Animal Kingdom Adventures

We woke up bright and early on Thursday morning, ready to head to Animal Kingdom. The plan was to get there in time for rope drop, and for once, we moved efficiently and succeeded!

The last time we went to Disney, we used the touring plan from the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World recommended (and lent to us) by cousin Bob, so back in the spring I purchased this year's book as well as access to the associated website. B and I used YouTube videos and descriptions out of the tour book to eliminate some rides as too scary (Dinosaur, which was closed anyway, and Expedition Everest), but planned to hit the other highlights. We plugged all of that into Touring Plans to get a suggested order of events to minimize time spent standing in line. 

Here's B at the main entrance:

Just inside the main entrance, we happened upon DiVine—yes, that's a person, in costume and on stilts!

Posing in front of the Tree of Life.

They let us through the main turnstiles a bit before 9:00, and we were able to pick up a Wilderness Explorers booklet (a sort of treasure hunt through the park where kids can earn sticker badges at different stations) on our way onto Discovery Island. They held us there until 9:00, when we made a beeline for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waited for only a few minutes before we loaded up onto our safari vehicle and set off. 

This was an AMAZING way to start the day. We saw rhinos, hippos, pelicans, giraffes, elephants, flamingos, cheetahs (B’s favorite!), lions, warthogs, ostriches, zebras, and much more. Our driver stopped in a few places for us to take photos, and some of the animals (not the predators!) were quite close.

We learned that a group of giraffes is called a tower of giraffes.

Next, we made our way to Festival of the Lion King, which is a live show reprising much of the music from the movie, along with some wonderful dancing and acrobatics. Brynna love, love, loved this and we would absolutely have gone back for a second viewing if it had fit into our schedule.

We then walked the Gorilla Falls Trail, where we did indeed see some gorillas (I didn't take pictures—even in a very natural habitat I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of keeping Great Apes in captivity) and Brynna earned a few more badges.

Okapi!

Then came Flights of Wonder, a bird show. This was pretty nifty—the trainers displayed a bunch of natural behaviors and talked about conservation. The photos aren’t as good as I would like—video would have been better but I was busy trying to watch what was going on!

We then had enough time to check out one of the attractions that we were a little iffy about, It’s Tough To Be A Bug, which is a 3D show that the book warned was a little intense. B did end up enjoying it though there was one scary part and she just closed her eyes for a couple of minutes after that. Plus, there was a Wilderness Explorer badge station right outside. About bugs, of course.

Then it was time to take a break. When I was researching Animal Kingdom there were several restaurants nearby and in the park that caught my eye. I ended up making a reservation at Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We waited about 10 minutes for the Disney bus just outside the front entrance, and it was a less than 10 minute ride to the Lodge. We checked in and then wandered outside to the courtyard observation deck—where there were giraffes wandering around nibbling on trees!

The food was great. We shared the bread service with 3 mild dipping sauces, and then I ordered Chickpea Wat and Lentil Dhal on pilaf. We got B some mac and cheese which she barely touched after chowing down on the bread service and her mango lassi—oops! The highlight of my meal was the food. The highlight of her meal was the light-up Tinkerbell that came attached to her straw. It was a lovely meal, and great to just sit down in the AC for awhile.

In the main room at Kidani Village—gorgeous! I know Animal Kingdom Lodge costs an arm and a leg but I'd LOVE to stay here some day.

Practicing our giraffe signs as we returned to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon:

Once back at Animal Kingdom, we used a FastPass to jump the VERY long line at Kali River Rapids. I think we waited about 5 minutes at a time when the line was probably 30 minutes long. This was a ride that B was a little iffy about, but she had watched a video and had friends encourage her to do it, so we stashed our stuff in a locker (you can get soaked—so no pictures!) and went to try it out. She absolutely LOVED it! And we did get quite wet. We decided to try to come back later and ride again when the lines were shorter.

Next up was a walk along the Majarajah Jungle Trek: snoozing tigers and more Wilderness Explorer badges for B! (Yes, that's a tiger there. That brownish thing in the middle of the photo.)

We then strolled through “Asia” and watched the Expedition Everest roller coaster (both of us very relieved that we weren’t riding it).

Next stop was the Finding Nemo musical. It was terrific—for 10 minutes, until the show stopped suddenly, and didn’t end up restarting. Undaunted, we moved on into Dinoland and rode the Triceratop Spin on the way to the awesome dinosaur-inspired playground.

After a little time there, while I messed with the Lines app to try to figure out when we should go back to Kali and when we should plan to do sunset or nighttime Safari, we discovered that it was a GREAT time to go back to Kali. We hightailed it back across the park, stowed our stuff again, and zipped right onto the ride, no waiting at all! We were sharing a raft with a delightful family from Scotland and had a great chat about our vacations. They were looking rather drenched and were in the middle of a Kali River Rapids marathon. We tried to convince the cast member to let us just stay in the raft when the ride was over, but they said we couldn’t do that, so we all got out, ran up the ramp to the top of the loading area (there was still no line, so that was the designated turnaround spot), rounded the pylon, and came back down to all jump in a raft together again for another ride. We would’ve gone again except we had a dinner reservation at Tiffins.

Though I was definitely trying to plan three days of fun for Brynna, today’s food picks were definitely for me. Tiffins was just opening as I was starting my research, and it was getting wonderful reviews. She’s reliable at this point in good restaurants, and though she’d be perfectly happy to eat counter food all day, I thought I’d enjoy sitting down, having a really good meal and a drink, and getting a little bit of a break. Turns out that was true. The food was amazing. We shared a bread service and a beet salad (below) and some black-eyed pea fritters (all off the appetizer menu) along with some fancy drinks, and called that good. Well, plus we had dessert.

She got another light-up Tinkerbell and decided to stow them in her hair.

We were both very excited to do the Safari again at night, so once we paid the bill we headed right back over to get in line. The line was a bit long (I think it was reading about 20 minutes) and a few minutes in, Brynna started to get very nervous and teary. She was worried that the animals would be scary in the dark and that one particular part of the safari ride would be especially alarming in the dark. I tried hard to reassure her and remind her of how amazing it had been the first time, and all the things they did to keep it safe, but she was having none of it. She had a similar irrational collapse in front of the Ariel ride at the Magic Kingdom three years ago (which I actually reminded her about), also from fatigue. I was not going to force her on this ride (especially since we would have had to wait in line for quite awhile yet), so we just called it a night and headed back toward the exit to the park. We paused in front of the Tree of Life for an AMAZING projected light show, which definitely helped us end the night on a high point.

All in all—a spectacular day!

We're Still Here!

So. Hi. Long time no blog.

All is actually well with the Moose Family and we have no excuse for our long absence except for sheer life busy-ness.

Brynna is EIGHT. Seriously.

We have a new dog, Archie, though Jasper is still our favorite. He mostly likes it that we got him an annoying little brother, but sometimes needs to retreat under the coffee table to chill out.

B and I just had quite an adventure in Orlando a couple of weeks ago, and if I can sustain attention long enough, I'm actually planning to post about it!

That story starts last year, when I discovered that I'd be at the AAFP Congress of Delegates in Orlando. B right away picked up on the Orlando part and was very excited about the potential of a Disney World trip. Alex needed to stay in Concord (and has absolutely no interest in going to Disney World anyway), so the first hurdle was how to get Brynna to Florida after my conference ended. (It was three jam-packed days, not at all kid friendly.) We floated the idea of flying as an unaccompanied minor and after Brynna's initial surprise that something like that was even possible, she seized on the idea and talked about it for months!

We are lucky enough to have a direct flight on Southwest from Manchester to Orlando. Alex was able to take her through security in Manchester and hand her off to a flight attendant at the departure gate. I got a pass to go through security in Orlando and pick her up right at the arrival gate. She apparently had a great flight (no surprise, she's a great traveler).

Here she is!

Then it was off to the hotel, where she accompanied me to the fancy dinner that wraps up the Congress of Delegates.

We left shortly after the entertainment started because she was VERY eager for a pre-bedtime swim. The hotel had several pools, though we were disappointed to find the water slide turned off for the night by the time we got out there.

Then...time for sleep. Because the next day we had big plans for Animal Kingdom.

Nova Scotia - Day 6: Glenora, Tent Camping, Ceilidh

After a fine night in Cheticamp, we had a leisurely breakfast, then pushed on South. Our destination was the Glenorah distillery - the only producer of single-malt whiskey in North America. You can't properly call it "scotch," because it's not made in Scotland, but that is the kind of drink we are talking about. The grains are from the Canadian plains, the yeast is European origin, and the water comes from the stream that flows through their facility. They were preparing their grain elevator to receive the first of the 2014 grain harvest - another week or two and they'll be brewing and distilling. Although there is peat available in the Cape Breton Highlands, that's park land, and so is not available for commercial harvest. Therefore, Glenora produces a scotch that has essentially no peaty flavor, more in the style of the Scottish lowlands.
 
One of the other qualifiers about single-malt whiskey is that it, by tradition, it must be barrel-aged for at least 10 years before bottling and sale. Therefore, in order to make a go of it, on needs to distill and store product for a decade before you can expect to start recouping expenses. This presents a serious barrier to entry. But, as our (Scottish) tour guide explained to us, the backers of this project (Canadians of various sorts) had money to spare and were looking for a project. They could have taken up any number of money-sucking idle pursuits: horse breeding, yachting, vintage automobiles, etc. Instead, they decided to produce whiskey. Good for them.
 
We had a tour of their facility.

This is the kettle where the barley is boiled with the local water to create the wort, which is what gets fermented. What you can't see in the picture is that the kettle goes down almost two storeys from this level - that's a lot of grain!
 

These barrels are where the fermentation takes place. Apparently when that's going on, the CO2 levels are high enough that access is heavily limited. They are kept constantly filled (with water at the moment) in order to keep the wood swelled up against the hoops, keeping them water-tight. This also prevents the wood from absorbing liquid from the fermenting wort.
 

After the fermentation is complete comes the distilling. This is done in two passes, first on the right, then on the left. These distilling towers were hand-made in Scotland. They cost a pretty penny when the distillery was first established; today they would cost many times as much due to the increased price of copper, and have a yearlong lead time. The small case situated in between is the "spirit vault" where a final assay of the liquor's strength is made before transferring to the barrels for aging. The aging warehouse, alas, was not part of the tour.
 
It was during this time that our guide poured a small dram of their 10-year for each of us. I'll not embarrass myself by trying to describe it. Decent stuff.
 

The distillery has been around long enough to produce successive bottlings of 10-year, and are coming up on their first 21-year. In between they've experimented with various other things, like aging in sherry and ice wine barrels.
 

Here is the eponymous creek from which they get their water. To the left is the distillery. To the right is an inn and restaurant where we had a fine lunch.
 

We pushed on that afternoon to Port Hood, our destination for the night. Jasper has taken a liking to having half of the back seat down, so that he can be closer to the family, the sights, and the open window.
 
Hilary went to great lengths in her planning to find places where Jasper could stay. There was nothing available in Port Hood, however, so we ended up with plan B: camping. We'd brought a single, 2-man dome tent, sleeping bags and pads, with the intention that Hilary and I would cozy up in the tent with Jasper on his mat. B would end up in a B&B with her grandparents.
 

When we arrived, however, we discovered that the campground was really an RV park with a broad patch of grass for tenting. What is more, there was no one at the front office to accept us or show us where to set up. Undeterred, we took our cues from the maps and pitched in a likely-looking spot. (See above). About 30 feet behind me is the ocean, which was picturesque and all, but meant that there was nothing, nothing, to abate the substantial westerly wind coming off the water that evening. More on that later.
 
We had a hurried dinner in the very busy Clove Hitch bistro, then booked it a bit further south to the Celtic Music Center in Judique. The Center was hosting a fiddling concert to kick off the week-long Celtic Colours music festival. Hilary and I enjoy celtic music a fair bit, and B is handy with a violin, so it was a great fit.
 
The Celtic music tradition in Cape Breton has undergone a revival in the last generation or so. Most of the tradition revolves around the ceilidh (KAY-lee) - a jam session of sorts, usually done in someone's home, generally involving a solo fiddle with upright piano accompaniment, sometimes backed with a hand drum, penny whistle, etc. Lots of drink and home-cooked food are involved, too. You can imagine the draw for a community activity like this, far from major cities, in the dead of winter when there's no fishing to be done.
 

The concert was a fine, foot-tapping time. Each of the players on stage took a turn doing a set: a progression of three movements, each several minutes long, with progressively faster tempo. There's apparently a fairly well-known repetoir of a few dozen tunes, which most of the players learn by ear, rather than through sheet music. (back in the day, people would trade cassette tapes of performances and learn from those!) The guy on the piano is left to follow the timing and key changes, and did a fantastic job at that.
 
One small interruption came when, several pieces into the first half, the MC got on stage and asked if there was a doctor in the house. I kid you not. Hilary reported for duty. It was not exactly an emergency, but the ambulance response times can be lengthy. In gratitude, the organizers gifted her a CD of an earlier concert. (The Celtic Music Center has a recording studio and publishes a fair number of albums from local artists.)
 
After the concert B decided, for her own inscrutable reasons, that she would prefer to sleep in the tent, with Hilary and me, and Jasper. We hadn't reckoned on needing a third sleeping bag, but made do with jackets, a blanket from M, and other bits of outerwear. B squeezed in between Hilary and me, with Jasper on Hilary's other side. It was cozy, to say the least. It would not have been all that bad except for the wind, which rattled the tent all night long. Every time a strong gust came along, poor Jasper would start at the noise and the fact that the tent wall was attacking him! It was bad enough that, round about 2 a.m., I pulled the car around to serve as a windbreak, which was surprisingly effective. All the same, it was a restless night for the grownups.
 
(of course, now that we have two dogs, this kind of plan would be completely out. Next time, B gets to sleep in a tent between the dogs.)

Nova Scotia - Day 5: Whale Watching, Cabot Trail Bike, Cheticamp

We woke up a second morning in Dingwall - the only time we stayed in the same place twice during this trip. H, B, J, and I made hasty preparations to load up the car again and make the trip back to Pleasant Bay, where we had been the afternoon before. This morning we would be going on a whale watching trip!

We made Mr. J as comfortable as we could in the car, where he would hang out in the slight chill and overcast skies. There are several companies that operate out of the harbor. We ended up with Captain Mark's, which came well recommended. (Fun fact - one of the captains buses the local kids over the Cheticamp during the school year. Other fun fact - our guide on this particular day is a fishing boat builder during the off-season.)

In order to get close to the animals, they operate using of tricked out Zodiacs. Because they are small craft, low down on the water, one needs to wear exposure gear:

 
Although a variety of whale species migrate through this area (right, humpback, blue), the only ones that stick around for long are pilot whales, which look like very large dolphins with a blunted face. After cruising along the coast for 20-30 minutes, we spotted a pod not far off, and went in for a closer look.

 
These creatures work in groups to hunt, sometimes using bubbles to corral schools of small fish into a tight group, then one by one cut through the center to snatch a tasty treat. Unlike our dolphin watching in New Zealand, we didn't see much above-the-water antics. But like New Zealand, we saw young ones boppin' around. I had the GoPro with me, and so we do have some video. But like usual, I haven't edited it down for public consumption yet. Too late, the captain suggested I dunk the camera under the water to get some shots. Oh well. After a while the pod relocated and we lost track of them. Around the same time the wind picked up and made things pretty choppy, so we headed in closer to shore and started on our way back. We saw groups of seals, some of then quite large. For the most part we could't get too close because they are quite shy. This young'un was curious though.

 
Then gone in the blink of an eye!

 
There are also bald eagles that nest along the shoreline. This particular nest was easy to pick out from the white streaks on the cliff below. (click to embiggen - see if you can pick out the eagle perched on top)

 
Back at shore we met up with Mark and Holly. Just a little ways south of Pleasant Bay along the Cabot Trail the road starts switchbacking steeply up. We wimped out a bit and drove up, about halfway, to an overlook. According to the signs behind the benches, at certain times of year you can spot migrating whales from here.

 

 
After a hasty picnic lunch, Hilary and I geared up and hopped on the bikes. Mark and Holly each took one car (and B, and J) and pushed on to Cheticamp - about 40 km farther on. The road continued upward:

 
And leveled out a bit as we pass a trailhead that leads down to Fishing Cove:

 
The road continued gently upwards for many miles across the wooded, boggy plateau of French Mountain. This is national parkland. At this time of the year, we more or less had the whole place to ourselves. The colors and vegetation were reminiscent of what one might find in parts of the White Mountains, but we could spend ten or twenty minutes without encountering so much as a passing car. The only thing that made it a bit unpleasant was an unrelenting headwind.

We took a brief break at pulloff to use the bathroom. This spot had a boardwalk trail through a prototypical alpine bog. (says the helpful sign that reads "Bog")

 
I was curious to see it, but didn't want to spent a lot of time on it (we had many km to go, and it was chilly being stationary). So while Hilary was using the facilities, I checked it out on two wheels:

 
Navigating the boardwalk at modest speed while also taking a selfie is only slightly stupid.

 
A bit further up the way we topped out - the highest spot on the road. Not much to speak of, except for this ICBM...water heater...voodoo idol...weather influencer...phallic symbol thing.

 
Not long after cresting the top and enjoying a well-earned gentle downhill, we suddenly spotted a moose across the road!

 

 

 
He was, I suppose, mildly curious, but paid us no mind

 
The road eventually gave us a pretty sweet downhill. We next to no cars around, I felt like I was bombing some descent in a alpine stage of Le Tour.

 
The road rejoined the coast at this overlook. Ahead you can see the road leading to Cheticamp. Hilary and I posted this picture to the Capital Multisport facebook page (our monthly team meeting was that evening), and tried not to look too boastful.

 
For the next several miles, the road undulates up and down, sometimes with only the guide rail between you and the Atlantic. This stretch is the one that gets into all the tourist materials. The overcast skies lessened the effect slightly, but it was still amazing. Here's the same stretch, but looking back north from the other end.

 
After a few more miles, the road makes a large bight around an inlet, then you pop out of the National Park and are on the outskirts of Cheticamp. We felt welcomed:

 
We met up with the rest of the family at our lodging for the night - the Cheticamp Outfitters Inn. We had adjoining halves of a small cottage. The place has some shore frontage, although it's a collection of boulders and not a beach per se.

 
After some stretching, but before getting too cold or showering, I decided that I ought to go for a brief swim. Why? Well, mostly to say that I've swum in Nova Scotia in October:

 
Yes, it was cold, but not horribly so. I did a very quick circle - maybe 40 feet all told - then picked my back onto the rocks and into the shower!

 
That evening we went out to dinner at the All Aboard Restaurant, where we had a very pleasant time. Among our many culinary delights, we had a bucket of mussels delivered from the boat just a few hours before. Tough to beat that!