Animal Kingdom

As I've said, we had 3 days for all 4 Disney parks, so we had to decide which two were good enough for one day each and which two could be half. Of course Magic Kingdom needed a whole day! And Hollywood Studios have the Tower of Terror...

So for the first day, we wanted to see Animal Kingdom and Epcot Center! We also wanted to save money in form of parking fees, we decided to use the shuttle idea.
Very. stupid. idea.
Later I'll explain why.

We started at Animal Kingdom, because our guide said to get there early in order to actually see animals, which usually hide when it's too hot.
BUT FIRST we wanted to take the great ride Expedition Everest.

After we convinced my mum, it wasn't a real roller coaster and totally easy (still don't know how we did this) she agreed to come with us.
It was a little mean... true, it's not a real coaster, it has no loops, but it actually goes forward, backwards and in the dark. I loved it!

Then, we finally wanted to see some animals:

Wait ... some animals!

And they were all so busy sleeping! But actually you can watch more animals in every smaller zoo...
At that point I noticed something. Is it possible, that a lot of Animal Kingdom's employees are disabled??
I'm not so sure, but it seemed like it.

We then took a ride for Dinoland:

But a big part of it was closed! Therefore, we took the Dinosaur ride two times, which was really fun.

We had lunch:

My second corndog ever. I've had one before in Tokyo, but it was really gross! So this time I wanted an authentic one. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! Too bad they don't sell this stuff in Germany.

Finally, let me tell you something about the emblem of Animal Kingdom: The Tree of Life.

It's a huge tree, which first seems really wrinkly.

But when you get closer, you can see dozens of animals in it!

Obviously noone cares, that the "Tree of Life" is made out of plastics and cement... oh well.

Key Largo and Everglades

On our way to the Everglades Nationalpark and Fort Myers we took a stop at Key Largo (largest of the keys), because the whole way north would have been too long.

I'm sure Key Largo is a lovely place with lots of great sights ... but we only had half a day left, we were going to leave the next day and our guide didn't say anything about good sights, except one, which was actually right next to our hotel! (Holiday Inn)

It's the boat African Queen from the movie Key Largo (1948) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I guess it's not the very same boat, but a rebuilt, but no one cares. Actually the island had a different name first, but then Hollywood came, shot this great movie, which had worldwide success and the people thought: "Why don't we name our island like the movie, so many tourists will come?" AND BAM! Key Largo it was.
Great story, isn't it?

But other to that, we had nothing to do in Key Largo, so we spend rest of the day here:

Sadly, pools aren't big refreshment, because water temperature = outside temperature. It's like walking into a tube. But you can arrange better with the heat inside water.

The next day, we got up early to drive to Fort Myers and make a stop at Everglades to see some alligators.
My mum and I wanted to take a guided tour instead of just walking and because we're very convincing (and annoying) my dad finally agreed. Lucky him - the tour was for free and started just at our arrival, so we didn't even had to wait.
Sun was really cooking that day, there was no shade at all and we forgot suncream, so we kinda rushed it. But we did see alligators!
A lot.

Just to make sure. It's not the same one!
They also have lots of other animals like turtles and birds and frogs ... and mosquitos! Damn it, I hate them!!

But something I've learned! I've you're afraid of mosquito bites, just hang in the sun! Mosqitos dry out in the sun and that's why they only "live" in the shades.

We bought the anti mosquito spray 'Off', which must be the most deadly chemical cosh ... it really keeps them away.
German sprays DON'T HELP HERE!