DH's 30th birthday!

Monday was DH's 30th birthday! Can you believe it?! For the second year in a row, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and had dinner at Charlie's Steakhouse. Rufus stayed at my MIL's and had a great time with the pups.

AK last year was nice and quiet, even though it was on a Saturday. This year, there were crowds! It was President's day, one of the busiest times of the year. First line was to get in and park. Parking is now $12. We think they raise it by $1 every time we go.
Next line was Will Call to pick up my ticket and get DH's free birthday ticket. It's a promo Disney is doing this year, free admission on your birthday. Then the line to actually get into the park. We went back to get on the Safari, but there was a long wait, so we got the fastpass and took the train out to the Conservation Station which is where the petting area is. Here's DH petting a big sheep.

We went to a few more exhibits then it was time for the Safari. We sat in the first row. They've got these strange trees all over the exhibit. Direct from Africa.

We saw giraffe, okapi, elephants, lions, wildebeest, ostrich, hippos, rhinos, antelope and many more animals native to Africa!We rode a few more rides including the river rapids where we got soaked, ate lunch at Flame Tree BBQ and then it was time for Expedition Everest. This is a pretty cool roller coaster that is partially in the dark and sometimes goes backward. I think I did pretty good, but in the below photo, DH is posing but my scream is real. It was fun!

Then it was off to Charlie's Steakhouse for DH's birthday dinner. Charlie's is a good steakhouse, too bad the closest one is in Orlando. All of their steaks are select U.S. Choice and Prime three-year-old grain-fed beef. Steaks are aged a minimum of 4-6 weeks for tenderness and flavor, then trimmed and seasoned to be flame-broiled on their specialty built open-pit mesquite wood fire.

First is DH's King of the Bone Strips 2 ½ Inches Thick

And I had the Chef's Mixed Grill – Servings of Mahi Mahi and Salmon with Shrimp and Scallop Scampi . And yes, that lemon has a net to catch the seeds. All in all, a great day and we'll probably be back again next year! For more of the photos from our day, check out my flickr site