Adventure Island Tampa

Today again a slow starter. Had to wake up Xandrine again and this time, we had to check out, so we could not extend the stay.

We had to leave our room at 11AM and we did manage to do just that. After that, checked out and filled the car with our suitcases and bags. Today we will be heading for Tampa for a couple of days. But, before going on the highway, I had to pay a visit to a WalMart to pick up an order I placed.

My-oh-my, what is customer service slow at WalMart. At least at the WalMart I was. Rang the customer service bell twice and after 10-15 minutes of waiting I finally got some help picking up my Site-to-Store order. Since it was already pre-paid, I had to wait to pick it up. Otherwise I could easily have left the building and forget about the order.

After I received my order, I went to look for the Frogg Toggs and found them in the outdoor section. Paid the chilly pads and left the WalMart.

Finally we’re on our way.

During the trip, we stopped for a while at Cracker Barrel to have some lunch, as we were pretty late for breakfast. Maybe one day this trip we’ll make it in time for breakfast, but I do not get my hopes up. Xandrine had a burger with mac & cheese and I had a steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, apples and salad with ranch dressing. I could eat this all day, every day.

After the meal, we had to visit the country store attached to the restaurant, but could not find anything useful, so paid for the food and left.

Just half an hour later, we entered Tampa. And not much later, we arrived at our hotel, the Westin Harbour. We checked in, brought our luggage to the 9th floor and relaxed a bit and enjoyed the view. Then we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in Adventure Island.

We jumped in the car, drove about half an hour through Tampa and arrived on the parking lot of Adventure Island. Changed our clothes and hit the water. First of course Xandrine. We spent a while going through the entire park and then spent quite a while floating around. Around 9PM the park closed and we changed back into dry clothes again and headed back to the hotel. There Xandrine quickly fell asleep. Tomorrow we will probably be going to Busch Gardens on another hot day in Florida.

Adventure Island Tampa

Going to the beach

Today we had a really slow starter. I had to wake up Xandrine after 10AM this morning. She was not ready to wake up by herself. Apparently she does need her beauty sleep.

After the slow start, we stayed in the hotel room for some time getting started and getting ready.

Our mission for today, the beach. We are going east for Melbourne beach, Florida. Not the most well known beach of Florida, and that also makes it a less crowd beach, which is good, since we do not like the big crowds.

Before going to the beach, we pick up some useful items at the WalMart. We tried to get some Frogg Toggs Chilly Pads, but unfortunately our WalMart did not have them on stock. We did manage to get a cooler fur less than $10 and some grapes and cherry’s. Also some cool drinks too. So we are set to go, except we forgot one important thing today, breakfast, brunch, lunch or whatever you want to name it. Since we had a very slow start, we skipped breakfast and brunch, so call it lunch.

We stopped on our way at a Firehouse Subs and picked up some subs to eat on our way. At least, Xandrine got to eat hers, I ate mine at the beach. Xandrine got a sub with meatballs, sauce and cheese and to my surprise she ate the whole sub, with sauce, without complaints. She even liked the sauce. I had a brisket sub with melted cheese, which I ate at the beach. Good food, we’ll remember that for a future visit.

The trip to Melbourne is about 1-1,5 hours and takes us over toll roads. Since I left my transponder in our previous rental car, during a previous trip to Florida, I took the cash lanes. This will cost a bit more, both in dollars and time. For the return trip, I stopped at CVS Pharmacy to pick up a new transponder.

At the beach, it was not very crowded. The weather was good, bit on the warm side, but in the water it was very pleasant. The water was warm and a bit rough. This part of the ocean is known to be good for surfing, although we did not see any surfers today. Xandrine had a lot of fun with her goggles and spent most of the time looking under water. Even though I tried to warn her several times, she managed to swallow a gulp of salted water. She did not like that very much.

After a couple of hours on the beach, the evening had set in and the water was becoming even rougher. Apparently it was time for high tide. I showed Xandrine a spot where she has to leave the beach untouched as it was marked being a turtle nesting place. I explained why they mark these spots and she completed me with her knowledge of turtle nesting and hatching. Good to know, she knows a bit of nature. Turtles come out at night and try to reach the ocean before being picked up by birds or crabs. In the water they face other enemies like sharks and jellyfish she mentioned.

Then it was time to leave the beach and travel back to Orlando, but this time not without having had some dinner. In Melbourne there was a Truck Food Bazar where we stopped. Around 15-20 trucks gathered on the parking lot near Kings Centre of Performing Arts. I saw this on the internet a while ago and looked like a funny way to get some food and enjoy it. When we arrived, it was already 7PM and some trucks already sold out most of their goods, which to them is of course a good sign.

There was still plenty of food left for us to buy, so we picked up some cup cakes at YumYum, some great ice cream at Ice Cream Social Club and some pulled chicken at Up In Smoke BBQ. This was enough for the two of us and the prices were very reasonable. We both ate from one platter of pulled chicken, which was more than enough for us both, and that for only $5. Xandrine loved her pulled chicken with sweet BBQ sauce and I enjoyed it with Spicey BBQ sauce. We also loved our ice creams, Xandrine had strawberry with blood orange, and I had blood orange.

After having eaten all that, we threw away our garbage and got into the car to drive back to the hotel in Orlando. On our way, Xandrine tried one of the cup cakes, but she did not like that very much, maybe one of the other three taste better, than the vanilla. She has three other choices to try tomorrow, an orange cream pecan, a key slime and a bacon whoopie. Tomorrow we also have to leave this hotel and head west to Tampa, where we will be staying until the 1st of July.

 

Going to the beach

We are going on a summer holiday

It’s official. We are going to Florida this summer. At least, Xandrine and I are going for a “short” trip of two weeks.

Through ArkeFly the flight has been booked. On the 24th of June we will be leaving Schiphol Airport Amsterdam to fly to Sanford International Airport. It’s going to be an early flight, as we expect to lift of at 8 AM. A lot of hours later, at 12:55 PM local time, we will be touching ground in Florida and on the 8th of July we will be leaving Florida again to fly back to The Netherlands, where we expect to land at 8:15 AM on my birthday, the 9th of July.

As soon as we have picked up our luggage and went through customs, we will pick up our rental car at Alamo, which we booked through Alamo in the UK, which had the best price offer and insurance.

From there we will travel to the first hotel, which all have been booked either through Priceline or Hotwire. Our first hotel will be in Orlando the first couple of days. From the 24th of June until the 28th of June, we will be staying at the Rosen Centre Hotel on International Drive. On the 28th of June we will move to Tampa for a couple of days, where we will be staying at the Westin Tampa Harbour Island hotel, close to the Tampa Bay Times Forum. After that, we will be travelling back to Orlando on the 1st of July to remain the rest of our stay at the Hilton Grand Vacations on International Drive, just around the corner of the Premium Outlet Mall.

During our stay we will be going to SeaWorld, Aquatica, Adventure Island and Busch Gardens. Also on the planning will be Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World. Not entirely sure whether that will be on Independence Day, the 4th of July or a day before, since it will be loaded (not crowded but loaded, packed). However, Independence Day in Magic Kingdom will be an experience we will never forget.

For Xandrine I also have a surprise, which I will not mention before it has actually passed. Otherwise it will no longer be a surprise of course. This will also keep my viewers a bit curious about what is going to happen.

During the next few weeks I will need to be arranging the seats in our flights and see where we want to go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For sure, we will be visiting some BBQ restaurants. Uncle Kenny’s can expect our visit in Clermont and Swamp Boys can expect us to pick up some of their famous sauces. Since our last hotel is close to the Premium Outlet Mall, we will be visiting that mall to see if we can score some new clothes.

We are going on a summer holiday