Travel tales from the Sunshine State
Posted January 13, 2011 9:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
I was warned by friends that the weather in Florida over Christmas be “iffy.”
I scoffed, confident that the Sunshine State would deliver nothing but warmth and early relief from the winter for my Christmas family holiday just outside Orlando. Turns out my friends were right!
My wife and I arrived at Orlando International Airport on December 25 and were greeted by sunshine and a very pleasant 22C (72F) as we left the terminal to pick up our rental car. It only got better when we arrived at our rented seven-bedroom house in Davenport to find my nieces and nephew splashing around in the pool and my dad, stepmom, sisters, brother and brothers-in-law lounging on the deck with cool drinks in hand. We quickly donned our shorts and even had a family volleyball game in the sand court of the gated community’s recreation area. A perfect start to what we hoped would be a week of sunny and warm weather.
The very next day, Boxing Day, the weather turned sharply colder. The meteorologist on the local TV station called it, “record cold for Florida with the chance of a hard freeze.” And it certainly was cold with the temperature only edging up to about 4C (42F) as we shivered our way around Disney World’s Epcot and Hollywood Studios parks. The sun was shining, but here I was, in Florida, walking around with multiple T-shirts layered under a wool sweater under two spring jackets. Still, that didn’t keep us from staying until the sun went down for the visual feast that is Disney’s “Fantasmic” show.
The only thing more shocking than the cold were the crowds at Disney over the holidays. The parks are spectacular, clean, the staff friendly and helpful, but the thousands of people who descend on Disney over the holidays made for up to two-hour waits for rides. That said, two of my young nieces spent four days in a row at Disney and loved every minute of it. Their parents; however, appeared a little spent.
On Tuesday we drove over to St. Petersburg and toured the waterfront, pier and beach, which was gorgeous, but deserted with the temperatures still too cold to venture into the water.
Being self-respecting Canadians, my brother Phil and I also made sure to work some NHL hockey into our holiday by getting tickets to see Markham native Steve Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Boston Bruins at the St. Pete Times Forum.
By Wednesday, the weather got a bit warmer topping (16C) 62F, so we decided to take an airboat ride to see if we could spot some alligators.
For $35 (U.S.) per person, we joined 10 other people for a one hour adventure with Big Toho Airboat Rides on Lake Tohopekaliga on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, headwaters for the Florida Everglades. Big Toho guarantees gator sightings and it was a highlight of our trip. Our “captain” had a thick south Florida accent and a great sense of humour as he raced us across the swamp grass and into what he called, “some gator holes.”
The first animal we saw was a water moccasin sunning itself just above the water on some reeds. We pulled up about a metre from the critter and I got a little nervous when “Captain Tom” explained how this was an incredibly aggressive and poisonous snake. “Gators are fine, but it’s the spiders and snakes out here that scare me,” he told us. Fortunately, with the cool weather, the cold-blooded snake was very docile.
Next, we had our “guaranteed gator sighting” as we pulled into a bog at the edge of the lake where a female alligator a little over a metre long was tending her young. Our captain asked two young boys on board our boat if they would, “like to feed the gators?” The boys excitedly nodded and Captain Tom got a big laugh when he replied, “okay then, jump in!” The captain described some of the lake vegetation, birds and other wildlife as he sailed us up a river mouth and then back out onto Lake Tohopekaliga again, where he tested our stomachs with exciting, high speed hairpin turns and spins on the powerful fan boat. Our tour ended back on shore where we were invited to hold a live three-year old alligator, which I gladly did before heading back to the the house.
Later, we joined some of the family for walk through the subdivision to a nearby orange grove, which turned out to be a delightful experience. It was amazing to see so many oranges dotting the thick, leafy trees next two a pair of big rig trailers loaded with oranges bound for grocery stores and juice plants.
Just in case anyone is wondering, I did not pick any oranges from the grove or take any from the trailers, but I did almost immediately head to Orange World, in the heart of the garish stretch of gift shops along Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee, to buy two bags of fresh-picked navel oranges. They were the juiciest, sweetest, most flavourful oranges I’ve ever had!
The weather finally warmed up in time for our last two days in Florida, so both days we drove to the Space Coast and toured the towns of Melbourne, Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach. The Space Coast, named for NASA’s activities at Cape Canaveral, offers spectacular beaches that run for miles and are popular with sun lovers, swimmers and surfers.
My sister, Kimberly and dad Joe absolutely loved the guided tour of the Kennedy Space Centre visitor complex at Cape Canaveral, which included explanations of the Apollo missions, a look inside the space shuttle cockpit and much more.
Our drive home took us over the Melbourne Causeway that spans the Indian River, where we spotted wild dolphins feeding in the water. We pulled over and walked to the water’s edge where we watched the dolphins swim in groups of three and four with the setting sun as their backdrop.
On our last day, my wife and I had a fabulous lunch at the Shark Pit Restaurant in the Four Points Sheraton, Cocoa Beach. The hotel is part of the Cocoa Beach Surf Company building, which claims to be the “world’s largest surf complex”. They sell surf boards, clothing and gear, offer lessons and even house the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame.
Most importantly, it was finally warm enough for us to dip our toes in the Atlantic at beautiful Cocoa Beach. Central Florida’s tourist sights and attractions didn’t disappoint and provided a lot of fun during our visit, even if the Sunshine State’s balmy beach weather was practically a no-show for our Christmas holiday.
