Filling The Days Between Cruising

What do you do with three days between cruises? Laundry and a zoo visit with grandkids! But not all on the same day.

It's been a while since I've done laundry in a coin-op laundromat but we managed to find our way through one in Homestead where we were staying. The hotel had a laundry but with only one machine and on a different floor it would have made the whole operation a lot harder.

One of our three off days, we met with grandkids at the Miami Zoo. Our son joined us for a fun day which worked out well. Extra peddle power for the bicycle cart the kids delight in.

Our first stop was the tiger exhibit where a playful tiger was crouched just like a playful kitty cat, his tail end in the air, expectantly waiting for a toss of fresh meat his direction. The staffer that was there to toss the meat and answer questions from zoo guests gave us a little background on the tiger and then proceeded to explain that the meat was horse meat. I missed where it came from but my grandson didn't miss the fact that it was horse meat and his little sister loves ponys.

After several attempts to upset her with the news, he finally gave up. Apparently ponys didn't equate with horse meat in her mind--thank goodness!!

It's always a joy to be with these kids. They are quite inventive and funny. I hoped the entertainment on the cruises ahead of us would be as good.

Love The Zoo! Any Zoo!

We love visiting a zoo--most any zoo. One of our favorites though is the Miami Zoo. Part of that is because we can do so with our four grandchildren who live in the area. We get them for most of the day and rent a safari cycle to see if we can cover the whole park. This year we needed a six passenger because the kids have grown so much. While it cost more, it was still good because two of them can actually reach the pedals now. Help was much appreciated with the pedaling.


There is a new exhibit called The Everglades that the kids were eager to show us. Their special part is being able to crawl through tubes that go through the middle of a couple of the exhibits. We heard the exciting story of an alligator crawling over the tube as one of them went through. Unfortunately this day there would be no exciting encounters.


A couple of the exhibits were closed for more work on them but it's a nice representation of the Everglades although the real Everglades is a lot more exciting. Needless to say the real thing is a little more buggy as well at some times of the year so the zoo would be a good alternative.


One of the highlights is feeding the birds. Lots of giggles and squeals as birds land on hands, arms and heads.


If you ever need something to do in Miami, try the zoo. You'll get lots of exercise and entertainment especially if you take the kids.

Florida In The Summertime - Only For The Intrepid Traveler

Were it not for a brand new grandbaby our trip to Florida this past week would not have happened. Florida in the summertime is just way too hot, too humid and too mosquito-filled for me. There's not a whole lot to do for young children indoors in the area south of Miami where our grands are so we tried doing things early in the day and spending the afternoons in the hotel pool and watching movies in the room or playing video games for awhile. I can see why my daughter-in-law makes summertime the home school time.

One morning our son suggested we take a look at Biscayne National Park. There's a boardwalk there and a nature center. It's on the water so we thought that at least it might be cooler and certainly have less mosquitoes than the Everglades would. (Been to the Everglades. Fought the mosquitoes. Don't know that Deet is even strong enough.) We arrived at the park and began to explore. It seemed okay. I should have known when there wasn't a breeze coming off the ocean that we were in trouble. About ten minutes into our walk we were suddenly swatting and turning around to head for refuge in the nature center. The ranger put on a movie for us about the park and then talked with the kids about all the skulls on the counter from various animals of the area. So, it was worth the trip but I'd love to return when it's cooler and mosquitoless.

Another morning we took off and spent a couple hours at the Miami Zoo. We rented a cycle-buggy and pedaled our way around the zoo. By the time our two hour rental was up, we were more than happy to give it back and head for the car and the A/C. We love the zoo but on cooler days. There are lots of places to walk through a "cool" mist and several places for kids to cool off with water activities but once the sun gets higher in the sky and the humidity builds up, even that is little help. The zoo ticket allows you to return within five days for an extra $5 so if you do buy a ticket and wimp out before you've seen it all, you can always come back for another morning visit.

The Flagship theater in Homestead has a wonderful program that features free kid's movies in the mornings. Lots of the area summer camps go there for a cool activity indoors. One theater housed the summer camp kids and another filled with area people with their kids. Popcorn was at a great price and we enjoyed Smurfs 2. No humidity. No heat. No mosquitoes. Ahhhh.

Some of our afternoons were cut short in the pool as Florida's regularly scheduled thunderstorms rolled through. I don't think there was an afternoon we didn't have one.

Driving back to our hotel at sunset was relaxing and beautiful. No matter what time of year, Florida does have some spectacular sunsets. One evening we were treated to backlit thunder clouds and lightening that streaked across a dark orange sky with a hole in the clouds where the yellow and pinks of the sunset shone through. Unfortunately my camera was home in Cleveland but I can still see it if I close my eyes. Of course closing my eyes after a week in the heat with three young grands leads to falling asleep. . . . .