Travelling Trio

USA – Orlando/Foley (Florida-Alabama) – Week 3

• By Denise
• March 3, 2016
• No Comments

A short trip across the state of Florida through some small hills and national forest brought us to Orlando and our next Airbnb stop. Straight away we felt the difference in the weather – it was very warm with no wind at all which meant perfect weather for our Wetnwild Waterpark experience planned for the next day.

Our Airbnb this time was in a young guy’s place (Mike) that he has converted into a hostel and private rooms too. The house is large and sits right beside one of the many rivers in Orlando and is just minutes drive away from the many theme parks – a perfect location. Mike has a JetSki, kayaks and bikes for use and to Carter’s delight also sells GoPro accessories so many options available for Carter to look at. Together with the other young folk, Mike is a very switched on guy and we have really enjoyed chatting and getting to know them.

Ok – first real day in Orlando and we are off to Wet’n Wild water park for the day. We awoke to a fabulously hot and calm day and with the waterpark not as popular in the winter months we didn’t have to wait on any rides at all. Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of people at the park – just no waiting or queuing which I loved. So – if you are looking at the right time to go then choose winter!!! Some of the rides are simply hair-raising and just too scary for me to contemplate but Dave and Carter are our risk takers so attempted them all – the Storm making Dave dizzy and another vertical drop one that bumped and twisted him about. As a family we did the Flyer and of course Mach 5 which is all about racing – this time Mum made it down first on one occasion! – I may have left a little early but Dave and Carter don’t know that 🙂

This was a great day at Wet’nWild

We had a fabulous day and by 5pm we were ready for home to relax and rest the muscles – who knew you would feel sore after just a few rides in water.

Second full day and it was off to see Orlando and some flea markets and the Millenia Mall which is huge and up-market. Perhaps in another time we would have been buyers at the Mall but as we are trying to keep our costs down the flea market is more for us. We are finding the States to be fairly costly given the exchange rate on our NZ dollar but we are managing quite well overall. Our rental car has been fantastic and it is so cheap to fill it with petrol. It costs about $US25 to fill the car and it will go for days on that. I think we worked it out to be about $NZ.50c a litre so at least there are some things they have cheaper here.

Something I spotted in one of the large shops!!

All the Fast Foods in one place!

As an aside I just want to mention the amazing hospitality we have noticed in the South. At the Tampa Fair the other day if you bumped into a person or vice versa they were quick to apologise and this was even if it was just a ‘touch’. If you walk down a hallway and they come the other direction they say afternoon, or hello, or excuse me. It’s nice.

Carter loved this home-cooked breaky!

Third day and we have now experienced a home cooked traditional American breakfast with biscuits and gravy, bacon and eggs. The sausage gravy is spooned onto the biscuit (the best I can relate it to is a circular griddle scone) and you have your bacon and eggs of choice on the side. Carter has put some of his aside for tea tonight so that is definitely a good sign.

Then it’s off to Wet’nWild again and this time the weather is a little windy but still warm. Again the crowd is limited so there is no waiting on the rides!! Yay… Another spectacular day and now a regret we are not staying longer in Orlando. We are lucky however, because we have already worked out that we like this part of the US so will be staying about half our time in Florida. We are off to Foley, Alabama tomorrow – a long day in the car but we have to do this to make ground quickly.

We arrived in Foley after a long 7.5hr journey and we were all tired. It’s amazing how the driving takes it out of you so we went to Walmart for some food to cook for tea and then hit the sack fairly soon afterwards.

Next day was lovely and with this accommodation came breakfast of cereal and freshly cooked waffles. It didn’t take us long to work out how to cook waffles and they are awesome! Not good for you from a health perspective but tasty all the same. Gulf Shores beach was not far away so we took a drive and found the most beautiful soft white sand and a very cold ocean. It was just a little cold so we didn’t stay long and instead went for a drive along the Gulf Key through Orange Beach and Perpido.

Gulf Shores

Day three of our stay in Foley was a bit cool with the weather changeable and so I decided to stay indoors and just work on the blog. I have been procrastinating so much over the past few months that I really needed some quiet time to get it updated. Thank you for your patience!!! Of course I needed some retail therapy in between so headed to Walmart and purchased some shorts and ¾ pants which will be needed when it comes to the warm weather.

There have been weather warnings over the TV and radio that a huge storm is about to hit this area tomorrow afternoon. We are planning to drive to New Orleans tomorrow morning so will hopefully be safe and sound in our Hotel when it does hit. It was interesting to see that a town called “Century” experienced a tornado just two days ago and it devastated the town. We were in Foley and it’s just 100km away!!! Crickey that’s close!!!!