Sea World

 After a relaxing few hours in the villa this morning, we set off for Sea World at just after  11.  The carvpark looked quiet and we were hopeful our research was right and the park would be quiet. We were quickly through the turnstiles with our prepurchased ticket. The park is all set up with their Christmas decorations.

Most rides were showing 5 or 10 min queues and luckily it remained that way most of the day.  We started with one of the newer rides, pipeline coaster, which is based on a surfboard. Such a fun run. 

After a couple of rides we set of for more fun. Kraken was next up, which the kids followed with a ride on Journey to Atlantis.  We then had rides on Mako before a brief break in the penguin encounter.  The new ride here was unfortunately not running most of the say, so just a stop to view the penguins. Fingers crosses the ride will be running for our 2nd visit next week.  

The kids rode Manta while we visited the Manta Ray aquarium viewing area.  

We took a break and watched the sealion show with Clyde and Seymour and off course the mime act, all still great fun.

During the afternoon we also rode the new to us ride, Ice Breaker.  

We finished off our day with Sarah and I having a sunset ride on Pipeline, and then Sarah and Stephen had a dark ride on Manta.  

Feeling absolutely shattered we made our way back to the car at park close (6pm). 

Dinner was at Bahama Breeze at Lake Buena Vista.  All really delicious, Stephen had a burger, Keith had a chicken and rice meal served in half a pineapple! Sarah had shrimp tacos and I had Island Snapper.  

We all had lemonade varieties (lemon, strawberry and raspberry).  No room for dessert and pleased we hadnt ordered starters! 

Back to the villa to recover and chill watching TV. 

Approx 14000 steps today, mostly in the 6hrs at Seaworld! 

Welcome back to Florida!

First morning! Blue sky, lovely warm sunshine. 

An early morning swim for Sarah, and Stephen hit the spa pool, before breakfast of croissants on the patio. 

We are staying in my favourite villa resort, Highlands Reserve, 3rd visit here, although first at this villa, 1812 North Hampton Drive.

Flight was good yesterday, not full so able to spread out a little.  Food was poor at best, probably worst we've had for many years. Arrived just after 3pm local time although it was near 6 by the time we collected the car and drove to the villa.  Car is a Kia Telluride, it's big, obviously! Pics later.

We had a quick trip out to Publix supermarket for essentials and hot fried chicken and some bread for supper! 

Early to bed, about 9pm (2am uk time). 

Off to Seaworld today.  New coasters to ride hopefully! 

Florida 24 - Family Trip!

 A last minute planned trip, a few rest days, a few parks and rollercoasters!

Day 15 Vancouver for flight home

So here it is, our last morning in this beautiful part of Canada.  We woke at 8 to a lovely view if the lake.  After a quick shower we made sure everything was packed into the cases. We shared a cinnamon bun we'd got at the Blue Moose cafe yesterday sat on the balcony.  

With the car loaded we set of back towatds the main highway.  We didn't join it straight away, instead we did the very quick detour to bridal veil falls.  The was a 10 minute uphill walk through the forest to the base of a very pretty fall. There were a couple of coaches pulled into the car Park and the viewing area was quite busy when we arrived but it soon emptied and we had a few minutes to ourselves.   

Back to the highway and we turned on the audio tour to guide us back to the Vancouver.  The weather this morning whilst not cold was cloudy and rain soon moved in.

We stopped in an area on the outskirts of the city called Langley where I had spotted a Michael's craft shop.  We spent a while wandering the aisles and I didn't spent to much! Just some glow in the dark vinyl and some glitter mixes.  I was very restrained! 

We drove to another nearby shopping area where we found a restaurant called Mr Mikes where we had a couple of lemonades and we shared a meal of ribs and chicken pieces.

We still had an hour or so to waste so next stop was the electronics shop Best Buy, followed by a wander round Walmart.  The weather had definitely taken a turn and we saw quite a bit of rain and heavy cloud as we continued. 

With a final top up of fuel for the car we entered the airport and quickly found the car rental return.  Although a little thirst due to the big engine, Keith has thoroughly enjoyed driving the Dodge Durango.  Final mileage read 3800 km, it was 648 km when picked it up, making 3152 km covered (1985.5 miles).

We walked across to the terminal and dropped our bags, we had checked in online last night.  We were quickly through security, although I was pulled aside for a random check.  We grabbed a coffee and cake from Starbucks and settled down to wait for our 7.55pm flight.  

What a wonderful 2 weeks it has been, highly recommended it to anyone if you get the chance. It is a lot of driving, so if you prefer a shorter trip the unmissable section would have to be between Banff and Jasper.  Incredible scenery at every turn and the locals are very friendly and welcoming.

Day 14 Harrison Lake Nr Vancouver

What a shame to leave such a lovely accommodation and view this morning. With hindsight we should have grabbed something we could have eaten on the patio this morning for breakfast! Nevermind, I spent a while sat enjoying the view while having a quick chat with Mum.  

View from lounge

Drive down the hill

We packed the car up and headed out about 10 o'clock.  We had breakfast as A&W, similar to Tim Hortons/McD.  

We were going to use the local car wash this morning  but first spotted a Walmart so went for a quick wander.  Then we headed across the road to the Sonic car wash! Whoop whoop, holiday vibes!!  Seriously the car was dirty inside and out, our shoes had brought in a lot of grits and stones over the last couple of weeks and the front of the car was covered in bug splats.  The self clean garage had 10bspots to pull into with a jet sprayer(with options for pre soak, rinse or clear coat), a foam brush and a wheel brush. After struggling to get the machine to accept any of our payment cards Keith ended up at the cashier desk inside to pay.

Once clean on the outside we moved outside to one of the many covered vacuum areas, each with two hoses (one for each side of the car), and we set about cleaning up the carpets.  Such a great efficient operation! 

We got on the road. Our audio tour didn't cover the first part of our trip today.  We were surprised by the often changing scenery.  We drove up high mountains to over 5500ft and down again to rivers, passed dry slopes, that reminded us of California, to lush pine covered slopes and snow capped mountains, to farms for both livestock and arable.  It really was a varied landscape.  
 

Once we got to Merritt we rejoined the audio tour and decided to follow his suggestion to stop at the small town of Hope to visit a recommended cafe, the Blue Moose, and to see the wood carvings by the green.  We also made note to visit a waterfall tomorrow morning not far from our overnight stop.  We ordered a couple of pasties and a coffee each sitting in the cool of the cafe. The temperature this afternoon had hit 30 degrees which we hadn't really noticed in the air conditioned car but soon did when we got out.

The town was also used as one of the sets for Rambo, First Blood, not that they don't remind you at every opportunity!!

We arrived at Harrison Hot Springs at about 4pm. Unfortunately I hadn't received any access confirmation for our accommodation but after a couple of quick phone calls to the owner we had the necessary information and let ourselves in. Another beautiful location right on the lake.  After settling in we drove back to the town where I had booked a dinner reservation at the only real restaurant in town, Black Forest Steak and Schnitzel, obviously serving German food!

We parked the car on the front and walked the short distance to the restaurant. The sun was still shining to give a lovely warm evening. We chose to sit outside and had a lovely meal of schnitzel with potatoes and veg, which we followed by sharing a black forest cake.  All very yummy.

Can still see distant snow-capped mountains 

We walked back along the beach area to the car and returned to our accommodation.  Whilst at dinner we had received notification to book in for our return flights home tomorrow. Very sad. we packed our cases then sat on the balcony enjoying the last of the wine from yesterday.

Keith step count today 6500.  We are winding down!