Alligator Wrangling in the Everglades

One of my favorite books when I was a kid was the Great Escape or the Sewer Story. It was about Silas the alligator, taken as a baby to New York from the Everglades by a vacationing family, who eventually flushed him down the toilet when he got too big. He ended up in the New York sewer with other alligators that staged a great escape back to the Everglades. The book is alas, out of print.

So, on this trip to Florida when we decided we were going to visit the Everglades, I wanted to see alligators. But, Caleb and Xander were adamant that there was to be no alligator wrestling. Instead we headed out on a alligator wrangling adventure.

After reviewing options on Yelp, we opted for the Everglades Safari Tours for our alligator seeking air boat ride and wild life show. I was most impressed that they made a point to tell us that there was no alligator wrestling.

It was an amazing trip. The 45 minute ride through the Everglades was fun. Strangely enough I didn't really know what the Everglades were before the trip. I thought they were a swamp. But our tour operator corrected us that the Everglades are not a swamp, but in fact  a slow moving river of rainwater running through high grasses. But seriously, what really is the difference?

During the ride we saw plenty of alligators, birds, haddocks and mangroves. After the air boat ride the adventure really began. The wildlife show was fun, seeing a bunch of large sleepy alligators responding to their names, as a brave trainer presented in the alligator cage.

Afterward we walked around the park. On one side were captive alligators behind a fence, and on the other side was sun bathing "wild" alligators. As we posed for pictures in front the fantastic "wild" reptilians, I kept thinking of the family photos before tragedy strikes. As people hoist their child in front of a lion, or bear or ... alligator for that great photo. I kept the boys on the sidewalk, and stayed a reasonably safe distance away. But the wild ones did have significantly more appeal from a photo perspective.

For three dollars each, the boys were also able to hold a baby alligator too. For Caleb and Xander this was one of the highlights of our Florida trip. The baby alligator was little and cute. Cute enough to take back to San Jose, but what we do with him when he got too big?

Vacation by Yelp

In 2001 we spent two weeks in Germany, Switzerland and mostly Italy. Most of the trip was planned and booked with recommendations from Rick Steves. Jonathan loves Rick Steves. Every quaint hotel we visited, and tiny little restaurant we frequented was packed with Americans in their 50s flipping through their worn copies of Europe Through the Back Door. We had better luck six years later in Austria, which is less of an American tourist destination than Italy.

We needed a better strategy, and one that works well for everywhere we plan to go. But touristing is hard. How do you get the local recommendations, and avoid the tourist traps without a great guide book?  If you use a web search engine you get lists of activities that are overwhelming, and many times just advertisements.

So today, at least for trips in the US, you can use Yelp, at least we do. Type in "kid activities" in any location and you get a recommendations of things to do. You can check the ratings, read the reviews and bypass the paid for lists. But make sure that you read several of the reviews ... For example, one place that we are planning on visiting has only 3.5 stars. But the worst review says "if you are over 13 stay away, this place is not for you!" As the parent of a 5 and 6 year old I read this as "if you have a 5 and 6 year old go, your kids will have a blast!" Which is in line with what other reviewers said.

A boat tour was listed under "kid activities" which got sucked into the Yelp search engine because one patron complained about kids being on the tour. And how kids shouldn't be allowed on until they are old enough to behave. Since it was a snorkeling and scuba tour -- it probably doesn't meet our requirements for safe fun with our little boys anyway.

We've used Yelp to find our favorite restaurants in Sacramento, and a decent cup of coffee in Michigan after our red-eye.  You can use Yelp for international destinations, but the information is much more spotty, and if you don't speak the local language, you will need to use a translation engine.

I'm relying heavily on Yelp for our upcoming South Florida trip. This time we want to go the Everglades, as well as the Florida Keys. I found the air boat tour and nature show which will give the boys plenty of opportunities to see alligators and mangroves, as well as our activities in the Keys (dolphins and bottomless boats). I also found the restaurants we will be taking the boys to (typing kid-friendly restaurant did the trick).

Will Yelp replace the tourist guide book? Probably not, we love the preset itineraries in Lonely Planet books when traveling in Russia, Asia, Australia or South America, and Rick Steve's wonderful recommendations in Europe ... however, at least for our US trips, we are relying less and less on guide books, and more on Yelp.

Marvelous Magic Kingdom - Disney World

Visiting Magic Kingdom at Disney World invokes many comparisons to Disneyland, if you were lucky enough to visit them both. But at Disney World, Magic Kingdom gives you more elbow room, and the lines are shorter -- possibly because Disney World has several other parks to compete for a families attention...

After our earlier Disneyland experience we showed up to Magic Kingdom with a game plan. We knew which rides we were going on, and a general sense of when. If there were fastpasses available Jonathan went ahead of us, and picked them up. You could only be in possession of one fastpass for a specific time period. So if you had a fastpass that is good for a ride at 1 pm, and you wanted to get a second fastpass for another ride, you needed to pick it up at 1 pm (not before). We layered our fastpass rides with rides where we knew there would be a short wait, like the Haunted Mansion, or Pirates of the Caribbean.

We started our day before the park opened up with breakfast on site at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh. It was a splurge, a breakfast buffet ($30 for adults, $15 for kids), but it gave us plenty of photo opportunities with the characters. The breakfast was really good, and the chocolate Mickey Mouse waffles were wonderful.

Jonathan secured the first fastpasses of the day to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride where you got to bounce around with Tigger. Disney World offered a special second fastpass to Mickey's PhilharMagic (which was a lot of fun) show ... ending with Donald Duck crashing through the projector in the back of the theater.

Then we proceeded to the Haunted Mansion while Jonathan got fastpasses for the next ride. During the day we road on the Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Prince Charming Regal Carousel, and attended the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor (Xander's joke was picked and included in one of the monster's acts) and watched the Dream-Along with Mickey show in front of Cinderella's castle.

The boys favorite though was Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, where you got to shoot at Emperor Zorg. By the way it is not a spinning ride.

We ended the day at the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade on Main Street. Overall it was a lot of fun. We left at around 4 pm, just before the boys hit the wall, and they slept happily in the car on the ride back to Fort Lauderdale.

Epic Epcot Disney World

I'm not sure how old I was when I decided I wanted to visit what we used to call Epcot Center at Disney World, which is now just Epcot. I think it was when we lived in upstate New York and I think I was in third grade.

When we arrived at out hotel on the Disney World resort we had plenty of options. Our visit was only two days, so we needed to narrow our visit to two parks. We knew that we wanted to take the boys to Magic Kingdom on the second day, but which park should we pick for the first day.

We definitely considered Animal Kingdom. But we ruled it out because it was already past 1 pm, and we wanted something a little more low key since we had spent the morning driving in from Fort Lauderdale. We weren't sure what to expect with Epcot, but since we were staying a short ferry-ride away it quickly became the natural choice.

So it turns out Epcot definitely has more of an adult feel, but it is still a theme park. There were no lines on that Monday afternoon. We found some of the attractions a little preachy, still some of the highlights of the trip were at Epcot.

Highlights included

• Ellen's Energy Adventure - where you went into a movie theater and "inside Ellen Degeneris's brain." The theater seats become a ride, and take you past life size dinosaurs. Pretty amazing.
• The Seas with Nemo and Friends - similar to the Disneyland Magic Kingdom ride except you aren't locked into a submarine (strangely enough that part was pretty scary for my four-year old). The highlight is that when you exit there is a hands-on exhibit and the boys can play inside one of the Nemo sharks. 
• The Illuminations show (at 9 pm) - which included fireworks, a waterworks and light show. On par with the waterworks and light shows in St. Petersburg, Russia. 

We thought the Land was a bit boring for the boys (that is the ride where you get to see the experimental farming at Epcot) and Spaceship Earth was a bit preachy (for little kids the Lion King theme was poorly done, and older kids would find its Mary Sunshine view of recycling overly optimistic).  Also, at Epcot Character Spot we were able to get all of the obligatory pictures with the Disney characters ... and again we didn't encounter any long lines.
If you visit you should make dinner reservations. We couldn't get reservations, so we queued at Via Napoli in the Italian Pavillion. It only took us 30 minutes to get in, the service was great and boys liked the pizza and pasta.

Epcot perfectly fit our mood on our first day at Disney World. Everyone had a great time and we ended the day relaxed and ready for the Magic Kingdom.

Pack Attack

Presidents Day week is ski week at San Jose Unified and what is becoming our annual tradition is visiting the Florida grandparents.

In booking our plane travel we continued our love/hate relationship with red-eyes. In many ways the long red-eye is perfect with small children, but the flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. is a short red-eye. Which means we leave at 10:30 pm (well after bedtime) and arrive at 6:30 am EST. If we can pull off the hat trick, and get the boys to go to sleep upon arrival it would be less of a nightmare ... but this is my pessimistic prediction:

• Board the plane at 10:30 pm. The boys finally settle down and sleep at 11:30 pm.
• Arrive at 3:30 am PST and escort our tired and cranky boys through the airport
• Get to grandparents condo around 4:30 am PST - boys are bright-eyed and bushy tailed and want to play and hang out with their grandparents.
• One of the boys enters full melt down around 5 pm EST 
• The boys will be sound asleep by 6 pm EST. 

It should be a day of discomfort. But on the bright-side, the next day they will be ready for any adventure.

Last year we had cooler weather in Florida, this year temperatures are expected to be in the high 70s low 80s. Since we work full time, and the weather here next week will be rainy and cool, I'm able to pack for the trip this weekend -- which is great. I've already completed packing the boys bag, and set aside their travel outfits. I'm trying to keep it to only one checked bag (to avoid the bag tax).

Now I have to hunt for sunscreen, sunglasses and goggles and other summer sundries that have been scattered to the four corners of the house, as well as pick some small toys I know the boys will love to play with in Florida.

The boys had tons of fun on the trip last year, and they are both excited about traveling. Xander who is now swimming and loves water can't wait to enjoy the beach and pool. Caleb my fair skinned little boy is looking forward to playing in the sand (and being out of the sun). We may even surprise them with a trip Disney World. Hopefully I can finish my pack attack today.

There we were, there we were... in South Florida

On Valentines Day we went to Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Fla. There is something very hokey about going on an African safari in Florida.  It is like doing a zoo from the comfort of your car, or going to New York, New York in Las Vegas (do you really need to go to Manhattan).... but honestly the boys, my mother-in-law, Jonathan and I had a blast. Lion Country Safari is done very well.

The first thing to know is that there are always discounts and promotions for Lion Country Safari. My father-in-law cut a coupon that gave us $10 off per person. That took the whole experience from Aquarium expensive ($75 for a family of four) to a much more affordable $35. In advance of any trip look around for promotions -- it is well worth it.

February in Florida is off season, but it still took us almost two hours to drive through the park. The boys got bored, but the adults were enthralled the entire time. The things that blew us away, we're the herd of zebras, getting up close with a rhinoceros, and the ostridge's walking right up to your car. The only disappointment was the lions. They were behind electric fences in the middle of the compound ... but after the kid was attacked on Christmas at the San Francisco Zoo by a tiger, I think I'm okay with it.

Once you complete the drive through the park you end up at an amusement park. Most of the activities are covered with your ticket,  including riding a carousel, and a small train. The activities are very preschooler friendly. A favorite was feeding the giraffes.

It was a wonderful day. I would like to take the boys back as they get older. I wonder how the experience will change. Who knew ... a safari in South Florida was fun.

South Florida in February with Preschoolers

Presidents Day weekend we took the boys to visit their grandparents in South Florida. Jonathan's parent bought a condo last year in Hollywood, Fla. on the beach, and wanted the grandchildren to visit. With the El Nino rains we were getting in California, the family looked forward to a milder weather break.

We got milder weather, but it was Spring like in the 40s and 50s at night, and in the 60s and 70s during the day. I packed for Spring, although the temperatures were similar in the Bay Area, we were decidedly more bundled at home.  The one thing I didn't anticipate was the wind. It did feel slightly warmer, and I only regretted my packing decision on the first full day when we explored Fort Lauderdale.

We arrived early in the morning off the red-eye. The boys were so excited to see their grandparents, they couldn't go to sleep. So they played and watched the sunrise, while Jonathan and I crashed. Then we took them to the beach. The temperatures were warm, but the wind got to Caleb who had a bright red wind rash from the sand on his legs. The boys loved the beach, and collected coral and shells.  They napped in the late afternoon, and were in bed early. A totally mellow and relaxing day.

The next day we took the water taxi in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. We bought day passes, and the family package made it affordable for the five of us (Jonathan, the boys, my mother-in-law and me). The boys loved the boat ride. We stopped off on Las Olas Blvd., a major shopping thoroughfare.  On Las Olas we bought sandwiches, bread and a wonderful dessert for later at Gran Forno Italian Bakery. Everything was divine.

One very bizarre thing we encountered on Las Olas Blvd. were the ducks. In South Florida they have big flocks of Muscovy ducks. These ducks have turkey faces, rough bubbly red skin. Caleb was enthralled. I wondered if this is where turducken comes from.

I've written before that we love the mini-vacation. This was only a four day trip, but we had a great time, and it was a nice break in February. Next week I'll write about the flights, and the trip to Lion Country Safari.