Note: Foto Fridays will resume next week.

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Remember yesterday when I was mocking Andy for being a 12-year-old boy and wanting to do the African safari twice? Well, um, on the last day of our Disney World vacation, I asked if we could go back to Hollywood Studios and play Midway Mania. FOUR more times.

Proof of his love: he said yes.

We also tried to win one of the three-eyed aliens during our lunch at Pizza Planet, but the game was somewhat rigged. We spent most of our quarters playing air hockey instead.

And yes, Andy wore the unnecessarily warm Posluszny jersey all day. To his credit, he did not whine about his accidentally scheduling our vacation on the first Sunday of pro football. (I made him get all that out of the way before we left for Florida.)

And last but not least, we took a backlot tour of Hollywood Studios, where we saw Walt Disney’s private plane, the Mickey Mouse-eared water tower, and this beautiful, beautiful sign.

Beautiful mostly because the people ON it are so attractive. From what I’ve heard, I may be disappointed in Grey’s moving forward. But you know what? Meredith and Derek are back together. So if needed, I can pretend the show ended last year with their reunion. Just like I pretend that Vaughn never died (AND THEN CAME BACK TO LIFE WTH) on Alias.

Anyway, that was the end of our lovely vacation. I have to say, Andy did a superb job planning it out — and making sure I was fed at proper intervals throughout the day — so I think it’s my turn to organize our next vacation. Unfortunately I am both averse to and bad at planning things, and Andy is both averse to and bad at flying by the seat of his pants. So stayed tuned, friends, because next year, our vacation recap may contain a whole lot more CRAZY and whole lot less “magic.” :P

Yes, believe it or not, there are more days from Disney that I have not discussed. But only two. And I’ll go fast, because Animal Kingdom is mostly about the visuals anyway.

This is the Tree of Life, the centerpiece of Animal Kingdom. It’s pretty sweet, what with the ANIMALS CARVED INTO THE TRUNK and all. There is also a sweet Bug’s Life-inspired 3D show inside it. Yes, INSIDE the tree.

First thing we did was the African safari, because we wanted to catch all the critters before it got hot and they wanted to nap. Of course, we forgot that they are critters and therefore like to nap ALL THE TIME. Fortunately we still got to see some.

King of the Jungle.

Baby elephant + baobab tree.

Antelope-like things.

We also did the walking safari of Asia, i.e., saw more animals napping. Like these tigers.

The meerkats were pretty alert, though. As was the bunny in the habitat with them. Said bunny obviously does not realize he is in ASIA.

We also got to meet a few animals in person. Like Tarzan’s friend Turk, and Andy’s favorite Disney character, JC aka Jiminy Cricket.

Note the awesome souvenir Mickey ears we got as our SECOND Dream Come True!

Later we went BACK to the African safari, because Andy is really just a bigger version of a 12-year-old boy, and that was his favorite thing of the day. (Like I’m one to talk. Just see what we did on Day 5 when I post about it tomorrow…)

Speaking of faves, this is a baby giraffe. This “baby” is probably like five times my size. And all sorts of gangly and awkward. I heart giraffes.

Really big rhino.

Ostrich. Who was in the road. In front of our vehicle. And did not care.

Just before Animal Kingdom closed, we stopped into Tusker House for our dinner, and let me tell you, that African-influenced buffet was delicious! I particularly loved the passionfruit pastry they had for dessert. And the hummus. Mmm, hummus…

We ended the night by taking the ferryboat over to Disney’s Boardwalk resort, which is right across from the Swan and Dolphin resorts, where my parents and I stayed fifteen years ago. I know this because I still have in my possession MANY complimentary toiletries with swans on them.

This Day at Disney was brought to you by Capital Letters. ALL OF THEM. Because I know how much Angie loves them. (And I’m too lazy to hit Ctrl-I. Seriously, just holding Shift is so much easier.)

(No Foto Friday this week, since all these Disney recaps are pretty image-heavy.)

Day 2 of our Magical Disney Vacation was reserved for Magic Kingdom, probably the most iconic of the four parks at Disney World. Tomorrowland and Fantasyland had Extended Magic Hours that morning, so we got an early start. Unfortunately the first ride we did was Stitch’s Great Escape, in which you get blasted with warm chili breath. Seriously, the technology is amazing, but the application left something to be desired. Andy was pretty amused, but I can think of about eighty billion better ways to begin the day.

The rest of Tomorrowland was neat though, with my fave being the tram ride that takes you all around — and even inside — some of Tomorrowland’s rides, including Space Mountain. Then when we actually rode Space Mountain, we were presented with a dream!

Since it’s Disney’s Year of a Million Dreams (well, really second Year of a Million Dreams) they go around giving a few random people freebies and calling them “dreams come true.” We got TWO!! This was our first, and it essentially let us cut to the front of the line of the most popular rides in the Magic Kingdom. Sweet, huh?

Unrelated but amusing, this Tomorrowland talking trash can totally freaked out a little girl coming out of the restroom.

In Fantasyland, I convinced Andy to do the classic Mad Tea Party ride by promising not to spin our teacup too much. (Wuss.)

We also did the “it’s a small world” boat ride, which was probably my clearest memory from going to Disney World with my parents as a child. Most of my pictures came out blurry, since I hadn’t yet found the best setting for these dark, high-activity situations, but hey, I got Spain!

After the rest of Magic Kingdom opened, we made our way to Liberty Square, where we apparently committed some heinous crime and had to be punished.

(Note: I am so short I cannot even stand in the stocks properly. Extra humiliation.)

After Liberty Square and Frontierland, we checked out the “inside” of Cinderella’s Castle, which turned out to be a big hallway with beautiful mosaics of the Disney princess fairy tales. There’s definitely more in the upper levels, but that hallway, a sit-down restaurant, and the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique were all that was accessible to the general public.

At some point between the Castle and Adventureland, I began to question whether my Old Navy flip flops were really going to get me through this whole trip. Seeing as my feet were ready to fall off and it was only Day 2, the odds weren’t looking good. And so began our epic quest for Kristan’s Crocs. The color combo I liked best was aqua and yellow, but apparently that was only for kids, and small as I may seem, I was sadly unable to squish my feet into a size 5. So we began to stop at every kiosk and gift shop and examine their Croc selection, hoping against hope that a new adult color combo would show up. None did.

Perhaps that is why, at our fabulous character dinner with Winnie the Pooh and friends, I had an Eeyore face.

Overall Magic Kingdom was geared much more towards small-ish children than the other three parks, but it was still fun to see all the iconic Disney World attractions. After dinner we caught the SpectroMagic parade and Wishes fireworks show, and then headed home for some much-needed, well-deserved sleep.

On Tuesday night, we reluctantly dropped Riley off for his six-night stay at the Pet Spot and then consoled ourselves with delicious City BBQ. I don’t remember what else we did that night, but I do remember Andy not being able to sleep because he was like a five-year-old on Christmas Eve, and I do remember waking up at 5:30 am (30 min before the alarm was set to go off) because even my unconscious was worried about not being ready to leave at exactly 6:30 am, when ever-punctual, paranoid Andy wanted to go.

The flight there was smooth as can be, and we arrived without problem to Orlando International Airport. The Disney Magical “Express” was not as magical or express as the name would lead you to believe — you have to wait in line to check in to Disney, then wait in line to board the chartered bus — but it was definitely convenient. We stayed at the All-Star Sports resort (anyone who knows Andy is not surprised by that, for a multitude of reasons) and had no problem checking in. Well, except for them saying internet was neither free nor wireless. I was like, Seriously? In the 21st century? At Disney, the most magical place on earth? How can you be magical without free wifi? And the check-in clerk was like, Yes, seriously.

Anyway, with half a day to play, we headed over to Hollywood Studios, the smallest of Disney World’s four parks, but I think my favorite. The highlights were as follows:

Tower of Terror (duh), Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n Rollercoaster, and Midway Mania, the new “4D” Toy Story game. Midway Mania was the only ride on our whole vacation with a longer than 20-min wait (at about 45-60 min) but it was totally awesome and so, SO worth it.

This is Andy demonstrating proper Midway Mania dress and form. You pull the rope back from the blaster to shoot at targets on the screen in front of you, targets made 3D via the very cool yellow classes. Now, you’re not actually shooting anything — it’s all infrared or something — but the accuracy and responsiveness is amazing. And you’re actually on a track going around to five or six different shooting screens/scenarios. Did I mention TOTALLY AWESOME?!

Later we checked out several good exhibits, including One Man’s Dream, about Walt Disney and how he went from cartoonist to inventor, entrepreneur, and corporate genius. After reading more about him, I really believe he had a huge, good heart.

We also ran into WALL-E, and of course I couldn’t resist giving the little guy a kiss.

For dinner we went to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, which simulates an old drive-in and plays clips from sci-fi movies and cartoons. Random, but fun.

The night ended with Fantasmic, a lights/fireworks/musical spectacular.

It was a great day and a great start to a great trip. (Did I mention great?!) The whole day I kept experiencing (and bugging Andy with talk about) deja vu, because I’d come before with my parents, but my seven-year-old view had distorted some things. It was fun/ny to see how the pieces of my memory lined up — or didn’t — with reality.

Stay tuned for Day 2…

Disney World rocks. More on that later, probably.

For now I’ve resigned myself to not getting much writing done today, as I try to settle back into normal, non-”magical” life.

When we got home last night, Potato was all, “DUDE. I can’t believe the dog got to go to a swank hotel and play with his friends all day, and you just left me here with a handful of crickets and meal worms. You guys suck.” And we were all, “But we love you because you’re the easy one.” And she was all, “… Oh fine.”

Then this morning I picked Riley up from the Pet Spot, and he was all, “OMG YOU’RE BACK I THOUGHT YOU LEFT ME FOREVER BUT YOU DIDN’T AND NOW I’M GOING TO JUMP ALL OVER YOU AND LICK YOUR FACE AND HEY DO YOU WANT TO GO PLAY WITH PUPPIES IT’S LOTS OF FUN WHERE’S DAD ARE WE GOING HOME NOW CAN I HAVE FOOD I NEED TO PEE!”

Now he’s passed out on the bed (taking up ALL of it, of course) and I’m doing laundry, cleaning, reading the eight zillion things online that I missed, and wondering what the heck I’m going to make for lunch out of the Club crackers, apples, and soy sauce that we have in the kitchen.

Oh life.

Yes, yes, I’m sure it was 1864. I remember now, because the year sounded very strange. Libby-ah, just listen to it: Yi-ba-liu-si. Miss Banner said it was like saying: Lose home, slide into death. And I said, No, it means: Take hope, the dead remain. Chinese words are good and bad this way, so many meanings, depending on what you hold in your heart. (p 32)

More from/about Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses at iluv2read.

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Andy and I are off to Disney World tomorrow morning. See ya next week!

Hey, Mom, Dad? Can I go wit you to Disney World next week? I’m all ready! See?