Ok so not actually Italy, but I had a 7 hour layover to meet up with Jeremy and my parents since it was somehow cheaper to go though Dublin than straight to Italy, so we toured the Dublin Castle before returning to the airport and flying off to Pisa, where we’re staying at the Royal Victoria Hotel (the oldest hotel in Italy).
For Christmas Eve we drove to Edison and Ford Winter Estates to see their Christmas decorations, as well as several huge Banyan Trees.
Wee took a 3.5 hour Jones Lagoon Paddle Board guided tour after about a 30 minute jet boat ride to get to the lagoon and mangrove forests.
We started with a 30 minute airboat tour at Gator Park, with several gators swimming up close. At the park, there were small gators fenced in, as well as some large ones that had just wandered onto the property and were laying about, and we watched a little Wildlife Show about them. We then drove to the Shark Valley Visitor Center for a tram tour – about 2 hours driving around with a guide talking the whole time with info about the everglades and wildlife. We stopped by Robert is Here on the way back to the campground to pick up some weird fruits (one’s supposed to taste like chocolate pudding and another like egg custard).
We visited the Turtle Hospital and learned lots about turtles and how the hospital works to keep them healthy. Most of the turtles they help have “bubble butt” from getting hit by boats – the boat damages the shell and traps air under it so the turtle floats instead of being able to stay submerged. The weather was finally hot so we stopped by the beach at Bahia Honda State Park.
Yesterday we drove about 6 hours down to Sugarloaf Key. We woke up early today to make it to the Yankee Freedom ferry – about a 2.5 hour ferry to the Dry Tortugas National Park. We got a guided tour of Fort Jefferson before wandering around by ourselves. We actually saw a raft of refugees arriving as we were about to depart – a pretty common occurrence as this is the southernmost point. When we got back to the campground that night, there was a big hubbub as there were manatees just chilling at the docks – people were giving it some hose water to play with.
Yesterday we made it to Jonathan Dickinson State Park and were just resting to recuperate from Disney World. Today we walked the short boardwalk to Hobe Mountain’s observation tower (really just a hill but still pretty to look around), then drove to Carlin Beach for a picnic lunch.
We spent our last full day at Disney in the Magic Kingdom. Caught the parades and shows in between rides and finished out with the classic firework show.
Momma strategized all the lines and timings so we could hit the big ones, including the new Guardian of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. We walked around the International Festival of the Holidays at the different countries, eating a buffet lunch at Germany’s Biergarten Restaurant and dinner in China at Lotus Blossom Cafe. We caught the processional show with narration, orchestra, and singers, and ending the night watching the laser/firework/water show called Harmonious.
Made it to Florida to join the parents for a couple weeks looping around the state. We started out in Orlando to experience some Christmas magic at Disney World – and even the campground was decked out (maybe even more so) with just people’s personal decorations around their RVs.
