cross country travels, part 2

if you missed part 1, you can find it here.
we arrived in florida on thursday afternoon. once we were checked in, i stayed with the kids and we napped while adam, tina and doyle went to register for the power tour. the kids needed a good nap so badly, that when adam got back to the room shortly after 4pm, fletcher was still sleeping...going on 3 1/2 hours is unusual for him. we took it easy the rest of the night and walked across the street to ihop for dinner...worst service ever in a very empty restaurant.

friday morning, we met in the lobby for breakfast and discussed our day. adam, the kids and i were headed to the brevard zoo, which wasn't too far from our hotel. we got there shortly after opening and stayed for a few hours. we enjoyed seeing the different animals. they have a lot of different animals than what our local zoo has, so it was a nice change. the zoo was split into five different sections: expedition africa, australia asia, wild florida, la selva and paws on.

in the expedition africa area, there were  rhinos and tons of giraffes. i was so amazed at how many giraffes there were. you could tell who the 'families' were, as the littles hung out by the mamas. they had feed boxes that were right up against the railings that the visitors stood by, this made for some very up-close viewing. there were some birds in with them and some other stuff, but fletcher and i were mostly amazed  by the giraffes.

the australia asia area was kinda neat, but having seen actual kangaroos IN australia, wasn't that impressed. they also had a bird sanctuary in this area. i wish now that we would have bought a food stick so fletcher had the chance to have a bird land on him. i'm sure it probably would have freaked him out though.

 {black swans}

 {fruit bats}

the wild florida area is probably the most memorable. to get into the area, we had to cross a bridge the was the home to many alligators. on our way in, we saw a few floating, but nothing exciting. once we were in the area, we saw some bald eagles and some other creatures. they were pretty boring, but on our way out, we saw some gators floating and we saw one that was resting in the shade. i had a good view of them so i  took a  few pictures. the one sitting in the shade was pretty close to where we were, given the rail of the walkway and the fence. as i was snapping a shot of him, adam told me that one was coming out of the water, so, i snapped a shot of him...and then...the ATTACK! the one coming out of the water was approaching slowly and i didn't think anything of it until it jumped at the one in the shade. by looking at the last picture, you can tell what my reaction was. 

 {sneaking out}

{the attack! after this, my heart was beating so fast}

in the el selva area, there were a lot of animals we don't get to see often...or have ever seen. we saw an anteater, a few different type of monkeys, a sloth, and a tapir. the monkeys that are pictured were just fed when we were there, so the zookeeper was giving us info on them. the first one you see is the youngest of them all. the second picture is of the youngest and the grandmother who was pregnant and due any day. the little one was so cute, he was showing off for the crowd the whole time we were standing there.

 {anteater}

 {babe and pregnant grandmother}

{sloth}

{tapir}

the last area was the paws on area. this was a hands-on area that had a lot to do. there was a water pad and pool (we avoided this), an underwater aquarium (we didn't go in), a petting zoo, and a playground. at this point, brynlee was letting us know she was D.O.N.E. and wanted to go, but there were a few things we still wanted to do. adam took fletcher in the petting zoo part and he wanted nothing to do with the baby goats or the sleeping armadillo. little boy got his hands washed (because he did play with the rocks) and then wanted to go play in the play area. he loved running up to the top and going across the shaky bridge. he ran around the top while i got to chase him. in the meantime, adam was feeding brynlee in the shade. when we were finally able to get away and leave, with a minor screaming fit, we were greeted by a man and a lizard. you will not believe little boy's reaction.

 {sleeping armadillo}

 {playing}

there you have it folks. he wouldn't pet a baby goat, but he'd pet a lizard. 

after the zoo, we all needed a little rest, so back to the hotel we went. the kids napped, i watched the casey anthony trial (still can't believe the verdict), and i don't remember what adam did. we had plans to meet tina and doyle at ron john's surf shop. with a bit of miscommunication, we finally found them and decided to grab a bite to eat. enter a bit more miscommunication, and we finally ended up at the pier for supper. it was an enjoyable time. we watched a few kids trying to surf and did some people watching while we we waited for our food. i have to say that i had THE.BEST.EVER crab cake sandwich. i want to go back, just so i can have that sandwich again. after we ate, we headed down to the beach to dip our toes in the water. there had been a lot of jellyfish earlier, so we didn't hang out long in the water, but we did get a few photos. after dinner and our beach visit, we headed back to the hotel for the night. we needed to prepare for the power tour to officially start on saturday.