The best birthday party EVER

I arrived in Florida on Thursday evening and my sister Jessica and niece Ellie picked me up from the airport. We drove to their home in Gainsville and then Jessica and I went out for Mexican food. Kind of crazy, I know, but I wanted some Mexican food without it being smothered in Chili sauce. I can't get what I consider to be "regular" Mexican food in Las Cruces.

The next morning we headed to Disney World and spent the day at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It was pretty awesome to go at full speed without an kids around. We even had someone give us their fast passes at one of the rides. We watched the fireworks at Epcot.

At the Haunted Mansion.

We happened to catch a performance by Captian Jack Sparrow--I really good impersonation, I must say. Earlier that morning I had said, "I hope we see Jack." I guess wishes do come true in Disney Land.

We went on "It's a Small World" just for old-time sake. It's still a cheesy (but classic) ride.

Ah! Shark!

Eating our funnel cake after the fireworks at Epcot. After that, we went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, it was 11:00pm or something crazy like that. We figured we could go to bed at midnight, sleep eight hours, and still be there when the first park opened at 9:00am the next morning. And that's pretty much how it went.

Day two was crazy. We went to four theme parks in one day--starting at 9:00 when they opened and staying until the last ride closed at 11:00 pm. I left my camera in Jessica's car for part of the day so I'll have more pictures when she e-mails.

We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom.

We started with Lion King, the musical, and then went on to Nemo, the musical.

This is us being lions.

Me and Mickey. Usually, I am thrilled to see Mickey. Only this time, it was quite obvious that Mickey was a girl and that kinda lost a little of the magic for me.

"The tree of life"

On our Jungle Safari. It was pretty sweet.

All the jeeps had to stop because a Rhino a few Jeeps in front of us decided to sit in the middle of the road. This picture was taken without any zoom.

Those Rhinos.


I don't remember the name of this thing, but it was really close. You can see the shadow of our Jeep in the front of the picture and our Safari was around mid day.



All morning long, I kept saying I wanted Mashed potatoes, gravy and Chicken. Somehow the thought of eating a 6.00 hot dog for lunch just wasn't satisfying. Luckily, someone told us about "Tuskers." It's a semi-hidden buffet in the Animal Kingdom that had no wait, at all. It was $20.00, but we could have as much as we wanted and they had. . .Chicken, (and yummy prime roast) and the best mashed potatoes and gravy ever! Those dreams just keep coming true in Disney World! (Oh, and Jessica got us 10% off because she is a Florida season pass holder.)


Next, we went back to Epcot (no pictures, yet) to ride a ride that Taylor suggested. Only, the line was an hour long and we didn't have time to come back during the fast past time. We decided to fast pass it, anyway, just in case. Well, my ticket wouldn't work to get the fast past so I had to get a worker to come help us. She did, but while she did, she set down a stack of fast passes that had just been used and were still valid--I just asked for two and she gave them to us! Wahoo! No line. Dreams coming true, right?

We then headed to Hollywood studios and saw the Indiana Jones show and Fantasmic (Which was awesome). The back lot tour was closed, but that's OK, we did other things.

Finally, we went to the Magic Kingdom. I wanted to see Tinkerbell at the begining of the fireworks show, but we were running a little late. A man at the tram told us, we would never make it. I told him, Dreams come true at Disney Land! And, it worked out just perfectly. We ran (sprinted) from the tram to the waiting Moner-el (don't know how to spell) that happened to be the one direct to Magic Kingdom. From there, we sprinted to the gates, got a nice (read: fast) lady that checked our bags and made it with a few minutes to spare. Go Tink!

Just before the fireworks began.




Saying "Good-bye."

It was awesome, thanks so much for everyone who helped get me there!