Day 11 – 12 – Orlando FL to Tampa FL

For day 11 we did a lot of driving so I decided to combine it with day 12 as it wasn’t particularly exciting.

After packing up the car and leaving our Air BnB, we stopped at the giant orange around the corner. Every time we drove past this place I was curious what the inside looked like and always got a craving for orange juice. Sadly there had been a fire last year so although they were still trading, you couldn’t go inside due to fire damage. The freshly squeezed orange juice was delicious though!

When I say it poured down all day I don’t think they really does it justice. Any left over country dirt had definitely been washed away at this point.

We stopped the Spongorama museum in Tarpon Springs which is home to the world’s largest collection of sponges. Sadly I couldn’t add this to my world record breaker selection because it was closed! We walked back to the car and instead decided to stop in Walmart to get some snacks got the road.

I’m so glad we did because the local police department were hosting a charity event for kids in need. There was music, competitions, dancing and the police officers were patrolling the store throwing rubber ducks at people. I wish the police did this in the UK its a great way to being people together especially at Christmas.

We stayed at a hotel called the Tahitian Inn and it continued to rain heavily until the early morning. It was the perfect night to get cozy, watch a film and eat our snacks.

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning which was greatly appreciated as I had an outdoor activity planned for us today.

We visited the Manatee Viewing Centre in Apollo Beach. I don’t like going to zoos or aquariums so I’ve never seen a manatee before and they are now one of my favourite animals.

Also known as sea cows, these beautiful creature’s closest relative is actually the elephant.  They can grow up to 13 feet and can weight up to 1300 lbs so it’s no surprise that their average speed is a leisurely 5mph.

On our way back to the car, there was a small crowd around a tree. I am so nosey I had to see what was going on and to Mitch’s absolute horror, there was a snake on one of the branches.

Before we left I picked up a few souvenirs including a penny press. I always carry around quarters and pennies for these machines so you can imagine my delight when I found this.

Our on way to our next destination we took a detour on the loop road of Big Cypress National Reserve. We saw lot of different wildlife but we were most excited about seeing the alligators which we managed to find three of.

After driving a quarter of the loop we decided to turn around. After all of the rain the roads weren’t in the best shape and the pot holes were more than the Jetta could handle, even if we were manoeuvring around them at 2mph.

For dinner we went to another one of our new favourites, Olive Garden!

We eventually got the our hotel for the night and had the longest wait I’ve ever experienced to check in. The motel was really sketchy and looked very different online. We didn’t sleep great here and were very excited to leave the leave the next day.

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