Vacation 2012: Walk on the wild side.

Day 10: Animal Kingdom

Orlando to Tallahassee

Miles driven: 263

It was our last day at Walt Disney World. After wistfully checking out of our Port Orleans resort, we drove to Animal Kingdom where we began our day in Dino-Land with Dinosaur. Then we rode Primeval Whirl, a fun little wild mouse coaster.

After greeting Pluto and Goofy, we were off to Asia.

It was a big bummer to see Expedition Everest shut down because we really wanted to take two rides on that bad boy, but alas, we went the educational route, making our way through the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

What big bats you have!

It took us a while to figure out where to eat lunch, but the BBQ aromas coming from Flame Tree made us circle back and dine there.

We enjoyed sitting in the shade.

We did NOT enjoy our fellow diners! This crazy creature terrified me with that sharp beak of his. (And the idiots at the table near us kept feeding him! When they left, Mr. Big Bill moseyed our way, and I just knew he would mistake our fingers for food.)

The Flights of Wonder show was incredible.

The views around AK were pretty spectacular, too.

Later we did the Kilimanjaro Safari. Bouncing around in the truck, we saw all kinds of animals.

One of our restroom breaks put us in a prime location for this drumming exhibition:

One of the drummers tried to talk me into dancing with them, but really, that's a job for Katie.

She was a natural!

Too much fun! (By the way, notice her shoes? The sneakers she brought for the trip did a number on her feet, so she became the proud owner of a pair of Mickey sandals for our last day at the parks.)

Fortunately, we were eventually able to use a Fastpass for Everest. It was a great coaster, even if the Yeti didn't jump out at us. (We did see his shadow, however.) The most fascinating part of the ride may have been in the queue. That's where we saw a family pulling the despicable "handicapped" scam. As we saw this group pushing a wheelchair to the front of the line, we heard one of the kids say, "So tomorrow do YOU get to be handicapped?" Ugh.

ANYWAY...

Before ending our time in the kingdom, we wandered under the shade of the crazy-cool Tree of Life...

...and checked out the animal carvings...

...and saw "It's Tough to be a Bug!" After that, we had planned to catch the Finding Nemo show, but the heat and nine days of vacation were wearing on us.

Once aboard the parking lot tram, we heard other guests talking about what a great show Nemo is, and I regretted our decision. But we were really tired, we would've had to wait a good while for the next show, and we had several hours of driving before our next stop.

Onward to Tallahassee!