Day 6: Into the Boneyard

After a busy morning at Epcot, we had a low-key afternoon planned. In my continuing quest for new things at Disney, we were tackling another parade, this time at Animal Kingdom. I have often heard that this is one of the best parades at DW, so I was VERY excited. As we headed through the gates, we saw Timon, a "friend" that Griffin had made while watching the Festival of the Lion King.

We had a little bit of time to kill before setting in for the parade, so we decided to be gluttons for punishment, and take Griffin into the Animal Kingdom playground, the Boneyard. Why do we never learn our lesson?

The Boneyard is themed as an archaeological dig, with rope and net bridges, jeeps, sand to dig, and tons of tunnels and slides. I am not in love with letting Griffin play in crowded places where I can't necessarily see him all the time, but I figured we could manage as long as he stayed in the netted areas. That lasted approximately 30 seconds, at which point he discovered the end of a crazy slide protruding from the rock face. The construction of said slide was through the wall, which meant that I could not see, from the end of the slide, where the start was. A helpful mom pointed out the stairs to climb up, on the opposite side of the park. Griffin was begging and pleading to go on the slide, but I was at an impasse. If I walked with him to the top of the slide, I would not be able to see where and when he came out. If I stayed at the bottom, I could not be 100% sure that he would make it to the top.

In the end, I compromised by walking him about halfway to the stairs, watching him as far as I could see, and then running back to the end of the slide to wait and pray that he came down. After 5 full minutes of waiting for him to emerge, I was really starting to panic, craning my head to try and see the stairs, and wondering what had ever possessed me to allow this in the first place. The helpful mom from earlier said "Is yours in the Buzz Lightyear shirt? He came down another slide a few minutes ago, and ran back over to the stairs."

WHAT?!

Apparently, there were multiple slides available, and with no way of knowing where he would finally appear, I jogged back and forth among the four slides that I could see. Finally, my little Buzz Lightyear wearing devil emerged. I scooped him up, and carried him right the heck out of there. My nerves could not take it another minute.

Really, Disney, I love you, but what would possess you to make a playground like that?

After the trauma of yet another "cool" playground, it was time for the parade! Grammy had staked out a nice little viewing area for us, with a great view of the celebration. This truly was incredible. Rather than motorized floats, each "animal" that marched past was a giant puppet, walked or biked by a person through the streets. Hard to describe, but really amazing, and totally worth the trip into the park. For someone who is not a "parade" person, I really loved both of them.

And then it was time to go home and get some rest, and get ready for our LAST DAY at Disney World.