The Empty Nesters Magical Mystery Tour *1/28* Link to New Girl's TR p141

I love the upcoming travel plans that you have. The cruise sounds just right and it makes me very happy to hear that you will be taking a family trip with your boys.

Awesome update and stunning pictures!

What a fantastic tour . :woohoo:

Mangroves are so beautiful and it sounds like there were a couple of interesting things to check out like the crack and the caves. And then to get to watch the manatees when you returned. That must have been very special!

I love tropical birds- you got such great pictures. That was very sad about the snagged pelican, but I'm glad you were able to see it get free.

:goodvibes
 
Your 2015 travel plans sound wonderful!

Your pictures are beautiful. The tour sounds like it was amazing :thumbsup2
 
Loved the updates. The kayaking tour sounds great and it seemed that you had great guides. It is fun to do something with locals who enjoy what they do and are having fun!!
 
Yay for having your 2015 travel plans in place already! Sooooo, early June? What are the dates? This may be the time that our paths actually cross. :hyper:

Wow! Wow! Wow! Loved all of the pictures from the kayaking tour! The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it sounds like the tour guides were great. I am with you on going into the underwater cave. There's absolutely no way that I could have done that. :eek:
 

Congrats on booking the cruise for next year. :thumbsup2

I love all the pictures. I feel so bad for the bird with his foot caught in the fishing line. Last year, we saw a stingray on Marco Island who was caught on a fishing line and for an hour, the fisherman tried to reel him in so he could free him. He gave up after awhile, and just cut the line and the stingray took off.

It looks like you had a great time on the kayak tour. And manatees are so very hard to get a good picture of.
 
Wow Mary Ellen, that is a heapin' helpin' of upcoming trips. A little jeaous over here.

Awww I love Manatees. It would be cool to see them out in the wild like that. Such peaceful creatures.

Hahaha, I have actually heard of Dunedin, but only because that's where the Toronto Blue Jays have Spring Training. :lmao:
 
Wow! That is a large amount of traveling!

How cool for the kayak trip! That looks awesome, especially the manatees.

Jeremy and I would have loved to go to the brewery. It looks like our kind of place!
 
It’s hard to find a nice long varied route. Fortunately I have tapped into this over 55 community that’s about 3 miles from my house. There is a nice series of paths in there. I am able to run about 3 miles just on the interior paths and roads. But I know I am going to get bored so I need to find some new routes and I might need to just pick a point X miles away and then have Denny come pick me up.

Finding routes can be a challenge, I do all out and backs and it can get old for sure.

The other difficultly during the long runs is you really need fuel and water. I need to get a hydration belt. I just haven’t found one I like yet (or one that I think is worth the $). Denny came out and saved me with some water. I’ve got to solve this problem before my next long run.

There are handheld bottles you can use, that have small pockets. I have one, though confess I don't use it. Now that you mention it though, I do wonder if this will be an issue for me in winter training. I don't carry anything as I do my runs where there is water at a couple of spots. However, they may be turned off for the winter.

Hmmn. I'm ok up to 9 miles, and may be ok given that it's cooler temps but that is food for thought.

I carry my fuel in my tights/capri's/knicker pockets. However if you do the hand held bottle, the little pocket would easily hold a couple gels, or shot blocks or beans. Probably not a waffle or the squeezable fruit. Definitely experiment with fuel to figure out what you like. I bought a new gel to try but it's a ways out before I have anything long enough to use it on.

For our PHM trip I canceled our two days at Bonnet Creek and moved our stay to the Holiday Inn Vacation Villas (formerly known as the Ron Jon Resort) in Port Canaveral. I think we should keep up with our quest to visit other places in Florida and I really loved this resort and watching the cruise ships leave port was completely fascinating. I had NO idea I would be such a fan.

Speaking of cruise ships, we did a “dummy” booking on the Dream. That means we didn’t really pick an actual cruise, just put the deposit down to get the on board booking discount.

Well, Disney sent me a confirmation for a Dec 9 2015 sailing of the Magic out of Miami. This is another 4 night Bahama cruise with a stop at Key West. I have to say that the idea of visiting Key West really appeals to me. Sure, I could visit Key West without a cruise, but its far. I also like the idea of going back to Castaway Cay. Denny became obsessed with watching those big water bikes and now he really wants to try one. And, given that we got rain on our Nassau day….well….can you see where this is going?

You didn't miss anything at Nassau but the rest of it sounds lovely! I am kicking myself we didn't book. We didn't as the 18m window didn't work but of course they changed it to 24. Boo! That is a great price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other trip news, we have a family trip booked for early June. Yes - my boys actually asked to go to Florida. Well, Brian did. I know. Hard to believe. Well, not really. Brian has his heart set on “drinking around the world” and since he’s legal I guess I can’t fight that. Not sure where he is going to get the cash to drink around the world, but that’s not my problem. I’m paying for the rest of the trip.

I was lucky enough to book a 2BR standard view at the Boardwalk villas. Gotta love the point savings that comes with that standard view category. It was only a few points higher than OKW and SSR. We’ll be there for 6 nights. Southwest opens their flights for early June tomorrow. I should be able to get the outbound flights, but will have to wait for the return flights.

That will be fun, and different, to do it with the boys as "adults"!

That was quite the kayak adventure, what a day! Definitely very memorable and lots of stunning pictures!

And you know I loved the brewpub end to the day :thumbsup2
 
Sooo many trips coming up! Very jealous about your Christmas vacation. A WDW vacation and a cruise sounds amazing:cloud9: Do you have an idea of where you're going to be staying at WDW? Not sure if you said or not..

Wow that saying on the sign really hit home. ::yes::

Oh my gosh, I would be terrified to swim through that cave! No thank you.

Aw manatees are so cute. Very cool that there were so many.
 
The upcoming trips sound fantstic! The cruise sounds really nice, I think if I ever tried a cruise, that would be just right.

Thanks! The four day cruise was perfect for our first cruise. I really enjoyed it. It's a totally different type of vacation.

Oh Mary Ellen!!!! The kayaking! The MANATEES!! I want to go! It looks amazing and so much fun! I love the tourquoise colour where the caves are, how incredible is that. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to try it, but it looks so cool. And the manatees at the end! I'd love so much to see them in the wild! What a wonderful day!

Seeing all those manatees was really far beyond my expectations. I figured we would see a few, but there were like 20 or 30 just in that one body of water. Simply amazing. It was such a cool experience and I feel like we picked the best trip we could have. We would never have been able to do something like that on our own.

Wondering though, I see some sit-IN and some sit-ON kayaks, could you pick your yak? Mine is a sit-on because I'm too claustrophobic for the sit-in type! :rotfl:

I think the sit-in kayaks were there on site and available for rental. Suzanne and Mac bought their own boats and they were all sit on. In fact, some of them could also be used for wake boarding. I personally prefer the sit-on. The boats they brought were perfect for what we did.

A nice evening at the Brewery too. :thumbsup2

:thumbsup2 Perfect place for post kayak relaxing!

Hmmm I would be so weirded out by the party going on at the carriage house. I'm glad you were too tired for it to bother you!

It was a little weird and it wasn't something I expected, but I think that's the reason Denny was a little leery about staying there and I had to talk him into it. I just kept telling myself we were saving money and we were gaining space and it was only 4 nights.

What an amazing day!!!! Your kayak tour looks too awesome for words. Cave swimming and MANATEES!!! I would have been over the moon, WOW! Now what was there to see in the crack? Cool that you braved it :) Thank you for all those pictures!

Looking down into the crack it was just looking really blue. It was this beautiful bright blue and it just kept getting brighter the further down the crack went. It was really cool to look at. Looking back, I should have just dove down and swum through it. Far less scary then a cave.

Your trip line up looks pretty awesome too. Love that the boys want to go back, that'll be great fun.

I knew they would eventually come around. :rotfl2: But I really have to blame it on my nephew Matt. After he experienced food & wine he went and told Brian how fun it was and now Brian is determined to drink around the world. Go figure!

And LOVE that you had such a fun time on the cruise!!! Great idea to combine a December cruise with a WDW trip. You'll see the ship all decked out for the holidays, I've heard it's a sight to see! It's not a bad drive from Miami, I think 3 hours. Would you keep your rental car while being on the cruise and just park it?

The cruise was so fun! I really enjoyed it. I would love to see one of the ships decked out for Christmas. That would be so cool.

I'm not sure what we'll do. I figure we will probably fly home from Miami after we get off the cruise so perhaps we can just return the car and then get a transfer to the airport. It doesn't make sense to drive all the way back to Orlando to fly home.

The other thing I'm considering is going to Miami the evening before the cruise. We might be able to do a park and cruise arrangement. Thankfully I have time to figure that out.



I forgot to comment on the pelican, I'm sooooo glad he managed to get free!!!

I can't remember how that happened. I wonder if someone just cut the line. :confused3 See what happens when you wait to long to write about a trip.


Thanks so much for posting this! I read the description and your reviews and others' from Trip Advisor. If we go back to Atlantis, I will definitely plan on this excursion!

:thumbsup2

You will love it! It's really a lot of fun and a cool way to see and hear about the history of the town.
 
Welcome back! Glad you had a great trip, looking forward to hearing all about it.

Sounds like you have some great trips planned for next year.

That Kayak tour looked fun, I went to that FB page and it's cool that the first pic in that album is of you and Denny! Glad you got to see lots of Manatees!
 
Lots of fun trips in the works for you! I did not realize your last trip was a double dip...I'm very jealous. :rotfl2: Castaway Cay is amazing, and I've been keeping my eye out for a double dip in the future.

We really scored on the double dip. Ellen (Podsnel) told me about it when we rebooked our cruise from the original date in 2013 to 2104. I am SO glad she told me. The cruise was literally $4 more to rebook. We loved CC because we love getting off the boat and exploring. On the second CC day we actually went back to island around 2:24pm when EVERYONE was getting back on the ship. It was heaven to have the entire beach to ourselves for an hour or so!

Key West is a good stop on the cruise. Alex and I went there on our last one, and the main factor for choosing it was that location. Have you been before? It's a really laid back setting, and you can walk from the Duval Street to Mile Marker Zero, which is nice.


I have never been to Key West and I really want to see it. I never have enough time to combine it with a Disney trip because of the distance. I'm very excited to visit and I am going to be the first one off the ship and the last one on! :rotfl2:

Sounds like you had an awesome kayaking tour! The pictures you took were gorgeous, and, in my opinion, really captured the wetlands of FL. They actually made me say to myself, "I need to go kayaking again." :goodvibes
Yay for seeing some manatees at the end of your excursion! They are pretty big up close.

It was a beautiful area. Really so very cool and almost overwhelming because I know I would never go there on my own without a tour. What a wonderful state. So, so many amazing places to discover and explore.

What a great day. I have to admit that I will never even think about doing it if there is no real potties. LOL. I do not go in the water or outside behind a tree. I never have been able to and not going to start in my 40's. :rotfl2:

:rotfl2: That's too funny Jen! Since Denny and I have been biking forever we are used to finding creative places for a bio break. I have lost my squeamishness about this a long time again. I have to admit - my favorite place for a bio break is a big old corn field. Just giving some nitrogen back to the soil. :rotfl:

I love the upcoming travel plans that you have. The cruise sounds just right and it makes me very happy to hear that you will be taking a family trip with your boys.

I'm excited about our upcoming plans. I actually feel a little spoiled with all these wonderful trips to look forward too.

It's going to be fun to do a family trip. It's really been quite awhile. I think the last time that boy boys traveled with us was when Brian was a junior in high school. Wow!

Awesome update and stunning pictures!

Thank you!

What a fantastic tour . :woohoo:

Mangroves are so beautiful and it sounds like there were a couple of interesting things to check out like the crack and the caves. And then to get to watch the manatees when you returned. That must have been very special!

It was a fabulous tour. It took me awhile to find it, but it was a total score. We actually didn't see too much in the way of mangroves on this tour. The manatees are much more fascinating. All the natural caves and cracks are so impressive (even though I didn't go into a cave). ;)

I love tropical birds- you got such great pictures. That was very sad about the snagged pelican, but I'm glad you were able to see it get free.

:goodvibes

I actually forget how it finally got free. I wonder if someone just cut the line. Poor thing. It actually stayed pretty calm during the whole thing.

Your 2015 travel plans sound wonderful!

2015 should be a very good travel year! :thumbsup2

Your pictures are beautiful. The tour sounds like it was amazing :thumbsup2

Thank you! The tour was really amazing. Now that you are a Florida resident you have access to all these wonderful activities year round. I'm so jelly! :goodvibes
 
Looking down into the crack it was just looking really blue. It was this beautiful bright blue and it just kept getting brighter the further down the crack went. It was really cool to look at. Looking back, I should have just dove down and swum through it. Far less scary then a cave.

That sounds absolutely gorgeous! I will have to do one of these tours some day.


I knew they would eventually come around. :rotfl2: But I really have to blame it on my nephew Matt. After he experienced food & wine he went and told Brian how fun it was and now Brian is determined to drink around the world. Go figure!

You'll have great fun. I imagine the transition of your kids to 'adults' is weird but getting them back to Disney will be great :)

The cruise was so fun! I really enjoyed it. I would love to see one of the ships decked out for Christmas. That would be so cool.

I'm totally jealous you're getting a Christmas cruise, it's still on my list.

I'm not sure what we'll do. I figure we will probably fly home from Miami after we get off the cruise so perhaps we can just return the car and then get a transfer to the airport. It doesn't make sense to drive all the way back to Orlando to fly home.

The other thing I'm considering is going to Miami the evening before the cruise. We might be able to do a park and cruise arrangement. Thankfully I have time to figure that out.

I've cruised out of Miami twice, if you need any info let me know. Yes, doesn't make sense to drive all the way back to Orlando.

I can't remember how that happened. I wonder if someone just cut the line. :confused3 See what happens when you wait to long to write about a trip.

As I was reading about him being caught I know I would have been tempted to jump in and try to rescue him. That is such an irrational thought but I know I would have been tempted.
 

The first is that the PHM trip is just a little over 3 months away. Can you stand it? Training is going well. I am now required to do long runs on the weekend. My latest long run was 8.8 miles. I am finding the long runs difficult for a lot of reasons other than the obvious, they’re LONG!

The other difficultly during the long runs is you really need fuel and water. I need to get a hydration belt. I just haven’t found one I like yet (or one that I think is worth the $). Denny came out and saved me with some water. I’ve got to solve this problem before my next long run.

I often just carried a small bottle of water rather than wear a belt for my runs. I also had a belt that held a small bottle. When strapped to fit in the small of the back, it didn't bounce. Since most of the long runs for my half marathons were in the winter months, training during cold weather didn't require a lot of water. What seemed to be more important during those long runs was a convenient bathroom. One Sunday morning I was desperate enough to find a nice church open at the right time. ;)
Well, Disney sent me a confirmation for a Dec 9 2015 sailing of the Magic out of Miami. This is another 4 night Bahama cruise with a stop at Key West. I have to say that the idea of visiting Key West really appeals to me. Sure, I could visit Key West without a cruise, but its far. I also like the idea of going back to Castaway Cay. Denny became obsessed with watching those big water bikes and now he really wants to try one. And, given that we got rain on our Nassau day….well….can you see where this is going?

We decided to book this exact cruise.
Even I would be tempted to go on a cruise that stopped at Key West. I'm glad that you enjoyed your cruise enough to take another one. Disney seems to do a great job with their cruises.

We headed north to the

Try to say that three times fast?

I’ll tell you a secret. The locals call it the Chassie. But I think you have to be a local to call it that, so don’t even try it!
This looks like it was fun. :goodvibes
 
All caught up and how great you found a kayak trip so wonderful.

I would have been nervous about a "mom and pop" thinking they would leave us out in the wilderness or something. :rotfl2:

You got some great pictures and some great experiences with the Manatees.


As for a cruise - My friends from my girls trip years ago said the words " Crisney Dooze" :lmao: ( no alcohol on their part was involved either :confused3 ) So I guess Cruise planning is moving up on my radar. :cool1:
 
First of all - a big THANKS for still following along and for being patient with me.

No problem. Who are you again?

It’s hard to find a nice long varied route. Fortunately I have tapped into this over 55 community that’s about 3 miles from my house. There is a nice series of paths in there. I am able to run about 3 miles just on the interior paths and roads. But I know I am going to get bored so I need to find some new routes and I might need to just pick a point X miles away and then have Denny come pick me up.

I know a route where there's a squishy baby waiting along the way... :rolleyes1

So I would say I’m pretty blessed and very lucky to have some really great trips in my future!

Definitely! We're still trying to figure out if we can even afford one!

We passed Weeki Wachee

Because of course you did.

Did you notice that this road is not completely flat?

Want to know a secret? No road is ever completely flat. You have to drain it somehow.:thumbsup2

We followed Mac down this small stream of water that got progressively more shallow. He was taking us to see Maggie’s Crack. Say what?

:eek::scared1: Are you allowed to show that here?

Mac and one of the other girl’s in our group swam down into Maggie’s Crack. I was only brave enough to put the snorkeling gear on and look at it underwater. (OK - time for a comment from someone in the peanut gallery, but I honestly don’t know how else to phrase it).

I have a lot of comments here, but I'm having trouble coming up with one I can use on a family message board.:rotfl2:

We hung out at the crack for awhile and then walked backed to our boats. It was time to paddle back to an area where we could tie up and have a snack (aka lunch).

A snack in the crack?

Here is Mac either getting ready to swim down to the cave or perhaps he had just finished coming out. He had to swim down about 6 or more feet to enter the cave. I would say once he entered the dave he came out about 25 feet downstream.

That sounds awesome!!

One girl in our group was actually brave enough to go in there. It took her a little while to get started. Every time she would dive down to enter the cave the pressure would push her back up. Finally, on her third or fourth try, she entered the cave and came out the other end. Amazing. There is no way I could have done that. Not in a million years!

So cool!

Denny and I started to head back to the launch when we discovered that we were in manatee aggregation area. They were EVERYWHERE! How did we NOT notice that on the way to the caves?

They would pop their heads out from time to time, but it seemed literally impossible to get a good picture of any of them. I tried though. Really I did.

Also really cool! It's so neat to see them in the wild.

Clearly there was something special about this little spot on the Chassie River that caused so many of these gentle giants to aggregate together. It was a really amazing sight and I wish my pictures could even start to describe how special this was. Definitely a highlight of the entire trip.

:goodvibes

Our final destination was here - The Dunedin Brewery

Sounds like a quality establishment.
 
That Kayak tour sounded wonderful although maybe a little too ambitious for me. :rotfl: Jim and I are going to do an airboat tour in February which is a little more my speed. I hope we get to see a lot of wildlife.
 
Loved the updates. The kayaking tour sounds great and it seemed that you had great guides. It is fun to do something with locals who enjoy what they do and are having fun!!

The kayaking was so much fun and Suzanne and Mac were awesome tour kids. I would definitely do another tour with them given the opportunity. It really was a lot of fun and they were totally into it!

Yay for having your 2015 travel plans in place already! Sooooo, early June? What are the dates? This may be the time that our paths actually cross. :hyper:

As you already know, our paths DO overlap! I am super excited about that! :cool1:


Wow! Wow! Wow! Loved all of the pictures from the kayaking tour! The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it sounds like the tour guides were great. I am with you on going into the underwater cave. There's absolutely no way that I could have done that. :eek:

It was such a great tour. I am so glad we did it. It was super cool, but there was NO WAY I was going to swim through a cave. I am far too much of a chicken for that! ::yes::

Congrats on booking the cruise for next year. :thumbsup2

Thanks! I am very excited that we will be sailing again. CC was so cool and I can't wait to see Key West.

I love all the pictures. I feel so bad for the bird with his foot caught in the fishing line. Last year, we saw a stingray on Marco Island who was caught on a fishing line and for an hour, the fisherman tried to reel him in so he could free him. He gave up after awhile, and just cut the line and the stingray took off.

I think that may have been what happened to the bird. I think someone may have cute the line, but I really can't remember. I think I blocked it out because it was disturbing. Poor thing. Just minding his own business and look what happens.

It looks like you had a great time on the kayak tour. And manatees are so very hard to get a good picture of.

The kayak tour was amazing and I'm so glad we did it. If I had an water proof camera I could have done so much better with the pics, but even though they aren't that great at least I know how great the experience was.

:thumbsup2
 
Wow, that kayaking tour sounds like it was a blast! You had some great guides and a beautiful place to explore.
 
Wow Mary Ellen, that is a heapin' helpin' of upcoming trips. A little jeaous over here.

:rotfl2: " a heapin' helpin'" :rotfl2: I like that.

I am really fortunate to have so many great trips coming up. 2015 is going to be a great year and then I am going to simmer down a little. Maybe take a break from the world and do some other things.

Awww I love Manatees. It would be cool to see them out in the wild like that. Such peaceful creatures.

Being right smack in the middle of a manatee nesting area was so amazing. Supposedly they aren't really social animals, but they congregate together because they all like/need the same habitat.

Hahaha, I have actually heard of Dunedin, but only because that's where the Toronto Blue Jays have Spring Training. :lmao:

Really? I didn't know that. But there sure was a lot of spring training going on down there. We were actually thinking about going to a preseason game, but vetoed it because were not HUGE baseball fans and there's so many other things to do.

Wow! That is a large amount of traveling!

I know! It was pretty impromptu how my 2015 travel itinerary came together. First December, then I couldn't say NO to the kids for June (even though I HATE the hot June weather) and then December.

How cool for the kayak trip! That looks awesome, especially the manatees.

It was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed it and I would love to do a similar trip in February of this year.


Jeremy and I would have loved to go to the brewery. It looks like our kind of place!

That brew pub was super fun! So glad we took a locals advice and decided to check it out. It was too far from where we were staying so it worked out perfectly!

Finding routes can be a challenge, I do all out and backs and it can get old for sure.

I always do a different variation of the same route because I found an over 55 place not far from home with great trails. But the last 2 miles getting back are just so torturous because I have ran there SO many times. I try to vary the way out and take the shortest route back. I'll be doing it again tomorrow and then after that I think I need to switch my route.

There are handheld bottles you can use, that have small pockets. I have one, though confess I don't use it. Now that you mention it though, I do wonder if this will be an issue for me in winter training. I don't carry anything as I do my runs where there is water at a couple of spots. However, they may be turned off for the winter.

I tried one of my friend's hand held bottles and I also borrowed a belt. I am going to order a belt. I don't pass any water anywhere and I got really thirsty last Saturday, despite trying to pre hydrate.


Hmmn. I'm ok up to 9 miles, and may be ok given that it's cooler temps but that is food for thought.

I used to run 10+ with nothing. But I was a lot younger than. :rotfl2:

I carry my fuel in my tights/capri's/knicker pockets. However if you do the hand held bottle, the little pocket would easily hold a couple gels, or shot blocks or beans. Probably not a waffle or the squeezable fruit. Definitely experiment with fuel to figure out what you like. I bought a new gel to try but it's a ways out before I have anything long enough to use it on.

I use gel. I am trying an Espresso flavor now recommended by one of my running friends. I lover the taste but I'm not sure if it works quite as well as the gatorade gel formula I had originally. That stuff saved my @$$ for bike to the bay.

You didn't miss anything at Nassau but the rest of it sounds lovely! I am kicking myself we didn't book. We didn't as the 18m window didn't work but of course they changed it to 24. Boo! That is a great price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know most people don't love Nassau, but I would like to see a bit more of the city. I'd at least like to see it NOT in the rain. There is a distillery there that our food guide told us about. I'd like to sample some island rum. ::yes::

That will be fun, and different, to do it with the boys as "adults"!

It will be strange, that's for sure. For some reason Brian's GF hasn't committed to going. I have no idea why. I have to wait until the next time I see her to kind of feel it out.

That was quite the kayak adventure, what a day! Definitely very memorable and lots of stunning pictures!

I LOVED that kayak tour. It was perfect for us. I am so glad my obsessive searching paid off in such a big way. It was really an awesome tour. :thumbsup2

And you know I loved the brewpub end to the day :thumbsup2

That place was awesome! Loved the beer, the food, and the company. Very fun!
 















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