Hello from the Magic Kingdom, or thereabouts. We caught a red-eye flight late Wednesday, so that we could hit the ground running on Thursday morning. Trouble with that plan was that both Ked and I have the flu, so it was more like we hit the ground limping. We were still going to stick to the plan, though, because our room here at the Animal Kingdom Lodge wasn't supposed to be ready until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Our plane landed at 6:15 a.m. and we got to the hotel around 7:30, got checked in and all set up with our park passes, when what miraculous thing should occur? Our room was already available! It beckoned loudly, and thither we went. We slept for about 4 hours, and then wandered around Animal Kingdom for about three hours. You'd think after the long nap we'd have been up well into the night, but after a lovely dinner at Boma we crawled into bed at 7:30am. I didn't wake up again until 8:30--that's thirteen hours later for those of you who don't like math. Any of you who know me know that it takes a good bout of the flu to keep my eyes shut that long. Hopefully today we'll be a little more energetic.
Well, you didn't come here to read my drivel about sleeping and fluing. You came here for pictures! We will oblige. The sucky news is my camera was in a lousy mood and deleted most of the photos I took yesterday (most likely caused by my flu-induced stupor--I was not a happy camper when I discovered my own ineptitude). Believe me when I say some of the pictures I took were INCREDIBLE. It will make me feel better if you do believe me, and neither of us has any way to disprove the theory, so let's just run with it, okay? Despite my photographic mishaps, the good news is that since we are both snapshot junkies we are a two camera family, and we have lots of Ked's snaps to pass your way. Without further whining and other assorted forms of ado, I give you Disney World--Day 1. We'll start with the view from our balcony:
We didn't get one of the spendier rooms here at the Lodge, so imagine our delight when we found the pseudo-Savanna right outside our balcony (we have a balcony!), populated by giraffes, zebras, nyala antelope, ankole cattle, ostriches and various other bird life. At one point this morning we saw three zebras chasing an ostrich, while the giraffes looked on with amusement and the ankole cattle shook their heads in dismay. (You want to stay out of the way when the cattle shake their heads.)
This is one of the ankole cattle I mentioned. Those giant horns are common to both the males and females. They look like they can hold their own in a brawl, don't you think?
These were also outside our balcony. (We have a balcony! Sorry. I'm just very taken with the fact we have our own little nature observatory right here in our room.) We're not sure what these are--maybe some kind of crane? Any bird watchers out there in the know? Anyway, we figure it must be mating season around here with all the bird ballet that's going on.
From here we move on to the Animal Kingdom park. These Hyacinth Macaws were among the first residents to greet us. They, like the birds surrounding our lodgings, seemed awfully affectionate as well.
This East African Crowned Crane only seemed interested in food.
These Scarlet Macaws seemed both affectionate and hungry at the same time. We distinctly heard one of them say, "Hey! My beak is not your food!!"
This tiger looked quite self-satisfied and regal. Definitely not a cat with troubles on his mind.
Apparently, these macaws thought that tiger's look of satisfaction meant he wasn't too hungry.
"So, anyway Joe, I says to him, 'You don't scare me Old Stripes. I'm fast. I can out-fly you any day of the week. Come on, try and get me! Just see how far you get.'"
"I wouldn't mess with Old Stripes if I were you, Red. He's a lot smarter than he looks."
"Mmmm, once you get past the feathers, those red things are delicious. I wonder what other tasty morsels are wandering around this place?"
"Oh Lord, please don't let the tiger out of his pen. Please don't let the tiger out of his pen..."
"Hey Baby, leave it to me. I'll protect you. I think I can take the tiger.... maybe."
"Sorry I can't be more helpful, old chap, but I find hiding to be the best way to avoid death-by-tiger."
"Just send a little fire my way, and old King Louie here can fix it for ya."
"Hey, don't look at me. I may look scary and evil, but I'm just a fruit bat."
Well, that's it for today. We're off to Epcot for some low-key adventure. We won't be riding into space, or anything stomach-churning like that, but I'm sure we'll have fun just the same. Oooh, maybe there'll be science stuff to do. We love science stuff....
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