Journal: 17th and 18th May

Monday 17th: Animal Kingdom day.
Adrian nomming on Mickey:

Ready for the 3D It's tough being a Bug show:

We got up early for the Magic Hour at 8am. Did Expedition Everest twice :) Kali River rapids (water ride - bit of a let down), saw a couple of shows including the "Festival of the Lion King" which was absolutely amazing; gymnasts, acrobats, dancers, singers - like a smaller version of the musical we saw in London.
Disney ducks (two different kinds, about 3 m apart from each other!):

We also did a 'safari' which was interesting, this time the animals were real :)

We had lunch at a buffer in Animal Kingdom and then headed to Epcot again. We did a couple more rides at Epcot including a 'build-your-own' simulator ride, "Sum of All Thrills". It let you design components of your simulated ride - we chose the scariest ones: a jet fighter doing loops and banking turns etc. It was great, pretty scary but quite short in duration. Adrian had a go on a Segway.

Dinner was at Tutto Italia at the World Showcase in Epcot. It was OK, but Coral Reef was much better.

After that we returned to Magic Kingdom just in time to catch the big fireworks show, Wishes, at 10pm. It was pretty amazing, watched from Main Street with the castle as a backdrop. Even though we were tired I felt compelled to repeat Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad since it was our last night. Bedtime was around 12.30 or 1am and we had to get up at 5-5.30am to catch our airport shuttle at 6.15.

Tuesday 18th:
Flew from Orlando to Chicago to St. Paul to meet Matt and Jacinda. I was a bit nervous having never met! And worried that we wouldn't have enough to talk about. But we had an awesome time :) I loved it but it makes me sad that we can't hang out with them more.

We got to St Paul about 2.30pm. The first thing we did after dropping off our stuff was go visit the Mississippi River. I dipped my toe in, haha.

Jacinda and Matt made yummy steak for dinner and we went for a walk around their neighbourhood in the evening.

The weather in St Paul is gorgeous - unseasonably warm they said. So nice after the heat down south though! Was about 25 degC today in St Paul. Still a bit much for me in full sunshine but much more welcome than cold or rain of course.