last and final park day

we'd saved animal kingdom for our last day in florida because for us it's a half day park at best, and our flight home was scheduled for later that afternoon.  it was gonna be tight, but we knew we could make it work.  and so we got ourselves ready, packed up all of our stuff and checked our bags in downstairs at bell services.

the uber was waiting for us by the time we got outside, and we were at the gate in no time.

this would have been a great shot if she hadn't blinked...oops.

it was too late for breakfast, so this was our first meal of the day.

we headed into avatar land (pandora?) but the lines for the attractions were far too long, and since we weren't avatar fans anyway we decided it wasn't worth it to wait.  so we took a selfie and moved along.

instead, we headed into "africa" and made our way to the safari, which is really the only thing we wanted to do anyway.

there were lots of animals out and about that day.  my pictures aren't the best, but if you look closely you can see them.

we did manage to get up close and personal to a couple of giraffes, which was fun.

and got a good look at one of the elephants - the bean's favorite animal.

the lioness was out on the rock, but the lion must've been asleep somewhere else.

a few more animal sightings and then our safari was over.

we stopped here for a donut the size of my child's head and some much-needed coffee.

i do love disney's attention to detail.  they make you feel like you really are in africa and asian when you're here.

with the only other ride we were interested in down for refurbishment:

we decided to head outta there and park hop one last time before heading to the airport.  i really like the security process here - you just walk through without having to take anything off, and the only time you have to stop for additional screening is if the monitors pick up on anything questionable.

we really just had an hour to stroll around hollywood studios, and with all of the wait times for rides way longer than that we settled for just wandering around and taking it all in one last time.

when it was time, we took the water taxi back to the hotel to collect our luggage and catch a ride to the airport.

we boarded our plane for the first leg of our trip, which would take us back to dallas:

and while the bean predictably fell asleep right away, i settled in with a drink and something fun to watch while i snacked on everything that was offered to me.

in dallas, we had to catch a tram to take us to the terminal for our connecting flight.

we were happy to see the hub when we landed, and the dogs seemed pretty excited when they greeted us back at home.  and that was that.  since the bean is well and truly done with cheer, who knows when we'll get to return to disney world again.  we'd gotten to visit three years in a row though, so it was a good run.

and now, back to normal life.