Gator Fever

Brad had spring break last week and we had been talking for a while about short trips we could go.  We had been looking at hotel deals for Myrtle Beach, SC and Charleston, SC.  Then one day, Brad emailed me asking about Orlando because he was finding good hotel deals there and knew how much I wanted to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  He also researched to find out that it is only (yes I did say only) 8.5-9 hour drive to Orlando.

This alligator was nice and close

So we started looking into it, I talked to our friends in Gainesville to see if we could visit them, and I found an amazing hotel deal.  So we decided to do it.  But with Tacy I decided that Disney World would be more her speed then Universal.  So we bought tickets for Disney.  Luckily Tacy is still free at either park, so we might as well take her while she is free to go see her princesses.  

Yelling out to the alligators

So we left Wednesday, March 4th, and drove down from Raleigh to Florida (that added 3 more states for Tacy and 2 for Brad - I have printed off USA maps so we can color in the states Tacy has been too because I think it is fun).  Brad had taken Tacy to the dollar store to get little toys for her to help with the drive.  I'm so glad disney princesses are so popular so that they are at the dollar store.  Tacy and Brad picked out two princess books, a princess puzzle, a Dora coloring doll thing, and a princess notebook (to use in Disney for signatures).  Between the books, coloring Dora and watching disney movies on our portable DVD player, Tacy was pretty happy during the drive.  She did not sleep at all though.  

Watching a movie and fighting her tiredness

We stopped in Gainesville to meet up with our friends and went to the La Chua Trail to go see alligators.  Signs posted at the trail told us that there were also bison, wild horses, turtles, etc in this preserve and to be careful.  Tacy was excited.  It's so funny all the different animals she loves that are actually pretty scary.  Examples: alligators, dragons, tigers, and dinosaurs.  

It was a hot day and super muggy and all of us were wearing pants (it had been a little cold that morning in Raleigh).  Needless to say we were pretty warm after just walking the boardwalk.  But luckily, even though it was hot, there were still a lot of gators out and about to see.  Tacy loved seeing the alligators.  As soon as she saw the marsh water she asked if she could go swimming.  We then had to explain to her that we do not swim in water with alligators.  When she asked "why?" we then had to inform her the scary news about alligators - that they can hurt people.  Then she was a little more nervous about seeing alligators.  

But we still had fun running around the boardwalk and looking at all the lounging gators.  My smart friend Anita brought drinks and snacks for the kids so when Tacy asked me for her water (which I thoughtlessly left in our car), Anita gave me a capri-sun.  Tacy drank that thing so fast!  It was pretty hot (89 degrees actually).  We were going to walk farther along the trail, but a man walking back warned us about a bison a couple hundred yards up the trail who had attacked a person.  All us parents then decided it was time to turn around.  

So we then drove over to the Draney's and had fun talking and eating dinner at their house.  Tacy loved playing with their two kids and all of their toys.  She is shameless when around other peoples toys and will just grab them like they are hers.  Silly kid.  After dinner and discussing Disney tips, we left to finish the last 2 hour drive to Orlando.  Tacy fell asleep in the car for a bit then and woke up when we got to Orlando so we could get situated in the hotel.  The nice part about the hotel was that we had a kitchen and living area separate from the bedroom.