Coco Beach

This morning we surprised the kids with a trip to Coco Beach and the Cape Canaveral area.  We invited Mom and Dad, but they were so worn out from the trips to the two Disney Kingdoms that they opted for a day at the condo instead, and offered to keep Elliott with them.  The kayak tour we had planned had a minimum age that did not include Elliott, so he and Matt (or I) were going to have to sit out and wait anyway, so we had a change of plans and it was just Matt, myself, and the two girls heading out.  As it turns out, having that focused time with his grandparents was just perfect for Elliott, and they all seemed to enjoy that time together.

Coco Beach is a great beach, and just an hour drive from Orlando.  We passed right by a space shuttle on public display which we all found super interesting.  We were right on time for our 10:00am expedition.  We slathered on the sun screen and zipped on the life jackets and away we went!

Charlotte rode with me, and Madeline went with Matt.

We were looking for manatees, which are now returning to the areas after 'winter', and for dolphins.

The area we went to is the mangrove area in the brackish water (half fresh water, half salt water inlets) just in from Coco Beach (literally it was about five blocks away).  This photo is hard to see, but a fleet of about 12 to 14 pelicans just landed in the mangroves here. 

A couple of times during the tour Madeline got to try her first solo kayak paddles. We have a kayak at home, but in our tandem kayak the passengers sit deeply in the hull.  These sit-on-top kayaks are much easier to paddle and steer on.  She was SO proud of herself!  (And we were proud of her, too!)

This is a photo of our group (six kayaks plus a tour guide's kayak) manuvering through one of the many hidden traisl within the mangrove forests.  Mangroves are really interesting plants.  There are three varieties in the Coco Beach area, which is the northernmost region in which they are found here in Florida.  There's a red, a white, and a black mangrove species.  Mangroves grow "drop roots" from higher branches, which are hollow like straws.  They suck up the brackish water, and then eliminiate the excess salt through their leaves.  They do not need dry land to survive, and as a result many 'islands' here are actually just mangrove forests.  This picture makes the drop roots easy to see.  The tunnel we went through was really narrow and quite shallow, making for a pretty good challenge for Matt and I and our two-person kayaks.  But we made it. 

By now the girls were getting too much sun and Charlotte, although we sunblocked her, was starting to burn, so we covered them with beach towels and hoped for the best.  Poor babies.  The sun here this time of year is SO much stronger than Michigan sun!

Our guide wasn't able to find any of the resident manitees for us to observe, but she was able to find and pull up a horseshoe crab for us to see and teach us about.  They are VERY interesting animals.

We saw flying fish (mullet) jumping 1 to 5 feet out of the water right by our kayaks, which was VERY cool and also VERY hard to photograph.  We also saw a pink spoonbill bird, ibis, cranes, pelicans, cormorants (both green and black species), and some neat butterflies.  Unfortunately, no manatees or dolphins, which bummed the girls and I out a bit, but the trip still scored a "thumbs up" from all of us, and Matt and I really loved being in kayaks again.  It's something we did a LOT of before we had kids.

We also learned a LOT about the local wildlife from an expert who is also a native.  Something we all appreciated, as we are falling in love with this area of the country.

After a brief stop at the local Pizza Hut for a lunch buffet, we headed to the beach!  This was a very first ocean experience for both girls and some very special bonding time for us, as we were able to pair off one-on-one which is something that is hard to do frequently with our three children. 

                 

Madeline couldn't wait to get out in the surf!

And Charlotte went straight to collecting sea shells.

Madeline (left), Matthew (center) and Charlotte (right)

Sweetness!



We have a huge bucket of partially broken, sand-coated seashells coming home with us - Charlotte was a busy girl!  I love how nature-oriented she is.

There was a storm brewing just off the coastline, and we could actually see the rain in the far distance.  It made for some really tall waves for about the last 45 minutes we were there.  The surfers came out of the woodwork when that happened, and we had quite a little show to watch while we jumped and bodysurfed the waves together.

We spent about 3 hours on the kayak tour and about 3 on the beach, so by dinnertime we were ready to head home again.  Charlotte was asleep in the van after the first 5 minutes of the drive.  We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing in the condo after dinner, and watched a movie with popcorn.  A great end to another perfect day!

Animals, Animals everywhere!

Today we spent the day at the Disney Animal Kingdom theme park.  It was a GREAT day!

This is the baobab tree, called the Tree of Life, greets entering visitors and has dozens of animal figures carved into it.  It's enormous.  This photo doesn't do it justice.

Sorry, buddy.  Back into the stroller you go.  Lots of walking again today!

The tag-team sunblock team.  We got all three kids covered in the eight minutes we were in line for the Kilimanjaro Safari - our first ride of the day.

For this, groups of 10 to 15 or so climb into this JEEP and are taken through a guided tour of the roaming African animals.  Although they are 'wild' they are quite accustomed to being near humans and the sound of the vehicles, and we were able to get some pretty close encounters.  Much closer than my acutal safari in Kenya last year.  It made me excited and happy to see them, but also a little sad that this was truely NOT the wild habitat they were meant to live in.  The kids were elated to see such grand and exotic animals up close.  And Elliott L-O-V-E-D the JEEP.  Future Disney families: rush to this exhibit at the park opening in the morning.  The animals are most active before noon, and the waiting lines grow LONG.

black rhinosaraus

Nile crocodile

One very happy Elliott

antelope

Seeing a giraffe has always and will always make me smile, but seeing one walk down a sidewalk also makes me confused.

wildebeest

another giraffe

 (a different breed than the first one pictured; look at their different brown color patterns)

another giraffe

giraffe butt

Noticing a pattern yet?  I LOVE GIRAFFES!

African elephant family

flamingoes!

white rhinosaraus

After the safari expedition, we went to the walking animal tour.  There was a tank with an above/below view of the hippos, meerkats, monkeys, a tank full of Afrian ciclids (really colorful fish), gators, and an aviary full of rare and colorful birds.  Here is Madline studying the bird guide with me, and we identified nearly half of the birds listed.  That was really quite fun!

Charlotte really connected well with this activity as well.  She and I have a bird feeder at home we watch daily and check our bird guides to identify new species.  She loved the whole new world of birds here.

Meerkat sitting on a termite hill

Male silverback gorilla

The Beresford African drumline

The Mom taxi deluxe

Next we went to the Birds of Flight show, where birds or all shapes and sizes put on a performance with actors, and some even swoop low over the crowd.  This is an African gray hornbill,with a wingspan over six feet.  Quite beautiful!

By now it was 10:30 and Madeline was itching to get on a rollercoaster.  So we started our day with the biggest, scariest one: Expedition Mt. Everest!

This is seriously the coolest rollercoaster ever created.  It's unlike anything else any of us have ever experienced and it is by far my favorite ride of all time.  I was worried how Madeline would handle it, but she was braver than I was!  And we just about had to peel her out of the coaster and promise to take her on again.  We went three times today.  I would have loved another ride. 

Silly goose!

Abracadabra????

Woof!

Mmmmmm..... mousey!

My rollercoaster girl!

"Mom, I want to ride THAAAT one!"

A Daddy & his Charlotte

We had to work to keep Elliott engaged while his sisters were riding the 'big kid' rides, but there was a lot there for him to see.  He loved this ride (similar to the flying Dumbos at the Magic Kingdom) and the Dino-dig, a play area with dinosaur-themed play equipment including a bone excavation site.  And he seemed quite engaged with looking at the animals.

This pretty birdie was begging for food at lunchtime.  Not your average Michigan park sparrow!

Then these two came in to see what was left.  These curved-bill birds are everywhere in Orlando.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Elliott sees the JEEP and wants to drive it.  Charlotte sees the JEEP's rollbar and wants to do flips.

At this point, we had eaten lunch and were all feeling very hot.  Elliott was tired and starting to get cranky.  So we switched gears and headed inside to watch the FINDING NEMO and the LION KING performances.  I was expecting a chance to sit down in an air-conditioned venue.  What I experienced knocked my socks off! 

First was NEMO.  Not only was the singing and the actual performance of the highest quality, but the special effects were astounding.  Like only Disney could do.  I was so sad when it was all over, after about half an hour.  I could have sit and watched it two or three more times and loved it. 

After NEMO we took a quick ride on the Primeval Whirl (roller coaster) on our way over to the LION KING.  Wow, that messed me up pretty thoroughly.  Part "Mad Mouse" (from Michigan's Adventure) and part "Spinning Teacups" (Magic Kingdom), its a tight-spin rollercoaster that is also on ball bearings and spins at will. so sometimes you're going forward, and other times you're riding backwards or sideways.  I almost tossed my cookies at the end, and even now at 10:30pm I can still feel the wishy-washy feeling in my head.  I'm past my expiration date for rides that spin.  No more.

The LION KING performance blew my expectations out of the water.  I was expecting themed actors and puppets, and what we saw were trained athletes and acrobats, world-class dancers and performers, and singing that was so pure and beautiful and so filled with emotion my hair was literally standing on end.  The anima-tronics (animal/robots) were so realistic that I was staring at them for half of the performance in awe that they weren't real animals.  I would have loved to stay seated and enjoyed another performance.  Charlotte was so impressed she was smiling from ear to ear, and her jaw was literally hanging open the other half of the time.  Madeline likes performaing arts, but Charlotte LOVES them.  Elliott, poor dude, finally fell asleep after the first ten minutes.  Bummer.  Future Disney guests, do NOT miss these performances!

We then headed back to the Tree of Life in the center of the Animal Kingdom and sat down for a 3D showing of "Its Hard to be a Bug".  It's only eight minutes long, but quite intense.  At one point, Charlotte lost it and was screaming and crying, and balled up in my lap, terrified.  Elliott and Madeline liked it, as did most of the adults, but it took Charlotte about 20 minutes to settle herself down.

After that unnerving experience, Matt and I took Madeline to the Dinosaur! thrill ride.  Also very intense and at times quite scary, it was also VERY well done.  Definitely not a ride for timid passengers, it frightened even the brave Miss Madeline, and at one point me, too.   She was able to shake it off, though, and asked to go again with Grandma and Grandpa.  And they did.

To settle things down a notch, we bought the kids ice cream and finished off the snacks we had brought, and took the train out to Rafiki's Conservation trail, a train ride out to the animal care center behind the wild animal park.  The kids loved the brass statues of baby elephants.  As you can see, by this point it had been a fun but a long day, and we were all hot, sweaty (translate: stinky) and tired.  But we were still having a blast.

Charlotte had a sweet spot for the elephants

We were in for a big surprise! 

There were three princesses we did not see by the end of our day Monday, at the Magic Kingdom:  Rapunzel, Pocahontas, and Mulan.

Pocahontas was at the Conservation Station for some visiting time with her fans from 4 to 5pm, and we arrived just in time!



Charlotte's smile says it all!

We even got to visit with Rafiki the wise babboon. 

What a great day!

 We headed home at park closing time (7:00pm) and we were all dehydrated and exhausted.  Dinner, baths, and bed!

Next on the agenda - kayaking adventure with manatees and dolphins in Coco Beach!  Stay tuned!