Easter in Florida

The first in a series of catch-up blogs...

We went to Florida at Easter. It was a really nice holiday and a lot of fun. Lyn's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Garry who live in Canada have a timeshare there and they had us to stay, which was just fantastic. It was lovely to see them as we hadn't seen them for three years since our trip to Canada, and so kind of them to let us use one of their condos. The resort was beautiful, with a few pools, water slides and mini golf (as well as a proper golf course through the apartments for us to laugh at people hitting it into the water). We spent the first couple of days winding down, relaxing in the pool and catching up with Ruth and Garry. Ruth cooked us some lovely food and the boys were big fans of her cakes!

It was just outside Orlando and quite close to Disney. Lyn had been to Disney before and so wasn't that bothered and we decided that Max and Leo were too young, especially as Max doesn't really like rides. So Sam and I got a combo ticket for one day at the Magic Kingdom and one day at Universal. When I was a kid a lot of my friends went to Disney and I had been jealous. It was great fun and I felt like a kid again (which to be honest, is frequent feeling!). Sam was really brave and had been growing taller especially to be able to go on Space Mountain in the complete darkness. We went straight there when the gates opened and then spent 13 hours in the park to watch the fireworks. Sam really like Splash Mountain and we got soaked a number of times through the day!

After a couple more days relaxing at the resort with Ruth and her family she looked after Leo while Lyn, Sam, Max and I went on an airboat over the everglades. It was great speeding over water and reeds and then stopping to see interesting birds and alligators. Sam fished some giant snail shells out of the water and Max tried to catch some fish. There's a link to a short video on the airboat below.

The next day Sam and I went to Universal Islands of Adventures, with Ruth, Abe, Dinah and Autumn, who was Sam's age. Our favourite ride was Spiderman which a 3d cartoon rollercoaster. I think we went on it more than 10 times. Sam enjoyed going on the Dr Suess rides with Autumn and we got soaked again on the water rides. Ruth also looked after Sam and Autumn for a bit while Abe, Dinah and I went on the huge roller coasters which were pretty amazing.

From Orlando we also went to Cape Canavaral to spend a day with the astronauts. Unfortunately the shuttle program has recently been closed down but it was really interesting to spend a day there and see the launch pads, mission controls and a shuttle in the distance.

After another couple of days at the pool we drove down to Fort Myers and stayed for a couple of nights on the beach. We had found a nice hotel on the beachfront and played on the beach but we were swimming in the sea when we saw loads of stingray swimming close by. Thanks to Octonauts the boys know more about sea creatures than we do, and apparently they have a bad sting, so we had to stop swimming! Instead we went to Sanibel island the next day which is a nature reserve and had beautiful water. Fort Myers is on the west coast so it's the Bay of Mexico which meant the water was calm and warm. Max swam in the sea for the first time and loved it. 

After Fort Myers we headed to the Everglades National Park. The National Parks are probably our favourite thing about America. This one is completely different to others, but still organized really well and made brilliantly accessible. On the first day we rented a boat and drove it out through the mangroves to a tiny island called Indian Key. It had a curved sandy spit and lots of mangrove trees. When we arrived there were two other boats there but later in the day we were the only people on the island. It was amazing to beach the boat on an island and explore and play on it. We had a lovely day, and for the boys it was a real adventure. In the everglades we also went to Shark Valley to see some great wildlife - more gators, beautiful birds and turtles, but no sharks. The terrain there was meadowlands as it was the end of the dry season. As florida has become more populated there is a water shortage and less flows into the swamps and down through the peninsula. The National Park is at the southern end and they are starting a lot of projects to protect the natural environment there.

The Everglades are such a beautiful and diverse area, and with different wildlife to elsewhere in the US. After a couple of days in the National Park we headed to Miami for a night at the Savoy hotel on South Beach. We decided to treat ourselves and had a pool side room two minutes walk from the beach. We swam in the sea once but spent most of the time playing in the swimming pools at the hotel. We also had a fun night out people watching on the beautiful art deco strip, eating a nice meal while Lyn and the boys watched me drink cocktails bigger than my head. After another day at the pool we drove back to Orlando in the evening.

Back at Ruth's we had one last day with her, Gary, Rebecca and James before getting an early flight back home to NYC.  A great big thanks to Ruth and her family for having us to stay and giving us the chance of a wonderful holiday in Florida!

Here are some photos and the video from the airboat.

Tom x