We spent 4 days at Universal Studios and then we trekked across Florida towards the Panhandle. Along the way, we stopped by Weekie Wachee. I had heard of this place because of Instagram. I love kitschy, odd and bougie type places, so it was right up my alley! We were only there for half a day, unfortunately. When we left Universal, we made our way to Weekie Wachee. We had made a whole day of riding rides and using up our park tickets, so we got a late start. We spent the night somewhere near the park. The morning of July18th, we got up super early, because fairly early in the day, the Weekie Wachee park meets its maximum amount of visitors for the day and will not allow any more in, unless the crowd thins out. I WOULD NOT let this happen to us, especially since we stopped just to see this. It was really cheap to get into the park. We were able to take in our towels, a beach bag and a small cooler. When we entered, we got in line for the first mermaid show. Sophie and I were stoked. Brad and Braden, not so much. The huge auditorium was underground. It was quite large. There was a huge glass window with bubbles blowing on the outside to look like a curtain. Once the curtain bubbles lifted, the mermaids put on quite a show. We had to laugh at one point, because a turtle in the river continued to harass the mermaids until they finally gave him a snack! We enjoyed the show and the girls really did a great job!
A small part of the show
After watching the show, we went down to the springs and found us some chairs! The water was ice cold! The water is around 72 degrees, even at the hottest point in the summer. The water gets extremely deep toward the back of the springs, and there is a huge dock that people can jump off of and into the water. Water slides are also on the springs. There is a warning that there are alligators present; however, we did not see any. We did ask about it, because locals were acting very nonchalant about that, and they did tell us that the alligators, fish and manatees steer clear of the roped off swimming portion of the park due to there being so many people. The bottom of the springs was sandy and there were some shells at the bottom. Many people were snorkeling. There were nice bathrooms with showers, and a bar/snack shop. I would suggest making sure you brought your own cup with a straw, because they only give out paper straws. I understand, and I want to do my best to help the environment, but God love it, I HATE paper straws. Reusable is best, anyways! We hit up the gift shop before we left for some souvenirs. While walking around the park, there are peacocks and other birds roaming around, which is kind of neat. Overall, it was a neat way to spend an afternoon.
Mr. Braden! You can see the dock in the background and how crystal clear the spring water is!
After we left the park, we made our way to Panama City Beach! It took us quite awhile because of traffic. We got to our condo late that evening. We had the Reflections at Baypoint booked. We have stayed there another time. It sits on the bay and there is a shuttle that takes people over to Shell Island. The condo is nice and there is a fantastic pool that the kids love. We haven't used it, but there is also a nice restaurant and a spa. We enjoy the pier and the Bar and Grill, called Pelicans. Pelicans serves yummy drinks and a pretty good meal! That night we didn't do anything, except walk the pier and look for crabs along the bay. Baypoint has a private beach along the bay that is very nice. You can watch dolphins playing in the bay, and there are huge crabs always walking around near the water.
The following day, we went to St. Andrews State Park. Every time we go to PCB, we hit up this park. It is our most favorite state park in Florida. There are two sides. One side is not protected and you get the big waves and currents. The opposite side, is a protected area that they call the jetties. There are huge boulders that encircle a very large area to help block the waves. There is good snorkeling and calm water for the kids to swim in, with ocean water that constantly comes in and keeps the water fresh, unlike the bay. In the park, there is a large lake that has alligators. Of all the years that I have been there, I had never seen an alligator, until this time, so that was neat. My kids asked if we could feed it. Uhmmmm....NOOOOO! That evening, we ate at Pineapple Willies and snacked on some alligator tail. We sat on the large deck that has a decent view of the beach. There was a nice breeze from the ocean. After four crazy days at Universal, driving, and Weekie Wachee, it felt great to just lay on the beach all day and to relax.
Pineapple Willies...Poor Braden, the sun got to him!!!
On day three, we swam in the resort pool and then took the shuttle to Shell Island. On Shell Island, there are no bathrooms or places to get drinks or food. You are completely on your own. We packed plenty of snacks and drinks to be prepared. The shuttle comes back every couple of hours. The water was perfect and the waves were fun. Lunch was enjoyed at Pelican's on the pier at our condo. We got some shopping in at Pier park that evening.
Shell Island
Day four was spent just like the day before. We took the shuttle over to Shell Island. The kids enjoyed seeing the dolphins from the boat. We spent most of the day on the beach and that evening we ate at Hammerhead Fred's and then played some putt putt at Pirate's Cove. Unfortunately, this was our last full day on the beach and it was time to head home. The kids have a surprise for them in the morning. We are making a special pit stop. I will go into further detail in my next post!
New Orleans was different. Different good and different scary. I can see why people get into trouble or get hurt while there. We had a few great days and I feel like I marked everything off my list that I wanted to. I wanted to eat at Café Beignet, hit up the voodoo shops, do a cemetery tour, and experience a swamp tour. I will have to hit up Mardi Gras when it is going on at another time (without kids) or mark it off the list completely.
Our first day was hectic. We tried to check in early, which they informed us was fine before we got there. When we got there, the room wasn't ready and we were in limbo. It was fine with us, so we just got a few things from our car and let them park it in their secure parking lot. Our hotel was the Holiday Inn French Quarter Chateau Lemoyne. Phew that is a mouthful! We just called it the lemon while we were there. Our hotel was in a pretty good location for walking, so we decided to take off. We were amazed with all of the old architecture. I took plenty of photos, of course. I feel like there was so much to see that I could never get enough pictures and I don't feel like my pictures capture the true beauty of the buildings, not to mention I'm not a great photographer!
We found out that if you are an owner in the tourist area, you have to paint your home and leave it like it was historically. The tour guide for our cemetery tour said that the historical society of New Orleans will even scour around for old newspaper clippings and photos of your home to confirm any colors. If any changes are to be made to your home, it has to be approved and that is highly unlikely if it is to the exterior.
We spent a small portion of the first day just walking, but we did run into the Voodoo Authentica Museum. It was quite interesting and there was even a medium doing some work with a customer. There were oils, spells, voodoo dolls, and other spell/witchcraft items. They did not allow pictures inside, unfortunately.
Somehow, we ran into Jackson Square and found some good opportunities for some pictures. We decided that when the rest of our family arrived, we would have to show them our find. There were many artists set up along the street, lots of shops to check out and gorgeous apartments. We found out that the apartments run $3000 and up per month! Wow that's pretty steep to live in that area! My Husband also informed me that "Brangelina" lives in the area. We never did figure out which home was theirs, but we did find out that it is for sale at a hefty price!
Of course, we had to get a picture of the whole family!
So, the story behind this statue is quite interesting. The man on the horse is Andrew Jackson, and he is always tipping his hat. The person he is forever tipping his hat to is also the same person who paid to have the statue made. This person is Baroness Pontalba. Apparently, Jackson would never tip his hat to her because he did not feel that she was a lady. So, the Baroness paid to have the statue built facing her apartment, much to Jackson's dismay. Now, there are a few other stories that I googled and read, but this one has some spicy juice to it, so I will stick with it!
These apartments are the ones that go for $3000 and up per month
Selfie!
I mentioned above that there were artists. I bought one piece of art that I think is odd, but I love it! I bought a painting of the Luck Dog stand. I had taken some pictures of the stand and the painting just had to be mine! The person we bought it from has no website or cards. She explained that she just prefers to sell her art there at the square and does just fine.
My picture is the white vertical photo on the middle right side and it was only $20
After checking out Jackson Square, we decided to walk down to the river. It was a gorgeous sight with the bridge we came in on in the background. There is an aquarium down there as well as some boats used for tours.
The following day, we hit up Jackson Square again, but my Grandma was too worn out from walking everywhere, that we decided to take a horse drawn carriage back to the hotel. The carriage was $126 for all ten of us and it was a brief history lesson on some of the hotels, shops, and restaurants. It was quite fun. I said horse drawn, but this carriage was not pulled by a horse. Check it out in the pictures :)
After a carriage ride, we had to get ready for our swamp tour. This was one of the items on my list of to-do's in New Orleans. We booked with New Orleans Swamp & Airboat tours in the jean Lafitte Swamps. The website to book is www.jeanlafitteswamptour.com and their prices are reasonable. We felt like it was too much to get three vehicles out, drive around New Orleans, and find the establishment, so we opted for them to pick us up at the hotel. Once picked up, it was only 20 minutes to the swamp. We got onto a big pontoon boat with two big motors and bench seating all around the edge. When we got on the boat and took off, we saw a small gator right away. The Captain said that this is his typical hangout. I definitely wouldn't want to walk along at night out there! We had over an hour cruising the swamps and saw many birds and gators. On the way back, the Captain had a small gator that he brought out so the kids could get up close and personal. It had tape over the mouth, of course.
Later on that night, we got to ride on the trollies. I had great expectations, but really that experience wasn't that great. It was hot and cramped. We got off after just a little bit of a ride. It was a cheap ride, though! $3 for the entire day or $1.50 per ride. One word of caution: If traveling with someone a bit older, let them sit down. The trolley is extremely rough to ride. I can imagine there are plenty of accidents and falls on them.
The last thing I wanted to write about is Bourbon Street. We did a cemetery tour as well, but I am going to have a whole write up about that. I didn't necessarily feel like I had to do Bourbon Street, but I wanted to say that I did, if that makes any sense at all. I'm not much of a drinker, but I did have a few drinks because what the heck...I'm on vacation! I had a daiquiri and a margarita, which were quite tasty, and Brad had a few beers. In my opinion, Bourbon street was loud and gross. There were people flashing others (this was expected and I only think it was bad because of the idiots with their kids), beads being thrown (so hard at times, I saw drinks spilled out of hands and people crying out in pain), homeless people that were getting somewhat irate if you didn't give them money (scary), and it smelled badly. I love to people watch, have a good time, and you all know I'm all about freeing the nipple; however, this was just gross drunken debauchery. We heard that down the street there was a teenager giving oral sex to an 80 something woman. Age isn't an issue, but sheesh keep it to yourself! There were some people that had their children in tow. I'm quite sure it was not the appropriate place for them to be hanging out. After some walking around, we found a pretty decent bar that was playing some 80's and 90's music and we found a seat. The music was good and we were actually enjoying ourselves! I wish in knew who the band was. We ran into one of the Tennessee Titans football players and his girlfriend and we met some others who were there for a conference. We made friends with both groups. Overall, we had a decent time. I can now say I have done Bourbon Street (I may never be back, though). The only negative thing that came out of the whole experience was my Brother's Girlfriend had her debit card stolen. I'm glad I didn't have my nice camera or any of my cards on me! I will leave you with some pictures and videos :)
"Touchdown" Jesus was seen on the way back from Bourbon Street. Our tour guide told us that the lights were simply adjusted making him appear this way.
Overall, New Orleans was fun! I loved the shopping, the food, and the architecture. I will stick to the daytime activities, though!!! The nightlife was a bit too much for me!
