The Plan Luckily the girls are able to get some decent sleep in the car. Me, eh, not so great, but I didnt mind. We were going to DISNEY!!
Sleep, schmeep! Who needs sleep? We're going to Disney World!
We stopped in Tennessee for breakfast (HI Memom!) and then I drove through lots of fog in the mountains.
You need to make that path come through
Nashville with time for a hippo meet!
DH drove a while until we got to the Florida Welcome Center! Yay! Fresh orange juice!
It's been a while since we have driven, but we are doing so this summer. The Florida Welcome Center is always an exciting stop - if we get to it when it is open. Sometimes we are so early driving through there that it is not even open yet. We make a potty and picture stop, but there is no juice for us, and we can't stock up on a few dozen pamphlets to read the rest of the way.
We arrived at AKV around 5 p.m. Two of DHs 4 sisters had just taken a cruise that had come in at Port Canaveral. So they drove on over to see us for a little bit. One of them lives in Florida and one in Virginia, so we dont see them much. Its fun to meet at WDW though! They werent staying, so we checked in and visited with them while we got some dinner at The Mara and then the kids swam in the pool.
I love this.
Just sitting out by the pool catching up with family you don't get to see - very special.
This was the first time Sarah was allowed to have charging privilege on her KTTW card and she was very anxious to use it. So she wanted to have something to keep it safe and dry in. We went over to the Zawadi Marketplace and she bought a waterproof case for it ALL BY HERSELF!
Your girls are growing up - and what wonderful young ladies they are going to be! I bet she felt so grown-up doing that.
We headed out to the pool so the girls could swim. Love the zero depth entry!
Those pools are great. Art of Animation has that in the Nemo pool, too, so hopefully they will be doing more pools that way as they create new resorts.
The next day was Sunday, October 14. The plan for the day was to spend some quality time at Animal Kingdom. Wed neglected it in past trips some trips we just didnt have a lot of days or wed only spent a half-day there. We were even contemplating tackling Everest this time! None of us had ever ridden it before.
Neglected Animal Kingdom??? Bad, bad, bad!
You know we love that park!
What else you got in there, fella?
We saw so many animals! The CM was out setting out some food and he was so close and just started chatting with those of us out on our balconies. It was really cool!
Brooklynn and I would have been loving that!
Sarah decided that giraffes should be called gylas and zebras should be zeebies. Okaaaay
Gotta love tweens and teens and all of their silliness. I love that you shared this. Jill went through a stage when she called police officers 'po po', and there was some contest that went with that where you said po po and touched the ceiling of your car for a point.
Kids are fun, aren't they?
This trip we decided NOT to do the
DDP. We like sharing meals and often will get three meals for the four of us. I like to order appetizers too.
The dining plan is too much food for us. We don't drink much soda, and we definitely don't get desserts at every meal, so unless it's a 'free dining' time, it's not a good deal for us.
And that was our safari ride. Not the best pictures I've ever gotten on that ride, but always fun to look for the animals and hear people say - "look at that" and help each other spot them!
Definitely cute to be on a jeep with first-timers and hear them
ooh and
aah and hear the kids' squeals over seeing the animals.
Well, I feel like we've just had a conversation, Sheree! Nice chatting with you. I look forward to more Animal Kingdom fun next time.
As for the gorilla, the last time we saw Lilly, she was nowhere near that size, so unless she has grown leaps and bounds, that is not her. Sadly, I didn't get to see her in March. She will soon be big like the others, and we won't be able to tell her apart from anyone else. They need to put different colored bandanas on them so we can know who is who.
P.S. My reading group just finished reading a book called
Gorillas and Chimpanzees. Yes, it was my choice, and yes, I quite enjoyed reading it with them and showing them Animal Kingdom pictures to supplement the learning.
Gotta use any way you can to sneak a little Disney into a work day, right?
But I have friends that have never flown & never will & have driven to Florida many many times over the years.
I'm so glad you came out of lurkdom!! Thanks for joining in! Little preview - Hilton Head is AH-MAZING!!!
So excited to hear what you thought of Disney's HHI resort!
And I thought that our 16 hour drive was a lot. 
