Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Floating, Flying and Broomstick Riding

After lovely visits to both families, we took a trip down south to Florida and dropped in on Stephen and Ally in their new Orlando home.


We spent much of our trip to Connecticut discussing vegetable gardens with our nephew Chayce...


...and being entertained by his brother, Kyler.


Our first adventure in Florida took us out to the Crystal River...


...where we boarded a boat...


...with Stephen...


...and Ally...


...then donned our snorkel gear...


...to swim with MANATEES!!!


We saw 8 manatees in total...


...and swam with 5 of them.


Big ones...


...and little ones, too.


...and even watched the little ones suckle on their mommas.


That night we played minigolf at the coolest course we've seen.


Watch out for that water hazard: those gators are real, even if they are only 2 feet long.


The following day we drove out to iFly Orlando to do some indoor skydiving in a windtunnel of 100+ mph winds.


This way to Hogwarts!!!


Our last adventure on the trip was to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.


There was so much to see while standing in line for the Forbidden Journey ride, including talking portraits, squealing plants, and the Sorting Hat. And lots more, but we don't want to ruin any surprises.


You may be able to guess from the hoards of sweating tourists that the snow atop the shops is fake.


The butterbeer and pumpkin fizz were delicious, the lines were short (we made sure to wait until after the muggle kids were back in school), the Forbidden Journey ride really was amazingly well done. A real treat for Harry Potter fans!

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