Florida Day 8: Orange Orchard

Our last day in Florida was just a half day because we were flying home that afternoon/evening.  So we got up and packed all our luggage and then drove to a You-Pick Orange Orchard.  Brad really likes aquariums, and nature, so he likes things like orchards and botanical gardens.  Brad and Kjirstin found an orange orchard we could visit and a Groupon for a monster truck ride through a swamp.

As we were driving to the orchard we passed a whole street or really weird shops.  There was one with a giant wizard on the roof.  I really wished we would have had time to stop and see if we could find some little souvenirs the kids could give their friends.  But we were really strapped for time, so we'll have to save that for another trip.

We got to the orchard and went on our monster truck ride.  This orchard was really weird.  They converted a bus into a big monster truck.  The orchard was something like 2000 acres owned by some old, reclusive doctor.  We went through a swamp and saw a few wild alligators.  Then we stopped a few times to see other random wildlife.  

 

(Luke's smile looks like he's going to eat you.)

Once we stopped and the driver gave all the kids an orange to throw to a bunch of cows.  The cows came right by the truck and ate the oranges.  I never knew that cows liked oranges.  Weird.

Then we stopped and saw some goats, and zebras.  I have no idea why there were zebras there...

There were also other random things all over, like a gigantic hanging shark...

 

After the monster truck ride we had a picnic lunch by a lake.  There was an alligator at the edge of the water.  It was kind of small, maybe 4-5 feet long, but not very thick.  So I went and poked it with a stick.  That thing snapped really fast and strong.  It made me super scared about having Luke or Hazel anywhere near the water.  I asked Gary and Sarah how many of the millions of lakes in Florida probably have wild alligators in them and they said that most of them probably did (small ones).

  

 The orange orchard had a least 3 little lakes around it and we saw little alligators in all of them.  I wondered if only 1 alligator lived in each lake, but in the biggest lake we saw multiple.  One of them was really big.  Yikes.

Anyway, after lunch we went to a petting zoo where the kids could feed other animals like an ostrich, goats, donkeys, and turkeys.  Shockingly, Hazel was super good at feeding the animals.  She seems to have a very unnatural lack of fear of animals.  She would just take her carrot and shove it straight into the animal's mouth.  Isaac and I were worried she was going to get bitten because she had no fear.

 

 

Then we went to the orchard to pick our own oranges.  We learned that natural oranges don't ripen to a rich orange color like we see at the grocery store.  In order to get that orange they have to exposed them to some type of gas,  or let them reach a certain cold temperature (I forgot the specifics).  But we picked a few oranges and tried them.  They really weren't very good.

 

It was super HOT while we were picking oranges, so we got some orange slushy/ice-cream mixtures.  It was a bit sour for my taste, but Isaac really like it.  And then it was time to go home, so we said our goodbyes to the Roberts and drove to the airport.

The orange orchard wasn't my favorite, but it had fun moments.  I think Brad said it was his favorite part of the trip though.  Afterward I added up all our expenses and our days at the beach and orchard were almost as expensive as the other days (largely due to getting such a good deal on our Discovery Cove package).

I just had a really good time on this trip.  I thought we had a good balance of activities.  We were super busy most of the time, so we could have re-arranged the schedule a little to balance things out a little.  But I like to go, go, go on vacations so I feel like I'm making the most of my time.  I thought our kids got along incredibly well with the Roberts' kids.  They have been asking when we can see them again ever since.  And I have come to really like Florida because I feel like there is a lot to do there.  Every time we go I find other things we should look into for the next time, and there are enjoyable things I wouldn't mind doing again.  So until next time...

Florida Day 7: Clearwater Beach

 On Friday we went to Clearwater Beach.  It was about a 2 hour drive to get to Clearwater Beach.  A night or two before, Kjirstin and I ran to Walmart and the Dollar Tree to find boogie-boards and sand tools to take to the beach.  

Once we got to the beach we rented a little umbrella cabana because there was no shade anywhere without one.  

   

The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water.  Clearwater Beach is on the Gulf side, so there aren't really any big waves.  That is good for kids, but not great for boogie-boarding.

At lunch time all the kids tried to cram into the tiny umbrella for shade while they ate.  Isaac was standing outside holding his sandwich in one hand while talking.  Suddenly a seagull dove out of the sky and knocked the sandwich right out of his hand.  Then about 30 of them dove down and started fighting over the sandwich.  It was insane.

Then Isaac started telling Luke what happened as he walked up holding his sandwich.  Isaac was just saying, "Luke, watch out or the seagulls will steal your sandwich" when the exact same thing happened to Luke.  

I was worried we were going to have to find somewhere to go buy a second lunch if the birds kept stealing everyone's food.

After we spent a few hours at the beach we decided to go over to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA).  My kids watched a movie called "Dolphin Tale" about a dolphin named Winter that was rescued from a fishing net, but the back part of the dolphin's tail was damaged and they made a prosthetic so she could swim.  CMA has some live cameras where you can watch the 2 dolphins from those movies, Hope and Winter, swim.  It was Sophie's wish to go to CMA and see Winter in real life.  

 

So we decided to check it out to fulfill Sophie's dream.  (But CMA was really quite expensive to get into and there really weren't that many fish.  I was expecting it to be a big aquarium, but it was actually a rescue center.  So they try to rehabilitate animals and hopefully re-introduce them to the wild.  Therefore they didn't have any aquariums that were designed to just see cool things.)  I thought it was not worth the money we paid to go there, but Kjirstin said she saw Sophie's face as she walked into the room and looked at Winter for the first time.  And she said that if I would have seen that, it would have been worth every cent.  I'll admit it was cool to see Winter, although she was swimming without the prosthetic at the time.

 

After trying to stretch our visit at CMA to last most of the afternoon we decided to head back to Orlando.  Unfortunately the traffic was terrible and it took a really long time to get back.  We were planning to eat dinner once we reached Orlando, but traffic was so slow we had to pull off and eat on the way.  But that allowed us to go to Fazoli's, Isaac's favorite restaurant (that has been out of business in Utah for many, many years).  

We also went to a Thai ice-cream place called "32 Below Rolled Ice Cream".  We got some weird ice cream balls called Mochi and some ice cream they spread really thin and then use a spatula to roll it up like a tortilla.  It was strange, but fun.

Overall Clearwater was probably my least favorite part of the trip, mainly due to driving time.  But it was very nice to have a more relaxed day.  Next time I think we will have to schedule a day like this in between some of the busier days.

Florida Day 6: Discovery Cove

 On Thursday we went to Discovery Cove.  This was the place I was most excited to go to.  I found a great deal on Black Friday (during COVID) that gave us 1 day at Discovery Cove with the dolphin swim package, 1 day at SeaWorld, and 1 day at Aquatica for $150 per person! Score.  

Discovery Cove is an all-inclusive day resort where you can snorkel and swim with fish and dolphins.  I kept promising the kids that this place would be great because we wouldn't have to wait in any lines.  We got there around 7:30am and had to wait in line to get in.  All the kids were telling me I lied to them, but once we got checked in, the lines went away and they forgave me.

We first had breakfast from a huge selection at the buffet.  We kept telling the kids they could eat as much as they wanted because we didn't have to pay for it.  The food was pretty good too.

Then we went to a place where we got wetsuits (you could choose a full, half, or vest wetsuit) and life jackets for the kids.  We put all our stuff in the lockers and headed to the "Grand Reef".  This snorkeling was amazing for kids.  We have only used our snorkels in swimming pools, but I've always wanted to try them in the ocean.  But this was perfect because everything looked like the ocean, but there were no waves and the fish were locked into the "aquarium" so you were guaranteed to see them.  The place had really nice sand with cabanas and beach chairs.  And the reef had fake cracks and coral that the fish could swim in so it looked realistic.  At first the Robert's were being super careful of the coral like you have to in real oceans (because they've been to real places before), but then they realized it was fake.  Ha ha.

The kids all did great snorkeling.  Isaac and I kept taking turns passing Hazel off.  But the water was so clear she could kind of see the fish swimming from above, so she was entertained well.  There was a section of the aquarium with a glass wall blocking off sharks from the main pool, but you could snorkel right up to the glass and watch the sharks swim.  But in the main reef there were tons of colorful fish and lots of bat rays.  It was really cool.

Throughout the park there were 4 or 5 different snack cabanas where you could get unlimited snacks, drinks, or slushies.  The kids each had about 5 slushies.  They also had chips and crackers, soda machines, warm cookies and pretzels.  And there were never any lines.  It was amazing for kids because they could have anything they wanted without us paying anything extra for it.

There was also a regular swimming pool (no fish or salt water) that you could swim in.  We didn't spend much time there because there was so much other stuff to do.  But that pool was also really pretty and had a waterfall, so it didn't look like a regular swimming pool.

Then we swam to a section that had a tiny island with little tiny monkeys on it.  It was hard to find the monkeys at first, but we saw a few.  We also went to the section that had a glass wall where you could watch the otters swim.  It was fun to use the snorkels to see them swimming underwater.

We then found the lazy river.  This was the coolest lazy river I have ever seen!  It was about 1 mile long and there were places where adults could reach the bottom, but other times it would get about 8 feet deep so you would have to swim (they gave everyone a pool-noodle type floaty before entering).  Isaac and I took turns holding Hazel down the river.  She liked it until we reached the waterfall.  The lazy river floated right through the bird aviary, so in order to get people in and keep the birds from flying out, there were big waterfalls you had to swim through.  Hazel was not a fan of that.  But Isaac thought that was really cool.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the aviary.  This was pretty much the only place we had to wear masks.  Once we entered the aviary we each got a little cup of fruit and nuts to feed the birds.  We were all able to "hold" quite a few birds (those must be the best fed birds in the world).  Some of the little kids had a hard time attracting them at first because they kept shoving the food at the birds and scaring them away.  But eventually they figured it out.  

       

At one point a bird pooped on Sophie's head.  :)  She was crying hysterically, but calmed down after we washed it off.  There were a lot of cool tropical birds in the aviary too.

Then we had some lunch.  The food was really quite good.  Once again the kids could pick anything they wanted.  I told them they could go get more if they didn't like anything, but they were really good about eating what they picked (which was amazing they could even eat anything after all the slushies and warm cookies they were eating).  I got a steak with a yummy green sauce on it.  Sophie got a Caesar salad (what a healthy, veggie loving girl).  They also had pulled pork sandwiches, pastas, hamburgers, etc.  All the kids picked chicken nuggets/fingers/strips everywhere we went for food.  By this point we were begging them all to eat something besides that and fries.  Argh.  But I think they enjoyed it.

Then it was time for the dolphin swim.  Isaac stayed off with Hazel and Luke (because he wasn't 6 years old yet).  He was able to get Hazel to take a nap, so he and Luke were able to watch us with the dolphins.  We were in a group with just the girls, me, and the Roberts.  We first had an older dolphin come swim past us as we were able to pet him a few times.  The trainers told us interesting stuff about dolphins and training them.  Theron was really nervous about being by the dolphins, but eventually was willing to pet the dolphin.

Then they brought out a younger dolphin that we were able to ride on.  We each went about 100 feet away and they showed us how to hold onto the dorsal fin and the dolphin would pull us back to the group.  It was a lot of fun, and we got some really fun photos.

         

  

 

Then the dolphins did a little show where they would jump and do some tricks that we watched from up close in the water with the.  It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, the Roberts told us that was the best dolphin encounter they have done (I guess they have done a few in Mexico).  They said we spent more time with the dolphins, petting and a longer ride, than they had done anywhere else.  It was really cool.

Then we swam some more and finally cleaned up in the showers.  At first we didn't know if we would be able to last the entire day there, but we stayed until it closed at 5pm.  I would highly recommend Discovery Cove, and would like to go back again sometime.  

We then went to dinner at a fast food Mexican restaurant that was nearby.  At first I was annoyed that all the parks were closing early due to covid.  But it was actually nice to be able to leave and go get dinner at more affordable (and possibly healthier) places.  And it was very nice to get back to the condo at decent times to get the kids to bed.  They definitely wouldn't have lasted nearly as well if they were staying at parks until 8 or 9pm and not getting to bed early each night.