YEAR VISITED: 2020 & 2022 *twice

FAVORITE CITIES AND EXPERIENCES: When I was in 5th grade my Mom entered a contest through the Quaker Oats Company and won. The prize was a trip to Disneyworld where we were all honorary Grand Marshall’s of a parade. I will never forget my Mom excitedly rushing to my Little League baseball game to tell the family the amazing news. While Jill’s family didn’t win a trip, they also took a family vacation to Florida when she was in middle school. Needless to say, both Jill and I loved our Florida family vacations. Nearly thirty years later I still consider my families Disneyworld vacation as one of the best adventures I ever experienced. As a result Jill and I were excited, almost giddy, to plan our own family trip to Florida in the fall of 2020 over Thanksgiving. While there is admittedly a ton more to do in Florida, we concentrated our trip in Orlando and the Disney theme parks. We stayed at Worldmark Orlando – Kingstown Reef.

Even though we spent a majority of our time at the theme parks, the time we did spend around the resort we definitely enjoyed ourselves. The first night was the best as we were able to enjoy the pools, sunshine, and an absolutely perfect sunset. We considered ourselves lucky to have stayed here as our unit came with a kitchen, which allowed us to eat breakfast at home and then we packed our lunch prior to heading to the parks. Subsequently we were able to save a little money as we only ate out for one meal a day. The girls were 13 and 11 at the time of our 2020 trip. Therefore, our goal was to go to a different Disney Resort each day. If you have never been to Disneyworld or Disneyland it is difficult to explain the feeling of pure joy and excitement that Disney sparks within. In my experience, no matter how many times I visit or how tired I get from walking around the park all day, it is impossible to be in a bad mood at the happiest place on earth.

The first park we visited was, Animal Kingdom. It opened in 1998 and is the newest of the Florida Disney parks. We had a great day and the park is nothing short of spectacular. Plus I got the feeling that the exhibits and or worlds will continue to grow in the near future.

Both The Tree of Life in the center of the park and the Avatar exhibit’s are extremely elaborate and a must do.

In the evening we watched the show projected upon the Tree of Life and the Laser Light Show at the lagoon. Very few shows compare to a Disney production and or parade. Needless to say, we were blown away.

For dinner we ate at the Rain Forrest Cafe inside the park. While the food is average, the ambiance is second to none.

Day two we headed to Magic Kingdom for a more traditional Disney experience. This park opened in 1971 and has morphed into the crown jewel of the four Disney Orlando theme parks. The castle at Magic Kingdom is Cinderella’s and is twice as tall as the castle at Disneyland.

We enjoyed the traditional Disney rides such as splash mountain, thunder mountain, and the tea cups.

Adding to the ambiance of Disney are the Mickey Mouse headband-ears and Mickey Mouse shaped snacks. Another unique experience is pin trading. Both girls purchased lanyards and Disney themed pins and were then able to trade pins at each booth and or ride – they really got into this and had a blast! While everything in the parks begin to financially add up quick (probably the most expensive trip we have ever been on) we just decided to jump in with both feet and experience everything Disney has to offer.

The third day we visited Universal Studios. While the park is not affiliated with Disney it seemed as great as any of the others, and I would love to return. Unfortunately, it was absolutely packed. On average there was a minimum of a two hour wait for each ride and crowds were unfortunately massive.

As a result we just got to do one ride in the Harry Potter World before making the decision to head to the exits and call it a day. We did however get to eat lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is the largest HRC in the world. If your birthday coincides with your visit you can get a free personalized birthday button. Bailey’s birthday is the 3rd of December (within a week of our visit). Therefore, we picked her up a birthday button and as a result the entire trip nearly every Disney worker wished her “happy birthday.” Following lunch at the HRC the whole downstairs sang happy birthday to her and she was given a free dessert.

The 4th park we visited was Epcot Center. It was built in 1982 and stands for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” While the ride situation doesn’t come close to comparing to the other Orlando parks, it offers a unique and extremely interesting theme park experience.

The day we visited was Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Teppan Edo, a Japanese Steakhouse, inside the park. This establishment is similar to a Benihana’s where they cook your food directly in front of you. While definitely not traditional, this was one of the best Thanksgiving meals our family has ever had.

Following our Thanksgiving meal we proceeded to explore all eleven pavilions. Each country was represented with food, drink, and brief cultural artifacts and/ architectural pieces. It was like exploring a mini version of each country. Countries we toured were Canada, United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, the America’s, Italy, and Germany. After doing our fair share of sampling delicacies and candy from all over the world the family was extremely full that night.

Jill and I took it a step further and sampled beverages from around the world as well. If Jill and I could only return to one Orlando theme park it would be Epcot Center as we had an unforgettable afternoon traveling around the world!

The last park we experienced was Hollywood Studios. It originally opened under the name Disney-MGM Studios but was renamed in 1989. Star Wars pavilion had recently been completed and was the main attraction. Like Universal Studios, the lines were long but we were absolutely blown away by the attention to detail. We were able to ride each of the Star Wars rides and absolutely loved experiencing the time less story up close and personal.

We also waited in line to meet and interact with Darth Vader and Chewbacca – truly amazing how life like both seemed!

While the week of Thanksgiving is traditionally an extremely busy time to visit Disney Parks, I feel extremely fortunate we were able to see the parks decorated for Christmas. It was absolutely beautiful.

Main highlights from Hollywood Studios was Toy Story Land and the fact Bailey sought out the ride Hollywood Tower of Terror all by herself. On one of our families previous trips to Disneyland in California, Bailey and I went on the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride where the ride succeeded in terrorizing both of us. Therefore to see her want to conquer a previous fear made me extremely proud.

In the summer of 2022 we spent a week on the beach just outside of Fort Lauderdale. The most memorable experiences from that stay were watching the 4th of July fireworks from our hotel balcony and taking a water taxi through the canals.

Prior to our visit we had no idea just how wealthy much of Fort Lauderdale is.

After exploring many of the city’s canals’ via water taxi, and seeing what felt like mansion after mansion with yachts the size of ferry boats parked outside, we gained a better understanding of the extravagant standard of living the area is accustomed to.

The city nicknamed the “Venice of America” is a unique, beautiful, upscale city to explore.

STADIUMS AND/OR SPORTING EVENTS: Also in the summer of 2022 the family and I drove the half hour from Fort Lauderdale to Miami to watch a Miami Marlins baseball game.

LoanDepot Park was built in 2012 on the same site as the historic Orange Bowl. The iconic Orange Bowl was built in 1937. It hosted five Super Bowls, was the home of the Miami Dolphins, and college football’s Miami Hurricanes.

While we enjoyed our evening and were glad we went, I would describe the new stadium as “fine.”

Attendance was under 15,000 for the game, no seats were sold in the upper deck, and we have definitely been to stadiums with more character – It has a long ways to go to live up to the storied Orange Bowl. However we did get to witness a premiere pitching matchup between the Marlins Sandy Alcantara and the Angels Noah Syndergaard. All in all it was a beautiful Miami evening. Over Thanksgiving break 2022, we once again traveled to Florida as we were in search of sunshine and relaxation. While we unfortunately found very little sunshine, we did enjoy some relaxing family time and some of our usual excursions. One of our excursions took us from Orlando to Daytona Beach as we toured the Daytona International Speedway.

The hour long tour took us for a ride over the two and a 1/2 mile long track. We were allowed to walk on the speedway as well as take pictures at the winners circle.

It was incredible standing there looking up at the nearly 100,000 seat grandstand – I felt so small looking up at the massive stadium.

We topped off the tour by getting to walk through the grandstands and then ultimately touring the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Highlights in the Hall of Fame were seeing Austin Cindric’s car (the 2021 winner of the Daytona 500) as well as the Fabulous Hudson’s Hornet (a car made famous to us from the Pixar movie, Cars).

We have never been huge NASCAR fans, but this was a wonderfully informative tour that I would highly recommend.

ADVENTURE(S): On our one day off from visiting parks we wanted to experience something unique to Florida and the south. While I wanted to drive the two hours to the Everglades National Park and take a fan boat tour, ultimately it was just too much for one trip. As a compromise, we drove less than 30 minutes from our hotel to Gatorland.

The park is over 100 acres large and acts as a wildlife preserve that specializes in alligators of all ages and sizes. Besides having a blast interacting with an animal we had rarely ever even seen before, we also got a kick out of the entertaining safety signs posted around the park. I can’t recommend this park enough as we had an absolute blast!

We were able to feed the baby alligators by dangling a fishing pole with a fish clipped to the end of it.

We were also able to feed the 15 foot monsters by throwing hot dogs into the marsh. It was amazing to see how quickly they would move for food.

Before leaving we watched a Gator Show where a trained expert interacted with multiple alligators in a ring. While they assured us it was perfectly safe, I couldn’t help but think the trainer was defying death.

We enjoyed the show so much that we gladly waited in line afterwards to spend $10 to take a picture sitting on an actual alligator. Jill took the pictures and Bailey, Madison, and I climbed on the reptile to take a photo. While his massive jaws were clamped shut with tape, our hearts were still racing.

A couple years after Gatorland we made the drive from Fort Lauderdale to the Everglades National Park.

At over 2,000 square miles the park is the 10th largest national park in the United States. We decided to visit the Shark Valley Visitor Center, located very nearly smack dab in the middle of the park.

We paid the entrance fee and then had to choose between riding the tram or biking the flat, paved, path through the park. While both seemed to be solid options, we chose what seemed the most adventurous and rented bikes. We got an early start, just after 9:00 am, and we biked the 15-mile path through the park.

We completed the trail in roughly an hour and a half and saw everything from a snake to alligators sunning themselves on the side of the path.

While we all enjoyed the unique adventure, I will say it began to get uncomfortable around 10:00 am when temperatures hovered around 90 degrees and the humidity wasn’t far behind. We drank more water than I thought possible and we were all sweating profusely, but I thought it was all worth it for such a unique experience for a family from the Pacific Northwest.

NOTABLE DESTINATIONS & STOPS: Downtown Disney, while a giant money grab, is a fun place to shop and go out to eat. We wandered around one evening admiring the Christmas decorations and then ate at Frontera Cocina.

Even though this shopping center is separate from any of the parks and I felt like I was hemorrhaging money, it was worth it as that amazing Disney feeling washed over all of us.

Following our morning at Gatorland we drove approximately an hour to the Space Coast and Cocoa Beach. The girls and I swam in the Atlantic Ocean and all four of us put our feet in the water. The temperature topped out in the low 80’s, zero humidity, and the water was warm – probably the best November beach day we have ever had.

While it was quite a ways further down the beach, if you squinted really hard you could faintly make out the NASA campus and the launch pad. That evening we ate dinner at Pelican’s Bar and Grill located at the end of the Westgate Cocoa Beach Pier.

There we enjoyed good food and one of the most amazing sunsets we have ever experienced. Our Cocoa Beach day truly felt like the cherry on top of an already fantastic week. While we could see Cape Canaveral and the NASA campus from Cocoa Beach, we didn’t get to experience the Kennedy Space Center until 2022.

That summer we dedicated a day to the NASA complex, but truthfully we had no idea of what to expect. We definitely came away impressed. We took the bus tour around the restricted spaceflight facility where we had to pull to the side of the road to allow space capsules being transported down the road to pass.

We then toured the the Apollo/Saturn Center where many artifacts from the moon landing were on display.

However, the highlight of the visit was seeing the Space shuttle Atlantis up close and personal.

It was truly amazing to stand in it’s shadow and think about the millions of miles and multiple space voyages this massive craft had safely navigated. We ended our amazing day by walking through the area known as the Rocket Garden.

While we began the day unsure of what to expect, we came away saying this was one of the best places we have ever visited. The positive to visiting Florida is there is so much to see. The negative is it feels like everything is so spread out it can be difficult to get to everything. Key West fits this narrative perfectly as it doesn’t get any further south than the Florida Keys. While we debated for sometime, ultimately we decided to drive the four hours each way from Fort Lauderdale to Key West.

For a family that enjoys road trips the time seemed to fly by as we crossed bridge after bridge and enjoyed some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the United States. The highlight of the drive came in Islamorada when we stumbled upon a gigantic Lobster (Betsy), which according to Atlas Obscura, “is a serious contender for the title of world’s largest lobster. At 30 feet tall and 40 feet long I have to think this is the largest lobster I will ever see.

Once we arrived in the city limits of Key West, it was lunch time and we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe.

Out of the 20+ Hard Rock’s we have visited, this has to be the most unique as it is housed out of a 3-story Victorian home. We enjoyed our meal and then we had to try a piece of key lime pie. Following lunch I choose to walk and explore downtown, while the girls decided to shop and enjoy air conditioning.

I walked passed the Ernest Hemingway House, stumbled upon the Green Parrot Bar (which has been serving drinks since 1890), and walked up and down famous Duvall Street.

As much fun as I have wandering around and exploring new locations, with the afternoon temperature soaring well above 90 degrees, the girls may have made the better choice. The last location we visited before making the return trek was the Southernmost Point of the Continental USA.

While definitely a tourist hot spot, when you live 3,000 miles away we treated our family photo with the buoy as if it was a badge of honor. One afternoon in Key West is simply not enough. Returning, for hopefully at least a week, is high on our list.

• OUR LIST TO VISIT OR RETURN TO:
• Dry Tortugas National Park
• St Augustine’s Historic District
• Key West
• Orange Bowl
• Miami Hurricanes, Florida Gators, and Florida State Seminole Football game(s)
• Destin and or Pensacola