Catching Up - November part 3 (Our last week together)

This portion of the trip found us with 6 days to go to the two other parks we had planned visits to.  Needless to say, this was the relaxing part of the trip.  This ended up being a good thing as we decided this condo had our best accommodations of the trip.  Even though we were staying in Kissimmee, which some will tell you is too far away from Disney World, we preferred it.  There were tons of places to eat within walking distance, and we really weren't that far from Disney, though we had planned this portion of the trip to visit other parks because this condo wasn't as close to Disney as our other one.

We spent the first day after the cruise just relaxing at the condo, where Marcus decided to take his first steps.  I was hoping he would take his first steps during this trip so Eric could see them and I guess he was just waiting until we had carpeting and we weren't on a ship (our house and the first condo we stayed at have concrete/tile floors).

Here's a video of Marcus' first steps.  No, he's not wearing any pants, it's okay he's got a diaper on.  I apologize for it being sideways, I don't know how to fix it.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the condo complex, they had two pools with hot tubs and an activity center as well as barbecue grills strategically placed around a pond and a large playground.  Our favorite place was the activity center as Eric could go to the gym while Marcus and I played with a ton of new toys in their toddler area.  They also offered family/kid crafts and activities several times each day, but we never got a chance to partake in them.  They also had free popcorn which I think was Marcus' favorite part.  We always grabbed some on our way back to the room after playing or going to the pool.  This was actually the first time that he had popcorn, but he sure loves it now.

We ended the day at Cracker Barrel for dinner.  I love their high chairs, they look just like our chairs and Marcus got to sit at the table like a big boy.  Of course, we got him a treat at the Old Country Store on the way out.

The next day, we headed out bright and early for Universal Studios.  Marcus actually got to meet more characters at Universal Studios than he did at Disney World.  I think this was our fault though because we had no desire to stand in line to meet Mickey and Minnie and he didn't know who they were anyway, so why bother.  At Universal, the lines weren't nearly as long, and they weren't pushing you to buy their pictures, so we took the opportunity to meet some characters.

Marcus and Eric at the entrance to the park

The Simpsons, I think this might be the only family picture of the entire trip.

Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

Shaggy and Scooby Doo

Marcus the Giraffe

Marcus and Eric as elephants

Marcus and Eric after Eric went on the Simpsons ride

 The plan for the next day was Cape Canaveral.  We started with the Visitor's Center and, silly us, thinking it would be free were so shocked by the entrance fee we left without going in.  We ended up going to Patrick AFB, which was more interesting to us anyway, and an arcade in town.  We learned that Patrick AFB has some awesome beach cottages to rent, which is good information for us as we're moving 8 hours from there in September.  The first stop was the PX for a haircut and lunch.  Eric's hair is shorter in all of the rest of the pictures, but you probably won't be able to tell.

The boys are ready for takeoff!

Marcus ready to go down the slide, we had to take his shoes off because they kept making him stop.

Hey, another family picture! This is the bay on the west side of the base.  

This dock is the one behind the rocket from the first picture.
We were playing at the playground just outside of the Patrick AFB campgrounds.
(We sure do miss the services available on Air Force Bases.)

Once we finished exploring the Air Force Base, we headed back toward Kissimmee with a planned stop at a "fun center" in Cocoa Beach.  It ended up not being as "fun" as we had hoped, because Marcus couldn't do the kiddie go-carts, he wasn't tall enough, but we still had fun at the arcade.  We thought about playing mini-golf, but we had done that during the first week of our trip and didn't want to cart Marcus around while we did that again.

Marcus on the carousel

It was just his size, reminded me a lot of the old carousels at McDonald's.

Marcus trying to win some prizes

We ended up collecting enough tickets from the arcade to get Marcus a growing lizard.  We still haven't made it grow yet, but we have it, maybe we'll wait for Eric to get home.

The next day we got up early to drive to Tampa for Busch Gardens.  They have a cool program called Hero Salute which enables us to get free admission to one of their parks once a year.  In the Orlando area, we could choose from Busch Gardens and Sea World.  Normally, you could also choose the water park next to Busch Gardens, but as it was November, they were closed.  We thought we would enjoy Busch Gardens more, so that's the park we chose.

We started with the Sesame Street area so that we could let Marcus experience as many activities/rides as possible.  If we ran out of time at the end of the day, we didn't want it to be him that suffered for it.  He actually hadn't watched Sesame Street at this point in his life, but he was enamored by the characters anyway.

Marcus completely enthralled

What he was so enthralled by

What Daddy?  I'm trying to watch a show here.

Meeting Big Bird

Walking across the rope bridge with Daddy

Trying to do it all on his own

Ready to go!

Marcus getting ready to swing

Marcus actually spent most of this ride watching the girl behind him,
so this was one of the only pictures of him looking forward.

Marcus going down a water ride,
it had finally warmed up enough to tolerate these

Marcus climbing up some lily pads

Eric upside down on a ride while Marcus was taking his nap

Eric taking advantage of Marcus' nap on another adult ride

 Part of the reason we chose Busch Gardens over Sea World, other than the Sesame Street area, was that it's theme is African Safari and they have a ton of animals.  It's a lot like Disney World's Animal Kingdom.  Some of the animals, you can walk around and look at, and some of them you have to take a train to see.  Since there was a 10 minute wait for the next train, and it was the last train of the day, we decided to walk around and look at the other animals first.  We discovered both along our walk and on the train that the animals seem to be much closer here than at Animal Kingdom.

Though you can't tell in this picture,
these elephants were actually dancing to the music being played in the area

Lions

Hippo!!

Eric!!  Oh, I mean hippo.

Crocodile

The train pulling into the station

Marcus and Eric ready to get on the train

Waiting for the train to leave the station

Giraffe up close

Zebra!

The boys checking out all of the animals

Rhino's

 We had time for Eric to go on one last ride after the train ride before the park closed, but we had to run to get there.

There they go

Marcus' first Happy Meal

Okay, I know the first Happy Meal isn't a major milestone, but we got back from the park so late, and Marcus napped in the car, that we wanted to just go through a drive-thru to get him some quick food before bedtime.  We thought, what better time than this to have his first Happy Meal?

The next day, we spent most of our time hanging out in or around the condo relaxing.  That afternoon we decided to try out another "fun" center, but again most of the rides wouldn't allow Marcus to ride even though they were supposed to be kiddie rides.  Basically, it was just because he couldn't walk to the ride on his own, not because of his height.  We did find this really big truck to take a picture next to though.

The next day was Eric's last with us in Orlando.  We had to take him to the airport, so after playing for a little while in the morning, we headed to IHOP for a final meal.

Some last minute daddy time

A final family picture

Marcus "posing" for the camera at IHOP