Orlando, Florida
Week 3
10 to 17th of August
Where do you begin to give feedback on a
fairytale week? A week where little girls dreams came true..a week where in
we’ve experienced a roller coaster(!) of emotions…a week where we’ve learned a
lot, laughed a lot and ate a lot of tortilla wraps…..!!!!!
Last Sunday morning we(together with the
Kent family of 6) left Greenville, South Carolina just before 6am( after
getting up at 4:30am to load the cars and get the kids out of their pj’s….all 8
of them). The 8 hour drive through
Georgia into Florida, was broken up 2hourly with pee-pee stops and refueling.
The kids were AMAZING!! We arrived at our destination, just south of Orlando
town in Davenport’s Sandy Ridge housing development, round 3pm. We had plenty
of time to settled into the 5-beded house and explore the conveniently close
(Yes!!! In the back garden!!!) swimming pool! We were so impressed with the
bug-proof netted extension to the house, which keep the critters out of the
pool. (This went onto my wish list!!!!)
Once the children were settled for the
night all the grown ups sat down to draw up a schedule for the week. We had one
vehicle between us all and therefore had to coordinate our outings! We are so
thankful to Billy and Rachel helping us to get around the parks. They dropped
us off and picked us up all over the show!
Down town Disney was planned for Monday.
Good start to check out the HUGE LEGO store and to get into the mood for
visiting some entertainment parks! The muggy/humid morning led to our first
experience of an Orlando thunder shower. After a wee while we got fed up trying
to keep the kids from touching stuff in gift shops, so we just decided that we
did not live in Scotland for no reason…we are used to rain, so lets just walk
in it and enjoy it! And that’s what we did. Everybody got wet and felt cooler
instantly and the happy smiles returned!!
We have booked an swimming with dolphin
experience at Discovery Cove for later the week. Included to this ticket was
also a pass to go and play in Aquatica waterpark and to spend a day in Sea World
entertainment park. Monday afternoon was spent in Aquatica. We had to evacuate the pools just once!! Code RED is
when a severe thundershower was moving in. Again we were rained upon. Only
difference was that this time we had our swimmies on and wet already. So now we
really did not care!!
Arno has been very fascinated by NASA’s
space program, so we just had to visit Cape Canaveral. All the exibits were so
informative and the life sized rockets, control rooms and Moon landing
voice-overs still did not fully prepare us for the surprise of witnessing the
real Atlantis space shuttle. What a sight! This monster was launched into space
33 times over a period of 26 years. AND it always returned it’s cargo of
astronauts back home!!
Our wonderful day at Sea World Park was a
great highlight and blessing, since the Kent’s came with us. We arrived there
shortly after opening time and stayed until the last visitor departed!!
At last it was Thursday morning…we’ve been
dreaming of and looking forward to swimming with the dolphins at Discovery Cove
for such a long, long time!! And now it was all happening. Billy dropped us off
at the entrance round 7:45am. From the moment we stepped through the doors, we
were swept up in an island style atmosphere…that was sooo hard to leave come
6pm. We divided into two groups, since Philippa and Nina were too young to swim
with the beautiful creatures. We were
kitted out with wetsuits, towels, snorkeling gear and all we can think or
imagine to eat for the whole day!! They even provided Thomas with prescription
swimming goggles!!!
Thomas and I got our swimming opportunity
first and Arno and Alana went for theirs an hour later. The rest of the family
could watch from the side. We were over the moon to be allowed to bring Nina
and Philippa into the water with the rest of us for a photo opportunity. They
got their chance to touch the 50 year old Cindy. Dolphins normally just get to
the age of 20, max 25 years old in the wild. When they start loosing their
teeth (yes, that is an indication of a dolphin’s age) they can find it hard to
feed and defend themselves. In the ‘zoo’ they get their ‘sushi’ provided and
they can live for a longer time. Dolphins are warm blooded mammals and need up
to 90 pounds of fish every day (in comparison with the cold blooded shark, who
just needs 11pounds of fish every week…and who might be 3 to 4 times the size
of a dolphin)
Besides the ‘dolphin pond’ and cafeteria,
Discovery Cove has an wonderful aviary
where you can hand-feed colorful birds from all over the globe and where
you can enter a lazy river to float along with the stream. The little ones enjoyed
the buoyancy of the life jackets so much.
AND THEN…the lovely HUGE fish pond with the
tamest of tame stingrays and other colorful species. The whole pond is filled
with salty seawater, a little bit cooler than that of the lazy river…but the
snorkeling experience was so authentic. Even Thomas and Alana got the nick of
swimming underneath the water AND breathing at the same time, quickly!! I’m
still gob-smacked about how tame those ray’s/skates were. They would swim in
the shallow water beside you and touch your legs with their ‘wings’…give me a
good old jump to start off with, but then later you get used to even reaching
out to touch them with your hand. We spotted an old grand ma, almost 1m in
diameter!!! Alana just told me she got a hug from a manta ray from behind. She
got a bit of a fright, but apparently the sea ranger(with us inside the pool)
commented: Oh, he just gave you alittle hug from behind!!!
Just reflecting on our day there….. it
makes me want to go back. Initially I was a bit concerned about the cost
involved, but our ticket included Sea World and Aquatica. Our experience at
Discovery Cove and the fact that it was all-inclusive….man, it was good value
for money!!!!
Our anticipated lazy day on Clearwater
beach (north of Tampa) turned out a bit different. The 1.5h journey there did
not leave the rain clouds behind…we arrived in the mids of a brilliant
thundershower!!! The beach itself was perfect, unfortunately we spend all of 2
minutes on it before big thunder claps and an approaching raincloud chased us
back into the van!! Back at home, the children were very happy to spend their
last afternoon indoors!! A braai(BBQ) and some marshmallow toasting brought an
amazing week to an end. We really did not want the day to end, so after the
babe’s were put to bed, we grown-kids had some time of fellowship, prayer and
visualization…dreaming already of when we will be seeing each other again…(Dec
2016??!!)
Before the final last-touch, family-Kent
dropped us off to pick up our rental car (to rent a car from EZ for a day was
cheaper than to book a taxi to transport us to the airport). Our kiddo’s ran
alongside their van until there was no pavement left. This took us all back to
the time when they did the same in Scotland after visiting each other’s
houses!! Adios mi amigos!!
The rest of our last day in Orlando had some
high’s and low’s…a day spend in Disney’s Magic ‘princess’ Kingdom!! Hot, hot
with queues way to long…followed by a notorious Florida thundershower to shut
some more rides down for the bigger part of the afternoon…but then we met
Merrida(main character from the movie Brave), Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse!! We
managed to get fast passes (each ticket allow you 3 skip-them-lines) for Buzz
light Year’s laser ride, Mickey’ 3D Philharmagic show and our favorite:
Monster’s Inc Comedy show. Although it is an animation movie, the characters
interact with the audience. Bizarre, but sooo funny!!!
The evening parade was followed by the
fireworks and were out of this world. Philippa was in awe!!! What a joy to see
children so happy!!
Our week in Florida left us with memories
of swimming and some more water-based-activities, of countless games of
FUSSBALL, of happy tired children and late night adult chats with our feet
dangling into the pool. The time spend together with the Kents semented
friendships and is the proof that our God can make the seemingly impossible
come to life!!
Habakuk 2:2 – Write the vision down, make
it clear on paper