Day 4: Gator Country

We were up early again, had breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road.  It's never too early to start exploring college options.   Since we were in gator country, we decided to find the University of Florida.  This was the first part of the campus that we found.

Not exactly what I had in mind so we continue to drive around and finally found the main part of the campus.....including the football stadium.

There were many people out looking around so we decided to park and do the same.  Once at the football stadium, we saw people going inside so we followed along.  All I can say is wow.  There were some athletes running bleachers and less than 50 others just looking around.  As far as I know, this would never be allowed on Texas college campuses.  Most of the time they are gated up and closed by a pad lock.  Not that I am a Florida fan but this was an amazing experience.

We were able to go all the way down to the bottom, just not on to the field.

 

Carson taking it all in....after a tumble down the stairs.

 

 

We can't forget that this is also the home to ....Gatorade..

Maybe we have a future gator in our midst.....she did say that this is a little to far from home.  We will see if she still fills that way when she's 18.

We left there and head to the Orlando area.  Again we have never done anything in Orlando except for Disney World.  Thanks to shows like Swamp People, Haylee is just obsessed with alligators.  Once she found out about Gatorland, she insisted that we go to it.  So we built in an extra day before we were to go to Disney to take in the sites.  I was pleasantly surprised by how big it was and how much there was to do.  The kids were in "gator" heaven.

The line to get in was so long, I dropped David off and I went to park.  To help pass the time in line, they had a worker with a little alligator that the kids could pet.

Haylee did not hesitate to pet it.  Carson on the other hand wasn't so sure.  Finally he petted it and so did I.  The top is hard while the side/underneath part is soft/leathery feeling.

 

Thankfully, I have never seen so many alligators and crocodiles in my life.

 

They were so excited....

 

The first show we saw was the Gator Wrestlin' Show.

 

Then the kids had their chance.

Carson was going to do it then he wasn't and then...

He did it!!!!

Gatorland is located between two swamps.  This was a very cool way to see the swamp up close.  Thankfully we didn't see any critters along the way.

We saw some huge alligators.

They also have a breeding area for alligators and egrets.  We saw several nests that had babies.

Carson had a great time feeding the animals.

Silly kids...

The kids feeding the hungry gators.

 



After this fiery photo, the kids cooled off at the splash ground.

 

 

The last show of the day was the Gator Jumparoo Show.  This is where the dangle meat over the gators to get them to jump out of the water.

 

 

 

Again.. all I can say is WOW...

 

If you can squeeze this in while in Orlando, it's definitely worth the stop.

 

Tomorrow.... DISNEY WORLD BOUND

Day 3: Down came the rain

We were up early and headed to breakfast.  Right outside of the hotel there was a Waffle House.  Our kids have never been there so we decided this would also be a new road trip tradition. The kids loved it.  I'll have to admit, the food was pretty good.

 After breakfast, we headed to the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.  I am so glad this was our plan for the day because to flood gates were open.  It rained all day long.  I don't recall the last time I saw so much rain. 

All I can  say is WOW.  This place is amazing.  They have some of the coolest planes and the kids were able to get inside some of them.  I am not going to attempt to name them or give info about them because I don't know much other than what I read on the signs.  This is the home to the Blue Angels and sometimes they are there signing autographs but not today. It took us about 3 hours to look around.  Anther plus for this is that it was FREE!!!!  Everyone had a great time.



This was found under water and you can watch a short film to learn more about it.

 

My dad was in the air force and his job was loading bombs like this one on to airplanes.

 

They were practicing putting on the seat belts.

This was the Navy's first aircraft. 

If you are ever in Pensacola this is definitely a place you should visit.  The pictures don't do it justice.

 

There is also a light house that you can visit but we only stopped long enough to take a picture. 

 

This was the first day the kids fell asleep in the car.  Three hours of quiet other than the radio or adult conversation.  We may pay for it tonight because they will not want to go to bed but it was so nice!!

 

 

 

Our next stop was Tallahassee.  It rained (poured) on and off the entire way.

We decided to see the capital building since on our many trips out here we have never stopped.

The Old Capital Building

The "New"  (not so impressive) Capital Building

Disappointed but I guess it's hard to compare it to the one in Texas

 

Then it was dinner time.  We missed the exit for one restaurant that we wanted to try.  Since the turn around was 5 more miles we weren't going to turn around and go  in the opposite direction. 

We came across this joint.

 

 

 

The food was very good.

 

This is David's new found food... a burger with an egg...   that's not for me. 

I'll just stick with a traditional burger and have eggs for breakfast.

 

 

 

Connected to Rays' was a candy store.  I found some candy I haven't seen in many years and I tried to get the kids to try some "good" candy.  Some of this candy you can get in stores now but the sweet 'n sour pops, I haven't seen in years.  Haylee wanted the mint toothpicks but I did convince her to get the cinnamon ones mainly so I could try them.  Now that everyone is hyped up on sugar, we are driving on to Gainesville for the night.  We will be up early again tomorrow for another adventure.