On a cloudy, cold and rainy day, we visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom today with my brother and his wife. The weather was, of course, still very warm to us (although I did add a jacket to my shorts and shirt).

We headed straight to Expedition Everest and rode it three times back to back to back. It’s really a well-done attraction, with lots of great Nepalese/Tibetan detailing (I’ve uploaded some pictures in the Walt Disney World photo section).

The rest of the day in a nutshell: lunch at Restaurantosaurus (the fancy Animal Kingdom McDonald’s), a ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris, back to Asia to watch Finding Nemo - The Musical, a fourth ride on Expedition Everest and two rides on Primeval Whirl. Half of the group skipped those last two, opting to see the Festival of the Lion King instead. My brother knew some of the people there, so they got to sit in the front row and my youngest got to be an assistant in front of the whole crowd.

We stopped at Super Target on the way home, picked up some food for dinner (and Super Bowl snacks) and watched the movie Cars for a nightcap. I listened to some of the Wild game online and can’t wait to see them later this week (against Florida no less).

Tomorrow: sleep in, then football all night. Go Bears! Go Tony!

Yesterday was the day we picked to stay out of the parks and visit some of the resort hotels (along with Downtown Disney). I slept in until almost 11:30am and woke up to my cell phone ringing. My mother-in-law called to make sure we were OK–tornadoes had ripped through central Florida overnight and killed at least 15 people. The storm was about 50 miles north of us, so we were not impacted. Our thoughts go out to those affected by the devastation.

We met my brother at the Polynesian Hotel for lunch. Many of my childhood trips to Walt Disney World were spent at the Polynesian and it remains one of my favorite hotels. The Kona Cafe is a newer addition to the hotel, but we ate there last time we visited as well. I had a chicken in peanut sauce dish with sticky rice and macaroni salad that had too many peppers for my liking, but tasted very good. (more…)