Jekyll Island

We needed to stop somewhere on the way back from Disney, so we ended up deciding on Jekyll Island.  None of us had ever heard of it before.  It was in Southern Georgia in a group of islands called the Golden Isles.  It was pretty quiet there.  Our hotel was kind of a dump, but it was right on the beach and it was cheap and good enough.  It was a nice little stop for 2 nights.  

A few miles from our hotel was Driftwood Beach.  It was pretty lovely.  Lots of driftwood.

The view of the sea from our hotel.  Even though the room was a little shabby, the outside areas and proximity to the beach were nice.  And the breakfast was pretty good too.

The water was very warm.  The difference between low and high tide there was big.  The beach was very flat and waves were not very big.  The weather was also very good.  It was close to 100 but with a sea breeze it felt just perfect. And there was no rain while we were there. 

We mostly had the beach to ourselves.  

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was surprisingly I think everyone's favorite park.  That and Epcot.  Animal Kingdom was very lovely and felt more relaxed.  The safari ride was very fun and we saw a lot of animals.  The Lion King show was also very very good.  And we all liked Kali River Rapids.  Anna thought it was a little scary at the end but mostly liked it.   For lunch we ate at Yak and Yeti, which was a Chinese restaurant.  It was a perfect lunch and our server was very charming.

That night we went back to our hotel to eat at Boma, an restaurant that is an African themed buffet and other things. It was very good.  The kids ate a lot!

We all dressed in our best safari gear.  Lukey wore a dinosaur shirt because there's a dinosaur dig part of the park.  We didn't make it to that though because it was rainy at the point of the day that we were going to do that.  There's also a Dinosaur ride but its under construction. 

Tim and I came back to Animal Kingdom at night while the kids watched a poolside movie (Beauty and the Beast) with Nana and Pa.  We went on Expedition Everest and watched a little of the Jungle Book light show over the lake.  We also watched this tree and it lit up and then the bark that is shaped like animals and things somehow moved around then a story was projected on the trunk.  I have no idea how they did it, but it was really cool.  

Anna being grumpy while we were waiting the few minutes before the park opened.  The kids were pretty good on the trip overall but sometimes got cranky about waiting or being told no to us buying them things or going on a ride again when there was a long wait.  They were very good about walking and not complaining about being tired.  They took turns with an umbrella stroller the first 2 days, then we didn't take it the rest of the trip.  They didn't need it and it only made them fight.  

The way Animal Kingdom opens is by letting these macaws out. They fly around for awhile then perch.  Pretty exciting.  

Tim on the safari ride. The next few pictures are all of the safari ride.  

Hippos!!

Lukey was very excited to see the lion!  Before we saw it, the whole ride he was telling everyone to let him know if they saw a lion.  Finally, we did!

The kids say this picture is of a white walker.  They've never seen Game of Thrones so I don't know  how they knew that white walkers have blue eyes like that.  I guess they listen to us more than we realize.

After the safari I made us rush over to the Lion King show.  It was amazing!  

My favorite part of the show was this guy how twirled around fire as another guy was singing "Be Prepared" (the song that Jeremy Irons sings as Uncle Scar in the Lion King).  It was mesmerizing!

Tim took this picture of a gorilla on the gorilla trail.  Pretty handsome.

You can see the shapes on the tree that are animals, etc.  How did the light show make it look like these were moving??