Today we woke up early, had breakfast, and checked out of our hotel. Then we drove from Winter Haven to Kenansville, Florida. I had a big day planned for us and we had a reservation at 12:30 PM. It took us about an hour and a half to make the drive through central Florida. Lots of small, rural towns, no highways. On the way there, CSP said to me “You’ve researched this place right?” He was a bit nervous. Finally we turned down a two lane road and saw a sign for our destination- Wild Florida! We parked and went inside the gift shop to check in for our 12:30 air boat ride. We had about 45 minutes before the boat ride so we checked out the animal exhibits. You could spend all day there just looking at all the animal exhibits! They have everything from raccoons to bobcats to albino alligators.
We were blessed with another perfect day weather wise. It was mid 70s and partly cloudy. I knew it might get chilly on the airboat so I wore a hoodie. Neither CSP, nor I had ever been on an airboat ride. We waited in the designated area until our names were called then made our way down the long boardwalk to the dock and boarded our boat. There were about 10 people on our boat plus the captain. We had a quick safety talk then popped on our protective headphones and we were off!!!
Our captain was Captain Lauren and she was amazing! She knew all sorts of facts about the wildlife and could spot a gator from a mile away!
The boat ride was on a HUGE lake called Lake Cypress. It’s amazing what those airboats can do! Captain Lauren drove us right over all sorts of vegetation and in water that was only a couple feet deep in places! At the start of the ride we saw our first wild animal- a cow! Bahahaha!!! I couldn’t believe it! It was a cow in a lake! He was just munching on some vegetation apparently. I was worried he’d become gator food but Lauren said gators don’t bother with cows- they are too big.
We would go pretty fast and the motor is super loud!
We spotted a bald eagle too. Hard to see in this photo, but he’s there! Lauren said there are 24 nesting pairs that live at that lake.
Apparently the main states where you can view bald eagles are Alaska, Minnesota, and Florida! Who knew???
We would be flying over the water then suddenly spin around and Lauren would point out a gator. HOW??? Eagle eyes I tell you!!! We saw full grown gators, yearlings, and newborn alligators.
Apparently alligators grow about a foot a year until they are full grown. And mama gators keep their babies with them for 3 years.
Our boat ride lasted a little over an hour. We had the best time and learned so much!
After the boat ride, CSP made sure to take a couple of pictures of my windblown hair!
CSP got a big kick out of that! We then hopped in the car and drove through the drive through safari. It takes about 90 minutes to get through and you get to see so many different animals!
When we were finished driving through the safari we drove to Cocoa, Florida (about an hour’s drive) and checked in at Holiday Inn Express, Cocoa. This is our room:
Nice room, but the entire hotel smelled weird. I mentioned that on our post stay survey and they wrote back and said they’d just had their carpets cleaned and it left an odor. Odd. But everyone was really nice.
After we checked in we freshened up then met up with another cousin of mine, John, and his wife Amy, plus their kids for dinner. It was so great to catch up with them and hear all about their recent Royal Caribbean cruise that I helped plan. After dinner we went back to the hotel and fell into bed. Tomorrow is another big day! We are embarking on our Disney cruise on the beautiful Fantasy!!!
Bless Your Heart 