Coffee on the Verandah -The Last Slide, Recap & Souvies 5/29 - Link to Aulani TR 5/31

[PracPerfPatricia]

Ahhhh... the bugs love u too huh.... I always feel like I should hang a sign around my neck... for the bugs... "here's the buffet..."....

Sounds like an awesome walk...

I'm actually going to have to let David read your turtle info... he will love it...

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

awesome story, and very glad someone checked out what hte little boy said, alot of times adults just ignore comments and dont believe them.

lucky for you guys it was true and someone saw it.

very cool.

 

[Angies1274]

Aww...what an amazing experience!!! I have always wanted to go to Vero and now I have another great reason to want to go!!

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Subscribed and all caught up!

 

[emma212010]

Wow!! What a great experience!!! That sounds like a lot of fun, and how fortunate you guys were to be able to see the turtle hatch!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

[COLOR="]Hi Cynthia! Welcome home! Thanks for being away so you didn't get too far ahead of me! I am so wanting to go to Vero now! It looks like such an amazing getaway to add to your cruise. What an awesome turtle walk! Couldn't ask for a better experience, especially for the kiddos! I'm glad it was a success.

I'm hoping to catch up on some DIS this weekend - heading to LA for the weekend, and I'm taking my laptop with me to get some work done,, AND the hotel has internet!

Enjoy your African stew - sounds like a good Fall dinner! [/COLOR]

 

[eandesmom]

Hi guys! Sorry for the lag in replies, I'm actually out of town at a work event and have been dealing with some drama for our potential 2013/14 trip! I think it's resolved but time will tell. I will have fodder for the start of that PTR once I finish this TR though that's for sure!

The turtle walk sounds like an amazing experience!

Recently started reading about your trip. We are heading out on our first Disney Cruise in February and can't wait to read about that part of your trip too. We will also be on the Dream.

Hi and

We will be getting to the Dream part of our trip soon, 1.5 days worth of updates away! I am more than happy to answer any questions I can about it.

The turtle walk was incredible.

Wow! How cool was that turtle walk? Was there a bright moon that you could see things - like how did that 5 year old spot the hatchling?

There was a bright moon, apparently it was much brighter than normal. I'm not sure how he spotted it to tell you the truth other than maybe seeing something tiny and dark moving, and realizing what it was when he looked closer at it.

Sorry about the bug bites - that would happen to me too. Sarah's probably the worst in our family - she has bites all the time!

I get eaten alive. Just wait.

I feel for Sarah, Evan gets them too and almost as bad as I do. It is NO fun.

Wow!!! How awesome that you saw an egg-laying and a hatching. Definitely worth the mile walk, and the destruction of a sandal or two. I'm glad that you didn't have to go through the disappointment of a dud turtle walk.

The emergence was amazing, I can't even really describe how cool it was.
Poor mama, those babies stole her show!

We still had a little bit of light and were able to find that parking lot on the first try, but I can see how it'd be nearly impossible to see in the dark.

That will happen when you are actually early like you are supposed to be, instead of perpetually late like us!

Great update, Cynthia!
I hadn't known about the turtle walks but will inquire into it. This sounds so interesting. Thanks for sharing!

It was incredible. If you ever do Vero at that time of year, you must go on one!

The Turtle Walk sounds like an amazzzzzing experience! How neat that you got to see both a mother turtle laying eggs and tiny turtles hatching. We have turtles who lay eggs in our garden every year and we've marked the area but we've never seen them hatch.

It was so incredible, we felt like we were part of a Nat Geo documentary! So cool.

 

[scottny]

Between your report and Glenn's I need to go just to see this. It sounds so amazing to see.

Thanks.

 

[MEK]

Wow! Score on the egg laying and the hatching all in one night. That is just so darn cool. Major pixie dust for everyone. Well, everyone except maybe Jeff who keeps having wardrobe malfunctions.

 

[rentayenta]

So glad I didn't miss this update! What a totally unique experience. And thank you and Wikipedia for the extra info. I'm glad you found the place too. That's such a frustrating feeling. I'd love to see that one day. Vero hasn't been on my radar until now. I'm sure Michael will that you.

 

[englishrose47]

What a Great Experience!!!!

 

[eandesmom]

Cool to see an egg laying and a hatching all in the same night.

I can imagine how special that was.

It was amazing. One of those things you will always remember

So sorry you are the bug magnate and attracted some bites in no time.

Me too! I tried to combat it with some extra B vitamins before we left, but then I got that crazy rash and stopped taking it. Figures.

The turtle walk sounds amazing!!! I want to stay in VB just to go on that. What a great update and I think it is really neat that you got to see both the laying and the hatching of eggs.

So many great reasons to stay at Vero. Turtle walk was definitely one of them!

SO VERY COOL!!!! I would love to see this in person, as would Brooklynn.

Oh she would love it! It is SO amazing. I think watching Kendall get so into it was as neat as the event itself.

Wow how special that must have been.

It was amazing!!

Hi Cynthia! I've been lurking for just a bit and thought I'd finally say "hello".

Hi and so happy to have you here!

Sounds like yall had a truly exceptional turtle experience. Very cool stuff!

It was a magical evening

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh my goodness, Cynthia!!! How absolutely awesome that you saw an egg laying AND a hatching all in the same night! What a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!! I am so super excited for you!

Sea turtles and their protection are a huge thing along the coast. I have read several books set in the Lowcountry where turtle conservation was an integral part of the plot. I think next summer, if we head to Tybee again, I will have to book a turtle walk. It is one of the things I have wanted to do forever.

 

[eandesmom]

All I can say is WOW!!!! That would definitely be the highlight of a trip for me. What an amazing experience for you and your family.

If you guys can ever steal yourselves away from Marco...you might want to give it a shot!

WOW!!!

What an awesome experience for your family!!! Loved the update and all of the info.

It was incredible!!!!!!!!!

In February, we are staying at a resort in the Riviera Maya, Mexico. This is the third time we are staying there and the place has excellent snorkeling and a reputation for snorkelers to see turtles. In our previous two trips, we have not been successful seeing them in the water, but we hope the third time's the charm. Especially now that Ben loves snorkeling, too.

Seeing them in the water would be unreal! I've never had that happen and have snorkled in a lot of cool places. We did see them in Hawaii but we weren't snorkling. It was SO cool!

I've read both yours and Glenn's TR's and I'm still a little confuse.

That's our goal . Ok mine. I can't speak for Glenn.

Turn your headlights on.

If you didn't, you might drive into the inlet. It is DARK there!

It all makes sense now. Is it bad that I read all this stuff about sea turtles and kept thinking of Jack Sparrow escaping the island in the POTC movie?

An emergence of his own.

Dude!....Sweet.

They were sweet. All hundred some of them!

Then he'd have to get on the Carnival boat instead.

Now that might be a fate worse than death. Did that once. NEVER again.

Guess what? Turtle butt!

You have been hanging around small boys for too long.

Wow! That sounds amazing!

So awesome!

It was magical. No other word for it.

Ahhhh... the bugs love u too huh.... I always feel like I should hang a sign around my neck... for the bugs... "here's the buffet..."....

Yep. Doesn't matter. I can cover ever inch of my body and they will find...my eyelid. My scalp.

Just don't go to the bathroom in the middle of the night while camping.

Sounds like an awesome walk...

I'm actually going to have to let David read your turtle info... he will love it...

It was incredible! I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone going to Vero during nesting season.

awesome story, and very glad someone checked out what hte little boy said, alot of times adults just ignore comments and dont believe them.

So true isn't it? I'm glad too. He was the hero of the night. And repeatedly told so!

lucky for you guys it was true and someone saw it.

very cool.

It was amazing.

 

[eandesmom]

Aww...what an amazing experience!!! I have always wanted to go to Vero and now I have another great reason to want to go!!

It was amazing, definitely a huge trip highlight. We felt like we were on the Nat Geo channel. Unreal.

Subscribed and all caught up!

so happy to have you here.

Wow!! What a great experience!!! That sounds like a lot of fun, and how fortunate you guys were to be able to see the turtle hatch!

It was magical, in every sense of the word. Well except for the broken shoe and bug bites.

They were worth it though!

Hi Cynthia! Welcome home! Thanks for being away so you didn't get too far ahead of me! I am so wanting to go to Vero now! It looks like such an amazing getaway to add to your cruise. What an awesome turtle walk! Couldn't ask for a better experience, especially for the kiddos! I'm glad it was a success.

Glad to oblige Tammie! Being gone for a week does help slow things down huh. Next time you guys do a cruise, you should try Vero for a few nights, it was wonderful.

I'm hoping to catch up on some DIS this weekend - heading to LA for the weekend, and I'm taking my laptop with me to get some work done,, AND the hotel has internet!

Enjoy your African stew - sounds like a good Fall dinner!

It is a good fall dinner. I love moving into soup, stew and chili season. In fact chili sounds much better than the pork tenderloin I was thinking about for tonight. I may have to revisit my thinking! Last weekend it was Shepard's Pie...made with the new cookbook I bought at food and wine

 

[eandesmom]

Between your report and Glenn's I need to go just to see this. It sounds so amazing to see.

Thanks.

It's so funny we are both "walking" at the same time. Definitely didn't expect that but it's kind of cool too. It really was amazing. As is Vero.

Wow! Score on the egg laying and the hatching all in one night. That is just so darn cool. Major pixie dust for everyone. Well, everyone except maybe Jeff who keeps having wardrobe malfunctions.

Poor Jeff, he really was cursed in the wardrobe department on this trip. It was unreal that we got to see both. We knew we had a good chance at seeing the nesting but never expected to witness an emergence too!

So glad I didn't miss this update! What a totally unique experience. And thank you and Wikipedia for the extra info. I'm glad you found the place too. That's such a frustrating feeling. I'd love to see that one day. Vero hasn't been on my radar until now. I'm sure Michael will that you.

LOL. Actually I got all of that from the Sea Turtle Conservancy site, not wikipedia so it's a bit more reliable.

We were stressing about not finding that darn parking lot.

Sorry Michael! But seriously, if you end up with a late july trip...you could fit it in for a couple of days.....

Just sayin'!

Book right at 7m though, it goes fast.

What a Great Experience!!!!

It was amazing Rosie!

Oh my goodness, Cynthia!!! How absolutely awesome that you saw an egg laying AND a hatching all in the same night! What a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!! I am so super excited for you!

It really was a once in a lifetime experience. Absolutely incredible. Amazing to share that with the kids.

Sea turtles and their protection are a huge thing along the coast. I have read several books set in the Lowcountry where turtle conservation was an integral part of the plot. I think next summer, if we head to Tybee again, I will have to book a turtle walk. It is one of the things I have wanted to do forever.

Oh you should! Conor would love it. It was magical to see how into it Kendall was. Oh Tybee....will you get that same cottage? You could set a book in that cottage.

Enjoying The Night Circus right now thanks to you. Had to finish the Mark of Athena first.

Did you see Emerald Atlas has a sequel out? Hoping Eric doesn't get it before Christmas but I think the chances are slim.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Wow! What an amazing night! Tim's grandmother lived out by Vero and we visited a few times. I had never heard anything about the turtles though.

 

[eandesmom]

Wow! What an amazing night! Tim's grandmother lived out by Vero and we visited a few times. I had never heard anything about the turtles though.

Oh wow, I'm surprised at it seems to be such a big deal everywhere. The amount of marked nests on the beach was mind boggling!

It was an amazing night, something we will definitely never forget.

 

[eandesmom]

After our late night turtle adventure, we all slept in a little bit. As usual, Jeff and I were the first up and enjoyed our coffee on the verandah. It promised to be another hot and sunny day! While at dinner the night before I'd gotten feedback on the work project and yep, had to get online and try to make changes. With kids still out cold, I got to work. The verandah was a bit oven like so I moved inside to try and get things done. As had happened the day before…the wifi connection was not my friend and I spent about an hour and half to get stuff done that should have taken 20 minutes tops. Edits and changes made, and sent out review, it was time for me to get out of the room! It was almost 11am. Kids had woken up while I worked, had breakfast and were busy watching…can you guess?

Big surprise there huh!

Nice TV reception huh! Kind of illustrates my wifi issue.

I didn't want a repeat of the previous morning and recognizing that it was my issue, and mine alone, I needed to do what I wanted that morning.

I wanted to work out.

Kendall needed to do homework so we decided I’d take the boys with me, they could mini golf while I hit the gym and Jeff could stay to keep an eye on K and make sure that you know who

Wasn't distracting her from her work. It would be our last full day with this kind of flexibility on the homework front and we wanted to head onto the cruise with at least some of it under her belt.

The great thing about mini golf at Vero is:

It's cheap! $1 for members!

It is largely, if not entirely, in the shade.

Evan still had a crispy back and Eric burns if you look at him so extra time in the sun, knowing we'd have beach and pool later, just didn't seem prudent. I got them all checked in, clubs in hand and sent them on their putting way.

I headed into the gym. The gym at Vero is...small. It does have what you need but, it is small. Arriving, I found the Olympics weren't on. There were a few folks there, I made some comment about wishing we could change the channel and lo and behold, the man with no shoes from archery the day before, spent a good 10 minutes trying to get it on. I kept telling him it was ok but he was on a mission! And achieved his goal. Several of us were quite appreciative. If memory serves right after he finally got it changed, the remote was found. I had a nice cardio session and tried to do some light weights. However it was such a constrained space and a nice couple was attempting some kind of circuit training (seemed like a new program, weren't quite sure how to use most things) and I became deathly afraid of whacking someone so gave it up. As it was already 11 when I'd gotten to the gym, I didn't want to spend a ton of time there anyway. Heading out I caught up with the guys, who’d done a round of golf, played ping pong and checked out the community center. It would appear something went sour before the end of the 2nd round…they didn't finish.

Maybe someone should have walked the plank

They were playing ping pong when I came out. We had made a plan and now needed to see if Jeff and Kendall were ready to execute the next item on our list. Before we headed up I checked into the details, confirmed the plan and then we headed up to pull Kendall away from her guy...I mean her homework. Though it was lunchtime, everyone had gotten up so late, and eaten so late we decided to go ahead with our plan. Plus our plan didn't seem like it would take all that long. It was one that fell into the "exploring the resort and activities" category!

A bike ride!

We thought that while it was pretty darn hot out right now, it would be best to do the ride, then cool off, versus the opposite order. Eric had just recently, finally, learned how to ride a bike. While we’d seen proof that he could...he had never done any kind of trail ride on his own. We had no idea of how long or far he could go, or if he could do it without plowing into one of us. So...we were nervous, and excited all at once. Our first time doing a bike ride without a tag along, tandem, or Burly or the like. We were assigned bikes and helmets. I'd discussed a route earlier with the CM at Ebb and Flo's and with that, by 12:30 we were ready to go. The map, interestingly enough, shows a clockwise route. Our CM had suggested the opposite, you can see it in the pink highlighted route. At the time we didn't know why and figured it didn't really matter, but went with it. The big kids...as in Jeff, Evan and Kendall, rode ahead. I had Eric go in front of me and brought up the rear, in case anything happened. For once we'd planned ahead and had cell phones on us in case we needed to call the others.

The route took us under A1A again, through the Neverland tunnel. Which of course, again, I didn't take pictures of. LOL! Hey, I was riding and there is a slight up and down involved with the tunnel. Coming back up to A1A we headed North on the sidewalk, directly opposite of the resort. What follows are some less than stellar phone pics, taken while riding.

He’s a big boy now!

The first part of the ride took us by some residential areas and was quite pretty. Two turns later and according to our map, it was time to get off the sidewalk and onto the Jungle Trail!.

So pretty

But it was a dirt trail and not terribly conducive to one handed riding and taking photos at the same time with the cell phone. I'm just not that coordinated. It was so pretty, and quiet! As we rode along we’d see some signs here and there with nature info, or just pretty scenes like this along the river that we wanted to check out.

Kodak moment over, we forged on

And stopped at a neat little preserve that just so happened to have a bio break opportunity for those that needed it.

A little bit of info on it. I'd have liked to explore some more.

The Captain Forster Hammock Preserve was opened with public access improvements on February 17, 2003. The Preserve contains trails through mature maritime hammock and coastal hammock habitats. New restrooms and parking are located one mile south of County Road 510 on Jungle Trail. Seasonal tours are offered and self-guided walks are a great way to see a remnant of "old Florida." Trails are easy walking and are open from 8am until sunset.

The 110 acre Captain Forster Hammock Preserve was purchased in the mid 1990s by Indian River County with cost-share funds from the State Conservation and Recreation Lands Program. The property was purchased to conserve natural and cultural resources on the site. The property is owned by the State Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund and is managed by Indian River County. The Preserve contains maritime hammock, coastal strand and wetland plant communities. It borders Jungle Trail, a State designated greenway and a byway of the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Highway. The Preserve contains one of the largest remaining coastal maritime hammocks on Orchid Island. The site was home to Captain Frank Forster, one of the first Orchid Island residents who homesteaded on the barrier island growing winter vegetables and fishing along the Indian River Lagoon.

There was some great wildlife info along our ride

Not that we saw a single manatee. Soon we came to the end of our dirt trail and moved onto the Beach Road. Which moved us away from the water and away from the river. Fairly soon it it spat us back onto the sidewalk along the A1A, now south of the resort. This was, by far, the most boring part of the ride. Sidewalk next to a semi busy road surrounded by residential condos and homes. Nothing wrong with it but nothing exciting either. Still, nice and flat. And…Eric was keeping up with the big guys, throughout the whole ride! Granted, it wasn’t a race but he was definitely solid as a rock, no wobbling, no turning issues and no drifting. The path info said "not for under age of 12" but honestly if a kid has been riding for a little bit, 7 miles isn't much of anything and they'd be fine I think. Evan could have done it at 10 I'd guess. Hot, but fine. At about the halfway point from when we’d turned onto the sidewalk and the resort, a couple, riding the direction that the map actually showed approached us. And flagged me down. “how much further?” they asked. And I realized something. By going the direction we had, it was very hard to get lost or make a wrong turn. Going the way they were? SO easy to miss the turn off to the path! The relief on their faces that they hadn't passed the turn, was palpable.

Hot and sweaty and coming in just under our hour rental window, we turned in our bikes and helmets. It was a fun ride and a great little family activity. I'd highly recommend it! We needed lunch. It was vacation. I had bought a little surprise while at the store the day before, that no one knew about. It seemed appropriate.

Yep. We had Mickey Bars for lunch. Well, all of us except Jeff. I can’t recall why he didn't want one then but he went straight for the real food. After finishing our appetizers, we used the opportunity to clean out the bulk of the fridge and had a hodge podge of items for lunch including sandwiches, leftover burritos, leftovers from the first night and Olivia's and I'm not even sure what else. I got back online and tried to address a few things and sent it back west for the work gang to weigh in on.

What now?
The beached mermaid

 

[glennbo123]

That looked like a nice little bike ride!

And Mickey Bars for lunch....no wonder your kids were thanking you for this vacation!