Remember how I could not wait for Spring Breakers to get the heck out of Florida? Well, it's finally happened! (No offense to my northern friends who came to FL for Spring Break, of course). Crowds are low, the temps aren't too ridiculously hot yet, and we've hit that glorious sweet spot between spring break and summer vacation! You can expect lots of out and about-ness from the Waterstrauts over the next few weeks, but we kicked it off with a pretty great 'weekend'.
Tuesday, Asa and I headed out for a date day. Didn't we just have a Disney date day? Well, yea, we did. But, you know, having older kids perks! They can (and should) be able to hold down the fort by themselves every once in awhile. Our first stop was Epcot.
Because... Flower & Garden Festival time! Who doesn't love topiaries and food inspired from gardens around the world?
We stopped places and ate things..
like steamed buns!
from Japan AND China (Asa really likes steamed buns AND steamed buns jokes)
and burnt ends hash, and pulled pig sliders!
and bacon cupcakes!
And we enjoyed many a topiary. Sleepy!
Pumba!
Anna & Elsa!
Phineas & Ferb!
And tinkerbell! (There are TONS more, but I only took pictures of my favs! I really, really like the topiaries!)
And we went in and out of shops and took lots of pictures-- all for this new project we're going to be working on around here. But right now, it's top secret. Don't worry, you'll be hearing more about it soon.
Epcot is gorgeous this time of year, and theres so much to look at. I will admit, I told Asa I love going to Epcot with just him because it's like we're going on a really awesome afternoon walk together.
Ghost Peppers!
And pretty flowers! Really, if you've never seen Epcot this time of year, you have to. It's SO pretty!
We rode some rides too, since I picked us up some fast passes. I promise, Asa was much more excited to ride Soarin than he appears in this picture.
We stopped by Club Cool, of course, an Epcot staple.
And then we crashed the pool at the Swan and Dolphin. It's one of our favorite pools to crash, by far.
This doesn't look suspicious, does it?
Our next stop was over at the Polynesian. Trader Sams opened days ago (maybe a couple weeks, but really, not that long at all). I read about it on the Disney Food Blog, because that's totally a thing. But, this place is BUSY. Apparently, people were waiting over 4 hours to get a seat here. We got there right before they opened, and there was a line to get in already, but we made it in the first group (barely). I guess the place sits just over 50 people. They were counting us as we all walked in!
It's so cool, my pictures won't do it justice. But, Sattler's, if you are reading this we're all going at Thanksgiving time. For sure. You know, sans kids. Calib can hold down the fort.
The drinks come in these awesome souvenir mugs. (Fun story: I never spell souvenir right, and I had to ask the boys for help. Calib and Peyton for the record, nailed it. I am the worst speller, thank goodness they're way better than me) Anyway, there are all kinds of these mugs. Asa got some thing in a shrunken head mug.
And all this stuff happens depending on what the bartenders are serving up. I won't ruin it for you, but it's so much fun! So, go there already.
We also had money left on our flower and garden gift card, so we ordered all kinds of appetizers for dinner. There were these pork pate sliders, pulled pork sliders, and grown up Portuguese sausage corn dog things with curry ketchup. It was all amazing.
After our dinner and drinks we walked about the Polynesian a bit. They've been redoing all kinds of it, and part of that was gating in the pool. Now, I know I'm biased because we used to crash this pool, and now we can't.. but I still hate the fence. It ruins the whole flow of things. It used to be much prettier, and the pool went out to the beach. Now, there's a big ugly fence in the way, blah.
Plus they took away self-serve dole whips, but there is a new window for them, so we got the swirl soft serve for desert. I hadn't had a dole whip since Hawaii!
You can get to the oval pool (no waterslide or fancy features), so Asa and I took our dole whip over there, put our feet in the water and had desert.
It was as relaxing as it looks.
And, some duck decided it looked pretty awesome too. He came and joined us.
Wednesday we decided to let the kids in on the fun. We took them to lunch.
And then we headed out to Busch Gardens.
Do ya'll see that? ZERO minute wait for the Cheetah Hunt! Weekdays at Busch Gardens = AWESOME. Everything was like this. It was all pretty much walk on.
Plus, Busch Gardens is great because Hayden and I don't want to do the roller coasters, and instead we get to look at all the animals.
FYI, the meerkats were my favorite part of the day.
So, it was just that one meerkat on the lookout, and then a plane flew overhead, and like six other meerkats came out to see what was going on.
While Calib, Asa, and Peyton rode roller coasters, we had a good time.
Hyena!
and Hippos!
Falcon's Fury is the new ride. It's basically the power tower (down), but you face the ground instead of out. Terrifying if you ask me.
But Calib and Asa wanted to give it a go.
Hayden was more worried about the ride than Calib and Asa, and he stayed firmly on the ground the whole time. This is not a joke, folks, he was in near tears.
Up they go.
They survived just fine. Asa said it wasn't nearly as scary as it would seem, and they both said they would do it again.
We also formed the 'Get Calib Alliance' on the bumper cars, which turned out pretty well.
And we climbed around in Jungala. Jungala, if you don't know/remember is an awesome rope/net climbing contraption for kids of all ages (and grown ups alike).
Although it's still not super hot, it's warm. We've been breaking records (in fact, it probably is super hot, and I'm just telling myself it's 'just a little warm' to prepare myself for summer). But, we find ways to cool off.
While Calib, Asa, and Peyton went on Shiekra, Hayden and I went on the log ride. I made him sit in front, because I knew he'd get wetter.
A trip on the skyride, and it was time to head out to avoid traffic.
But after dinner we did have plenty of time for a trip to the pool!
The water actually isn't too cold anymore (despite Calib's refusal to get in because he thinks it's too cold).
Today we headed out to Costco, for shopping and lunch, and then we stopped by Kohls to pick up a new swimsuit for Calib and some new sandals for Hayden (I got both for $20, I was a happy camper!)
Then we spent about an hour at MOSI. We had hoped to catch an IMAX film or do the ropes course, but there just wasn't enough time.
After MOSI, we headed down to the aquairum. Calib and Peyton had a dissection class today, so while they cut open a skate (similar to a sting ray), Asa, Hayden and I walked over to Channelside.
Tonight, the Lightning play the Red Wings in the playoffs (and Channelside is right next to the arena), so there's lots of support for our Tampa Bay Lightning. I'm not huge on hockey, but I'll totally root on my home town team!
Anyway, we had a nice little stroll....
and we stopped by cold stone.
I haven't had Cold Stone ice cream in FOREVER. It was better than I remembered.
Asa had a conference call to take, so we headed back over to the aquairum to wait for Calib and Peyton while he did that, and Hayden and I played some Ticket to Ride pass and play on the ipad.
We're back home, Asa made some awesome pork chops for dinner, and now were about to catch up on some TV. Asa is in the office tomorrow, so our awesome weekend has just about wrapped up (sadly). But, I do have big plans to surprise him by cleaning out the closet and maybe even the garage, plus I need to work on our upcoming project, and get the laundry all folded. We'll see how motivated I am tomorrow.
Up Next: One last book week for the kiddos, and then more staycation fun!
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