Things to do in Orlando Area #43: Mail Christmas Cards from Christmas, FL.

Christmas, Florida is about 20 miles east of Orlando on Highway 50. It’s about half way to Titusville.
We mailed a couple gifts from Christmas. Everyone was super friendly and the wait wasn’t too bad. I bet they are used to an increase in mailing around the holidays. It is a small town, but it is fun to drive through and see the signs that are Christmas related. My favorite was a street named “Blitzen”.

Christmas RV Park: Where it is always tropical

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THINGS TO DO IN ORLANDO AREA #48
PICK FRESH CITRUS AT SHOWCASE OF CITRUS IN CLERMONT, FL.

The Showcase of Citrus has many different citrus varieties to pick including grapefruit, oranges, tangerines and kumquats. If you don’t feel like picking fruit, they have some pre-picked in the store you can bag up and buy. They also have samples to try.

Some things we learned about citrus just from visiting Showcase of Citrus:

1. The taste of freshly picked citrus is amazing and I was surprised that it was much better than what you get in the store.
2. They have GIGANTIC, Mutant grapefruit! I was very shocked when I saw a Pomelo; it’s a humungous grapefruit that is the size of your head, and it is relatively sweet and yummy!
3. There are also really teeny, tiny citrus called Kumquats. Kumquats have a sweet peel and a sour inside. We now know that you can eat the whole bite size fruit; peel and all and it is kind of yummy, plus you get a lot of fiber. I have seen recipes to make martini’s and I am tempted to try a margarita with the Kumquat.
4. I never knew oranges could be red, on the inside. My son’s favorite citrus was the red orange, they are extra sweet and he loves calling them “Blood Oranges”.
5. I was also surprised to find they sell alligator meat; fresh or jerky. I was able to get some Alligator Jerky for my brother. They do sell frozen Alligator meat, but will not ship that. Next time I may send a frozen chunk of Alligator on dry ice. (Dry ice is available at Publix grocery stores).

Other fun things to do at Showcase of Citrus:
*They have a playground for the kids.
*You can fish from their pier.
*You can pose with their “pet” shark.
*You can take a Swamp Safari Tour on their huge Truck.
*You can get accurate weather from the weather coconut.
*The welcoming atmosphere even extends to cute details in the bathrooms.

Pet Shark

Swamp Safari Tour Bus

Accurate Weather from a Coconut

Mirror in Girl's Bathroom

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Another thing to do in Orlando: Visit Gatorland.

Right now they are having a special admission of $9.99 for Florida residents until the end of December 2010.

This past weekend we went to Gatorland.  I was really impressed, and scared, but still impressed.  Right as you walk in you can see lots of cute little gators about 2-4 feet long in a pool or warming themselves on platform. My son loved that they used each other as pillows, one gator actually used a turtle as a pillow (not pictured).

On the other side you will see a large open area with huge gators and crocs.  But what caught my eye was the sign that said “Do not let children ride on your shoulders or sit on the railings.  If you fall in you will be eaten!!”  So on one hand it was sooo cool to see these creatures right up close, but you could not forget that they are “meat eaters” and you are “meat”.

There was one gator that was put in a solitary pool because he would bump against the trees to make the baby birds fall out of the nests, and then eat them in front of screaming visitors.  The main attraction is obviously the gators, but there are also many other animals and activities to see.  If it was warmer we would have taken advantage of the splash park there.  I felt like Snow White in the aviary; you can buy a stick of food and all the canaries will fly on your hand to eat it.

You could also buy hotdogs to feed the gators.  Often the birds would swoop down and get the hotdog before the gators.  Here’s a guy who is trying to pretend to be a visitor and get a snack from the hotdog stand… “Could you spare a hotdog Pleeeeease?”

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Last Weekend we did #11 on the Orlando Sentinel’s list:

Celebrate the fall by getting lost in the annual corn maze at Long and Scott’s Farm near Zellwood.

The Long & Scott’s Maze is open from early October to late November.  It is awesome for the kids.  Your admission into the maze also covers a “play area” where you can just let the kids run loose, and still keep an eye on them.  There is a zip line and large “Tunnel slide” that runs through a large pile of dirt.  The slide was fun and bumpy!  Note to self; “Don’t go down big bumpy slide with your phone in your back pocket, it will fall out!”

They have 2 mazes; a small maze to get you warmed up and a large more challenging maze.  Both mazes have locations you need to find within the maze.  This makes it fun like a treasure hunt.

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Sebastian Inlet State Park is an awesome place for the whole family to hang out. It’s about 2 hours from Orlando but well worth the trip. It has fishing, camping, swimming and more. My husband loves to fish and found a great spot for all of us on the shore. Soon my son was having more fun watching the fish in the water than catching them.

The Flounder were fun to watch after you released them .  They would settle down on the shore and then with a “poof” they would “disappear” under the sand.

Caught a Flounder

Released Flounder starting to hide

We also caught a puffer fish, some needle fish, a small Jack, and some redfish. My son even caught a fish with his hands. The fish looked beaten up a bit and wasn’t swimming quite right.  But,he still caught a fish with his hands and will never let me forget that!!

The waves were so high that they splashed on the pier and washed some fish up onto the pier. We chased a couple strange looking fish around pier trying to get them back in the water. We had a great time and can’t wait to go back and do a camping trip.

These are sites that show you the pier and surf and the tide schedule.

Just some words of advice:
1. Stay in the wind”. We found a shore that had no wind and we got eaten alive by bugs; my ankles had about 20 bites on them that itched for days.
2. Bring some snacks. You will have so much fun that the time will just fly. By the time we realized we were hungry, the food truck was closing up so we ended up having icecream and soda for dinner. They do have a soda machine near the beach.
3. Bring a suit or a change of clothes and a towel!  My son was wet head to toe before we left but he had a great time! And we had some dry clothes! So, it was ALL good!

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When our family recently moved to Orlando and I wanted to find some fun and inexpensive things to do with my son. I found this list by the Orlando Sentinel of “50 things to do in Orlando and Central Florida with your kids before they grow up”. This is a nice list of alternatives to the plethara of theme parks in Orlando.

My goal is to visit all these attractions. If we visit one a week we should be able to finish this list in a year.

#1 Visit the “Senator,” a, 115-foot tall bald cypress estimated to be 3,500 years old, at Big Tree Park in Seminole County.

Big Tree Park is a small park with 2 big trees. There is a boardwalk trail that leads to the “tree of honor”, the “Senator”. It is a very HUGE tree! If you continue on the path you will see a younger but still very large cypress tree called “lady Liberty”. We all had a great visit to this park. Extra perks are that the park is free to get into, it has a playground and working toilets.


The Senator



Lady Liberty

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I am on Facebook, and photos popped this week of my friends up in Tallahassee, FL all dressed up in kilts. Yup kilts. They decided to have a cigar and kilt night at the pub they frequent up there. We looked into kilts for me in the past, but never purchased one; they can get pricey. Cigar and kilt night spiked my interest again, so I asked them where they are getting them from and they said Alt.Lilt. I went and checked out the website and they have kilts for boys and skirts for women also and a decent set of kilt options for men.

My friends say they do a great job making the kilts. We knew of another shop on the web called Utilikilt. If you are in the market for a kilt check either place out.

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