On the second day, God created "Disney's Animal Kingdom".  And so we went.  This was a new park for us -- we had been many times to Disneyland in Anaheim, and once before to EPCOT, but this park was all new.  Our first real ride there was "It's tough to be a Bug", a 3-D movie with sensory embellishments that were fun.  Below my three buglets (in full 3-D regalia) pose before "the largest dung ball on Earth".

As with most Disney parks, this one is further divided up into 'lands'.  By far our favorite land here was 'Asia'.  The Disney Imagineering team had truly outdone itself; their presentation of Asia was graceful, peaceful, beautiful, exotic and seemingly authentic.  We could really forget we were walking in a theme park.  Below is the Asia ice cream stand, pictured from the front.  They had converted or created an old colorful city bus.  We could not resist.  Also in Asia was our new favorite ride: "Kali River Rapids".  The signs as you approach the ride state that "you will get wet.  You may get soaked".  The day was quite hot, so we were agreeable.  We liked it so much we rode 2 or 3 times that day (using FastPasses every time).

Part of this fanciful Asia included animal exhibits, of course -- this was "Disney's Animal Kingdom", remember.  We really enjoyed the gorilla habitat.  Joya took some excellent gorilla photos there, including the one below.  Within another 'land' here was a Disneyesque safari -- Kilimanjaro Safari -- that was reportedly very popular; indeed, it had a FastPass dispenser as well.  However, while we were making our dinner resevation for EPCOT from the Guest Services counter, we were chatting with the very pleasant cast member helping us, and she liked us so much that at the end of our exchange with her she presented us with a little card we could flash that would let us bypass all the lines and get right on the ride, any time.  She said that she had to deal with mean people all day, and that we all were so nice she wanted to reward us.  It was refreshing -- mostly the polite do not get such recognition.  At any rate, we did ride the Kilimanjaro Safari, but I did not include any photos here -- please see one of the girls personal pages, if you are interested.

Adjacent to 'Asia' was 'Dinoland USA', a little Disney-land devoted to 5 year old boys and their endless thirst for all things related to dinosaurs.  We were in Dinoland to ride a pretty decent thrill ride called 'Dinosaur!', but one the way there we encountered yet another vehicle converted into an eatery.  Given our situation, we had to get the picture below.  Joya commented that an Airstream was probably used as a prop in Dinoland because both date back to the Jurassic period.  It looked just like "home".

This park closed each day at 5, so we headed off at around 4:30 to beat the rush and get over to see some of EPCOT.  We saw some of the attractions while there, but our main reason for getting over to EPCOT was to eat dinner.  Epcot is divided into 2 major parts, a theme park of futuresque rides, and the "World Showcase", which contained exhibits for about a dozen or so countries from all over the world.  Each country had within it a restaurant serving a Disney-representation of that country's native food.  We choose to eat in Morocco that evening, complete with belly dancing and excellent live music by lute and drum.

Joya shot this picture of Doug and Jody at the end of the meal.  We all decided that it had been a good day.