Liesa's trip part 3 and Discovery Cove

**LiesaAnna** · 03-09-2008, 17:45

Monday, 1st september,
Steve and Russ did their hot air balloon ride, loved every bit of it.... next time theyre going for their helicopter ride!!
lazed around a bit..... went to steak and shake again for lunch... as always very much enjoyed! i had the peanut butter cups milkshake... OMG it was to die for!!! sooooooooo yummy!! had another nice chilli dish very tasty!!
today we have moved home into Pauls place, so lovely, sent an email to the other owner which he never even bothered answering till i sent again as i couldnt find it in sent box so thought i never sent it....
well we are all very much happier here..... always nice to be in a well loved family holiday home....
went in the pool almost immediately!! after an hour in there decided to lie back and do some sunbathing!! see weather not bad here at all!! only thing i left my book upstairs!!
went out for dinner at TGI's had a lovely meal pork chop with mash potatoes!! yummy!! it was such a nice athmosphere here, there were 2 birthdays one for a kid just turned 13 and another just turned 12, i watched Lauren cringing so thought best not do this for her birthday next day!!....... this was meant to be our early night so off to bed at 1am!!! early start for the birthday surprise!!

Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Laurens 13th birthday!!
we had booked a surprise (thanks for the helpful advice from all on here for this!) Discovery Cove, never done this before...... but boy did we have the best day of our lives!!!
we got up at 7am..... didnt feel so good myself as i have a mega sore throat
anyway got down to DC and straight through for pictures id tags etc.....
went through found lockers etc got changed..... we had our dolphin swim set for 9.45 which was great no hanging around!! straight through then came the biggie...... 'Cindy' OMG how wonderful are these creatures!!! she was already smiling at us..... was concerned about the water as it was cold... but it just soon goes off!! we were with another 2 sets of 2 people all very nice..... I swam with a dolphin!!! OMG what an experience!!!! how amazing!!! all swam with Cindy, this amazing lady is 40 years or so old!!!! beautiful!!
anyway i mentioned to Randy the trainer we were there for a surprise birthday treat for Lauren (no one had said a thing to me about it so didnt want to not have the surpise!)
anyway Randy called Lauren over by her christian name... she wondered why......[msnwink]

next thing Cindy swam over to Lauren with a buoy in her mouth and gave to Lauren with her birthday message on it.....13 today!! (and other things) then when we got out the water she was met by another DC member who gave Lauren a bag of things T.shirt, camera, free picture and a lovely birthday cake which they were going to put on a reserved table for us! i could tell she was worrying about that..... anyway went in and saw the other fishes and sting rays etc... brilliant..... then Steve and I did the 'lazy river'
now Steve isnt a swimmer..... but we both donned float jackets and just decided we were going for it... i swim but dont do to good out of my depth..... we had so much fun!!! we laughed all the way round.... panicked big time when we saw the first waterfall!! yikes!![msnscared] just wished i had taken my waterproof camera[msnwink]
anyway floating all around takes about 20 minutes!! more laughter more fun it was great then came the 2nd waterfall!! decided to try going through backwoods... much better!!

then trying to get out... we were in stitches!!! trying to get out against the current... remember we have never ever done anything like this before!! anyway we managed it...
we had so much fun on this, went to do again later but both chickened out!! think we were drained after this....
anway soon it was time to go off for lunch but had to go to first aid to get dressing re done on my knee (am told my knee cap is now unstable and the physios recommend it be taped up, and the pain is awful at times..... had morphine already this morning and the sand doesnt help to much, my taping had come undone obviously throug

**ravtino** · 03-09-2008, 21:04

Sounds like you had a blast I love it here

**chrizzy100** · 03-09-2008, 21:23

I love hearing about your trips...

**Madabouttigger** · 03-09-2008, 21:25

Love the report - sounds like you are having a fantastic time, looking forward to the DC photos.

Diane.

**Maverick** · 03-09-2008, 21:59

Great trip report

**eagleydo** · 04-09-2008, 00:33

Loved this report, certainly gave me the feel good factor

**Russ** · 04-09-2008, 01:18

Hello,

Here are a few random pictures. I quite like taking pictures of the sky and just anything that I think looks good.

Also I've included one of my car

I'm loving it! (Sorry they are a little small but I wanted to convert them to fit on here but did them a little too small!)

Mum chilling at Discovery Cove

My Car (Nice free upgrade to a Dodge Charger)

Mums car (Dad having a nose under the bonnet!)

Ballon Ride - This was amazing and I love this shot of another Balloon that left at the same time as us.

I thought I'd take a random picture from above the trees.

They seemed to go a lot higher than us.

We finally got above them [msntongue] - We had a marriage proposal on our balloon flight.

Lovely view of the sky.

I think this picture was meant to be of a bird - Boggy Creek Airboat

Can't quite see the baby alligators.

Another picture from the Hot Air Balloon - Not sure how other people felt but my ears popped at one point.

Amazing picture of the clouds near to us.

Another airboat picture.

Mum has many more pictures which she'll no doubt add soon.

Times on the photos are UK time...darn camera!

**sunandfun** · 04-09-2008, 02:38

Thank you for a great report. I love reading all the trip reports, they just confirm to me what I love about Florida - how the place makes everyone so happy!!!