June 30 to July 3, 2010 - Orlando

Here is a blog of our trip to Orlando -

Kathy and I went on a vacation to Orlando to spend time with Kathy's niece (Sarah) and nephew (Jack). Berta, Rod, Rhonda (Berta's sister), Jack and Sarah were on vacation especially to be able to swim with the dolphins at "Discovery Cove".

Kathy and I flew down Tuesday, June 29 to Orlando. We rented a car and drove toward the location of Rod & Berta's time share "Grand Beach Vacation Resort". We decided to stay at a nearby place, so we picked the "Parc Soleil by Hilton Grand Vacation". It is a virtually new resort and was absolutely beautiful. It is the nicest RCI resort we have stayed in. The rooms were huge, spacious and well decorated.

Wednesday we went to "Discovery Cove" to spend the day. Kathy & I only bought the Standard tickets (without the Dolphin Swim) since we had already done it on our honeymoon trip. The day turned out to be one of the most fun days I've ever had with Jack. We had breakfast in the morning (2.5 stars out of 5). Then the 5 others got ready for the dolphin swim. Kathy & I were able to stand on shore around 20 feet from where the group was having their encounter, so I was able to take pictures.

After the excitement of the swim, we all headed to the lazy river for a swim. This was the very first time, Jack and Sarah had ever tried snorkeling, so we weren't sure how it would go. Sarah took a few minutes to get comfortable, but Jack took to it like he had been doing it all his life. Jack and I swam all the way around, stopping to clear the mask and to view things along the way. We then went into the cold water fish pool. The water was really cold but there where stingrays up to 8' across and other brightly colored fish up to 200 pounds. It was really neat. We then went to the Tropical Reef to feed the stingrays. It took a while to get up the courage to put the fish below the head and allow them to take it from your hand. Jack did great.

We ended up going back to have lunch, which took a long time, since we were late getting in line (3.5 starts out of 5). We sat on the beach and watched some of the other groups swimming with dolphin, when Jack asked me if I would like to race around the lazy river. The game was, once you started, if you picked your head out of the water, then you lost a point. The river is around 1500-1800 feet long. If there hadn't been some slow swimmers, I believe Jack and I could have swam all the way around just using the snorkel. We both ended up with 1 head raises. We took another lap with another 2 head raises.

Afterwards, Jack and Berta went on a nice 1 hour mother-son swim in the  Tropical Fish pool. while the rest of us laid around on the beach chairs. We finally rounded everyone up and with into the Explorer's Aviary. We picked up little cups of bird found, to feed the free flying birds inside the huge netted aviary. It didn't take long for exotic birds to start landing on our hands, cups, arms, shoulders and heads. There are many good pictures of the experience.

Dinner that night was burgers grilled at the "Grand Beach Vacation Resort". Really simple but delicious.

Thursday we went to Aquatica for a day at the water park. Since Kathy's foot was still hurting I rented a wheel chair for her. The created the perfect scenario where Sarah was able to push Kathy all around the water park. I was in a little pain, so I spent most of the day laying in lounge chairs under shade. Everyone seemed to have a great time. After we barely wore the kids out, we went back to Kathy & Alan's timeshare to eat a fabulous dinner of pizza.

Friday we got ready to go to Sea World, but Kathy & I were too tired, so we took our time and got ready to leave to go to our second portion of our vacation. We left the timeshare and drove east to the A1A Highway (edge of the shore highway). It was a nice simple drive with nice scenery. We stopped at one of the many state parks along the way, changed into swimming suites and then went out into the ocean. It was a little cold, but Kathy loves getting in the ocean. We continued on to see a business partner of Kathy, Stacey, and 2 stay for a few days of relaxation in Port St. Lucie. Saturday was a laying around day and the dinner out in Jupiter at the "Jupiter Reef Grill ?". We had a nice quiet time and the food was pricey but great.

Sunday was a non-hectic day driving back to Orlando, until we determined that the car clock was off by an hour. But all went okay and we made it home.

Home in time to save Kenai from the Fourth of July fireworks mania going on around the house.

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