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After leaving Nancy and family, we headed South again.
Our first stop was Manatee Springs State Park.
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This is a huge warm water spring that provides a place for manatees to hang out during colder winter months. The springs are about 25ft deep and open into underwater caves that are popular with scuba divers.
Jim and the kids tried out our snorkel gear.
We enjoyed the nature trails and bike paths.
This was a great place for nature watching.
We headed down to the Everglades where we had a funky mechanical experience that would become a serious issue later on.
The bus began to lose power and slowed to a complete stop right in front of this sign. Jim turned off the engine and it started right back up, no problem. We thought "okay, that was weird", but didn't worry about it too much.
There was only one campground open in the park due to Hurricane Rita, and it had just opened, so we were able to get in. We discovered that it's a little difficult to fly by the seat of your pants in Florida during the winter. In fact we were turned away several times. Maddie drew a picture of the guy who seemed to fill up every campsite we wanted.
Thanks Maddie!
We stayed for 10 days at Long Pine Key...
it was very beautiful,
We had incredible sunsets every night.
Alligators, alligators....
oh, and did we mention alligators?
Look close, this bird is about to swallow a fish.
We really enjoyed this nature trail, and the kids kept bugging us to go there at night. We told them to wait, and in a few days, there would be a ranger led night walk. They griped that we didn't need a ranger, it's not like there were tons of alligators out there anyway. Being the responsible parents we are we waited for the ranger. He told us how to spot alligators at night, use a flashlight and....
look for eye shine!! Remember this is a tiny part of a huge watering hole crisscrossed by catwalks. After witnessing how fast alligators took down some prey, the kids had a whole new respect for these guys.
We took a couple of day trips to Bal Harbor and Miami Beach to see the beautiful people.
Our first look at the Atlantic Ocean!
No photos please.
Oh yeah, we blended right in. "Waiter, two more Mojitos please!"
Since we were staying near the town of Homestead, the location of our favorite ABC alien show "Invasion", we had our eyes open for anything weird. No luck spotting any EBE's, maybe next time.
We did find a witch making brew though.
Hey, what was in that stuff?
John Pennekamp State Park - Key Largo, Florida
We took a boat out to a local reef for some snorkeling and saw this Osprey with her babies!
Okay man, the water was choppy, very choppy, but Jim and Maddie beckon us in.
Did I mention the water was CHOPPY?!!? After flailing around and panicking for a few minutes, Matthew and I got back on the boat.
It's a good thing too...Maddie thought the Barracudas were cute!
Ahhh...that's better!
Imagine the hurricane evacuation traffic. Cool nonetheless.
Gotta love the Keys.
Key West - Sunset Celebration
"And I say to myself, what a wonderful world"
It's not everyday you see a Russian guy riding a unicycle and juggling fire. Houdini was amazing! Matthew's pretty sure he could do that if he had to.
(drumroll) And now...Disneyworld (drumroll)
The best thing about Disneyworld was our campsite, Fort Wilderness Campground. It was so clean, so pretty, so totally Disney!! We were so enthralled with it in fact, we forgot to take pictures...sorry.
For 10 days, we never had to drive anywhere. Nope, we were bussed, ferried and monorailed anywhere we needed to go.
The Marina
Well said Walt.
Cinderella finally getting crown she deserves!! You go girl.
AAAhhhhh
We are suckers for fireworks.
For he who pulls this sword from the stone.....
Yes, I know you're not supposed to take pictures in the Pirates of the Caribbean. But considering that we were stuck there for an hour, we figured it was ok. We felt really sorry for the people with small children stuck behind us in a dark tunnel with a pirate moaning "Dead men tell no tales".
We went to Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney to celebrate Mardi Gras.
But after a few beach pails of drinks, things go too crazy...
So we bought Matt a Harley and sent the kids home.
Epcot was beautiful....
until we were attacked by some scary Vikings. They were kind of cute though, so we kept them.
Aerosmith's Rock' n Roller Coaster was awesome!!
We loved everything about Disney except the new biometric system they have put in place. Every person has to be finger scanned every time they enter the park...unless like us you simply say "No, thank you".