Adventures in Central Florida

Today was a wonderful, hot summer day meant to be spent near water. So we did. The kiddos and I headed to Cypress Gardens. I had never been before, so was excited to see what it was like. Now, a brief history on Cypress Gardens, it has been in Central Florida for ages and ages, even before Disney. It was an amusement park and had acres and acres of beautiful gardens. A little while ago, on the verge of bankruptcy, they closed down. A new owner took over, and announced they would reopen, but were going to get rid of the amusement park section, keep the gardens and add a water park. We got a flyer in the mail a few weeks ago for Splash Island, the water park section, and I knew I wanted to check it out. We got there, parked the car and headed to the tram to take us into the park.

Now I thought this part was a little odd. To get to the water park, the tram has to drive you through what used to be the amusement park section. And they maintain the landscaping, I guess because they know people are going to be driving through there, so it's totally like a ghost town amusement park. The signs are still up, the little barriers are still there to form the lines for the rides, the restrooms and little huts where you would get your food....they are all still there. And it's just weird cause you can imagine in it's heyday, this place was jam packed with people on a beautiful summer Saturday, and now it's empty. The little man kept pointing at the roller coasters and saying he wanted to ride them. I thought what cool pictures I could take, but on the way there I said I would get them on the way back, then it was pouring on the way back, so I forgot again. But we will be back, and I promise I'll get some pics.

Anywho, on to the water park we went. And it was fabulous. They had a lazy river, a wave pool, some crazy looking slides and a Polynesian themed splash area with a ton of different kid friendly slides. We spent most of our time between the wave pool and the splash area. The kiddos had a great time, and actually liked each other today, so all was good.

My mom and my sister met up with us, and we spent pretty much the entire day there. Towards the end of the day, the kiddos were getting pretty cranky, and then it started pouring. That was the official omen it was time to head home. We all headed back to my house where my neice joined up with us for some dinner.

Don't ask me what the little man was doing, he was in fine form tonight. All in all, a pretty fabulous day if you ask me.