Dining at Disney vs cooking on a campstove!

So we have taken our kids to disney 3 times now and we have gotten the dining plan every time that we have gone.  Again...I am not sure that this is the most frugal option and if you REALLY are pinching pennies than you can certainly stay at the campground and cook your own food.  So why didn't we cook our own food?
The first time we went to Disney we had a 3 month old baby that didn't sleep through the night and a preschooler that was up at 6:30am every morning!  My sweet husband suggested that we get the dining plan so I could have a vacation too!  Love him! 
The next time we went we got the dining plan because we wanted to go to sooo many character meals.  The dining plan includes those meals so it was actually more economical to get the plan than to pay the prices (they are $$$$$$$) to go to those meals.
The most recent trip to Disney included free dining at a value resort.  Staying there with free dining was cheaper than buying the dining plan and staying with the camper so that was a no-brainer for us.
So now you knw why we pick the dining plan when we go to Disney.  The standard Disney dining plan includes 1 sit down meal, 1 qiuck service meal (think fast food) and 1 snack per day per person.  The children are suposed to order from the children's menu when available.  We have talked about going to Disney without the plan but we will have to wait and see on that.  If the girls outgrow the character meals it may be worth it to pack our food in and buy 1 meal at the parks but you just can't do the character meals as affordably without the plan.  We also really enjoy being able to indulge on some snacks.  Being frugal, without the dining plan we would probably avoid the in park treats.  $5 for an ice cream sundae is pretty steep but when you have already paid on the dining plan you just get to be cool parents!  To get the most bang for our buck, we also try to have as many character dinners as possible because they are more money/value than breakfast or lunch.  That said, we have had breakfast at the castle and we had breakfast in the animal kingdom once too.  We enjoyed the animal kingdom meal as there were some different foods that aren't standard as well as the usual breakfast fare.
I think if you are just looking to eat to be full the dining plan may not be the best choice.  If you want to go to a number of character meals and sit down dinners this is a great plan.  We have never looked at the quick service plan (no character meals) or full sit down plans (too much food).  Disney dining is, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy the food at Disney!

Magic Kingdom

So now that you have read about Fort Wilderness campground on Disney's property I will start talking about the parks.  After all, that is really why we go...because really, a 12 hour drive, 7 days of walking for miles and staying up past bedtime with 2 small chidren probably wouldn't be fun anywhere else!

For the uninitiated parents, this is where it starts!  The Magic Kingdom!!!  The place where dreams come true and everybody is happy (even my hubby I think, although he is not a disney lover...weird).  There are so many different views on how to visit the parks so I am going to happily give you mine!  I might even manage to pepper in some other less worthy (just kidding) ideas. 

First of all you need to figure out how you are getting to the magic kingdom.  If you stay at the campground you need to take the boat.  It is by far the best way to go.  There are actually 2 boats, one that goes to the contemporary resort and then you walk to the gates and another that drops you right at the gates.  The contemporary boat leaves earlier so is a great bet if you have an early breakfast.  Either way I recommend getting to the park before the rope drop to avoid some of the crowds.  If you are on property, Disney provides transportation.  I recommend you use it!  If you choose to drive yourself you have to go to the Transportation Center (TTC) and take Disney transportation anyway!  We made this mistake one time.  We drive ourselves to all the other parks though.  If you are off-site I know some people go to downtown Disney and park for free and take Disney transportation from there.  A frugal option but it is slightly more time consuming.

The Attack!
So you may have different priorities depending on the ages of you family members.  As a family of younger children, we head immediately to Fantasyland and ride the popular rides there first.  One of the best things about the Magic Kingdom is that most kids can ride most rides.  There are very few height requirements so you can even take infants on many rides.  Check the height requirements here (www.heightrequirements.com)  We make a point of grabbing a fastpass to something on the way tp our first ride.  Sometimes my hubby will take our tickets and run to a ride we know we want to fastpass and then he will meet us back at an agreed upon ride.  We only have one cellphone (frugal) so we can't call.  Isn't it quaint?  We're old-fashioned!  If you have older kids you probably want to hit the "thrill" rides first and pick up a fastpass too. 

The Fastpass!
You MUST use this!  Disney does it right!  So there is no fee for a disney fastpass.   You go to the kiosk, put in your disney ticket and it will spit out a fastpass.  On the pass is a 1 hour time frame.  When the noted hour arrives, you can go to the ride and get on the fastpass line for a shorter wait.  So if your fastpass starts at 1:00pm you can go to the ride starting at 1:00pm.  Now, if you look at your fastpass it looks like you can only go from 1:00pm - 2:00pm.  That is not the case!  You can go ANYTIME after 1:00pm.  In addition to that, once the first time passes you can now get out another fastpass.  So even if you haven't used your 1:00pm fastpass, after 1:00pm you can go to another ride and get another fastpass.  You cannot get another fastpass until the start time of your current fastpass passes!  That's a lot of passing!  If you do this from the start of the day you will have a pocketful of fast passes at the end of the day when the lines are long and you can just hit the rides in whatever order works for your family.

Eating!
So there are a couple options here.  I can really only speak to the dining plan because we have always bought into it.  I mean, if you are going to Disney in a pop-up and you cook your own food you are really taking some of the vacation out of the vacation.  We don't have a fridge or an oven and our 3 burner gas stove mounts outside.  We also have no hot water to wash dishes.  My saint of a husband suggested the dining plan the first time we went to disney and we are sold on it!  Go read my post on Dining at Disney for all the details.  As for other options, you can pack food into Disney (love this!!!)  So if your family is happy with sandwiches you are good to go!  You can also take in juice boxes, sodas, snacks etc.  You can not take in rolling bags and coolers so it has to all fit in a backpack.  We still take along the stroller even though the girls don't spend that much time in it just to help cart our stuff around.  We do take in some drinks and snacks too.  The final option is to buy food at Disney.  I generally like the options for food at Disney.  Our favorite quick service place is the Cosmic Cafe in tomorrowland.  They offer FOOD.  Half a chicken, ribs, green beans mashed potatoes.  I can't however speak to the affordability of this option.  I think you probably can eat on a budget but we have always been on the dining plan because if you want to do the character meals it really is your best bet.  It will be interesting to see if we still want the dining plan if the girls outgrow the character meals.  I would also recommend shifting your meal times some.  Eat lunch early or late to avoid the crowds and then snack it up to hold you over as best you can.  Don't forget to splurge somewhere, somehow. 

I think the best part of going to the Magic Kingdom is seeing your kids faces.  They are so happy to be in a place where the stories and fantasy come to life.  Plus they get to be there with their parents who amazingly enough are two of the coolest people in their lives.  As parents we get to say YES a whole lot more on vacation than any other time.  There is no laundry to do, no errands to run, no bills to pay (they come shortly after the trip!  Ha!!) just us and them and TIME!  We push our kids to go as long as they can and because of that they have impressive stamina but we also try to remember that if we need a break there are ways to do that.  You can go back to where you are staying but we tend to pick something laid back to do, like the people mover.  Nursed my itty bitty a bunch on that ride.  It is never busy and you can just sit and chill.  I love Disney and if you have young children it still doesn't get better than the Magic Kingdom.

Disney Fort Wilderness Campground

So traveling to Disney world rarely seems like a proposition in frugality, especially if you are going to stay on property to reap the Disney guest benefits.  One way to do it is to stay at the campground and CAMP!  I know some of you just stopped reading or maybe you will keep reading to see just how crazy I get.  Brace yourselves.  On our first trip to Disney after children we camped in a pop-up, without a bathroom or hot water.  We took this trip with an almost 3 year old and a 3 month old.  Yes we did! 

For frugal Disney trips, I highly recommend that families with young children take the kids before they turn 3 because they are FREE!  We repeated the trip to Disney Fort Wilderness Campground when our youngest was almost 3 as well.

Now for you non-campers, let me tell you about camping.  You have a choice about how you camp.  Nowadays, many people consider camping taking the HUGE RV to where ever they want to go and hooking up to all the creature comforts of home.  They have a full bathrooms and corian counters in some of these behemoths!  Some people like the smaller travel trailers with much of the home comforts on a smaller scale.  We, as a family, use a pop-up.  When I was pregnant with baby number two I put my foot down and said that I would no longer camp in a tent with two small children and two dogs!  A pop-up for the uninitiated is a tent on wheels!  There is a small table inside and foam mattresses.  We even have a sink with cold water.  Plus a small awning off the front which is just big enough to give you a dry place to stand if it is raining. Your final option is a tent and it can be a very viable and frugal option.  I do think I would avaoid the tent in July and August though...HOT.  We do have a AC unit on our pop-up!  I don't think the RV is a viable or frugal option!  When you factor in the price of gas and the initial outlay for the RV, plus the higher cost of a site with sewer and internet you really aren't saving any money.  Plus...where is the "camping" with all that!



Home sweet home

With a pop-up, we were able to stay on a "tent" site at Disney.  These sites have electric and water but no sewer and are limited to just tents and pop-ups so no generator noise either which makes it more campy.  The down side to these sites is that they are not very close to the activities, amenities and transportation at the campground.  The upside is that they are CHEAP!  Our first time staying at Fort Wilderness we stayed in loop 200 and we were right across from the bath house which was great with a child that still wasn't always 100% on potty training.  The next time we stayed at FW we asked on check in if they had any sites available closer to the boat launch.  We scored an fabulous site right next to everything!  Plus, they didn't charge us any extra so we still got the "tent" site price but we also got location, location, location!

We have also stayed at the Pop Century value resort at Disney (because it was cheaper!!! but that is another post) and we really prefer the resort of Fort Wilderness.  Why you ask?

Here are some of the great amenities that the campground offers:


View of the beach area from walkway

two pools  - one themed with waterslide and spash area plus snack bar
boat launch to the magic kingdom - yup, a ride to the rides!
full sit-down restauran that is on the dining plan.
hoop dee doo review
mickey's BBQ party
pony rides
fishing
playgrounds

Beach (to the right out of pic is the boat lanch to the Magic Kingdom)

pets allowed
walking trails
hayrides
carriage rides
paddle boats


Walkway from our loop to the trading post

beach front
outdoor movies
marshmallow roasting (at the movies)
archery
two trading posts (stores)
and so on and so on and so on...

In our opinion there is just sooo much to do here at the campground that is fun for the kids.  On one of our trips we even spent the day just wandering around exploring and playing.  I imagine the moderate and deluxe resorts have an equivalent number of amenities but they do not have an equivalent price!

Canoeing The Neuse River

So for years whenever we would drive along Falls of Neuse Rd in Raleigh, NC we would cross the bridge and see the signs for canoe launch near the dam and think we should do that.  That would be so much fun with the girls...  So last year a friend of ours bought a groupon for a canoe or kayak trip down the river and we thought... huh...  they did it...  What are we waiting for???   So we worked out the logistics and took a trip down the river!

Logistics:  What cars do we take?  Where do we park?  What should we pack? 
The first issue was which cars to take.  We have a relatively new toyota minivan, and older Jeep Wrangler and a Dodge Dakota pick up truck.  First we thought we would take the truck...so we got the canoe (a beast and relic back from the 70s) and tried to put it in the truck.  It was too long, the canoe, not the truck, unfortunately! So now we had to cover the roof rack of the minivan with towels and padding to protect it.  Once that was completed we needed to put the canoe on the van roof.  A tricky proposition as the canoe is a beast and a relic and aluminium (read heavy).  In fact, this canoe was the cause of my very first mammogram after I kind of dropped it on my boob when we canoed on Falls Lake.  The bruise left a "lump".  That incident did not leave me eager to try again...  But the children were excited and really, I go to the gym now, I should be able to pick up this silly canoe!  Yeah!  Success!  We also tested it out on top of the jeep, easy peasy!

So now we were all loaded up with canoes.  I packed a cooler with lunch, drinks, snacks etc.  We double ziplocked our electronics (camera and phone) and then packed the usual towels, lifejackets, cushions, fishing poles etc.  We put on our bathing suits and we were ready to go!

Now we needed to park on car at the take out location.  There is a company (Paddlecreek) here in Raleigh that controls the pull out location on Capital Blvd.  All you need to do is go into the PaddleCreek store and ask for a permit to park at the take out and there you go!  The take out is just up the road from the store.  We went to the store, bought our pass and then parked the Jeep.  Now off we went to the put in.  You put in at the dam on Falls of Neuse Rd.  The put in used to be right near the dam but with the new greenway path they moved it up the road maybe 100ft.  That was a tad confusing but a quick call to paddle creek and all was cleared up.

There were a bunch of fishermen in the river as we put in.  Ashley got a kick out of that as she LOVES to fish...go figure!  I think they got a kick out of us as I still lack a certain amount of balance and everyone was laughing, myself included, as I attempted to get into the front of the canoe without tipping it and falling in the drink.  Once in the trip down the river was fantastic.  There was not a whole lot of paddling as the current pushed us at a nice leisurely pace.  The girls tried to do some paddling too and we will be getting some smaller paddles before we go again but we didn't want to paddle too much or the trip would have been over too fast.  There were a good number of sandy spots that we could pull our canoe out on.  We stopped for lunch and a couple more times for snacks as well.  The girls had a blast splashing around in the water and riding the current with their life jackets as tubes.

Lunch stop

The strangest part of the trip was knowing that we were in the middle of town!  Sometimes you can see the houses right off the river and the greenway but much of the time you could almost forget that you were still in civilization.  That feeling was helped along by the fact that we saw both woodchucks and a deer.  Our trip took a wonderful 3 hours.  Our friends that went on the paddle creek trip said theirs took 1.5 hours but they were instructed not to stop.  I do not think our family would have had as good a time if we couldn't stop and explore.

Riding the currents

So get going people! The weather is getting better, start planning your family trips outside!  Invite us to come.  Life is always more fun when you spend it with friends and family going on adventures!  Get outside, be active, be fit, be a better you. 

Closer to home - Eno River

So, in my Geocaching post, I mentioned snake identification...  Yes, I did.  Stop and go back, you should read that!  You didn't?  Really???  Well, at least promise you will read it when you are done here.  Geocahing if fun...  But those of you that did read that...this is where we got to have not one not two not three etc etc but 7 opportunities to identify snakes!  Woo hoo lucky us!  Not only that but six of them were copperheads.  Going hiking?  Take us along!  We will identify the heck out of those poisonous, oops, venomous snakes!  So where you ask, did we have such a fabulous opportunity to commune with nature???  The Eno River State Park.

The Eno River State park is located in northern Durham county in NC.  It is a small but sprawling park that protects much of the land around the Eno River which in my opinion is one of the prettiest ones in the area.  you can take a look at all the offerings here: http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/enri/main.php  Our favorite hiking area right now is the Cole Mill trail and the Bobbit's hole.  Although both hikes are loops we prefer to hike out and back because we really enjoy being on the river.  There are plenty of spots along the trail to climb on rocks and teeter out into the river.  There are also a number of good little swimming holes so in the summer wear a bathing suit and bring a towel. 

You would think after that particular visit back in July of last year that we would never want to go there again.  In actuallity, this is one of our favorite parks in the area.  The hiking is well marked and offers a variety of difficulty.  Most of the trails are along the river and for those of you that haven't done much hiking, there is something really soothing about hiking along the water.  The day of our 7 snake sightings was unusual and even a ranger mentioned that there were an uncommon number of snakes out that day.  That said we did hike the full trail and we were just much more careful than usual about where we stepped and sat.  Eeek! 

We also had the opportunity to look up copperhead snakes when we got home from the park and discovered that NC has the most copperhead bites in the country and that these bites are rarely fatal.  We will be heading back out to the Eno when the weathr warms up some more!

Universal - Islands of Adventure

Have you read Harry Potter?  No?  Why not?  What are you waiting for?  Are you being stubborn because you missed the "boat"?  Did you see the movies and think that was good enough???  I have read these books!  Multiple times!!!  Love them.  Last year my oldest daughter started reading them.  We would lose her in them.  To the point that we HAD to take them away amid tears and screamming fits that we are the meanest parents in the world.  Harry Potter is the reason that child stayed up until 11:00pm on a school night with a flashlight!  So it should come as no surprise that while we were down in Florida for a non-Disney adventure I planned a day to visit Harry Potter land. 

On the frugal side of things, we used our Chase Freedom card to get our tickets.  The tickets were offered through the point reward system.  We had enough rewards that we could buy tickets for our whole family and Josh's parents.  Plus they were cheaper than I could find online at any of the discount ticket sites!  WIN!

That would be the best part of the day!  Okay, I may be exagerating, but we did not love Universal Islands of Adventure (henceforth known as IOA).  That said we did go the Friday after Thanksgiving so the crowds were probably fairly large.

I will start with the good.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, the town of Hogsmeade is really really well done!  There was a lot of attention to detail, very cool.  We also felt the other various areas throughout the park were authenticly decorated.  There were some decent rides, some rides that looked really good but we didn't get to and a couple really fun rides. 

The not so good...  In a nutshell, I think this park is designed for older kids.  Our older daughter who read Harry Potter was 7 1/2 when we went to this park, and a pretty tough 7 1/2.  Many of the rides were too much for her. 

First of all, the parking for IOA was far away.  I have never been to this park before and I am an admitted Disney fan.  We got to the park very close to opening.  Then we had to take two escalators, and three people movers to get to the "shopping area".  Think Downtown Disney, but again for a slightly older audience.  Once through that shopping area we got to the ticket booths and then passed through another smaller shopping area.  The layout of the park put Harry Potter land in the back so we rushed through to get there.  Alas, it was still incredibly crowded.  The Universal version of Disney's fast pass is an additional fee which really just rubs us the wrong way.  Plus, it wasn't good on the really popular rides.  Kind of counter-intuitive in my opinion.  The main Harry potter ride was just okay.  I don't know if it is because so many people talked about how great it was or if it just wasn't what I expected but I wasn't nearly as impressed as all the hype.

I was under the impression that the ride was a trip through Hogwarts.  Not so.  The ride was flying on a "broomstick" at the Hogwarts campus.  It was SCARY!!!  The adults were a little scared in a couple spots.  The child who so loved the books, had her eyes closed for almsot the entire ride!!!  There were no signs outside the ride that said it was scary.  There were no warnings.  The ride is also one of those huge movie screen virtual rides.  So you are buckled into your seat and it moves around and you watch your "flying" on the big screen.  Interspersed were areas with giant props from the stories, fire-breathing dragons, giant spiders, dementors etc.  SCARY!  And yet, not as well done as you would expect.  I found the seat to be to close to the screen and the resolution made it really feel like a movie.  I wanted more time in the castle to see all the cool things that are magical.  One ride was plenty!  Plus the husband doesn't do well on these virtual rides and would have hurled if it had gone on any longer!
Outside the castle there was a smaller rollercoaster (Flight of the Hippogriff) for the littler children and our 5 year old enjoyed that ride quite a bit but the waits for all the rides at IOA were extremely long.  There is one other rollercoaster in the Hogsmeade area but it was too big for our little people so we passed. 

Outside of Hogsmeade, we did go to a very entertaining show and got in there quickly.  Lunch was extremely crowded in Seussville with insufficient seating.  We considered the meal plan but it priced out as too expensive to be worth our while.  This was a disappointment to me because I like to not think about what we are buying during the day.  We maybe should have continued to a different place for lunch but the park was just so crowded.

One of the best parts of our day was the fact that our children really didn't complain.  This was shocking, as it was our last full day in sunny Florida after a week going to theme parks and spending time with extended family.  We had been prepared for the sweet things to meltdown into a puddle of crying exhaution!  We waited on some really long lines!  I think total, we rode 6 rides.  We were there ALL day.  We did pass on a couple rides because the kids just didn't want to ride them but we really stood in line a LOT.   We did have a fantastic dinner at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, complete with butterbeer.  Ashley walked the entire day and the first complaint about her feet showed up as we were walking out of the park.  What a rockstar!  Good grief!  My feet hurt by then!

My in-laws park hopped to the Unviersal Studios side and said there were really no lines there but that again the rides were bigger and scarier than our kids would have been able to handle.  They had a lot of fun though riding the rides so again this may just be a park we need to be older for.

Without going further into too much detail, We found this park to be just okay.  The layout was poor for crowd control.  The rides tended to be better for older kids and adults and the lines to ride many of these rides were uncomfortably long.  For the money, I think even my non-Disney loving husband would agree, Disney does it better.

I am glad we went but we won't be going back for at least 5 years!

Discovery Cove - I swam with Dolphins!!!

So over Thanksgiving this year my husband's family decided to go on a getaway.  I affectionately called this trip the Novak Adventure because it took over 3 years to plan and it took a LONG time to decide what to do and where to go.  We ended up in Orlando but NOT at Disney, which was a little hard for me as a Disney lover but the in-laws are not all Disney lovers so compromise was important.  Mind you I still find it baffling that there are people that don't love Disney!  So our trip was going to Discovery Cove, SeaWorld and Universal Islands of Adventure.  My favorite place, this trip, was absolutely Discovery Cove so I will start there!

dolphin lagoon 3

Discovery Cove is a sister park to SeaWorld and admission to Discovery Cove also includes admission to SeaWorld for 14 days, 7 before your Discovery Cove visit and 7 after.  That is as frugal as Discovery Cove gets.  I know this is a frugal blog but I too believe that some experiences can be priceless. 

Overview of the park - First of all, Discovery Cove is a resort experience where you can play on the beach, snorkel a tropical "reef", float on a lazy river, meet birds in the aviary and swim with dolphins (for an extra fee).  The park is limited admission so if you are going during a peak time you do want to make reservation.  You also have to reserve the dolphin swim.  You can split up and some people can swim with the dolphins but you should book these tickets at the same time.  The age to swim with the dolphins is 6 years old.

Discovery Cove is also all-inclusive.  Your day includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, wetsuits, towels, lockers, everything.  It is important to note that the breakfast is a FULL hot breakfast, not just cereal and bagels.  The lunch is also a full hot lunch.  The snacks vary from hot pretzels and ice cream to assorted bags of chips.  Beverages included the standard soft drink fare along with a good assortment of alcoholic drinks including some super yummy Pina Coladas.  Not to mention the standard coffee and tea and the somewhat less standard hot chocolate.

I would recommend arriving as close to park opening as possible.  This will give you time to get checked in and eat breakfast before you want to get started with your day.  There are lockers located in various areas of the park.  I would recommend deciding where you want your "home-base" to be located and getting lockers there.  We did end up with 2 sets of lockers on opposite sides of the park but found this to be unnecessary.

Once breakfast is done go get sized for your wetsuits (if needed) and pick up your snorkel and mask.  You get to keep the snorkel which made the kids pretty happy! 

The Park Layout - The center of the beach area is devoted to the dolphin lagoons.  There are three lagoons.  The coral reef is to the right of the lagoons and the swimming area and lazy river are to the left, when you are looking at the lagoons.  The swimming area is fresh water and it is heated to a very balmy 82 degrees.  The reef and the dolphin lagoons are salt water and are kept at 72 degrees, although they may be warmer in the summer.  A wetsuit was truly appreciated!  The aviary is located behind the swimming area.  If you turn your back to the dolphin lagoons, you are facing the buffet building and eating area.  There are a couple of gift shopping areas as well.

Dolphin Swim - This experience is a little extra but it is what most people think of with Discovery Cove so I am going to start here.  This was easily the best part of the day for me.  That said, my 7 year old daughter loved this but it was not her favorite part of the day.  Although this experience is super cool, I don't think it is significantly different from other dolphin swim programs out there.  Nonetheless, this is super cool!  When you check into Discovery Cove with a reservation for the dolphin experience you are given the time and location of your swim.  At the designated time you report to the designated hut for an orientation film and the standard release form signing.  Note - you are required to remove all jewelry for the swim, they will allow some wedding rings to remain on, I imagine that is for those of you that can no longer remove them!  :)  Once every one has signed their life away you will get split into smaller groups and head across the beach to your assigned lagoon.  Your animal trainer will take you in the water and you get to watch and participate in some training and tricks with a dolphin or two.  My hubby was taking LOTS of pictures of this for me and said that it looked kind of dull from the beach but I was not bored for a second!  You get the photo ops with the dolphin (kissing, posing and riding), which they will sell you after your swim.  There is plenty of time for touching, feeding, and asking questions.  This experience makes me wish a little for a do over so I could be a dolphin trainer.  Just a little though, as the do-over would have to include junior high *shudder*.  You have an option for a deep water ride or a shallow ride.  My daughter did the shallow ride.  She was the first to go and I think that made her a bit nervous but the staff was very sweet and even allowed me to help get her situated.  Her smile was priceless.  I chose the deep water ride which was no trouble but a tad chilly.  My smile was ridiculous!  Seriously, did I forget the cameras?  WAY TO CHEESY!  It was that much fun!  I don't think the deep water ride was any better than the shallow one so if someone isn't comfortable in the deeper water they will not miss out.  After everyone had their dolphin time there were some more tricks and touching and then we were done.  I loved every minute!

Tropical reef - So above I noted that the dolphin swim was not my 7 year old's favorite part of Discovery Cove.  That is because her favorite experience was snorkeling in the tropical reef!.  This was also incredibly cool.  Basically, they have set up a snorkelable (is that a word??) aquarium.  Not only that but the reef is set up so that if your young children are nervous they can see most of the fish by simply standing and putting their faces in the water with a mask on.  Let me back up a moment.  The "reef" is saltwater and a walk-in from the beach.  There are some coral/rock formations right on the sand.  As you walk further in there is what we called the "canyon" this is where the topography of the bottom had a gully where it got very deep (15 feet) and there were a lot of different corals in it.  It was absolutely possible to walk to the edge of this "canyon" and look over without ever swimming.  The reef is teeming with fish and rays, lots and lots of rays and they are big, REALLY big.  Good thing they are "tame", I swear they could eat a child, not even a small child, a whole yummy child!  Okay, yes, I know rays don't eat people!  The fish are an assortment of super colorful ones and big ones.  If you swim to the back of the reef there is a glassed off tank of sharks.  On one side of this tank you actually feel like you are swimming with the sharks.  Pretty neat but it spooked my 5 year old a little who realizes at the tender age of 5 that she is in fact a yummy child!  There was also a tank with lionfish.  There is a section of the reef that is cordoned off for the SNUBA option but none of our children were old enough and I am not sure that that experience would really be any better than the snorkeling.  We all truly enjoyed the snorkeling.  Even our niece who was still 2 at the time was able to look in the water and see the fish. 

Swimming area & Lazy river - This area was my 5 year old's favorite part.  I think part of the reason for this is that she is a scrawny little thing and gets cold really fast!  This water was fresh and heated.  You do NOT need the wetsuit in this area.  The park did a really good job making the whole place look natural.  There were rock formations, waterfalls, lots of tropical plants and again zero entry from the beach.  The lazy river is VERY lazy.  In fact I am not sure you would actually make it all the way through if you really just floated!  It is very relaxing and they provide floating noodles to hold onto.  The river even passes through the aviary.  My girls also enjoyed diving for rocks throughout the float and there were some designs on the bottom (think fossils etc.).  This was not my favorite area as my 5 year old who realizes that the shark could eat her forgot that even though she can swim she can not swim for the 30 continuous minutes or more that it was taking us to float the river.  Since she really didn't want a tube and much prefered to dive to the bottom of said river to the point of near drowning, it wasn't as lazy as one might hope. Hee hee.  I did like thatis was warm though, I also dislike the cold!

Aviary - The last major area of Discovery Cove is the aviary.  It is an enclosed area comprised of 3-4 "rooms"  I had seen pictures online of this and thought....oh, that is such a promo photo, no one can really get that close to a bird...  Yes, yes you can.  If you don't like birds, this is not the place for you.  These birds are tame.  The staff hands out little bowls of food and the birds will eat right out of your hand.  They land on the bowl, your hand, arm, head etc.  They have NO fear and they know you have food.   Psychology 101 conditioning happened here!  I actually had on bird land on my lanyard on my chest and go to sleep.  She was so darn comfortable she even pooped on me. I WIN!  Again all the children could participate and feed these super friendly birds.  I would have liked to have spent more time in here but the day was drawing to a close and I drew the short straw for the potty run so I didn't get to walk around as much as I would have liked.

That about sums up the big day at Discovery Cove.  I am sure there is more useful information I am forgetting.  I will update this post when I think of it!

Gee…Ohhh…Geocaching

So I am starting with an adventure that is close to home.  Close to EVERYONE’S home.  We discovered geocaching about 6 months ago.  I had read magazine articles about this activity before but discounted them as something we could do because you need a GPS which we didn’t own.   But now we do, right there in the smartphone!!

So for those of you that don’t know what geocaching is, here is the definition from the website http://www.geocaching.com/default.aspx

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

My definition is: an outdoor adventure with the family where you get to get rid of your old happy meal toys for someone else’s happy meal toys! 

Here’s the thing though.  You are outside and you go hiking.  You usually end up somewhere you haven’t been before and the adventure part really is fun.  The geocaches are hidden off the trails so you end up bushwacking some of the time, sometimes, most of the time!  You usually get to see some cool nature stuff and best of all it is FREE!!!  We have some within walking distance of our house in North Carolina and tons of them nearby.  We have geocached in Virginia too.  The local parks usually have a good number of caches available.  To add to the fun there are Geocoins!  No, no, you can’t make money (although our nephew did take a Dick’s Sporting Goods gift card that ended up have $20 on it!).  Geocoins are trackables.  So if you find one you take it and then you move it to another cache.  You really need to log these coins so their travels can be followed i.e. tracked.  We found one that started in California.  I think the adults may like this aspect better than the kids as the hubby now searches geocaches specifically for the ones with coins.

To get started, set up an account on the website (http://www.geocaching.com/default.aspx) and search for caches near you.  You need a smartphone with GPS and an app for geocaching.  (We use c:geo on android) You can also download the cache for offline use which means that kids, big and small, with the iPod touch should be able to play as well.  Of course you can also use a GPS. 

The caches vary in size and when they say micro they are not kidding!  If you are taking younger children the micro and small caches don't yield the toy reward.  Just a slip of paper to sign and you are done.  We prefer to find traditional caches and we usually take exta toys to drop off (read - get out of my house).

Our next foray into geocaching is going to be creating our own cache.  For Christmas we received an "official" geocaching box from the in-laws, along with our own trackable geocoins.   When the weather gets a little warmer we are going to place our box out there somewhere.  I will be sure to post it's location for you guys to find!

The Nitty Gritty - Dress for the weather but also in layers.  Wear shoes (and socks, and pants, and shirts...) that you don't care about too much.  My older daughter is a dirt magnet and she has managed to step in mud halfway up to her knee, more than once!  I am just thankful I haven't had to wade in after her yet!  We also like to pack a backpack with the toys to trade out, nature pamphlets for IDing animals (we used them to identify 6 copperheads on one hike but that is a different post) and snacks because my children think there should be food all the time!  We also like to take the dog but he can't manage that well anymore, the poor old man gets tired and he is pretty deaf now!  If you bring a dog, check the area and the rules about leashes but usually once you get off the trails you can let your dog off leash if they are friendly and will come when you call.

Who Am I? Why am I doing what I am doing?

Sounds like the start of some deep philosophical blog post…  Nope, not here.   I’m going to get about as deep as a puddle.  So here goes, this is who I am.   I am an almost *gasp* 40 stay at home mom of two beautiful girls ages 5 1/2 and (almost) 8.  I am married to a younger man…hee hee…  He is a good egg!  He has to be to put up with me!  I think his biggest complaint is that I think too much, about everything!  I could worry about the air and you know, we probably should…pollution and all, but I digress.  Both my girls are in school now and I have been looking for something else to keep me busy.  Would still like a work from home job so contact me if you need the help!  (wink wink)

As for this blog I am starting…  I am hoping to combine a few things I am passionate about to create a valuable resource for other families out there that may be passionate about the same things.  What “things” you ask?  Let me tell you…  First, and I am sure we ALL have this in common, family.  I love my girls and my hubby!  Would love to just spend time with them all the time…well, maybe not ALL the time, but a lot!  Second, I LOVE to travel.  I like to go to new places and places we have been before.  I love to dream of new and exciting adventures.  And third, I really like to save money and get the best deal.  Bet we all have that in common too, well, unless you are Brangelina and you’re reading this, in which case, call me about that work from home job I mentioned earlier, I’m sure there is something I can help you with! Ha!

So there you have it, the shallow answer to the deep philosophical question at the top of this post.  I hope some of you out there will enjoy reading about our past adventures , future plans, and find some of my ideas and tips from trips we have and will take useful as well.  Okay people!  Buckle up, we are traveling!