ANIMAL KINGDOM

The third park to visit was Animal Kingdom. 

Pretty much everything is centered around jungles and places that are home to lions, giraffes, and camels. I kept expecting the song The Circle of Life from The Lion King to start playing at any moment.  All of the souvenirs and t-shirts had something to do with wildlife or Yak and Yetti.  It rained quite a bit while we were there so then I started feeling like I was in the rain jungle!

Everything here was built around nature.  They had some beautiful animals and birds and they kept them in habitats that were natural to the animals.  There were a lot of quotes about the environment and the earth on all the walls and bare spaces around the park.  One of the things to do here is to go on a safari.  It is always fascinating to me to see these wild animals in their own environment and running loose as you drive through their home.

 

 

Do you know why hippos are usually seen in water?  They stay in the water a lot because they sunburn easily. Maybe I should work on inventing sunscreen for hippos?

We were on a bridge looking down at this.  This was just one side, there was the same thing on the other side.  I'm just glad we were on a STURDY bridge!

I love giraffes.

I don't think you can tell from the pic, but these birds have a pinkish tint.  They are white naturally but they eat a lot of shrimp which is high in carotene.  Thus, they turn pinkish.

This guy was not happy that we were there.  I was glad when we weren't there anymore!

Can you see the cheetahs?  Did you know that they are the only cats that hunt during the day because they can't see at night?

The stripes on the zebra cause an optical illusion to a lion when they are running.  It confuses the lion and makes it off balance.  That's how they survive sometimes.

After the safari, they suggested you see more animals at the Harambe Wildlife Reserve.  We walked through and did some monkeys and gorillas.  They had had 2 baby gorillas born recently.  One was 2 months old and the other was 5 months old. 

This is the 2 month old baby with its mother.

There was another area that had animals too.  We walked through there and saw tigers, a peacock, a macaw and fruit bats.  Fruit bats are the largest bats in the world.  These were all hanging upside down on tree limbs and vines.  You stood inside a "concrete room" that was off the walkway to look at the bats.  I got close to one of the windows to take a picture and realized that all the windows were open areas.  There was no glass or screen or anything to cover the opening.  I was a little concerned about that but then the man standing there giving information told us that the bats have no ankles so they can only hang upside down or fly.  Because they are so big, their wing span was too big for them to fit through the openings. I thought that was pretty interesting.

I forgot about this guy.  He is some kind of monster.

This tiger kept pacing and roaring because she wanted inside the 2 small doors on the left.  She thought her sister was in there.

Here's her sister.  She's taking a nap on the other side of the compound.

Daughter and SIL lived in India for 3 years.  Thank goodness they are back in the USA.  That's a whole different story.  But, while they were there one of their girls was born so I went over to stay for about 3 weeks.  While I was there I learned what a "wallah" was.  If you were a garbage collector, you were a "trash wallah".  There was a man who lived down from them that took in ironing to earn a living and he was the "press wallah".  So, when I saw the sign in the picture below, I had to take a picture of it for Daughter's sake.

I also thought about the rickshaws so Mr. W had to humor me and take a pic in the rickshaw.

Of course every park has characters and we got to see Daisy and get her autograph.

 

 

Of course it rained some this day too and even characters have to stay out of the rain.

Son had picked the ride Mt. Everest Express and since Squeaky wanted me to ride with her, I gave in.  She and I both were scared to death on this ride.  It was a roller coaster with high drops and it goes backward part of the way and it does some of this in the dark.  Does that sound fun to anyone? Amazingly, Squeaky and I survived! :)  Of course, she went back and rode it 2 more times later that day. Don't let this nice mountain fool you!

We had heard that the show, Finding Nemo, was a good one to go to.  So, during the rain, we went to see it.  It was very colorful.  I'm not sure if it was because everyone was so tired or if it really wasn't one that was a good one to see.  Girl-child took a nap during it and DIL tried to take a nap during it.

It really ended up being a short day in comparison to the first 2.  I left around 4:00 and Son's family left around 5:00.  Animal Kingdom was OK but not one that I would have to go back to.

Disney's version of the tree of life.

Me with 3 precious children!