March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 11 (Wednesday)

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On Wednesday we made a return trip to SeaWorld with Grandma and Grandpa. We had gone through most of the park last week, so we went specifically to see a few shows and a couple of other exhibits we’d missed.

When we were here 2 years ago, they were building a new roller coaster called Manta. It opened shortly after we left, so this was the first time we saw it. Of course none of us went on it (we’re all too chicken), but they did have a seat outside so potential riders could determine if they were comfortable and the right size. Christine had a bit of trouble 🙂

Right next to Manta was a new aquarium exhibit. There were several large tanks with different fish. The coolest one was one for different kinds of rays. The tank was above them, so you could see them swimming above you. They always look like they are smiling.

As with most areas at any of the parks, the exhibit isn’t just a plain building. They have beautiful water falls, birds, plants and more.

One of the shows we went to see is called Blue Horizon. We don’t really understand all of the “artsy” stuff (“a young girl’s vivid imagination sets the stage for an extravaganza of dolphins, false killer whales and a rainbow of exotic birds, including blue and gold macaws, sun conures, and an Andean condor”), but the show is great. There are dolphins that do various jumps, platform divers that perform, and more. The girl in the show is named Marina, and Christine wanted to have her picture taken with her.

Another show we went to see was another Cirque du Soleil-type show called A’lure – The Call of the Ocean. There were various acrobats, tumblers and other performers in a sea-themed set. After the show (as with all shows), the cast members wait around to great the guests. Matthew and Christine wanted to have their picture taken with a seahorse and an anemone.

We finished off in Shamu’s Happy Harbor (the kids area). We went on a few rides, and then headed home to swim and get out of the heat.

We’ve now been to SeaWorld twice and Busch Gardens twice, and on Thursday we’ll be headed back to Aquatica for a second time.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 10 (Tuesday)

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Cool, we’re now into double digits for the number of days we’ve been here. Awesome. The only bad thing is that means that the number of days we have left is getting smaller 🙁

Before doing this write-up, I asked everyone how they would describe Aquatica, the SeaWorld waterpark. Matthew said it was awesome, sick. Lisa said it was fabulous, better than expected. Andrew said it was sweet like candy (honestly, he did). However you describe it, we had a great time.

Aquatica is just across the street from SeaWorld. It is much smaller than than either SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, but you can still spend as much time there. The grounds are beautiful…

… and the play areas are great.

Andrea’s waterproof camera really came in handy. I took quite a few videos that I can show some of you when we get home.

One of the main attractions in Aquatica is a large man-made beach that is next to the 2 wave pools. There were loungers everywhere, and people enjoying the sun. The wave pool was great, and the kids had fun. Matthew wore a life jacket for most of the day, which made him more brave than normal.

The play area pictured above is called Walkabout Waters, and it is one of those large forts that the kids can climb. There are buckets that spill water, spray water, and other water effects. Once the kids make it to the top, there are also a couple of water slides.

Probably the best attraction at the park is called Roa’s Rapids. It is kind of like a lazy river, but a little faster. There are no tubes allowed, but the water is fast enough and shallow enough that you just float/bob along. It is awesome! There are areas that go a little faster, as well as some water effects. In the right spots, you could basically “surf” along the bottom and you’d keep moving forward. Matthew must have said, “Surf’s up!” about 20 times. Christine liked it to, but I had to hold onto her the whole time.

At some point during our visit, I asked Lisa if I was pink, and she said no. By the time we got home, all of us were pink like lobsters. Nobody was complaining of any pain, so hopefully it is just the colouring.

It looks like we are headed to SeaWorld again on Wednesday with Grandma and Grandpa, and then going back to Aquatica again on Thursday.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 9 (Monday)

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On Monday we headed off to Busch Gardens again. This time, we took the free shuttle out there. Grandma and Grandpa dropped us off so they could have the van. Grandma ended up going to a clinic and has bronchitis. She got a prescription and is hoping to feel some relief soon.

The shuttle was a big tour bus (bathroom included), so that was definitely the way to travel. Lisa said that the bus driver reminder her of the bus driver in the one scene in Enchanted (if you’ve seen it, you’re probably smiling right now). She also had “bulging eyes”, kind of like what you see in Ripley’s or Guinness. She was very nice and kind of funny. We watched part of Shrek the Third on the way, and before we knew it, we were there.

We had gone through most of the park last time, so we just did the same thing again. The kids played for a while in the Sesame Street Safari of Fun, we watched some of the crazy people ride the crazy roller coasters, and we saw lots of animals.

We did try to see a few things that we hadn’t seen last time. In the Jungala area (Andrew’s favourite area), there was a brief show with some performers dressed up as a walking stick, a crane, and frog.

In that same area we also saw some models of various skulls and paw prints. A very nice lady was telling us about some animals, and asked if we wanted to see a snake. The boys of course said yes, so she went and got one for them to hold.

For some reason, one of the boys favourite exhibits is in Egypt. They were fascinated by King Tut’s tomb.

Probably the only drawback of taking the shuttle there, was that you are at the park for the entire day. We were in the park by 11 am, and the bus didn’t leave until 7 pm to bring you home. We thought it might be hard to fill the time, but it went by fairly quickly. At the end of the day, we went to see a Cirque du Soleil type show called Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy. The performers were dressed up as various animals. There were 2 girls that could bend in ways we’d never seen. There were a couple of other people who did some aerial tumbling as well as a couple that swung on ribbons (you know… the kind that hand from the top of the stage). Overall it was very impressive.

On the way out I had someone take a picture for us.

As I mentioned before, Busch Gardens was way better than we had expected. It will definitely be something we recommend to others.

It looks like we’ll be headed off to Aquatica (the SeaWorld waterpark) today, and then we’ll head back to SeaWorld tomorrow with Grandma and Grandpa again joining us.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 8 (Sunday)

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Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We went to Church in the morning (Grandma and Grandpa stayed home since they weren’t feeling well). The Sacrament Meeting was very good. The last speaker did a particularly good job speaking about the need for more kindness in the world.

When we got back, the kids swam, Lisa relaxed in the sun, and I got lunch ready. We all had “quiet time”, and then swam some more in the afternoon.

Christine is just like the boys were at her age. She says she doesn’t want to swim, but then wants to play in or near the water. We tell her she has to put her bathing suit on, and says no, and then comes back and says she wants to put her bathing suit on. Once she gets in, she puts her face in the water on her own and has a great time. I’m sure she’ll get more comfortable as time goes on.

After dinner we went for a short walk. We saw lots of small palm trees (which Matthew loves) and a spider about the size of my thumb being eaten by little ants. Gross! As we came back to the house, the kids got a picture taken in front of an orange tree in the back yard.

Jeff and Ryan came by after the ball game, but before dinner to say hi to everyone. Jeff also helped me give Grandma a blessing. Jeff and Ryan then headed to Chef Mickey’s for dinner. They got back after midnight and left Monday morning around 5 am, so we didn’t see them again.

After a restful Sunday, we are headed back to Busch Gardens on Monday for the day…

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 7 (Saturday)

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It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for a week now! At least we still have another week to go 🙂

Today was supposed to be a slower day, but it didn’t really turn out that way. Grandma and Grandpa weren’t feeling well, so they stayed home while we went out. We went out for breakfast at Sizzlin’ Grill. They have a breakfast buffet that is $3.99. It wasn’t world class meal, but hey, for that price, you can’t complain too much. There was loads of food (eggs, ham, oatmeal, sausage, cereal, pudding, jello, salad, ice cream … I know, a weird mix), but for the 5 of us including tax and tip it was only $30.

After that we headed to Hawaiian Rumble Adventure Golf. It was a gorgeous day today, so it was nice to be outside enjoying the sun. Christine was free since she is 3, and Lisa was keeping score and taking pictures, so we just had to pay for the 3 boys.

At one point, the couple behind us saw Lisa taking a picture of us and offered to take a picture of all of us.

Andrew tried hard and did fairly well. Matthew would never let the ball stop and just keep hitting it, and would then tell us he only had 2 or 3. Christine would just randomly pick a number. “Christine, what did you get on that hole?” “Um, 17.” I think her total score was something like 170.

After golfing, we headed back to Downtown Disney again for the boys to buy the LEGO that they wanted. We also walked around a bit further up the walkways. We got as far as the Harley Davidson store, and got a picture of each of the kids on a big bike.

We also went to Shell World and got some groceries.

After being out for much of the day, we went back to the house and swam for an hour or so before dinner. After dinner the kids had their showers and then headed off to bed. Christine went to bed a little early, and when Andrew went in to sleep in the other bed in her room, we found Christine asleep slitting up. Her leg looked a little uncomfortable, too.

The rest of us just vegged out for the evening.

Sunday will be another day of rest, and then Monday we think we are headed back to SeaWorld, Tuesday to Aquatica, and Wednesday back to Busch Gardens. The week’s weather looks like it is going to be awesome!

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 6 (Friday)

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On Friday, we spent most of the day in Dunedin, Florida. Jeff and Ryan slept over, and we got up and swam in the morning. It was a clear day, but rather chilly. After swimming we had scrambled eggs and real bacon (not turkey) and then got ready to leave.

It took us less than 2 hours to get there (I wish we could say that about the trip home). The girls (Lisa, Grandma, and Christine) dropped us off at Jeff and Ryan’s hotel and they went off to shop. They had intended to go to the beach, but it was just too cold.

We got to the ballpark early, and saw the New York Yankees taking batting practice. The game was a “premium” game (it cost more), but unfortunately the Yankees had a split squad. Half the team was in Dunedin to play the Blue Jays, and the other half was at another ballpark to play another team. We got the “B” team, so there were only a couple of recognizable names.

We walked around the ballpark and checked out the gift shop and the concession stand. Matthew ended up getting a very cute stuffed toy that is a big round blue jay. Andrew got a baseball that has the word Jays on it.

The starting pitcher for the Jays was Kyle Drabek. He is one of the highly touted prospects the Jays have, so it was nice to see him pitch. He did very well, and pitched for 4 innings. I don’t know if it was because the Yankees had their B team there, but the Jays had a great game. They won 10-3 and hit a couple of home runs and 17 hits. The Yankees only had a few hits, a couple of errors, a couple of wild pitches, and hit a batter. Not a good day for them.

The boys wanted to eat from the moment they got to the park, but I told them they had to wait until after the 3rd inning. We then went and got nachos, frozen lemonade, pizza, pop, and more.

Near the end of the game, Matthew asked me how much longer the game would be. I told him 2 outs, and he misheard me, and blurted out “2 hours?!?!”. Several of the spectators around us thought that was funny. I explained that 2 outs would only take a couple of minutes and he was good with that.

After the game, we got a couple of signatures. Andrew also got his baseball signed by Brian Jeroloman, one of the catchers.

After the game we walked back to the hotel and met the girls. Jeff and Ryan checked in and we drove home. Unfortunately, Friday at around 4:30 means heavy traffic through and around Tampa. It took us 3 hours to get home.

Even with the long drive, it was worth it to go to our first Spring Training game.

I think that Saturday will be a little slower. We need to get our rest for another trip to both SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, and at least one trip to Aquatica.

Oh, and here are some more plates that we’ve seen over the last few days:

  • Quebec
  • South Carolina
  • Nova Scotia
  • New Brunswick
  • Colorado
  • West Virginia
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • We also saw another one that said Birthplace of Golf on it. It was an American license plate (not Scotland), but we couldn’t tell which state it was from.
    UPDATE: Alisa found out that it was South Carolina, so as you can see from the list above, we already had it.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 5 (Thursday)

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Today was a pretty dull day. It rained for most of the day, so we went to Florida Mall. It is a huge mall with an Apple Store, Pottery Barn, a Disney Store, and more. We had a hard time finding Tangled toys at the Downtown Disney store, but we were able to find a stuffled Pascal and some other toys at the mall. Matthew and Christine were excited. Christine also got a nightgown and Andrew got an Alien stuffy from Toy Story.

The kids had some quiet time in the afternoon, and then we were able to swim.

After dinner Jeff and Ryan showed up. On Friday the boys are headed to a Blue Jays Spring Training game, and the girls are headed to the beach.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 4 (Wednesday)

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We left the house Wednesday morning at around 9 am and made it past the front gates of Busch Gardens at around 11 am (after getting gas, stamps, and then parking and taking the tram over to the park once we got there). The pamphlets had made Busch Gardens look very nice, but we weren’t sure what it would actually be like (Matthew actually thought it would be full of bushes and gardens only). It was AWESOME! What a beautiful park.

We started off in the kids section, but had to walk past the bird gardens first. The boys seemed to be most excited about seeing a gecko and an armadillo.

The main kids area is called the Sesame Street Safari of Fun. There was a great kids roller coaster (Air Grover)  that the boys and I went on (Andrew and I went on it twice). There was also a huge tree house with rope/tunnel climbing area attached to it. Lisa ran around with Christine and I ran around with the boys. We also watched a bit of a Sesame Street show in the Sunny Day Theatre.

Matthew said his favourite part was Oscar’s Swamp. It was a small splash pad at the base of the tree fort. Andrew’s favourite part was Air Grover, because it went almost as fast as Dragon Mountain at Marineland.

There were a bunch of huge roller coasters. I’m not a big roller coaster fan, but I told the boys I would go on anything with them. I thought Andrew would want to go on something, but he didn’t want to go on any of them. There was one roller coaster called SheikRa that literally dropped you 90° at one point. Yikes! There is also going to be a new roller coaster open this Spring called Cheetah Hunt. Apparently it will go more than 60 MPH and will take you from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds!

The next area was Jungala, and it had another big climbing fort. Great stuff for kids. Christine always had a hard time because her feet are too small, so Lisa kept her down below and went in a small splash pad with her.

Jungala is also the area where they have tigers. They had one viewing area where a tiger was sleeping right next to it, so you could get within a foot or so of it’s head. Cool!

The next area was called Congo, and Lisa and I went on the Congo River Rapids. Andrew was going to go on with us, but then I read a sign out loud that said that you could get wet, possibly soaked. Andrew said, “No way!” and went back to wait with Grandma and Grandpa. I tried to convince him that he probably wouldn’t get wet, but it didn’t work. Well, in the end, we did end up getting soaked!

From the Congo area, we also took a train ride around the whole park. That is the only way to see all of the animals on the Serengeti Plain. That is where the giraffes, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, and other African animals are.

After the train ride we made our way through Timbuktu and Nairobi and saw some more animals before making our way to Egypt. Both Andrew and Matthew were excited to see the King Tut exhibit. There was also an area full of sand and “artifacts” and the kids pretended they were digging up treasure. Andrew and Matthew both repeatedly said how they thought Brianna would have really liked it.

The last thing we wanted to see was the gorilla exhibit. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any gorillas. We did however see some monkey’s picking bugs off of each other.

On the way out we saw some alligators.

On the way home we stopped at an IHOP for dinner. It was the first time we had ever been and it was quite good.

We got home at around 8:30 pm and obviously the kids went straight to bed. Christine crashed almost immediately in the van, slept all the way home and kept sleeping as I brought her into the house, so Lisa said to just leave her in her clothes.

A great day!

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 3 (Tuesday)

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The weather was beautiful again on Tuesday. I’m not sure what it got up to, but it must have gotten up to 22-25° C. We swam in the morning and then headed off to Downtown Disney Marketplace.

We were there for around 3 hours. It is a beautiful place. The sun was shining, there were lots of people around, and the stores are great. We started off in the main Disney store so we could try to find some princess things for Christine.

We were originally looking for some gloves or a tiara. We saw both, but Christine chose an Aurora toy instead. We couldn’t believe how many girls were going through the Bibbity Bobbity  Boutique. What a money maker for Disney!

Another main destination was the LEGO store. Unfortunately, the existing store was under renovation, so they had a temporary location setup. They had lots of sets to buy, but that was about it. They only had one “life-size” character to get a picture of, and there was no place outside where the kids could build things. It was disappointing, but the boys still managed to make a list of a half dozen sets they wanted.

We went in a bunch of other stores, and then headed back home for lunch and some quiet time. The kids aren’t able to fall asleep at their normal time, and get up earlier than normal in the morning, and after a few days, they were getting particularly annoyed with one another. Andrew also wasn’t feeling that great. By mid-afternoon they had gotten up and we went swimming again.

We had an early dinner and then dropped off Grandma and Grandpa at the outlet mall that Lisa and I were at earlier in the week. The rest of us headed back to Downtown Disney.

We went by the T-Rex Cafe and the kids dug for dinosaur bones.

We also went into a couple of other stores that we had already gone in to earlier in the day. My camera battery had died, so I needed to take some more pictures.

We had a great day, and I’m sure we’ll end up back at Downtown Disney a few more times before we go.

On Wednesday we are going to Busch Gardens…

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 2 (Monday)

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This morning the boys and I got up early and swam for around an hour before breakfast. We then got ready and left for SeaWorld.

We made it around the whole park, but spent most of our time in the kids section (Shamu’s Happy Harbor). We went on several rides and played on the big rope climbing play park.

We also saw the shark exhibit, the penguin encounter, the sting rays, and more. The passes we got let us into all 3 parks for 2 weeks, so we’ll definitely be going back.

After SeaWorld, we went swimming while Grandma and Grandpa went to get groceries.

We had a quiet evening. The kids went to bed and Lisa and I went to one of the outlet malls. We saw lots we liked, but since it is still early in the trip, we are going to wait till later to spend the big bucks. The only thing we bought was a couple of pairs of shorts for me ($7 each).