So much for the House of Mouse. We are all geared up to make a trip to Orlando and Big S has to go break his collar bone!!! This week, my little man fell and broke his collar bone. We are still making the trip to Orlando for other reasons, but we have to significantly change our itinerary for this trip. No amusement parks, no wild and crazy running around, no fun as far as he is concerned.
So I am asking for my readers’ help. Leave a comment in this blog with all of your free and cheap Orlando activity favorites!
We are back on the Trekaroo Kidsmobile this week with great places to hang out with kids in Orlando! I love the Trekaroo Kidsmobile because I am collecting all these awesome lists from all over. For our participation in the Orlando Kidsmobile, we shared our five favorite tot friendly restaraunts at Disney. These restaurants have been mom approved for ease, dad approved for cost effectiveness, and tot approved for taste! If you like this Trekaroo Kidsmobile post, stop by to see the Washington DC Kidsmobile that we also participated in. If you haven’t visited Trekaroo yet, be sure to read all the great reviews written by families like you! We have found many an attraction to visit on the Treakaroo site!
Here are quick links to the wonderful recommendations from Trekaroo families and those of local Floridian bloggers and Orlando aficionados. They’ve been there, done that, and now they’re giving you their inside scoop by jumping on board the Trekaroo KidsMobile Blog Carnival when it stopped in Orlando.
Other Resources for Walt Disney World and Orlando, Florida
Next stop, Memphis, Tennessee – Jump on board the KidsMobile!
The Trekaroo KidsMobile is a blog carnival with a twist. It’s designed to provide a unique opportunity for mom and dad bloggers to be featured on Trekaroo while 1) expressing their unique point of view 2) getting a web of link exchanges. Join us for one of our next stopovers.
In December, I was tagged by both Amy, at The Q Family Adventures, and Corinne, at Have Baby Will Travel, to participate in Tripbase’s 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets.
“The aim of this game is to unite travel bloggers in a joint endeavor – to create an amazing list of top travel recommendations across the globe to share with the entire online travel community.”
How fun! I have had so much fun reading everyone’s best kept travel secrets so far only, when I got tagged, I couldn’t think of anything to write about. Then, the holidays came and left and I still was not coming up with any brilliant ideas. I decided to talk about something I love: the Florida’s Panhandle.
When you think of taking the kids to Florida, the first city that usually pops into your head is Orlando for Disney and all other wonderful things Mouse. However, just a mere 5 or 6 hours north and to the west you will find a treasure trove of amazing spots to take the family!
1. St. George Island, Florida - St. George is a 22 mile barrier island with beaches as white and pristine as you imagine the Gulf Coast to be. Ride into Apalachicola for some of the most amazing seafood, namely oysters, that you have ever had. Even though it gets chilly in the fall and winter, St. George Island is a fantastic place to take the kids year round. Let them run up and down the beach and hike through the miles of wetlands and forests that surround the area.
2. Marianna and Chipley, Florida – Even people from this area will laugh when they read this. Why do you have Chipley and Marianna on this list? What is there?!?! Many people don’t realize that off of I-10 are two real gems. These two cities (about 25 minutes from each other) are homes to our two favorite NWFL state parks: Florida State Caverns and Falling Waters State Park. Grab your tent and air mattress and take the kids camping. They will love wandering through the nature trails and cooking dinner under the stars. Spend time in Marianna exploring the small caverns and then head to Falling Waters to camp (camping at Marianna will be closed through April for renovations) and to see Florida’s tallest waterfall (usually a just a trickle!) and some of the coolest sinkholes around. My kids were fascinated with the fact that the ground just disappeared! Make sure you grab the Florida Passport and get it stamped while you are there.
3. Panama City, Florida - Not Panama City Beach, just Panama City. We have been traveling to Panama City every 6-8 weeks to visit family for ten years. The beach is fine but if you are coming to the Gulf Coast for the beach, there are other beaches that we love. To be honest, I went to the beach for Spring Break when I was in college (so cliched, I know!) and maybe one time after I got married?! In Panama City, stop by the Bay County Junior Museum to learn more about the area. Take a walk through St. Andrew’s and while you are there watch the sunset and look for horseshoe crabs. Stop by Cahall’s for some of the best chicken salad I have ever had. Ever.
Thanks so much Tripbase for allowing me to participate and share three things I love about the Florida Panhandle!
To continue this fabulous TripBase Blog Tag, I would like to tag Amy at Atlanta With Kid, Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish, and Victoria at It’s a Small World after All.
And if it isn’t against the rules, I am going to write about my three best kept travel secrets about Pensacola over at my Pensacola with Kids blog!
Thanks for letting me participate! I look forward to reading many more travel secrets!
Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit a small-scale sustainable farm with a local group of moms. Little S had so much fun wandering around the farm, seeing the animals, and working…yes…working! The farm owners put us to work because everyone on the farm has a job! Green Acres farm is a small-scale sustainable farm in Walnut Hill, Florida. They raise chickens and turkeys, sheep and goats, as well as collect eggs, pecans, and so much more. The land is beautiful and is left the way nature intends it. All of the animals live out in the open sunshine and eat the wild grass and bugs. When the farm owners talk about their farm, you can just see their love for their farm in their eyes. We started out our visit in the goat pen where the three little goats loved to eat the grass and the brambles from the children’s hand. These little guys were only about 2 months old!
After we saw the goats, we got our first job as farmhands. While Ida came through the area, the pecan trees were stripped of many of their pecans. We got to help pick up as many as we could find (and we even got to take a few home!).
Then we went to visit the turkeys. When we got to the turkey pen, we went inside and got into a big circle and sat as quiet as we could. Those turkeys sure are curious fellows! Once we settled down and got quiet, they came right up to us. The kids loved it when they made the gobble-gobble sound all together all at once!
Next, we went to check out how the chickens live. We also got a job here! We helped move the chicken coops to another area on the field. These little guys are too young to run free right now, but soon they will have free reign of the area! These are the chickens raised for meat.
I think this little guy might lay a scrambled egg!
After a little hayride, the kids got to collect eggs and paint the chicken coop!
She said she painted me a whale! I think she did a great job! What do you think?
These are the chickens raised for eggs.
And of course, I am always looking for a great photo opportunity!
Are you interested in visiting a farm? I found a few of these resources on the web to help you locate a farm near you or an area you are visiting!
Farm Visit - Plug in your county and find farms for specific fruits, veggies, and more.
Local Harvest - Search by farm, grocery or co-op or more
Open Farm Sunday – A day in June when you can visit and support your local farmers
Stop by DeliciousBaby to visit other Photo Friday participants! Thanks for hosting Debbie!
The Kid’s Campus at Metropolitan Park is set right next to the water and both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Jacksonville Suns stadiums. The Kid’s Campus is a great place to bring the kids to help them burn off some energy. In the summertime, the park has a fantastic splash pad where the kids can run through the water and cool off.
There is a yellow brick pathway around a huge playground. There is a section of the park known as Safe City. Here, kids can ride tricycles around a little town that actually has little buildings, a working street light, railroad, and street signs.
Things to Know Before You Go:
- Wear bug spray. The flies were awful by our chosen picnic area, but when we moved out to the grass they stopped following us.
- The splash pad has employees standing guard. When it is crowded, the employees rotate groups in at 10 minute intervals. At first we were worried about the downtime in between sessions, but it worked out well.
- Be sure to pack a picnic and lots of water.
- School and daycare groups often plan field trips to this park so it gets crowded often.
Stop by DeliciousBaby to check out other Photo Friday participants.
See that beautiful beach??? That is Destin Beach, Florida and that is where I am headed this weekend.
See that beautiful little girl??? That is my daughter, and she is staying home.
This weekend is my Annual Girls’ Weekend and I am so very excited about the prospect of seeing a movie without worrying about what time I get home, going shopping without chasing two little ones in and out of the clothing racks, sleeping in, reading a book on the beach while I listen to the waves crash, eating fancy dinners and sampling new drinks at the wine bar.
Will I miss my family? Of course.
Do I feel guilty? Definitely not!
See what everyone else is dreaming about over at Mother of All Trips.
Yesterday, Little S and I drove around Downtown Pensacola on a little scavenger hunt to find red things. Here are some other pictures of our beautiful downtown!
The fountain in Seville Square
The birds that collect in Plaza de Luna (kinda freaky huh?)
The following photos were taken in the Historic Village in Downtown Pensacola
The following pictures were taken behind Joe Patti’s seafood
Love the boots and gloves sitting out in the boat
Be sure to check out all the other great Photo Friday travel photos at DeliciousBaby!
If you want to read more about my amazing little city, check out some of the following posts I have written in the past:
We love to travel all over the place, but we also love to play tourist in our own backyard. I started the website Pensacola with Kids a few months ago and what an amazing gift to my family it has been! We have had so many new adventures while we get out there and explore our own city and surrounding areas in between our other travels.
This morning, Little S and I drove around Downtown Pensacola to spot all things red. This is the theme over at I Should Be Folding Laundry’s You Capture this week. We had so much fun on our little scavenger hunt! Pensacola is technically the oldest US settlement but unfortunately it isn’t the oldest continuous settlement. St. Augustine gets that title because Pensacola was wiped out by a hurricane. This year marks the 450th anniversary of Pensacola. I let Little S choose which pictures to use! Enjoy! I think she made some great choices!
Pensacola is also known as the City of Five Flags
Signs like these are posted all over downtown to help direct!
This big guy is one of the Pelicans in Paradise from a few years ago. He is one of the few that remain in a main tourist spot and not in a business.
A theater (no longer in use) constructed in the early 1900s
I think Little S spotted this one to convince me to buy some yummy doughnuts for a snack!
Stop by You Capture to check out all things red this week!
This week marks the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Ivan. Ivan landed in Gulf Shores, Alabama in the middle of the night (why do hurricanes always hit land in the middle of the night?!) putting Pensacola on the right and dangerous side (in terms of storm surge, winds, and tornadoes) of the hurricane. We had decided to stick it out at home because for awhile it did not look like this hurricane was going to be as dangerous as it was. The hurricane looked like it was going to veer off in another direction and did not seem like it was going to maintain its speed and strength. We are not in a flood or an evacuation zone. We cleaned out the hall closet, which is where my 4 week old stayed in his bouncy seat and the rest of the family spread out in the rooms with internal walls. We were well-prepared. One thing I have found living in hurricane central is that not everyone prepares! They wait until the last minute to purchase supplies, etc. I grew up in California where we always had an earthquake supply kit, so hurricane supplies come second nature! After Ivan hit, we stepped out to survey the damage…
Ivan is often overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina, which we all know hit a year later and devastated New Orleans. However, Ivan did its fair share of damage. Casinos were severly damaged, the neighborhoods and schools near to and far from the water were all but wiped away. In Pensacola, the beach homes had storm surge that filled the first floors. They were scraping mud and sea life from their homes for weeks. There were trees in homes and on top of cars. The homes on the hospital grid got power within the first two or three days, but a lot of the city didn’t receive power for several weeks. Water was not potable and schools were out for about 4 weeks as families put their homes and lives back together. There were bridges to main parts of town that were no longer passable so getting anywhere took hours. You couldn’t go anywhere because the city was on a curfew. Even if we had wanted to, it took awhile because a giant oak tree had to be cut out of the road before I could leave my neighborhood. My family was very lucky compared to some of our friends and aquaintances. We were lucky enough to only sustain about 15,000 dollars worth of damage to our house but with a 27 day old son, things afterwards were trying on us. Our house has no cross breeze so while we had no power, we camped in the front yard. I pumped breast milk in the car using the car adapter. We boiled the bottles to clean them. Luckily, we had enough diapers and formula because stores didn’t open for a long time. I was amazed at how quickly the community banded together. After 5 days, we finally gave up and sat for hours to get out of Pensacola to head to Jacksonville, Florida to visit friends for about 10 days. On the drive, my heart swelled whenever we drove past an emergency or construction convoy headed back towards Pensacola to help out.
What does this have to do with travel? Since the major hurricanes hit, these cities have been trying very hard to put themselves back together. Tourism was down in the beginning but it is picking itself back up again. Restaurants and attractions, both new and old, are thriving. If you are planning a vacation in the United States, may I suggest a trip to the beautiful Gulf Coast?
With Pensacola’s rich history (you did know that we were technically the first settlement 450 years ago but a hurricane wiped it away so St. Augustine is considered the longest continuous settlement, right?!?!), Mobile’s Mardi Gras, Gulf Shores beautiful beaches, Biloxi’s casinos, and New Orleans amazing food and culture, you can find something for everyone. If you are coming our way, give us a holler…we will give y’all the grand tour!
Thanks to Debbie at DeliciousBaby for hosting Photo Friday. Stop by to check out other Photo Friday posts!
We love fountains. We read up about the fountains available for our viewing pleasure before we leave for a new city. We ask the hotel concierge where the nearest cool fountain is. The fountain gets bonus points if it doubles as a splash pad and you are allowed to run through it! Fountains are one of those things that my husband and I enjoyed but might have made no big deal about pre-kid. Before the S’s were born, we would admire them and move on to the next sight. After the S’s were born, fountains (along with parks and larger than life statues!) moved up to the top of our must-see list! It is amazing how long one child can stand and stare at, sit by the side of, or run around a fountain.
I had read about the Friendship Fountain when I was making my plans for our trip to Jacksonville, Florida. I wasn’t sure if we would have time to stop at the fountain due to our busy schedule of visiting friends. I was thrilled to see a sign leading to the fountain off of the interstate on our way back home. The Friendship Fountain is located on the Southbank Riverwalk near the Museum of Science and History. From what I could find on various websites, the fountain has lived a controversial, rough life. It has been refurbished, it broke, it was fixed, it was turned on, it was turned off, people complained…the list goes on. It was built in the 60s. When the Friendship Fountain opened, it touted itself as the world’s largest and tallest fountain. The fountain has over 60 jet nozzles and is a beautiful sight at night because lights were added to the fountain at some point. The fountain was an important attraction during the Superbowl of 2005. My children had a great time running circles around this fountain. It wore them out so they were a joy in the car for the next six hours!
Be sure to stop by DeliciousBaby and check out other travel photos from around the world.
