Traveling as Two - Coming Home

Wednesday was Fly Day. Even though we had an evening flight, the airport was nearly an hour away and we had plenty to do before we could board.

Condo life is interesting. Having a full kitchen means we can do our own cooking and we save a lot of money that way, but when it is time to pack, we always end up throwing stuff away... half a loaf of bread, the last of the ice cream, a stick of butter. I am not a fan of wastefulness, so it is a difficult task. 

We got to the airport in plenty of time to turn in the rental car and even admire the Christmas decorations.

Orlando has a huge airport! We had to take the shuttle to get to gate 77. 

It wasn't long before we were on our way. Home was still thousands of miles away and as soon as we got there, we would have to repack for another adventure...

Traveling as Two - Alhambra

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early, but we didn’t see it. We were still sound asleep. It seemed vacation fatigue had set in and we were more than happy to spend our day near the condo. I took out a couple of the little braids since I was tired of looking bald in all my pictures. 

We watched a little TV while we slowly started packing for our flight on Wednesday. It wasn't long before we got bored and drove half a mile to the Walmart. Somehow I was out of Dramamine again. Seems I used it pretty often on the ship.

Back at the condo, we decided to try out our shuffleboard skills (turns out I didn’t have any...).

Did you know it used to be called "shoveboard"?

After playing for half an hour, we decided to read the rulebook in the bottom of the bag.

Then we started over...😆

Nearby was a little Puerto Rican restaurant that we had been wanting to try. Just so you know, their Greek salad is not authentic; it has lettuce.

It was fun and really different!

My  sweetie loved the flan, but my tres leches cake was bought packaged from the grocery store. Good thing they only charged me 3 bucks for it.

Back at the condo, we put up our feet and turned on the Hallmark channel. It took me two hours to take them all out.

Home tomorrow!

Traveling as Two - Boggy Creek

It's a good thing we rested on Sunday, because we filled up our Monday before it even started. One of the things on my wish list was a chance to see an orange grove. Ridge Island Groves was close to Kissimee and their website promised to reveal some of their operation, so we climbed in the car and headed off.

Did you know that Florida oranges are jucier than oranges from California? Florida oranges are not as vibrant in color as California ones.

This machine sorts the oranges by size. I got to see the orange grove across the fence, but we weren't allowed to touch the trees because of COVID. 

They had a nice gift shop with all kinds of citrus and lots of other stuff too. Look at this fun jam I'm going to send to Teach!

After we left the grove, we drove back to our condo and made lunch. We didn’t have to be at Boggy Creek until 3:30.

The last thing on my wish list was an airboat ride with a chance to see some alligators. My sweetie was skeptical, but since I had ordered and prepaid for the tickets in Utah, he agreed to go along.

Boggy Creek had plenty to do while we waited for our sunset ride.

We took pictures,

checked out the Native American exhibit,

and looked at all the little alligators. Apparently,  Boggy Creek is a nursery for little gators until they get big enough for Gator World. They had about 30 4' - 6' alligators that we could feed...

Or just have a staring contest with. 

Soon it was time to board our airboat.

It was SO loud!! We saw a couple of alligators in the wild. One of them even disappeared down a hole so fast... I have never seen one move that fast, not even on TV.

The sunset was beautiful...

but it slipped away as quickly as the gator, and soon it was time to head for shore.

Now all I need is a long soak in the tub.

See you tomorrow. 

Traveling as Two - Poinciana

Saturday wiped us out, in fact, my smartwatch recorded more than 16,000 steps, so we slept in on Sunday. It was a 40-minute drive to church any of 3 different ways, so we picked the Sacrament meeting that started at 11:30.

After church we drove a little further down the road to ICON Park.

We wandered around a little, just people watching and checking out the sights. After a few minutes, we decided that the hustle and bustle wasn't for us, so we climbed in the car and headed down the road. We don't usually eat out on Sundays, but sometimes when we are traveling, we don't have many options.

Before we left Utah, The Beast gave us some suggestions of where we might eat. He does a lot of traveling here for work and he had a long list. One of his favorites was Taverna Opa, so we decided to give it a try.

The decor was amazing and the food was awesome.

Did you know that a real greek salad doesn’t have any lettuce?

Yum! We finished up our evening by binge-watching our favorite shows. The perfect vacation.