This morning we got up and took a bus to the Animal Kingdom Park an hour earlier than normal because we were staying on the resort. The park has a large tree in the center built around an offshore oil platform. You can't miss it.
Our first "ride" was the one that makes the Animal Kingdom unique - Kilimanjaro Safari. We boarded a open air vehicle and were driven around the safari grounds where we got to be feet away from all sorts of wildlife - flamingos, hippos, alligators, antelope...
...rhinos, lions, and we even got to help "rescue" an animatronic baby elephant from poachers. 
After the safari, we took a walking tour of the Pangani Forest Trail which put us face to face with even more animals. In the African area we came upon a group of street performers that had extra instruments for the boys to play along.
We then went to a live show of the Festival of the Lion King which had live performers singing songs from The Lion King, dancing, jumping on trampolines, swinging on trapezes and getting the crowd to join in on the fun.
We then went up to Dinoland where the kids played for awhile in the Boneyard. This was a huge playground that had casts of dinosaurs that the boys could climb on and slide off of. They could pretend to excavate some bones, or just run around and burn off some steam.
While Aaron continued to explore Dinoland with Grammy and Grandpa, Becky and I talked Alex into the Dinosaur ride which put us into a time traveling buggy which went back to prehistoric times to observe and possibly rescue a baby iguanadon from the meteor that wiped them out. The ride was a little too loud and bouncy for Alex who spent the ride both trying to hang on AND cover both ears.
From there we got to see a new production of Finding Nemo: The Musical. They created songs from the story and performed them on a stage with large puppets, though you could still see the puppeteers. The effect looked great on stage and I could see it being performed on Broadway (if Broadway had 35 minute shows). We made one last mad dash then over to the Kali River Rapids, which was a river raft adventure ride through various Asian habitats. Aaron was so excited to clear the 38" height limit after getting turned away from Soarin' yesterday.
Then we split up and left the kids with the grandparents. They had a buffet dinner in the Animal Kingdom at the Tusker House while Becky and I raced back to the Polynesian. We changed quickly (leaving the camera battery behind) and went to the California Grill restaurant at the top of the Contemporary Resort. We had an excellent meal, maybe the best meal we've ever had, while watching the sun set over Bay Lake. From there we spent the rest of the evening at Pleasure Island, an adults only series of nightclubs. We started, as is tradition for us, with the next showing of the Laugh Factory - an improvisational comedy show using suggestions called out from the audience. We then went across to The Adventurer's Club which is a more eclectic comedy experience that puts on a more scripted show, but a lot of fun nonetheless. We ended the night at and Irish-themed pub called Raglan Road for a nightcap and a performance by an Irish band. It was a fun night out without the kids.
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