Islamorada

We were done with Orlando visiting the theme parks and had two days before flying back.

Two half days is more like it because on the first day we drove from Orlando to Miami in rain and by the time we were at the Gateway to the keys area it was almost 1 in the afternoon.

The original plan was to go all the way to Key West and back but with three old people and two kids cooped up in a Van all morning it was going to be a tough sell. 

So we stopped at the visitor center in Key Largo. 

Note: There are multiple boards that say "Visitor Center" as soon as you enter Key Largo, but only the one with the Chamber of Commerce board is the official Visitor center. The rest of them are boards which lure you in and some guy representing some other activity in Key West tells you "there is nothing here really. your only option is to go all the way to Key West". Fortunately we stopped at the real visitor center also and there was a nice lady who asked us all the right questions "how many in your party?", "how much time do you have?", "what are your preferences for activities?" etc. etc., gave us free maps and pretty much planned our afternoon for us!

So off we went to Islamorada, which was 35 minutes away and visited "The Theater of the Sea"

We spent a good three hours there doing the nature walk where we got to see their conservation effort and how they save creatures deemed unfit to release back into the wild, including a turtle that was wearing a life jacket. Seriously, not kidding. This turtle has a buoyancy defect and needs a life jacket so it can float and come up for air. 

The place is apparently family owned for 65 years. So I ask the girl who is feeding the crocs, turtles and sting rays "Are you like the Sea version of We Bought a Zoo?" and she goes "Something like that!"

Here are some pictures from the walk.

 

After the walk we were treated to a Parrot show. The kids and my camera enjoyed the show.

 

This was followed by a Dolphin Show and a Sea Lion show. They really did a great job of teaching the kids about the animals, their behaviors, even asked us to sigh a petition to protect whales from being deafened by the US Navy because of some experiments they were doing on the West Coast!

 

Did I mention how Jr. got to pet the dolphins? Odds of her being picked in Sea World were 1:1000 and here it was 1:5. There were 20 kids in the audience and they picked 4 volunteers. This is my kind of place!

The people in the park were truly sincere about conservation and cared about the creatures deeply. 

Finally we went on a small boat with an open bottom (ring boat?) where the dolphins swam within the boat, rang a bell and did some tricks for us while we went for a 10 minute ride along the mangrove forest.

It was three hours well spent and off we went to a limestone beach at John Pennekamp State park.. More on that in a couple of days!

If you visit the keys in the wrong season, this place is guaranteed to be a hit with young and old...

LEGOLAND - Photoblog

Yes. There is a theme park dedicated to the little plastic blocks kids play with.

If you have not seen it, do not miss it. I have been in California for almost a decade now and have always missed this park when we go to San Diego. Have crossed the exit several times and wondered what it was all about! Add to that, the fact that many of my friends and colleagues give this place a two thumbs up, this time we decided to take Jr. and the little one on a short trip to LEGOLAND.

The photos say it all! Everything here is just plain amazing. We had a daunting task to get food into Jr. and we accomplished it only because the place relaxed her. Most of the rides are not scary.

We went on this animal safari ride with Lego animals. The little one waited patiently in line for 45 minutes zipping and unzipping her jacket, only to be kicked out at the end for being vertically challenged.

Jr., who refused to go on any ride was forced in as a last minute substitution and she actually had a change of heart. She got out saying "that was fun. can we do that again"!

This also meant that grandma had to adopt some Chinese kid as her "binami" grandson for the ride. Apparently the kid really liked her!

Here are some of the legonimals..

The next thing was a boat ride that covered all the books! Truly amazing..Jr. guessed all the stories!

Then there was the place which really got Jr. smiling.. Fun Town, aptly named.

She even drove a car by herself and they gave her a fake drivers license! She loved it.

A word of caution though. Most rides, however trivial they are require 34 inch height minimum which the little one missed by an inch or inch and a half. It is really not her fault that her parents dont have viking genes in them. Kids younger then her were getting on all the rides and she had to sit out for almost everything.

Then there was this out of place pirate thing, with rides for adults. The kids enjoyed talking to the pirate...

Finally some teasers for the adults. They have this place called Mini World which has miniature models of everything from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel tower to Golden gate bridge.. not to mention an entire las vegas strip and Washington DC.

You have to see it to believe it..

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Dizzee World !!!

We went to Dizzee World for an afternoon. No.. not Disney in LA, Dizzee in Chennai on our recent trip to India. With the kids that was more than we hoped to pull off on a hot weekday.

This place is relatively expensive by Indian standards. I have only visited VGP amusement park in the past in Chennai, that too in 1993!! Now there are almost 15 of these parks on the East coast road! This is the first time, I have actually made time to visit one of the parks.

We were greeted at the entrance by a mickey look alike.. lets call him Mikcey !


I really dont know if MGM (the Metro Goldwyn Meyer) owns or has a stake in Dizzee world.

We went on the giant wheel first. It was really nice. Jr., who is supposed to be Dora's next avatar, was actually scared of the giant wheel..

but baby!!! what a surprise! She really enjoyed it. Everytime we all got butterflies in our stomach, she let out peals of laughter and was giggling away.

Here are some views from the top of the giant wheel..






Then of course were the little harmless rides which Jr. went for with her mom. These are the same standard (looks, maintenance, everything) to rides in our local parks here in the Bay area (Bonfante gardens or Kelley Park!)


The themes and decorations were cute. Here is Jr. taking a break between rides .

They had a whole section of games where you toss rings around bottles and win prizes , etc. etc. But the people who man those booths were all missing. Gone for lunch!! A two hour lunch (we just gave away those coupons to the doorman while exiting).

Then, we had Jr. go on some really kid safe rides, like the carousel and Cinderella rides..




It was a weekday and the place was almost empty. Then a bunch of school kids came out of nowhere. Must have been a school excursion or picnic. Jr. suddenly found herself josling for a place on some rides. She was a natural "jostler"!

After the school crowd left, we once again were left to enjoy the empty rides. She got an unlimited ride! on the train and played in the video arcade to her hearts content. Only 50% of the machines worked. The rest had a notice on them which said "I am sick"!! But we had plenty of machines to play with and had them all to ourselves. Incidentally the arcade was the only air conditioned building in the park. So we enjoyed the break from the sun.

Then there were the rides from hell. I avoided all those rides. My brother came out of one and described his experience as one similar to an ant who has just come out of a mixer!

Just when we were about to exit the amusement park, San spotted the mother of all rides. She tried to get me on the ride. Mr. Chicken promptly refused and she insisted on going alone!

They couldnt have a solo rider, so the operator went and found one of his buddies to balance San on the other side of the ride. Then things got worse. The ride went on and on and it didnt look like it was going to stop. San started screaming from the top. We started screaming from the bottom. I suspected some foul play and my brother went rushing to the top. The belt had broken!! They had to switch off the mains and let the thing come to a stop on its own. San must have set the record for the longest ride on the swing chairs. She couldnt walk properly for some time.

I avoid these rides for a reason. At the end of the day, they are not safe! In my first 4 years in California we had seen two accidents. One in the Great America Park where a kid flew out of the "drop zone" (the very next day after we had gone on the same ride !) and another kid flew out of the Jurassic Park ride in Universal studios!! I was really getting knots in my stomach when I realized that something was wrong and was just glad that they knew how to locate the main switch!!

On the whole Dizzee was a good experience, except for that one ride. The kids and the adults had a great time..