindedly wander and doesn't seem to know her name sometimes, sigh). Very good for fun and peace of mind.
  

We're off to EPCOT tomorrow. And I'm off to bed now. I'm amazingly tired, since I walked about a hundred and a thousand (my kids' term for "a lot") hours today.