Monday morning found Pete and I trying to sleep in. The kids woke up looking sleepy- but ready to go. We appeased them for a bit with some cartoons while we snoozed a bit more.
The chance of rain was the highest for Monday, so we had planned that to be our break day from the parks. We had read about Gatorland in one of the guidebooks, and decided to check it out. Much of it was under cover, so that made it a good choice.
I could have stood and watched these guys all day. There were pond areas with smaller gators and larger gators. They were pretty active, and you could toss handfuls of food in at them too. Pete got a particularly funny video of one gator who had rain dripping on his nose from the roof, but he must have thought it was food coming from the sky- as he kept snapping at it.
The rain did come in a serious way. It poured. There was plenty of thunder and lightning as well. This peacock came in and perched over our heads to try to escape the deluge. (There was a petting zoo on the grounds as well.)
This area had 3 different white alligators. They weren't albino, as their eyes were blue. They had some other name, but I don't remember what it was. This guy was apparently so aggressive that a trainer entering his pen had to have a couple of back-ups helping out.
We got a couple of commemorative smashed pennies.
And Pete tried out this daring move.
The rain held us back from enjoying everything that Gatorland had to offer. They weren't doing the "jumparoo" show or feedings, for example, but we would still recommend it to anyone traveling to Orlando.
After spending some time with present-day reptiles, we drove our orange van over to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the T-Rex Café. It's a sister to the Rainforest Café, and just as outrageous. In this picture you can see that we were sitting in the underwater section. In the background you can see the ice cave, which changed colors whenever the periodic "meteor shower" came through.
Here are Henry and Clara with the giant t-rex that greets you at the entrance of the restaurant. He's animatronic, of course.
After our meal we went out to the big sandbox where the kids were able to pick up paintbrushes and play paleontologist.
Finally, here's the wet dino on the outside of the restaurant. We did try to shop around Downtown Disney a bit, but we got pretty wet. We spent that night with a little bit of television and popcorn back at the timeshare.
The chance of rain was the highest for Monday, so we had planned that to be our break day from the parks. We had read about Gatorland in one of the guidebooks, and decided to check it out. Much of it was under cover, so that made it a good choice.
I could have stood and watched these guys all day. There were pond areas with smaller gators and larger gators. They were pretty active, and you could toss handfuls of food in at them too. Pete got a particularly funny video of one gator who had rain dripping on his nose from the roof, but he must have thought it was food coming from the sky- as he kept snapping at it.
The rain did come in a serious way. It poured. There was plenty of thunder and lightning as well. This peacock came in and perched over our heads to try to escape the deluge. (There was a petting zoo on the grounds as well.)
This area had 3 different white alligators. They weren't albino, as their eyes were blue. They had some other name, but I don't remember what it was. This guy was apparently so aggressive that a trainer entering his pen had to have a couple of back-ups helping out.
We got a couple of commemorative smashed pennies.
And Pete tried out this daring move.
The rain held us back from enjoying everything that Gatorland had to offer. They weren't doing the "jumparoo" show or feedings, for example, but we would still recommend it to anyone traveling to Orlando.
After spending some time with present-day reptiles, we drove our orange van over to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the T-Rex Café. It's a sister to the Rainforest Café, and just as outrageous. In this picture you can see that we were sitting in the underwater section. In the background you can see the ice cave, which changed colors whenever the periodic "meteor shower" came through.
Here are Henry and Clara with the giant t-rex that greets you at the entrance of the restaurant. He's animatronic, of course.
After our meal we went out to the big sandbox where the kids were able to pick up paintbrushes and play paleontologist.
Finally, here's the wet dino on the outside of the restaurant. We did try to shop around Downtown Disney a bit, but we got pretty wet. We spent that night with a little bit of television and popcorn back at the timeshare.
1 comment:
I have some gatorland pics from when we went to FLA when I was about Henry's age. Great rainy day post!
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