Well, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, here is the story of the rest of our trip to Florida. The day after the funeral, our family drove with Jeremy's mom, Lynne, to the Kennedy Space Center. We had a great drive up the coast and got to see some of the HUGE cruise ships that were in port. When we got to the KSC, the admission cost was $60 for adults and $40 for children. Well, it was already 2PM by the time we got there, so we weren't willing to pay $260 in admission for a half day there. We walked around outside and saw some of the rockets then headed to the beach.
The beach was gorgeous; water was warm and the sand was soft. Lynne really needed a nap since she was up since 4AM, shuttling other family members to the airport. While she slept in the car, the rest of us went to play.
Of course Jay made a bee-line to the water as soon as we got there.
Alyssa, on the other hand was a little more apprehensive about diving in.
She and Jeremy stayed on shore and built sand castles instead.
Jay wanted to build his own so he went for it. I LOVE this picture and how the light is reflecting off the water.
Alyssa abandoned Jeremy as soon as she spotted this sand castle a couple dozen yards away. Good thing whoever built it had already left the beach. According to Alyssa, the best part of building a sand castle, is knocking it down. She smashed this work of art about 2 seconds after I snapped this photo.
Jeremy and I wrote our names in the sand inside of a heart so Jay and Alyssa wanted to have their names in the sand too.
We were covered in sand by this time.
So back into the water we go to rinse off.
This time Alyssa wasn't so scared of the water. She was having fun playing when an unexpected wave crashed on her. It was hard not laughing at the face she made. Total shock!
At this point we decided it was time to dry off and get some dinner. Alyssa had had enough of the waves. Here we are bundled up together, waiting for Jay to get rinsed off.
The next day we went over to the Brevard County Zoo. SO MUCH FUN! It wasn't an overwhelmingly huge zoo where you can't seem to fit everything in and are totally exhausted by the time you finish walking through it. However, there were a million things to do and see. There were a lot more interactive opportunities that any other zoo I have ever been to.
This is the welcoming sign as you walk in the gates.
They had this darling little fishing boat where they let the kids "fish" off the back. There really aren't any hooks on the line. They put food pellets on the end so the kids are really feeding the fish. They swarm to the food and the water is pretty clear, so the kids get a good view of the fish.
We then headed over to the petting zoo. I have never seen an armadillo before in real life. It was pretty fun to play with this little guy. He acted like a puppy more than anything else.
They have the worlds softest, most laid-back lama at this zoo. It was so funny to scratch him behind his ears and he would roll his eyes back in his head and lower his head to the ground. Jay had a fun time brushing him.
Alyssa and the lama were mesmerized with each other. It looks like they were having a staring contest.
I was surprised that they had a hela monster in the petting zoo. It was pretty crazy to get this shot with out using my zoom function on the camera.
Next to the petting zoo was a kids veterinarian clinic. The kids got to dress up like vets and take care of the stuffed animals. Here are the kids with their patients.
(The crocodile had a tooth ache)Alyssa and I bandaged up the otter then she gave him a check up.
Meanwhile, Jay was checking out the bacteria swabs in the lab, trying to figure out what made the eagle sick.
As we left, we had the kids clean up the play area and put the animals back in their cages. Jeremy has a morbid sense of humor. I wish I could have seen the next group of kids that came to play here and found what Jeremy did as we left.
After the petting zoo and vet clinic we went to see the actual wild animals. Our first stop was the crocodiles. We were just in time to watch them feed.
We learned that a group of crocodiles is called a bask. Maybe because they like basking in the sun? The fence looks pretty low, but it was fine. I kept telling Jay to watch his back just in case.
One thing I really loved about this zoo was that it kept as much of the native Florida foliage as possible in the animal habitats. It felt like you were walking through a jungle.
They have a large vulture enclosure there. Kind of spooky but very informative. Vulture eat the volume of 12 armadillos per year. King vultures are the only ones strong enough to crack through bone and cartilage, the rest of the vultures feed on what is left after the King vulture cracks it open. (Yummy!) Here is our own little King Vulture.
Alyssa is still a chick.
The Brevard County Zoo is the only zoo in the nation that will actually take people kayaking in the surrounding area to see animals in their natural habitat. We didn't go kayaking, but here is a picture of the area from the dock. Stunning scenery.
After lunch, we headed over to the aviary. This little bird was so sweet and friendly. She loved Jeremy and even let the kids pet her.
As you walk further into the aviary there is a little area where you can buy bird food. We let the kids get some seed sticks to feed the cockatiels.
They had so much fun with the cockatiels that we decided to buy some fruit nectar to feed the other birds. I forgot what these were called, but the LOVED us. At one point I had about 7 birds on my head, arms and shoulders.
As we left the aviary, there was a beautiful blue Macaw that the kids named Cracker. As that is what it was yelling at us, it was rather an appropriate name.
We saw a lot more animals than I have posted here but I was either having too much fun to take pictures or the pictures didn't turn out very well. However, what trip to Florida is complete with out a picture of a flamingo? I love the reflection in the water here.
After having so much fun at the zoo we were going to head back to the hotel to get some sleep before waking up at 3AM the next day to catch our flight home. But as it were our last night there, we couldn't resist going back to the beach and building one more sand castle.
