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Christi's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/2/00 -------------------- 11/1/00 10/31/00 10/31/00 10/30/00 10/29/00 10/28/00 10/27/00 10/23/00 10/14/00 -------------------- Christi's Introduction

November 2, 2000

Today we went to Animal Kingdom. We first hit Dinosaur Land and Alexis and Caleb rode what used to be called "Countdown to Extinction." It is not simply called Dinosaur and Alexis came off of it scared to death and vowed to never ride it again. Phill agreed it was pretty scary but he wishes he could have read it while it was still "Countdown" because it has been toned down some.

Caleb loved the dinosaur part of the park. He picked out a small dino that he could carry around all day, and he was simply in awe of all of his surroundings.

Phillip and Alexis then rode the Kali River Ride. Phill says it was short, but you got very wet. After walking for a while through some tours and looking at everything we decided to get fast passes for the big safari ride. This was such a neat ride. We loaded up in this huge bus that had no doors or windows and headed on a very bumpy path out into the wilderness. We went through many different places, the wilderness of many different countries. We didn't get to see many animals up close, but they were out in the distance.

We decided that we had seen pretty much all we wanted of Animal Kingdom and started to head out. We saw a line forming and joined it and sure enough it was Mickey and Minnie. They were dressed in Safari garb with hats and all. This line took what seemed forever to get through. Caleb was really cranky because it was past lunch time and quickly approaching nap time. But, we had stood in line this long, we may as well wait.

When it was our turn Caleb yelled, "Minnie!" and took off and gave Mickey a big hug. They both signed Alexis' autograph book and then posed for a picture. Caleb had the photographer and the people behind us laughing at his smile. if you say to smile he scrunches his nose up and smiles so big his eyes shut. A pretty funny site.

After we were done there we headed to the very crowded Rainforest Cafe. Caleb was very interested in all that was going on around us. We were seated quickly and didn't wait too long for our food. Afterwards we went to pay and DH had a gift certificate he had gotten online at FreeRide.com. It was marked a $20.00 certificate but rang up as a $25 dollar. That was a pleasant surprise. Both kids picked out a sweatshirt and we headed back to the van. My opinion on them is this ... go and look, the atmosphere is incredible, and the souvenirs are really neat, but the food is mediocre and high priced.

We did miss some pretty good shows, like It's Tough To Be a Bug, and The Lion King. They would have been nice to see, but our timing didn't work out right and we didn't think it was worth waiting for.

We headed over to Downtown Disney. Lego Land was really neat to see. The most amazing things made out of Lego's. A sleeping man (see picture), a dragon in the lagoon that was smoking and all, an entire family, kids in backpacks and strollers included.

We did a little shopping and finally headed back to the condo to spend an evening with family. it was all in all a pretty relaxing day, we did not rush from thing to thing, we just took our time.

Photos:
1. Minnie and Mickey with the kids.
2. The elephants on our safari ride (can you believe this scenery was in Florida?).
3. Phill at the Rainforest being silly to amuse the kids.
4. Outside the Rainforest Cafe.