It was now time for dinner at the Rainforest Café (RFC). AK was scheduled to close at 7:00 so I made reservations at 6:00, hoping that the wait wouldn't quite as long. The RFC has two entrances so it can be entered either from outside or inside the park. The outside of the building is covered with tropical plants and has waterfalls cascading off the roof. Once you enter, you walk through a Plexiglas aquarium archway that allows you to watch as fish swim over your head. The host station is made to look like a whimsical elephant. We waited in line for about ten minutes and were seated near the bar, which is covered by a giant mushroom.

The dining rooms at RFC are made to look like a lush jungle. There are tropical plants everywhere - some appeared to be real and some fake. There are also robotic animals everywhere: Elephants, Gorillas, Leopards, Apes and many kinds of birds. Every few minutes the animals start moving and making noise, and the calm is often broken with a tropical downpour. It's not exactly a spot for a quiet dinner, but it was a lot of fun and Nat loved it. She especially loved the funky barstools with various animal pelt designs.

Our server JB (John) was friendly and efficient. Nat had pizza that looked quite good. At any rate, she inhaled it (which is very unusual for Nat, who is not a big eater). I had a Caesar salad and chicken wings. The Caesar was pretty good. The chicken wings were better in concept than execution. They were served on a bed of fried onions with large slices of cucumbers instead of the usual carrot and celery sticks. The cucumber was a welcome change. The wings themselves were pretty good. The fried onions were a great idea, but they were a little stale. I also had an orange flavored margarita called a Margorilla. It was awesome. The bill, including tip, came to about $30.00. Not cheap but not bad.

I should take a moment here to discuss the schedule I had come up with for this trip. It was an aggressive schedule, since we were only going to be at WDW for three days, but I thought it was doable. Much to my pleasant surprise we were, so far, right on schedule. Among the things I had planned was a possible trip to Epcot this first evening to see Illuminations. We had reservations for the next night (Saturday) at the Rose & Crown, our favorite spot for watching Illuminations, but as Saturday was the only night with fireworks scheduled for the Magic Kingdom, I was hoping we could do that instead. I figured there was a good chance we would be too tired for Illuminations after our first (and very long) full day. After dinner I was feeling up to it though, and Nat seemed up to it as well. I asked her "do you want to go see fireworks tonight?" "Yeah." "You're not too tired?" "No." OK. Illuminations it is.