Fort De Soto Campground and home!

This is a municipal campground located south of St Petersburg and VERY nice! Make reservations ahead of time.  We were lucky to get 2 nights but had to switch sites but that was easy for us to do.  The second site was on the water but all the sites are large and pretty and private with lots of trees.  It is a great place to kayak but too windy during our stay.  There are miles of paved walking and bike trails but they are not shaded.

We drove up to the pier and beaches which were beautiful white sand with lots of sea shells.  Pete collected a bunch for our little girls.  This is the most incredibly comfortable blow up "beach lounge" we have even seen.  These two girls looked very relaxed!

There was lots of kite surfing going on at the beaches.  It was a beautiful sight with the Tampa Bay Sunshine Bridge in the background.  The struts and the curve of the kites are actually blow up with a mechanical air pump.  These surfers were doing flips 15 feet up in the air!

This was the perfect place to put up our hammock and just rock away the hours of our last two days of vacation.

What a great way to end our 2017 Winter Florida adventure!
Happy husband, happy wife, happy dog--we are so grateful to have this time in the sun.  I think this was our favorite winter trip because we were able to spend time with so many of our friends and family.
We would love to do this trip again sometime.  Time to start planning for next winter's trip out West!



On the way home we stopped at Chassahowitzka River Campground and canoe rental. It is a cool spring fed river with manatees. Normally you can canoe or kayak in the river with the manatees but this year they did not come since it was such a warm winter. This is 15-20 miles south of Crystal river.

Cypress Palms in Orlando

We were pleasantly surprised how lovely Wyndham Cypress Palms is.  It is about 10 minutes longer to Disney parks but in a nice area with a good Activity Center.  There is free popcorn everyday, $1 ice cream sundaes M W and F afternoons, and two pools and hot tubs.  I went to a $5 facial spa where 12 women tried Beauty Control products.  It turned out all 12 of us were from Ohio and we had a great time relaxing!  We are here for a week.

Cypress Palms Pool #1

$1 ice cream sundaes by the pool!

Disney Springs was our first evening out with dinner at T Rex (eat at the bar and no wait!) By some miracle the parking garage at Disney Springs will accommodate the height of our van (9 feet).  The Lime Lot is good.  There have been so many nice changes to Disney Springs.  We love spending an evening there seeing street performers, watching the audience participation dance show, having Ghirardelli hot chocolate and soaking up the atmosphere.

Disney Springs Dance Party

Backstage Disney was a seven hour tour of how Disney works behind the scenes.  It is a tribute to the genius of Walt Disney and his "imagineers".  The bus took us behind the scenes and showed us how much of the "magic" happens!   Under the Magic Kingdom we walked some of the mazes of large interconnecting tunnels and acres of functional space that provide fast access to medical care, transport of supplies and cast members without the guests being aware of it.  The costume department and laundry facilities were amazing! We learned so much and the lunch at Fort Wilderness was great.  It was an expensive tour but we really liked it.  Once again it was a sunny beautiful day that ended in the Magic Kingdom watching the parade.  We learned that Fort Wilderness has a two hour free tour which is also good and the trails there are nice to walk.  You can also get a boat ride to Magic Kingdom from there.  You can also get a bus from Disney Springs that will take you any of the parks and maybe to the hotels--not sure about this--but a great way to get around free!

Our tour bus for Backstage Disney

Fort Wilderness Lodge

Up from the tunnels under Magic Kingdom

The Disney Parade

The Kennedy Space Center was our next big day and it was just terrific.  It was about 90 minutes from Wyndham door to door.  We like it better than Houston NASA Mission Control.  The park was so clean and each building was not to be missed.  $53 entry fee included a bus tour and 2 Imax films.  We felt it was well worth it!  They don't give you any direction as what to do first but someone told us to go on the bus tour first and that was great advice.  You walk to the back of the park to get the bus.  After that adventure, be sure to go to the Shuttle building right as you get off the bus.  The presentations gave me goosebumps and made us so proud of our country!  The Imax and the Pioneers films in 3D and well worth it but the Imax was very cold inside!  Other than that, it was a wonderful experience!

When you first arrive, this is what you see

An actual Saturn V rocket ready to go but not needed so is on display

Cargo bay of space shuttle

We've had a great time here with sunny 83 degree weather!  We leave tomorrow for two nights at Fort De Soto Municipal Park!