first half vacation update

Well, we are half way through our vacation and today it is rainy so we're hanging out around the condo. Monday we did everything we had planned and it was a wonderful day. All you can eat breakfast followed by the airboat ride in the Everglades (sorry Christina, it is an air boat and not an air balloon ride :) Dan got to hold a baby alligator there and the airboat was really fun to skid across the weedy Everglades looking for birds and seeing an alligator sunning itself too. Then we were off to Cypress Gardens and saw beautiful gardens and watched a water ski and ice show too. We went to the Arabian Nights dinner theater and then stopped by WonderWorks to end the day.


Tuesday was forcasting rain on the Gulf coast, but it was the only day we could do the Dolphin sightseeing trip and Paddleboat dinner cruise so we decided to chance it and drive to the coast anyway. We were so glad we did because the rain held off until we pushed away from the dock so they didn't cancel the trip. It was a little wet, but we saw lots of dolphins jumping the wake behind the boat. It was so fun to see! Once we got done it started pouring but we had a few hours before the cruise so stopped a Chick-fil-A on the recommendation of one of Dan's co-workers. There we met a guy who searches for shells on the beach 10 hours a day. He sells them sometimes for over $100 a shell and picks up at least 100 a day! He showed us a few of his recent finds and they were huge and very beautiful shells. We asked where he goes and then headed off to try and find a few ourselves. The first beach we didn't find many, but the second one Dan, Monica and Marsha found some really nice ones. The rain had let up, but not for long and the three of them got drenched running back to the car. If it wasn't so rainy we would have stayed longer and probably have found some wonderful shells to bring home, but we did get a couple. The dinner cruise was nice even in the dark and we saw more dolphins jumping the paddleboat wake. So, even in the rain we were all very happy with our decision to go to the coast!

Today Roger and Monica and Bob and Marsha drove to the Kennedy Space Center while Dan and I stayed around the condo. We walked across the street for a pizza buffet and it started pouring again, but we made it back without getting too wet afterwards. Now we're going to go swim in the heated pool/hot tub because it doesn't matter if its raining while we're swimming, right? But, at least the rain gave me a chance to update this mid-vacation.


Tomorrow we're headed to Silver Springs with the glass bottom boat and maybe Gatorland too. It is supposed to be 78 and sunny and Friday 80!

Hard to see, but an alligator is out there!
Airboat for Everglades boat tour






Jumping dolphins!Old Veterans hospital turned into fancy resort off the Gulf
Chilly and wet day at the Gulfhow we looked at the end of the wet day Tuesday on the Paddleboat