GESCHENKE-TIPPS 2012 : Super Tips!

Themepark #2 - Sea World

Sea World, Orlando

As it happens a small record of the adventures in the second themepark - Sea World - is still open. At this point I will try my best to close the gap.
However there is not so much to explain about Sea World as you might think. In general there are some attractions like rollercoaster, water rides, towers, etc. which are placed around the different arenas and water worlds containing the animals and shows what Sea World is all about. I do not want to start a discussion about animal rights and the correct treatment here. I just would like to share the experience to see animals like turtles, see cows, belugas, dolphins, killer whales, ... so close for the first time. There are a lot of words sprinnging into mind like (yes, really) awsome, overwhelming, extraordinary, magnificent, beautiful, ... I could continue here quite a while but best is to have a look on the pictures even if I have just a very few here in the post.

The "big" show at Sea World with the killer whales as the stars.

Amazing what these elegant animals are able to do when trained.

The rollercoaster "Kraken" which is pretty much a very fast ride with loopings and screws.

The dolphin show which tells some kind of short fantasy story with the animals and actors.

Actually there have been different animals, not just dolphins.

The Florida manatee in Sea World: Here it is basically a rescue center for injured animals.

The same is for the sea turtles. At Sea World the turtles will be just as long as necessary except they have injuries so severe that they would not survive in the wild ocean.

After all you can say that the beauty of the different animals makes Sea World avery special place to go. I have never seen so many of them this close before and I have to admit it was a brilliant encounter all the same. Therefore I can just give the advice to plan a visit if you are on vacation near Sea World (I guess there are more than one alone in the US.

The most adventurous ride at Sea World: The Manta.

In the end the best ride was the Manta as this rollercoaster is kint of unique as you are more or less lying unter the rail. Everything is a bit the other way round compared to a "normal" rollercoaster.

As a last remark I promise to do some comparison of the theme parks to show which one is for me the best of them here in Florida. But to do this one is still missing - Universal Studis, Island of Adventures.

Insertion: Food

B-B-Q

What do you do if you have a house with a pool in the garden and a big grill standing right next to the pool? - Right, you do BBQ for dinner! Ok, this is some kind of filling and feeding the blog as I do not want to write a too long post today (it is already 1:05 in the morning here).
So far we have tried quite a lot during the evenings with the grill: Beef (most), pork, chicken, veggies, bread, sausages, peppers and seafood.

Starting the BBQ with some bread, followed by chicken and shrimps ... this evening was my turn.

But not only the BBQ is quite extraordinary compared to the average BBQ back at home. In fact our decoration after sunset is kind of offending our neighbours as well. We have found a perfect little plastic chrismas tree in one wardrobe directly after moving in some 2 weeks ago (oh my god, just one week left than) which supplies us now with some colourful light during eating and gaming in the evenings at home.

Our dinner table on the terrace with the illuminated christmas tree after sunset and our little geckos.

For a nice fare well: What you see very often everywhere you go here in southern Florida are geckos in all sizes. In fact we even have some 2 or 3 very tiny ones of our own. They kind of live in the two plants at our poolside in the garden.

Key West

Key West

Finally I managed to get some time to continue with some updates about the vacation in Florida. As promised I will continue cronological and therefor - Key West, the visit from the last weekend, or better the end of last week. The journey was a bit longer. The overseas highway #1 is quite long going over all the islands (keys) to arrive finally at the southernmost point of the USA - Key West. When we arrived on Thursday in the evening at the hotel we were kind of exhausted but the hotel ... absolutely overpriced for the kind of shithole it was. At least it was just for sleeping and shower and in between we explored the island.

Overseas Highway #1

There was quite a lot to see for the relative small island. I mean Key West has roughly 22500 inhabitants and is the size of my hometown Höxter in eastern Westfalia. Back to Key West. The unique location a great deal off the mainland makes Key West a bit more left and crazier compared to the State itself - colourful, open, gay, touristy, ... there are a lot of attributes you can connect to Key West and which would describe the place fairly well. But what can a tourist find in Key West? First of all the house of Ernest Hemingway - a very nice colonial style mansion with quite a big garden around in the very heart of the island. Secondly there is "THE" tourist attraction, the "southernmost point" of the USA. In general a big painted stone with which you have to take a picture ;-) Also it is the start of Highway #1 - mile 0.

Hemingway house in the center of Key West.

Southernmost point of the USA - 90 miles to cuba.

Something else is the glorious sunset at the pier of Key West which you have to see while enjoying a stay. It is the time of the day when all the "crazy" folks comes out to show and demonstrate artistry, music, art. While you can relax and have a look at everything going on at the square the sun starts to set and sinks as a grand final behind a small island with a very colourful sky.

Sunset at Mellory Square.

 And what to do after sunset? - Easy! Key West is some kind of Las Vegas - go and celebrate what ever you like :-) There are a lot of bars and pubs, restaurants and cafés. On Friday evening we found a very nice pub serving very very very many different beers from all over the world and as the bartender was such a nice bloke we left the first Euro note at the ceiling of the pub :-)
With this the trip to Key West was already at an end, next morning we departed again going first for a short stop to Miami and afterwards back home to Cape Coral.

Some commemoration of our visit at the "Krawl" in Key West.

One week Florida

Das 2. Wochenende - KEY WEST
The last three days no posts appeared as you will have noticed. The reason was a short trip through the Everglades with the destination "Key West" the southernmost point here in the USA. It has been very special, interesting, thrilling, adventurous and of course sunny and hot. But as I still have to sort the pictures and there is other stuff I promised to write about -

INTERLUDE: The Disney´s Hollywood Studios, Orlando, FL

As it happens there hasn´t been some time to write about the visit of (at least a part of) Disney World. At this point you are guessing correctly - I will do some story telling now.

Some impressions of the theme park to begin with ... 

First of all: There is a lot to see and experience in a theme park but as they all want to earn a lot of money you have to decide in which part of the park you would like to go. To explain this one I will have to explain a bit more. Orlando in Florida is some kind of theme park paradise as you can find there Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, some mini golf courses and so on. This first visit now has been to Disney World and here one of three parts: "Disney´s Hollywood Studios". The entrance fee is already mind splattering high with 86$ where you still have to add the FL Tax of roughly 8%. Unfortunatly I have to admit this is too much for the few things you are able to see and experience. Most is shopping and eating (meaning you pay entrance fee to be allowed to shop and eat crab for unbelievable high prices). However there have been some nice attractions like "The twighlight zone tower of terror", a big house like in the 1920s with an "damaged" lift in wich you are doing as thrilling ride (free fall, shot in the air). Also there is the "Rock´n´Roller Coaster" which is a really fast roller coaster with loopings, screws and stuff all the "Rolling Stones" like.

Moni studying the plan to decide where to go first.

You really got the feeling to be in San Francisco - just while you are in the middle of Florida.

 

 

The transformation begins: Frieda and Folka turn into not only some Muppet but Kirmet!

The rest of the park was nice to see. It was more or less all about making a movie and how to intrigue the eye of the spectator. Secondly there have been quite many live shows to see, like Arielle, Beauty and the Beastm Toy Story, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, American Idol, Muppets, ....
I will come to an end now as we want to go to the beach. Here we have half past 12 now, sunshine and some 30°C. I hope I manage to post a bit more in the evening about Key West - expectations should rise now somewhat! :-)

A lot to experience and to discover

The first days in Ft. Myers - Getting there and around

Since the arrival already 4 days passed which have been of course quite busy and adventurous. Let me give you a very short summary of the destinations and things happend the last days but before I will introduce my travel mates.

Please meet Friederike (Frieda) on the left hand side followed by Monique (Moni), myself and finally on the right side Volker (Folka). These are the ones you will probably see more frequently in the following days of the Florida trip. But now I have to get back ... telling you about the last days.

Saturday: We started to explore the "neighbourhood" - meaning to visit the best known site in Ft. Myers itself - the Edison und Ford winterestates. This is pretty much an outdoor museum of the houses and grounds inhabited by the famous inventors Thomas Edison and Henry Ford next door. The summer estates of these two are kind of impressive and show how living has been at the beginning of the 20th century (if you had money enough to own such marvellous estates. The houses have not been changed and still show the original interiour with a magnificent orchid filled garden around. I have to check my photos to show you ... but I fear I need some introduction first to get the most out of them (first tryes with the SLR cam).

 The Edison winter estate.

 One of the many beautiful orchids in the Edison and Ford gardens.

Introducing one of the first swimming pools in Florida: Still original with diving board.

Sunday: The first typical day like Americans would spent it, too. SHOPPING. Ok, I admit this is not the most interesting and fascinating thing to do, but as many things are a lot cheaper than back in Europe and the Americans invented shopping malls it simply is part of a visit to the USA. With this trip on Sunday (Shopping mall in Naples and somewhere between Ft. Myers and Naples) there isn't much to tell you about buying stuff.

Monday: And so we are directly at the beginning of the week, 30th of April, Friederikes birthday ...  This was reason enough to start the first bigger adventure DISNEY WORLD, FLORIDA. We started very early in the morning because Orlando is quite a ride already and came back late at night. This adventure is definitly a bit more to write about - I will do (with pictures hopefully) in an extra post.

Tuesday: Going offshore the first time was harder than expected I have to admit. First of all the weather of the last 3 days could improve a bit. No wories here as it is very warm and with a high humidity but from time to time rain in southern Florida. The dicision was therefore very easy: Leaving northwards to St. Petersburg to visit the Dali museum and the Pier and having a first encounter with the beach and the sea. Probably we will do something similar today again ... we will see. The museum was really impressive with a really big selection of drawings made by Dali. In addition St. Petersburg is a buzzling city full of natives, students (USFSP is based in the center) and tourists roaming the streets, shops and coastline. Hopefully I will manage to come up with some pictures soon but I fear for now you have to be a bit more patient.

Florida - Getting there

 Let´s get started - The ARRIVAL

Even here in Cape Coral, Florida, we have already the 28th of April but it has been a very long day before ... let me explain shortly before I will go to bed:
We started in the morning at 5 o´clock to get a decent breakfast before heading to the airport in Stuttgart. This all went very well, the drive to the train station and the ride to the airport and the four of us, Monique, Friederieke, Volker and myself boarded for the United flight UA .... at 9:30 from Stuttgart to Newark, New Jersey. This hole part of the Trip was very comfortable and trouble free.
The whole circus started at Newark Liberty international airport:
- Small delay of 15 minutes (I do not understand why the American airlines in general are unable to be in time)
- Long rows at the immigration (as a careful guess I would say it has been about 35 minutes)
Now I have to explain that we had just 1 hour and 45 minutes to get our connection flight from Newark to Fort Myers in Florida. This means to pick up the whole luggage because entering the US and checking it back in afterwards. In addition you have to do the whole security check again before boarding the connection flight. As you can imagine we have been pretty tight with the time and than the Americans "tricked" us.
- Picking up the luggage and checking it in for the connection
- Security check took more than 45 Minutes as there has been a shut down at the airport security
The Result was we missed the connection flight by 5-10 Minutes. This means getting on to the next possible flight and wait ... and wait longer as this one has been delayed by 60 Minutes.
We should have been in Fort Myers between 6 and 7 o´clock pm but we arrived at 10:30 pm. Nevertheless we managed to get to our vacation housing in Cape Coral after a short stop to supply with food and drink and the house is simply amazing. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kichen and a living/dining room and most importantly a pool in the backjard. The pool was tested to get the holiday feeling and tomorrow we will see how to proceed and what to do.

Have a good night / a good start into the new day!!!