Upon exiting the KS ride, DD noticed another CM that had some bling bling around her neck. She was really starting to get into the whole pin trading activity! Here she is with her second pin trading encounter (Disclaimer... DW only took the pin from the CM... she did not actually attach it to DD's lanyard! LOL!) :
Since DD didn't really know (or care) what the actual worth of the pins were, she simply went with her gut during the trades. It was fun to watch her check out each pin and making her decision. Not sure how this activity would have done if we started the year before. Seems we had good timing here... yeah!
At his point I took a survey to see what we were going to do next. We did not have any kind of itinerary for this park, so we really had no constraints on what to see or do this day. Since we were so close and had never tried it before, I mentioned Rafiki's Planet Watch. After casting our votes, the tally came in with 3 yeses! Cool! Off to RPW we go!
I have to make an admission here... I had no idea what to expect from RPW. Never before had I read anything about it, so I wasn't sure what there was to do. And I certainly did not know that you HAD to take a train to get there. To me that seemed strange. What if the train breaks down?? So we stroll up to the entrance and see there is a good-sized line... but we were thinking the line must move quickly since it's a train. As we were standing in line I took my hat off to take another look at my newly acquired Buzz pin. Ummmmm... where is Buzz?? He was nowhere to be found. No back in the hat either. I was getting pretty upset about it. We looked all around the area we were in... nothing. Problem is, I took the hat off during the ride on KS, so it could have fallen off then. This would be the reason behind my comment of the problematic rubber backs.
I apologized to DD for losing the pin so quickly.
Well... the wait was longer than anticipated. A train had come, picked up a bunch of people and left... and we were still in line. I had apparently overestimated the capacity of the train. We ended up taking some more pictures and discussed future plans while we waited.
Now you see her....
Now you don't!
After what seemed like an eternity (about 30 minutes), we finally boarded the train to RPW. The actual train ride is quite... ummmm... boring. I would have thought more would have been staged... or landscaped.. but I don't recall anything like that. Anywho... the train arrives and we disembark. The first activity along the way is Habitat Habit! Interesting way to get kids to look at their own habitat and see what's in it. DD enjoyed this activity:
Up the trail from there is the Conservation Station:
Sitting outside the building is one of the portable ice cream stands and figured it was about time for a snack. Why not? The QSDP provides for 2 snacks per day... and with the temperature starting to rise, ice cream was sounding pretty good. We each order a Mickey Head Ice Cream Bar
and sit down at the picnic table to eat. DD gets about 3 bites into the bar and for some reason she decides she wants to move seats or something and starts to get up. I have no idea what happened, but all of a sudden DD is on the ground... with a melting Mickey Head Bar beside her. I help her to the table and ask if she is ok... which she was... then proceeded to get frustrated as to what she was trying to do (and wasting a perfectly good ice cream bar). She had ice cream and chocolate all over her hands and the side of her shorts. Ugh! We get her cleaned as best we could with a few napkins from the stand and proceed to find the restrooms in the Conservation Station. DW was able to get most of the stuff off her and we try to resume normal operations. But at this point the day is really starting to get to me and it was getting harder not to show my displeasure.
This is not good... in the Happiest Place On Earth!!
The Conservation Station is really a cool place to visit if you are into finding out what efforts are being done to conserve wildlife and the planet in general. They have various stationed set up in the building that you can explore. There are also CM's roaming around to answer questions and show you unique things. There happened to be a demonstration going on with a falcon on display. DD wanted to get her picture taken with the bird:
We even got to meet Jiminy Cricket!! I've never seen him before... and DD didn't quite know what to do. She didn't know who he was (still working on the classics with her). But she ended up getting his signature... quite shyly I might add!
We just roamed around the place for a while. Must have been about an hour or so. There's just so much to see and learn! DD even got to trade more pins there. Scored a very nice Tink one this time:
A bunch of shots:
Psychedelic, Dude!
Wildlife is exciting....
(continued in next post)
I'll give my DD an extra hug tonight!
. I promptly attached the pin to my hat and proudly wore it for all to see. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of it when I put it on.
I have to say, though, that I could really get myself into the pin trading. But there's toooooo much time in those. There are thousands of pins out there! Some of the CM's were nice enough to tell us if we had a rare pin or not.
Is he crazy?!? The coasters are wayyyy smoother than those trucks! LOL! 
I still partially pay attention if the guide is good. 
This one happened to be the cutest little Owl... and she just HAD to have it. After much deliberation with the treasurer (Mom), DD got her way and we ended up with another Webkinz. Glad we traveled all the way to Florida to get these things!! 
