Friday
Today started out bright and sunny again and another coffee by the pool and 2 workout men !! along with lots of squirrels chasing around in the grass and up and down the trees, we can see the wildlife now a lot of the trees have been cut down behind the villa. Everyone seems to have gotten into the habit of laying in now (that didn't take long) apart from me, I seem to be an early bird no matter what continent I am on. Today is supposed to be a lazy pool day but we decided once everyone was up that we would go to Posner Park and take a look around the shops as I wanted to go into Michaels to see if I could get some different things for my cupcake baking. Off we set, with me driving, we went into Michaels and took a trolley expecting to fill it with stuff and all I came out with was some halloween spider sprinkles for my cakes, I must have more stuff at home than I thought because I seem to possess most of the baking stuff that they sold. We then went into Supertarget and the girls bought jeans, shirts and jumpers. I bought some bread and diet coke ! Payless shoes was next and Gary came out with 2 pairs of trainers and Bryony came out with 2 pairs of canvas deck shoes. JCPenney saw me buying myself a gorgeous new HANDBAG (I love handbags) and a silver bracelet for Gregory's girlfriend's 21st next week. God knows where we are going to put all this stuff to take it home. The afternoon was spent in the pool and we decided to try Perkins on the 27 for dinner. When we arrived it was empty and I had the feeling that this didn't bode well at all... how wrong I was, myself and the girls had the Chef's salad which was so delicious and Gary had the Captain's choice which was a variety of seafood and the portions were huge, we then decided to try the peanut butter silk pie and the chocolate silk pie between the 4 of us and they were mouth wateringly good and all this for less than $60, we will definitely go there again before we go home, off home to a few air hockey games and a movie....before....
Saturday
DISCOVERY COVE, and a very hot day is forecast and there isn't a cloud in the sky, I have been looking forward to this day for so long because I have organised a few surprises for everyone and couldn't wait ... we arrived at just about 8 am and it was already quite busy, we were taken over to be booked in and the lady asked Gary what time he would like for his Sea Venture, he shook his head and said that we didn't have a sea venture booked and she said yes you have it is for your 50th birthday from your wife, after a couple of "really" "no, really"'s he was grinning from ear to ear and we booked a time of 10.25, we were then told we could go to breakfast and we then need to go to guest services for him to sign some forms [msnwink], off we went to breakfast which was delicious, ham, sausages, breakfast potatos, southwestern scrambled eggs and french toast, after breakfast we went to guest services where a man asked our name and called over a host who took us to get our wet suits and vests etc and then over the bridge past the oasis to a little island and there on a plaque was our name on a cabana (I can't believe they didn't cotton on to what was going on) a lot of jumping up and down and whooping by the girls and more "no... really" from Gary and we went in, it was lovely, tucked away next to the Aviary it had a fridge filled with drinks and snacks lovely comfy loungers and chairs on a little deck surrounded by trees and bushes and a supply of fluffy white towels, the host said she was ours (and the cabana next to ours) for the day and that she would fetch us anything we needed all we needed to do was ask !! (Gary then said he thought it was strange that we had someone to take us to get our wet suits etc as that hadn't happened before). I got lots of brownie points for the day so far and it was only 9.30 !! The girls got changed and went off to explore the otter sanctuary and the lazy river and Gary and I made our way to the Grand Reef at about 10 am for his briefing on using the skuba helmet. I waited around and watched the sharks whilst this was going on and I was ready to take some pictures of Gary when he got in the water for his sea venture walk, from the pier it looked very well organised with 2 or 3 divers down with them, they seemed to be surrounded by hundreds of fish and when Gary came out of the water about 20 minutes later he couldn't stop smiling, he said it was really weird when you got in the water being able to move your head and breathe without a snorkel but he said it was one the best things he had ever done he said the rays were coming right up to his helmet and the fish were nibbling his fingers and it was something he would never forget. We spent a while going round the lazy river and we went into the Aviary to feed the birds and when we got back to the cabana we found the girls spread out on the loungers munching on snacks and reading. Our host came and asked us if there was anything we needed and she went and got us some coffees (I felt bad asking her to get them actually, but I suppose that was what I paid for). The girls were to-ing anf fro-ing throughout the morning and at 1.15 we walked over to our dolphin talk before our swim. We had Akai a 30 year old male dolphin who was apparently a bit of a ladies man and very cheeky. Our trainer was very good and had lots of info on Akai and he was very playful and lots of splashing and cuddling went on, he also liked to have his tail stroked so we spent a while doing that and then the trainer asked for someone with muscles to come and help them and they picked Bryony [msnwink] she was asked to catch something that Akai was going to bring from across the other side of the pool so when he brought the buoy over it said "Happy 13th birthday Bryony" and when she read it out and rrealised what it said she couldn't stop smiling, I thought I was going to cry. (both her's and Gary's birthdays are over the Christmas week and they do tend to miss out because of the time of year) After a round of applause from everyone including the trainers and Akai our time was up and we got out of the pool, another trainer was waiting for Bryony with a rucksack which contained a lovely glass photoframe, a teeshirt, an underwater camera and a voucher for a large photograph of her choice to put in the frame. Jennifer didn't really get much in the way of surprises, apart from the cabana of course but she did get a laptop in September for her 18th birthday which is in January (she got it early to use for college) so she completely understood my reasoning behind the treats I had planned for the day. We went and chose some photos and when went and had a delicious lunch whilst listening to a band playing tropical music. Ater lunch the girls decided to go to the Grand Reef and use the underwater camera so Gary and I went back to the cabana as it was sweltering hot. Whilst we were sitting there a man came up to the gate and said that his name was Reid and showed us his badge whic said he was the CEO of Discovery Cove, he was asking people what they thought of the newly rearranged layout and what their thoughts were about their day at DC, we invited him in and he sat and had a diet coke with us whilst we discussed all the alterations with him and he asked us lots of questions about our day. I think he went away happy, what a very nice man he was. We ended our day at Discovery Cove at about 6 pm and a fantastic day was had by all. I can thoroughly recommend paying the extra for a cabana it really made our day there extra special and we will definitely do it again. We were all exhausted and ended up going to bed at about 9 pm.
Sunday
Everyone was late getting up this morning apart from me so I went outside with my coffee and sat and watched a lot of brightly coloured birds dive bombing the grass just ourside the villa, looking for worms I would imagine and when everyone was up we spent a couple of hours in the pool (again). It was decided at about 11.30 that we would go up to Altamonte Springs again because Jennifer wanted to go back to Hollister and A & F to buy some more clothes (like she doesn't have enough!!) so after a spot of lunch in the food hall Jennifer and Bryony went to Hollister and Gary and I went into JC Penney where he bought me an eternity ring to go with the engagement ring he bought me when we were over in FL in 2009 (my previous engagement ring was broken and not repairable). How luck am I, it is beautiful 1/2 carat of diamonds and beautiful, (I think he now realises that after 28 years this could be for forever[msnsmile2] ) the girls met us there and Bryony bought herself a lovely blue topaz birthstone necklace in the sale. We then went over to Macy's where I purchased a Swarovski Crystal Christmas Star decoration (it has to be done, I always go home with at least 1 christmas decoration when I come over) although this one was more expensive that most !! By this time Gary was looking rather pale about the credit card use so we went to Starbucks for a coffee so he could recover and then made our way back to the villa. I can highly recommend this Mall over any of the others in Orlando, it is so much cheaper than Florida Mall. More time out in the pool and then Dominos for tea and a few games of air hockey and I still reign supreme.....
Only 6 days left, although I think Gary will be relieved that the credit card will have a rest !!!
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