Nora Evelyn

Jen and I first visited Animal Kingdom during our honeymoon back when it had *just* opened. At the time it was equal parts not-very-good zoo and not-very-amusing amusement park. It has since gotten vastly better at being both. I spent almost no time during this visit feeling like I was staring at miserable, sweaty animals who wished more than anything they’d decided to go to Epcot or the Magic Kingdom that day. The resident animals seem healthy, the detail and consistency of the theming is nothing short of extraordinary, and “Expedition Everest” is the most surprising, engaging, and entertaining roller coaster I’ve ever ever been on.

Nora had a blast and one of the cool things about this park now is that it’s the only park I’ve ever been to where having a jumbled mass of people wandering around actually reinforces the theme.

The giraffe, smiling, and daredevil pictures come courtesy of Papa’s camera.

This was supposed to be in the Nora and Pooh post earlier. Oops.

Here is a series of videos of Nora meeting Disney characters. As you can see, she was very shy and didn’t enjoy it at all.

Nora and Jen left Houston early Thursday morning to fly to Orlando and meet up with Papa and Baba who flew in from Detroit. I joined them late that night after a day of teaching. Here are some shots they took before I got to town.

Jen: “hey nora, how about if, instead of going to school today, we go get on an airplane and go see Papa and Baba?”
Nora: *thinking* “hrm… what are my friends having for lunch today?”
Me: “arroz con pollo, broccoli and salad”
Nora: “some of those things are not meat.”
Jen: “it’s true, some of those things are not meat.”
Nora: “let’s go see Papa and Baba!”
Me: “how about if we go to Florida to see them?”
Nora: “and Mickey Mouse?”
Jen: “yes, and Mickey mouse.”
Nora: *grinning widely* “okay.”

Nora’s quite a bit bigger than the last time she dipped her toes in the Pacific Ocean, and her reaction this time was more along the lines of “brrrrr!”

Parker took us to play at a fun park:

We went back to the museum later in the week and managed, this time, to make it inside! Beneath the rainforest with its free flying tropical birds and swarms of butterflies (how do they keep the birds from eating the butterflies?) is the aquarium! Nora loved the tunnel and getting to touch the tidal pool critters.