It’s hot in Florida, even in the spring! It’s been in the mid to high 80’s and then you add the humidity and that equals HOT! And to top it off, since I was clumsy last night with my foot, the swelling is even worse. Thankfully I only have a little limp and today we are going to one of the famous Florida water parks, so I could relax and keep it cool. We had a hard time deciding which one . . . Disney’s Typoon Lagoon . . . Disney’s Blizzard Beach . . . Sea World’s Aquatica . . . they are all amazingly creative with their themes and have awesome water slides. We decided on Aquatica because one of the slides went through a pool of dolphins and it was slightly cheaper. J
It had an “Australia Down Under tropical” theme beautifully landscaped with all kinds of tropical plants. I was impressed of the size of the park and how much fun the water slides were. The kids had a blast running around from slide to slide and the best part was that the lines were short because it was a Monday. Shelley and I relaxed on a lounge chair for a while when we first arrived. After getting incredibly hot, we floated in the lazy river for a long while. Everyone was running around bare foot so I felt a little “dorky” wearing my water shoes, but it protected my foot. After lazily floating for 45 minutes, we decided to go on the waterslide that was right next to us . . . it was like a big funnel and it was awesome.
We relaxed in the sun for another hour and then the kids came running over to excitedly tell us about the best slide they’ve been on, the four man slide. I told them that I wanted to go on the Dolphin slide with them and they were excited to show me. It was the only slide that you don’t use an inner tube with and when you get to the starting point they tell you to go feet first with them crossed and cross your arms on your chest. They lady looked at me and said, “You need to take your shoes off because they will slow me down.” I told her my situation and asked if I could just try it. Well, they didn’t slow me down one bit. In fact, I went so fast through the dolphin tube that I didn’t see much of anything.
Next, the kids took me to each of the other slides and my favorite was the double ride with Brittany and the 4 man ride with Christian, Brooke and Grace. We screamed and laughed the whole way down. We were almost the last people out of the park because the kids didn’t want to leave.
When we went out to the parking lot Shelley’s brother and family were waiting for us and they came with all kinds of Disney gifts. Yesterday at Animal Kingdom I found a walking stick in the shape of a giraffe and I was looking to buy at hat, but I didn’t buy either. Guess what “Uncle Bill” found at the Backlot Disney Store (a discounted store only for Disney employees) for me today?? The giraffe stick and a fun “Indiana Jones” type hat. He also came with all kinds of African music instruments for all of the kids that they sell at Animal Kingdom, and a Disney photo album for me. He is amazing! What a special treat for us all, and he wouldn’t let us pay them for any of it. 
We all piled into the cars and went to Cici’s Pizzeria which was a pizza buffet where you pay $5 a person for all you can eat salad, any kind of pizza you want, and dessert. Wow . . . Florida buffets are awesome!!
Then we proceeded to Downtown Disney for the rest of the evening of shopping. It is an enormous shopping area with every kind of Disney store you could ever want . . . Disney Christmas, Disney art, Disney Store, Disney Pins . . . as well as restaurants, Legos, and street entertainment. Again we closed the shopping center down!!
We got into the cars to drive back to the camp ground at midnight and I was looking for my keys. Oops . . . I left them in the camper. Uggggg. . . I made sure that I had them the first time I locked the RV but then I went back in to grab some magazines to read at the water park, and in my hurry, I left them on the kitchen counter. Well, because we figured it out before we got there we called AAA on the way back to the camper so they would arrive at about the same time. Well, wishful thinking, we still waited for about 40 minutes. Then the AAA man arrived and in his heavy “New Jersey” accent he says “I can’t do RV’s”. Uncle Bill assured him that he could because the cab of the RV is just like a truck. He moaned and groaned and tried and tried with his slim jim but really couldn’t do it. He called AAA to see if someone else could try it but told us they would have the same equipment . . . if we just had a coat hanger Uncle Bill could have done it. The “Jersey” AAA man left us and Uncle Bill went to work trying to figure something else out. First he took his adorable Disney umbrella from the back of his car and pulled it apart to try and make a coat hanger. He tried to shove it through the window to reach the window knob but to no avail he couldn’t do it. Then he started checking out the windows. As all of this was going on, the kids were in the car laughing and having a great old time at 1:30am in the morning, paying no attention to the fact that we were really stuck. But then all of a sudden Brittany came out of nowhere and tried sliding the back window open remembering that the latch doesn’t completely close. Yahoo!! Now how do we get through the screen??? Uncle Bill pushed and pried the screen as I called Dave to see if there was a way to get the screen off, of which he had no idea. Uncle Bill looked at me with the eyes of remorse he said “I’m sorry I have to cut the screen” and I promptly said “Do it!” He cut the bottom of the screen very carefully and we slipped “little” Gracie through feet first! Phew, what a relief!!
She opened the door and we all thanked Bill profusely, while I was feeling so “blond” as he would say! Thank the Lord we had Uncle Bill to take care of us. Now, we will never do that again either . . . and we promptly put the spare keys in our camera bags which is what I was gently reminded by Dave to do in the first place. I’m so thankful that my husband didn’t get mad at me . . . he was so patient and understanding . . . and now he has a screen to fix. Sorry honey!!!
(Don't I look extremely tired but happy at the same time??)
It really was a fabulous day of water, sun, food, Disney, and excitement (mixed with a little of panic)!!
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