We left on Friday, April 8th in the morning to catch an 11:50 flight, which turned into 1:10 because of fog and rain in Chicago. As we were taxing on the runway, we stopped to let the plane ahead of us take off. Hailey said, "Uh oh, we stopped. Must be that the plane needs more pixie dust to fly." :-) She was very curious about the flight this time...I think she finally understood we'd be flying way up into the sky. We arrived in Tampa around 4:30 and made our way over to my Aunt Penny & Uncle Allan's a little before 6 pm. We ate dinner with them (and my cousin, Scott, and his family), took Hailey for a little swim in their pool and a tour around the complex, and then chatted a little more before heading to our hotel in Tampa. We had a great time visiting with them!
Hailey walks down the ramp into the water; a night view of the back of my aunt & uncle's condo; Hailey shows Andrew the spider that's in the corner of the pool; Hailey & Andrew play a game of Candy Land.
The next morning (Saturday), we drove over to Clearwater Beach to go on the Marine Aquarium Safari Boat Tour. This was a tour through the Clearwater Bay to see and learn about sea life. About three quarters into the tour, they pull a net behind the boat for a timed 2 minutes. They then sort through what comes up in the net and place it in clear containers. They document what they caught (as well as the time of day, location, level of the tide, etc.) and report the findings back to the state of Florida. This helps the state determine how healthy the ecosystem is in that area. They then dropped us off on a little island (called Shell Island) to look for shells. After about 10 minutes we re-boarded the boat and while on our way back to the aquarium, they brought around each of the containers to show us what had gotten caught in the net. It was really neat! After the tour was over, we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the Aquarium to look around. A movie called "Dolphin Tale" (coming out in theaters September 23rd) was filmed there, and we got to see "Winter" the dolphin, who the movie is about. You can see the movie trailer here: Dolphin Tale. I'll be anxious to see it! The Marine Aquarium rescues (and releases after rehabilitation if possible) injured marine life. We got to see dolphins, turtles, otters, sharks, sting rays, etc. After leaving the aquarium, we stopped at a local grocery store and got some breakfast food for the next couple mornings (no free breakfast buffets at vacation destinations!) and then drove over to our hotel. We got everything settled in the hotel and then walked down the street to eat at a restaurant called the "Gondolier". It is an Italian restaurant and had great food! We then came back to the hotel to do a little swimming in the pool before watching that evening's sunset. It was a hot day (85 degrees), but thankfully there was a gulf breeze to help make it a little more bearable.
Middle picture on right is of the boat; bottom right picture is of them pulling the net in out of the water; bottom left picture is of us heading over to "Shell Island"; top right Hailey & Brian look for unique shells; top left is a shell Brian found...the top left of the shell opens up...probably a clam shell at one point.
Top left are jellyfish that do not have stingers on their tentacles. They only eat plankton, so do not have a need to sting their prey. Next picture over is a pin fish (it's hard to see in the picture, but there are spikes on the top of its back that stand up straight when it is frightened). Next over is a crab that is unidentified (at least by the aquarium staff)...they were releasing it back into the bay that day. Picture below that is of sea urchins (very hard & spiny)...Hailey & I got to touch one. Picture below that is called a "decorated crab"...if I saw it in the water, I would have thought it was a piece of seaweed! Very awesome! Picture to the left is a baby horseshoe crab...they get to be pretty big in their adult life!
Top middle is a sea turtle; top right are sea otters; below that is Brian petting a sting ray; to the left of that is "Winter" the dolphin. She lost her tail due to getting trapped in a crab trap line when she was only 3 months old.
Eating at the "Gondolier".
Swimming in the pool!
Gorgeous sunsets! The ship in the bottom left picture is a pirate ship that does several daily cruises out into the Gulf. The top right picture was actually taken off of the end of Pier 60 on Sunday night.
The next day (Sunday), we went down to the beach in the morning before the sun got too hot. We met a family from Ohio who had two little girls (one a little older than Hailey and one a little younger). Hailey & Brian helped them make a moat around their sand castle. A couple teenagers found a hermit crab in the water a little ways out from the shore and brought it in to watch it walk around. The girls took great interest in it, so the teenagers let us take over its care. We let the girls watch it a little while longer and then put it back in the water. We walked back to the hotel around noon to get some lunch and spend a little time in the air conditioning. Around 3 pm, we went out to the hotel pool and did some more swimming and sunbathing. We got dinner at Frenchy's Southbeach Cafe and then walked down to Pier 60 for its evening activities. They have several street performers (magicians, dancers, etc.) and vendors selling their handmade goods. I bought a white shell necklace from one. We walked to the end of the pier to watch the sun set and ended up also seeing a dolphin feeding a few hundred feet away.
Playing at the beach!
On Monday morning, we did a little shopping in a few stores, grabbed some hot dogs for lunch, and then headed out of Clearwater. We stopped at Rita's (great water ice place!) on the way out...I wish we had one of these in the Midwest! After exchanging rental cars in Tampa (have to do this with Brian's free rentals), we drove over to my Great Aunt Rowena's (my grandmother's youngest sister) to get a tour of her Florida home and retirement community. She is extremely active...participates in golf and tennis tournaments (in fact, she just won a doubles tournament a month ago), does aerobics once a week, and walks a mile twice a day! Hailey & I rode in her golf cart with her as she showed us around. Hailey later said that she drives fast! :-) Her golf cart had some speed behind it! After visiting with her, we drove to a restaurant called the Celebration Town Tavern to meet up with a good high school friend of mine, Josh, and his family. We had seen Josh briefly two years ago when we came to Disney for the first time, but this time we made sure to get our two families together and spend more than 5 minutes catching up!
Bottom right is Hailey holding her Rita's water ice. Top right is Hailey & I with Aunt Rowena. Top left is a baby Sandhill Crane we saw while driving around on the golf cart. Bottom left is Hailey, Brian, me, Josh, Nathan, Nicole, and David (who is 10 days younger than Hailey).
On Tuesday, we headed over to Magic Kingdom. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece were at Disney for the week, so we met up with them for a few activities throughout the day.
The first part of the morning, we did some character greetings...Mickey & Minnie, Peter Pan, and Mary Poppins.
Brian waited in line for an hour (while Hailey & I met Peter Pan & Mary Poppins) to be able to get Hailey & Laura in to see Rapunzel & Flynn Rider. The kids got to color and then do some dancing with Rapunzel & Flynn.
Next up was the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My sister made reservations for Hailey & Laura to get transformed into princesses at the same time. They had sooo much fun doing this!!
Getting her hair done. Top left picture shows the hair piece all in place and Hailey looking over to see how Laura's doing.
Getting makeup and nails done. Quite the Royal treatment!! Top middle picture shows her getting the magical transformation blessing (and pixie dust on her hair). Up until this point, she's not been able to see what she looks like.
The big reveal! I just LOVED how it turned out! Laura's transformation (bottom middle picture) turned out GREAT, too!
Professional photo we had done afterwards.
Another professional photo.
We decided to ride a few rides next. Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Peter Pan's Flight. Mickey's PhilharMagic was a 3D animated short film that showed musical scenes from several different Disney movies. Hailey's not a fan of 3D movies right now...she gets scared of the things flying out at you. She kept asking me if it was time to leave yet. As soon as it was over and we were walking out of the theater, she said (as if trying to convince herself), "I wasn't scared at all!" :-)
She loved meeting the princesses!
We stopped to take a picture in front of the Castle.
We ate at the Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. It was an expensive meal, but the food was wonderful!! The menu is in the middle picture on the bottom.
This was the night time Electrical Parade. We met back up with my sister & her family to watch this.
The many colors of the castle at night.
After watching the night parade, we went over to Main Street to get a spot to watch the fireworks. They had Tinkerbell fly down from the top tower in the middle of the show.
On Wednesday, we visited Animal Kingdom. Again, my sister her family met up with us for a few activities. We probably wouldn't do this park again unless we were going to be at Disney for the whole week and could come and go as we needed. The way they timed the shows meant that several hundred people would be in a show at one time and then all let out at the same time (and try to do all the nearby activities afterwards at the same time). The food vendors were really slow...we waited in line for 20 minutes to get just chicken nuggets and corn dog nuggets (the only two items they had on the menu)!
Hailey had fun meeting all the characters in this park except for Lilo & Stitch...I think she was afraid of Stitch. So, I had to join her for the picture. She loved Chip & Dale, though, and really laughed at their silliness (see the bottom left picture). They would bug each other as they were trying to sign the autograph book and try to hide behind the book. Dale tried to put his finger in her ear (see bottom right picture). :-)
We then rode a Safari Train over to another section of the park called the Affection Section (a petting zoo). I would have liked to have spent a little more time here, because they also had an educational area that talked about things you can do at home to be more environmentally efficient and attract nature, but we were running short on time.
Next up was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. I stayed back, because it warned that expectant mothers should not ride due to it being very bumpy. Brian said he had trouble getting good pictures, because the driver didn't stop to allow everyone to take pictures. I'm sure it would turn into a much longer ride if they did!
We stopped to take a picture in front of the Tree of Life.
We then saw "Nemo The Musical". Actors sang while puppeting the characters. The costumes and scenery were very colorful! They also had bubbles come down near the end of the show (see bottom left picture)...really neat effect!
After the Nemo show, we went over to catch the Lion King show. I would have to say this was the highlight of the day! Excellent show! It was a theater in the round, so no one really had a bad seat. There was something going on all over. They sang all the popular songs from the movie and got the audience involved in some of the songs. It was just spectacular entertainment!
Here's a peak from the Lion King show.
After leaving Animal Kingdom, we got some dinner and then went over to Downtown Disney to do a little last minute shopping. We had a great vacation all together, but it's definitely nice being back home and sleeping in our own bed!
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