5 WEEKS IN FLORIDA! Autism, gymnastics and a little bit of everything! Day 17 - Little Toot&Dolphin

[Dollymixture]

We had a good nights sleep in the Pelican Pointe Hotel - the beds were comfy and even the boys slept well on the futon. The alarm went off at 7 am and we got up quickly and went over the road to get a McDonald's brekkie. Check out was at 11am, and we wanted to fit an hour at the beach and showers before we had to leave the room. The hotel did say that we could use the pool and facilities and parking after this point though, which is useful.

Breakfast and McDonald's was surprisingly really good! The biscuit with egg, cheese and sausage is really nice. They also do delicious hotcakes with maple syrup. One thing i don't like here is the white coffee though - they always use creamer and it tastes disgusting! I keep forgetting until after i have ordered it, but i can never drink it!

The boys didn't want to go to the beach - they get really stressed with sand and the way it goes everywhere (a sensory thing) and they don't like the sea much either. They went back to the hotel with Koolie and i took the girls to the beach. It was much quieter on the beach as it was so early, and we really enjoyed an hour here, swimming and playing on the sand. The sea was lovely and warm!

We went back to the room at 10.30 and had quick showers and got changed and checked out at 11am.

We were due to go on the Little Toot Dolphin boat ride at 1pm, sp had a bit of time to kill. We browsed in the shops - there aren't many but there is a huge shop that sells all sorts of things, that i spent ages looking round. It had a wave machine thing where you can learn to surf, so the kids were happy to sit and watch people trying to surf - quite entertaining! I bought a few gifts for friends back home, and a lovely photo frame. By this time it was 12.30, and i didn't want to take the bags of stuff on the boat, so i raced back to the car to dump them and then back to the store where the others were waiting. This took way longer than i thought, and i realised it was going to be touch and go to make our boat ride!

Luckily, we got there just in time, albeit a bit sweaty and exhausted!

We boarded the boat and set off from the harbour. It didn't feel too crowded and it was a lovely boat - really low in the water and even the smallest kids get a good view. It was very relaxing, although the smell of the fuel really bothered the boys and they struggled with that. They are very hypersensitive to smells though, it wouldn't bother most people.

We first spotted dolphins after about 20 minutes, it was really exciting! We saw a few dolphins diving down for food - so mainly their tails as the dived into the water. They were too busy finding food to interact with the boat, so we left them and headed off to search for more. We didn't see any for another half hour or so, but it was still nice just looking at the scenery and enjoying the breeze. The boat wasn't too 'rocky' which was a relief as i was worried about feeling seasick.

Finally we spotted more dolphins and this time they wanted to play. The captain said that Dolphins like showing off, so they respond well to hearing cheers and noise. I don't know how true that is, but it was hard not to cheer when we saw these beautiful animals swimming in the wake of the boat , jumping out the water so gracefully. There is something really special about dolphins isn't there?

The dolphins got bored after a while, and swam off. It was time to head back to harbour - we had about an hour and 15minutes on the boat, which was just about right. We put some money in the tip jar on the way out - but they were quite discreet about asking for tips, which was nice.
They had taken photos of us in front of the boat as we boarded, and then tried to sell them to us when we got out, for $10 each. The photo was bad quality so we didn't bother. The man behind us was moaning that he had put $10 in the tip jar, so he should get the photo - the captain was having none of it.

Overall, we really enjoyed the boat trip and felt it was worth the money - it was about £100 for the 6 of us. We felt very lucky to have seen the beautiful dolphins, as like with anything, there are no guarantees.

It was about 3pm, so we bought some drinks and got back in the car to drive back to the villa. I was a bit worried that one night in Clearwater wouldn't be enough, but it worked out so well with doing Busch the day before, as it was halfway to the beach, so breaks the journey up. We managed to do everything we wanted to, which was swim in the sea, play on the beach, go to the pier in the evening and do the boat ride.

On the way home, we stopped at a Steak and Shake for dinner. We'd never tried one before, and we were pretty blown away with how cheap it was! We walked in at 4.55pm and they had half price milkshakes til 5pm, which they honored, even though we were paying the bill at 6pm. The burgers were so good, and so much choice! The milkshakes were amazing - we tried oreo cookies and cream, mint choc, reeses peanut butter - all amazing and huge! The bill came to $40 - for 6 of us with a huge milkshake each! Bargain - definitely worth a try if you have kids, ours loved it.

The drive back to Davenport took about 2 hours and it was nice to get back 'home' to the villa.

Tomorrow we are chilling out in the villa til about 5pm, when we have decided to do a last evening in the Universal parks before our tickets inspire. We haven't done these parks int he evening, so looking forward to seeing Hogwarts all lit up!

[mick]

A good day and you got to see lots of dolphins

Steak and shake is good although we haven’t been for a few years

Joan

[collybird]

I’ve always fancied Steak & Shake it looks and sounds great.

[Cinderella]

We love steak and shake 👍

[florida girl]

Another lovely day. Never tried Steak and Shake so that’s another one to add to our list.

[caitlinsmummy]

The beach looks lovely, it reminds me of the beach in Cuba when we went a few years ago.

The boat trip looks lovely and it's so amazing to see the dolphins

So glad you enjoyed Steak and Shake, I have this planned also and I couldn't believe how cheap it is! We're going on a weekend which is kid's eat free.

Yet another fab day x