Florida Day 5-The Temple and Ocala National Forest

On Sunday we took a drive to the Orlando Temple. It was all locked up, thanks to Covid, but we still walked around. The kids chased lizards.

Then we headed to Ocala National Forest to the Silver Glen Springs.

It was pretty amazing. Again we ate lunch in the parking lot before we went down to the water. Me and Mike listened into Rylee's homecoming, she did such a great job! I loved hearing about her mission, and for her reasons for going.

I wasn't planning on getting in the water here, but there were manatees, so I had to! It was so fun! There was a mom and her baby. There is a spring so the water was clear and perfect for snorkeling. Wes went in while me and Mike were listening to Rylee, I think he must have gotten a little too close and it freaked him out, because by the time we got in he refused to get in! We also saw some jumping fish.

There was a lady there snorkeling and she said there were hundreds of manatees out a little farther. We would have needed kayaks. Next time...

When we got our we started on a little walk around to the other side of the spring, but we saw bear poop everywhere! And we heard a noise. So half of us decided it was too risky, and turned back. On our way back we started talking to a guy that worked there, he said he see's bears almost every morning, but they never bother him, so he walked us back to our group. We did not see any bears, thank goodness. My dad started feeling sick this day.  

The kids were so excited to get back to the house and swim, it was really there first chance to really enjoy the pool.

 

Florida Day 4-The Beach

On our fourth day in Florida we spent the day at the ocean! We drove for a couple of hours to Cocoa Beach. It poured rain as we were driving, and was still sprinkling a little when we got to the beach. We ate our lunch by the cars, by the time we were done it had stopped raining. So we headed to the beach. We had so much fun, I am pretty sure the ocean calls to Jaycee! Wesley, Bensen and Vivian liked playing in the sand. I did not get in the water, in fact I never even took off my hoodie! Too cold for me!

After this beach we headed over to Cape Canaveral. It was a beautiful drive, we saw some armadillos, a turtle and a wild boar! The kids loved gathering sea shells and running from the waves. We wouldn't let them get in too deep here, we were afraid they would get pulled out to sea! The waves were pretty strong. We ended the day with an amazing sunset! And Spaghetti.😊

 

Florida Day 3-Aquatica and Sea World

 Our third day was one of Jaycee's favorite days. We went to Aquatica. They had so many fun waterslides. The first tube slide I rode with my dad, I thought we were going to take flight! There was a lot of screaming. Mike got stuck on the Break Away Falls. On that slide you go in this tube and it counts down, and then drops the bottom out from under you. Mike went on it and the bottom didn't open. It kept beeping like it was going to drop, but it didn't, and then they couldn't get the doors to open. It was pretty traumatic.

They had something for everyone. There were several splash pad areas and cute little slides, and the fasted lazy river I have ever been in.

It was a little cold, I think it might have made it into the low 70's.

We stayed until a little after lunch time. We packed up, went out into the parking lot and ate our lunch, then headed back over to Sea World.

We saw the seal show, the orca show, and rode some more rides.

Go, go, go, we had a fun day.