Since the girls have Monday and Tuesday off, we decided to take them out of school for Thursday and Friday and make this a nice long weekend to visit some places in Tampa and Forty Myers, Florida, while visiting some old friends.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Today we are boarding our flight to Tampa. We wanted to stay on the cheap side for this vacation so we flew with Frontier Airlines for about $75 per person round trip. Short flight, so it’s really not that bad.
For this trip, we rented a car from Hertz. We usually rent cars with Hertz because of the President’s Circle status we get for free with our American Express Platinum credit card. For the night, we are staying the next two nights at Hyatt House Tampa Airport.
Dinner tonight was at the beautiful seafood restaurant, Rusty Pelican.
We went with the Seafood Tower.
The Petite Seafood Tower came with East & West Coast Oysters, Poached Shrimp, Chilled Lobster and Crab Salad, Salmon Tartare, Pink Peppercorn & Champagne Mignonette, Ancho Chili Cocktail and Lemon. Menu says it serves 2, but I can eat 2 of these myself.
Kids had some kids meals, then quickly moved to a fun dessert.
Time to go back to our room and get ready for a big day tomorrow!
Friday, March 10, 2023
Today we are visiting Busch Gardens. If you are in Tampa, you have to visit Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens is an animal theme park that has roller coaster rides, animals, and shows. It’s really perfect for all ages and there’s something for everyone. We started the day with a ride on the Congo River Rapids water ride.
It was so much fun and there was no lines so we rode it twice.
Next, Alice and Ava rode Kumba while I stayed with Teddy. Kumba was a pretty long ride, with lots of inversion loops.
Then we all rode Bumper Cars.
In my family, Alice loves rollercoaster rides, and Teddy loves animals. Ava likes everything. Next we did a more tame rollercoaster ride, the Sand Serpent.
Sand Serpent is a Wild Mouse type of rollercoaster, the type of coaster that’s on a single car, traveling on tight, unbanked turns. Not my favorite type of rollercoaster but the kids liked it.
Then we attended a live animal show, which was cool. After that, we rode the carousel.
Next, we rode the Scorpion. A steel rollercoaster that is one of the oldest rollercoaster at the park.
Scorpion was really cool.
We took a break for lunch at one of the eateries in the park.
The restaurants here were pretty busy but the lines move along pretty fast. Besides pizza, we also got some hamburger and fries. Pretty good. Our tickets actually came with food included so we didn’t have to pay the outrageous prices here.
Next up, we rode the Serengeti Flyer, which turned out to be our favorite ride at the park!
Serengeti Flyer is a swing ride that flips you upside down. It looks quite scary but it’s SUPER FUN. We rode this for many many more times.
Teddy looked at some animals with Ava. Which is always fun.
Next, it’s show time again. This time, it’s an acrobat show with ice skates.
Loved this show.
Next, we went to the Seregenti Overlook Pub for some beer, overlooking the Serengeti Plain of giraffes.
Next, Alice, Ava and I rode the Cheetah Hunt, which was a lot of fun! They take funny pictures of you and put it on their TV after.
Next, we rode the Cobra’s Curse, a steel spinning coaster with an elevator lift.
Then We rode the safari and saw lots of animals.
Next, we rode the Sheikra.
Last but not least, we rode the Iron Gwazi! Iron Gwazi is the most popular roller coaster in the park. It was pretty awesome.
We rode the Serengeti Flyer several more times before heading home. We had SO MUCH FUN. One more look at the fishes before leaving…
We LOVED our day at Busch Gardens. The wait time really wasn’t that bad on anything. The cost was so much cheaper than Disney World or Universal Studios and the park had so much to offer. My kids would probably pick this over all other parks.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Kids slept in this morning. I love the couch bed at Hyatt House. Look at how big the couch bed is! We got a late checkout and headed to Cypress Point Park.
The beach here has a lot of sea grass.
Back at Hyatt House, kids jumped in the hotel pool before leaving this paradise for good.
Now we are going to the next destination of our trip, our friend’s house in Fort Myers. We stopped by a lunch spot called Rumba Island Bar & Grill.
After Rumba Island, we arrived at our friend’s beautiful house in Fort Myers.
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Today, we spent a lazy day hanging out with old friends. Our friends took us on a little boat cruise around the canals, which was so fun.
After the boat ride, we grilled out at the friend’s house. Delicious!
Monday, March 13, 2023
Since we missed a few days of school, I wanted to make this trip a little educational to make up for it. Fort Myers is the home of many famous people over the years, including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. In fact, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were good friends and had their houses next to each other for many years. Now, it’s called the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, and it’s open for public to visit.
Thomas Edison was the first one to move to Fort Myers between the two. He bought the land in 1885 and started building his winter retreat soon after. His property was known as the Seminole Lodge.
Later Thomas Edison and Henry Ford became close friends through working together and Henry Ford decided to buy the property next to Seminole Lodge. Henry Ford’s property became known as The Mangoes.
In 1927, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and the tire giant Harvey Firestone started working together. The following year, they built this laboratory together for their research.
Time for lunch. We decided to stop by a sushi restaurant for some sushi, so we stopped at Blu Sushi.
Teddy and his friend Rick went to watch a baseball game.
Alice, Ava and I have no interest in baseball, so we took a convertible ride with Melissa and had our own fun.
Our destination is the Shell Factory. An indoor outdoor mall that sells all kinds of shells, but also has a fun park with carnival rides and some restaurants and bars on site as well. Kids were quickly excited when they saw all the fun rides, even though this is probably pretty boring compared to Busch Gardens from two days ago.
This was a zipline type of ride, over the water.
Next, we fed some fish and did some shopping at the Shell Factory. I was actually quite impressed with how big the factory was.
This trip has been so fun. We had another grill night at Rick and Melissa’s house. Tomorrow, we fly home and we’ll have to come back down to earth.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Today is Teddy’s birthday and we’ll be spending the day flying home and readjust to daily life of work and school. This trip was economical and amazing, thanks to our generous friends and the cheap flights we scored. The Tampa airport is really cool. I snapped this photo as our final goodbye.
