Sea World!

Our hotel was right across the street from Sea World! We could see the Manta roller coaster and Atlantis, the water ride from our window!
It was a beautiful hotel and our room was huge! Isaac was excited to sleep on the pull out bed from the couch!

We had a microwave and a mini fridge also!

Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early to head to Sea World. Apparently on certain days, they open to hotel guests an hour early. We thought let's take advantage of fewer crowds and go! So, we ate breakfast and went to wait for the bus to take us over there!

Sadly, only 2 rides were open and none of the animal exhibits were open that early! We were bummed that we got up so early just for nothing to do there! One ride that was open was the Manta roller coaster. No thanks!

The Antartica ride was open though, so we went on there. It was freezing cold! We've never seen people in Florida wear snow pants, hats, mittens and winter coats before! it was a cool ride-followed a baby penguin and then it ended at the penguin exhibit! The air temp was 32*, so nice and chilly in our shorts!

Eventually, we were able to talk Isaac into going on the Atlantis, which is (we thought!) a water flume ride. Well, it is but it's also a roller coaster too! He was not happy with us afterwards.

We went to the dolphin/bird show. It was pretty cool to see the dolphins interact with their trainers! There were also live birds flying around. There were divers that dived off these high platforms and people suspended on ropes doing acrobatic stuff.

This is where the divers were

Isaac was in love with this show! It was pretty cool. I had the feeling I'd seen it somewhere, but couldn't place it. It was our first trip to Sea World. He had no interest in seeing the whales or manatees. Boo. I would have loved to show him the manatees, as they are one of my favorite creatures!

When we decided to go to Sea World, we discovered they have a behind the scenes type dolphin tour. it was so well worth the money to get Isaac up close and personal with a dolphin again!
We met at the dolphin nursery, which is where the mama's and babies live. It was neat to see the babies and how they mimic their moms!

Isaac with the guide for the dolphin tour

Our guide pulled Isaac out of our group and was having him answer questions and be an example. He was over the moon! He was the youngest in the group, but I bet he knew a lot more than some of us!

Mark and Isaac "free fed" the dolphins. This is when they throw fish into the pool and it's every dolphin for him/herself. This teaches the babies how to eat and get food. (I took pictures!)
Afterwards, we went over to the Discovery pool, where they allow visitors to feed/touch dolphins. We were the first ones up!

We were paired up with a trainer and a dolphin. Our dolphin was Scott. We were allowed to touch him and learned a few hand signals to have him show us what he knows. Isaac LOVED it. And he's right-dolphins do feel like a rubber tire.

After our dolphin adventure, we wandered around and had some lunch. We went back on the penguin ride once it started raining. that made it even colder!

Afterwards, we rode the bus back to the hotel and Isaac hit up the pool. We went to bed early--we were tired after such an awesome day!

Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Our first full day in Florida, we spent time at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.This is the home of Winter, the dolphin with a prosthetic tale.

The houseboat from the movie "Dolphin Tale"

If you know Isaac, you know he absolutely adores dolphins. He was the first to recognize the houseboat when we got to the aquarium.

We got there right at opening and it was getting crowded already! We wandered around, looking at all the animals, including leatherback turtles, river otters, the pelicans that played Rufus in the movies.

Then we found Winter and Hope's pools. They don't share a pool, but do stay next to each other. Hope came to the aquarium after being found stranded, I believe. Winter had lost her other pool mate, Panama due to respiratory disease. Her son, Nicholas, is still at the aquarium. We were able to watch Nicholas show off his skills in the rooftop pool (pictures below). Isaac insisted on sitting in the front row so he and Mark got soaked! I wasn't able to get any good shots of him, though.

Winter! It was hard to get good photos as they have the bars, and you are about 2 feet back from the bars.

This was amazing for Isaac. He is so excited to see "Dolphin Tale 2" when it opens this week. It was awesome to see how in awe he was to finally see Winter and then Hope as we explored the aquarium.

The aquarium was the former water treatment plant before it was turned into the aquarium.

After the aquaruium, we headed to my aunt and uncle's. Then we headed to their son's home for a bbq. We had burgers, Iowa sweet corn that we brought down and ice cream with my grandma's homemade fudge sauce. It was great to see my cousin's again. Isaac was able to see their horses as well and he seemed to enjoy it! He also loved on their dog, Pepper!

Florida Vacation 2014...Day 1/2

We had saved up for this trip for over 3 years! When the 3 of us sat down to plan our vacation this past December, the plan was to do Disney in Florida with a little visit to my family.
Isaac threw a wrench in those plans when he told us he didn't want to go to Disney after all! He wanted to do a cruise!
Mark got busy researching cruises while I talked to Isaac about what else he wanted to do while in Florida. The only other big ticket item on his list was to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, home of "Winter", the dolphin with a prosthetic tale.

After some initial research, Mark found a cruise we thought we would enjoy. Now, I don't even remember what it was or even where it went! Then we discovered Disney Cruise Line. Disney AND a cruise?! Isaac was excited. So, we put a deposit down on a 3 night/4 day cruise out of Port Canaveral traveling to Nassau, Bahama's and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.
We were 8 months out from our vacation but still excited!

Fast forward through the year. We had school to finish and almost all of the summer! In the meantime, we saved, I sold things to make extra money and put away whatever we could. We ended up deciding on a 10 day trip that included 2 1/2 days for travel. Through our credit card, we were able to book all our hotels in Florida with no money out of pocket. What a money saver! (Yes, I know we actually did "pay" for them at one time!)

August 8 finally came! We planned to be on the road that morning by 0600. By 0608 we were pulling out of the driveway! The drive was uneventful, with the usual stops for bathroom and gas.
We had lunch somewhere in MO at a McDonald's (the only one on the entire trip!)
I saw the St. Louis arch from a distance. Never seen that before!

The father south we got, the hotter it got. We ran into rain.
Somewhere in Georgia/Kentucky/Tennessee we were driving in the mountains. I was driving. It was raining, foggy and dark. I nearly had an anxiety attack driving! It was very nerve racking for me, as I've never done a drive like that. I chewed an entire pack of gum over that hour.
Eventually, we got through the mountains (beautiful scenery though!) and then realized that the air conditioning fan was not blowing. It was hard to get the windows to stay clear and it was getting warm in the car.

Our plan was to try to get to or through Atlanta that night. Sadly, we made an executive decision to stop for the night around 10 pm because we were hot and couldn't clear the windows. We spent the night in a Super 8 in Calhoun, Georgia. It was a short night it seemed! We slept, ate breakfast and got back on the road. That's when my cell phone decided to die also!

Atlanta has 7 lanes of traffic running through it. I am glad Mark was driving because it made me neverous just being a passenger! We drove across the Florida state line sometime after lunch time.  Called my aunt and uncle to inform them we would be to their place around 530 to drop of the Iowa sweet corn we drug along for them!

We made that time and pulled into my Aunt Sharon's driveway at 530! Hadn't seen her for a couple years and hadn't seen my uncle since Isaac and I were down there when he was a baby. We stayed for about an hour then headed out to Clearwater/Indian Rocks Beach where our hotel was.

I could have stayed here all night!

"toes in the water"

The hotel was beautiful! 2 blocks from the beach! Had it's own marina! It reminded me of the resort from "Dirty Dancing". Walked down to the beach and it was beatutiful! I could have stayed all night! We had some dinner in the hotel restaurant and then got Isaac in the pool for a while. We slept well that night!

November!

10th day of November already! These last few months are flying by quickly!

*I ended October with no trips to Wal-Mart, just the .99 Kindle book and no music downloads. No shoes or clothes purchased for me. I did, however, have to buy a pair of pants for Isaac to wear to his great-grandfather's funeral.

This month:
*Bring meals/food from home to work so I don't spend money in the cafeteria (I did spend $1 on Friday for a soda, though. I usually buy 1 12-pack of pop and leave in my car to take a can to work. I was out. I think I will keep it that way!)
*Drink water at restaurants. Not only is it cheaper, it is way healthier for me! (DUH! This will be a hard one to do, but I am determined!)
*I traded in some books/DVD's on Amazon for a gift card. I then purchased the songs from last month that I wanted! Even had some left over to purchase a case of soup from Amazon. Turned out to be .37/can so that is cheap lunch or supper!
*I learned how to check out library books for my Kindle! It seems as if the Kindle version will be quicker when reserved, rather than waiting 2 plus months to get the hard copy from the library!
*Renewed our zoo membership before prices went up $10.
*Staying home more to prevent mindless, unnecessary trips to Target! (Want to continue to stay out of Wal-Mart as much as I can. I do have a $50 gift card from last Christmas though).
*Find more things to take to consignment (over $40 in my account right now!) and also things to sell on the FB swap sites.  I split this money between our Disney Fund (hopefully, next summer!) and my school loans. I want to get them paid off ASAP!

***It has almost been an entire year and I have not had any Mountain Dew!! YAY!