Geocaching round the sunshine state - pre-trip report

[Farcry66]

Geocaching Round the Sunshine State
4th - 28th August
Pre-trip Report

Laura - me (27) - I love Disney, I love the US and I love holidays!
Len - DH (57) - Even though this holiday was only booked because he kept telling me to, he is rather ambivalent to the whole thing.
Leo (Otherwise known as Nemo) - DS (14 months) - Has just learnt to walk, hasn't quite managed the talking thing yet.


So, some introductions first of all. I’m Laura
This is me last year on our big family holiday – 4 generations in Florida for 3 weeks. We had a good time, but it wasn’t the holiday I had hoped for as the men (Len and my stepdad Ken) spent most of their time complaining, egging each other on just made it worse. We did our best to ignore them but they made it very difficult! Imagine my surprise when Len says he wants to go back! There are 2 main differences this year, the first one being that it is just our little family going. This is unusual for us as we very often holiday with other members of the family, so to just be us and Nemo will be quite special. The other difference is that we won’t be in Orlando for the whole time – but more about that later.

This is Len

Again, this is one from last years holiday. Ah, Nemo was so small then! Len has quite a few health problems so unfortunately won’t be able to go on rollercoasters and things like that. So, because of that we are not going to US or IOA or BG. I’m slightly gutted as we are giving SeaWorld a miss this year as well – I so wanted to ride Manta. I might change my mind about not going there though, as I have decided to not go to a couple of places that I did have planned. Opps, this bit is turning out to be about me as well! I really must keep on track.

The last member of our party is Nemo

Nemo is one of those babies that parents brag about – slept through since day 8, a dream to feed, happy chirpy baby. Well, he was! To be fair, he had his MMR jabs yesterday and I dare say he is feeling grotty which is why he hasn’t stopped whinging for the last 4 hours! He is a funny boy, he has only recently mastered walking. He went from crawling to running in 1 day though, so I figure he sat there watching until he thought he could do it properly and then mastered it in record quick time. He doesn’t talk yet, but I have decided that when he does start, he will come out with a whole sentence. (I know this is unlikely, I’m just trying to make myself feel better as his 11 month old cousin says 6 words! )

Right – the title of this trip report is Geocaching round the sunshine state. I know there are a fair few members on here who do Geocaching, but for the uninitiated, I will explain. It is, essentially, a high-tech treasure hunt (if you would call YOYOs and toy cars treasure). All over the world people have hidden boxes and then published the coordinates to them. Some of these boxes can be smaller than a 35mm film canister and some can be huge, most frequently though they are the size of a lunch box. You then program the coordinates into a GPSr (personal GPS) and then go hunting! We have been doing it for a while now, and it is something that we do as a family and I also take my Mum and nephew when I head down to theirs. It has taken us to some lovely places and got us out walking instead of sitting in front of the TV or computer.
This is Leo with one of our treasures:

When we were planning this holiday, we had already decided to travel around a bit, then we thought we would add a bit of Geocaching at the same time. I’m so glad we decided that. I spent ages research caches in the places we are going, and I have found some hidden on beautiful deserted beaches which are way off the tourist track, interesting little roadside stops, some funky old fashion Floridian roadside attractions, oh, and a really cool looking museum! So, we should have some interesting places to go on our road trip!

The plan, for anyone who isn’t in a boredom induced stupor by now is as follows:
Day 1. Fly from LHR @ 10.20 with Continental landing in MCO via EWR, should land at MCO at 18:29, provided everything goes to plan!
Spend the night in a cheap motel in Orlando
Day 2. Drive down to Fort Myers, spend the day doing stuff there (geocaching, beaches, general chilling) stay at Country Inn and Suites.
Day 3. Spend most of the day in Fort Myers and then drive down to Naples. We are staying at the Gulf Coast Inn for 3 nights.
Day 6. Drive down to Key Largo and then spend some time on the beach, stay at the Ramada Key Largo for 1 night.
Day 7. After spending the morning on the beach, we are going to drive down to Key West, stopping every few miles for a geocache. Stay at Holiday Inn Key West for 2 nights
Day 9. Drive up to Fort Lauderdale, stay at Lauderdale Beachside Hotel for 2 nights
Day 11. Drive back up to Orlando – stay at Disney All Star Movies hotel for 1 night, go to MK to take advantage for EMH.
Day 12. Move into villa on the Lindfields estate
Day 13 – 24 will be spent doing things around Orlando – 4 Disney parks, Silver Springs, Blue Springs, Segway tour of Celebration, gun range, chilling, shopping.
Day 25 is the long and weary journey home, this time via CLE, leaving MCO at 15:05
Day 26 Arrive back at LHR at 9.15 am

So, there we go. We are going to cover some miles in this trip, but it will be good to get out and see Florida rather than just Orlando.

At the end of this, I am going to do an expenses post. It will include everything I spend before I get there and what I spend when I get there. I wouldn’t normally do this, but there are so many ‘how much money should I take?’ posts at the moment, that I thought it might help.

[RT7]

Looks like its going to be a very interesting trip.
We went to Fort Myers and Naples years ago and loved the area.
Little Nemo is a real cutie.

[mrsdtob]

Great start, have heard about geocaching before but never realised what it was so thanks for explaining

[VickieMH]

I also wondered what Geocaching what.. Sounds like your trip report will be interesting to read. The boys are adorable... Have a wonderful time.. Only 2 days to go on your countdown xx

[Guest]

Sounds as though you are going to have a lovely time... looking forward to reading more.

[Guest]

Have a fantastic time! I've never heard about geocaching before so I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

xx

[elliemay]

Happy caching, in 6 weeks time we will be doing some caching in California. There is a good cache in celebration 7 another in bridgewater crossing

[voddygirl]

Hopefully your well on your way now..have a fab time

[Alison]

We're planning on some caching on our trip, too - may bump into you!

[Guest]

Sounds like a different sort of trip, will look forward to reading all about it