Kissimmee, Florida

             On Monday we pulled into our new campsite, Sherwood Forest, in Kissimmee, Florida.  Sherwood Forest was like a private little village. Hotels, the RV park, and an Aldi were all grouped together.  

            On Tuesday, my mom and I went on a mother-daughter date for the day, and we had a wonderful time together.  We went to a Panera first and got some coffee and a bagel, then we went to Chipotle for lunch. Those are two of my favorite chain restaurants, so I was in heaven.  I'd been wanting some new dresses as well, so we went shopping.  I found two I liked, and so now I was waiting for the perfect occasion to wear them! 

                                                                    With my coffee at Panera

            On Thursday we planned to go to Legoland with friends. There were some pretty cool rides, a 4D theater, and tons of life-size things built from Legos all around the park. My favorite rides were a drop tower in The Lego Movie World and a driving school. Everything was very well themed and there were several different lands, like an Egyptian land, Safari world, and Heartlake City. At the end of the day we went to the Lego store and Mia bought a new Lego set which she is very happy with. 

                              If you've seen The Lego Movie 2, you'll recognize Rex and

 one of his velociraptors

                                                          Mia on the carousel      

                                                  

                                                    Mia and I at the fountain near the driving school

                                                               A life-size Lego ninja built of Legos 

                                                        The dragon outside of the World of Ninjago 🐉

                                                            This miniature Lego city was so detailed!

                                            Mia and I created our own masterpieces in the Lego Dots area

                       This set was on display in the Lego store, and as a Harry Potter fan, I had to take a picture 

                                                                  Mia fresh out of the Lego store 

                                                                Mia and I got our drivers license!🚗

                The next day, Mia and I were full of inspiration from Legoland so we went to work building. And that night, we had signed up to volunteer at a place called the Sharing Center. We were put in charge of looking over and hanging clothes donations, and while we worked we found some clothes that we liked and got to set aside.  I found a cute skirt, some shorts, and a cool Star Wars tank top.  The cool thing about the Sharing Center was that the clothes that the store didn't accept for reasons such as a couple of stains or maybe a tear, they set aside to be taken to South America for those in need. 

               We spent the weekend at home in Cleo, getting caught up on school and work.   It was nice to have at-home days, but by Monday I was ready to go out and do stuff.   Our friends had free tickets to the Orlando Science Center, so we spent Monday there.  The Science Center offered many different exhibits on four different floors.  The first floor we went on had exhibits on things like electricity, music, and the science behind roller coasters.  Then we went to another floor for lunch, and it had cool exhibits about plants. Another floor was devoted to animals like snakes, lizards, alligators, and turtles.  My favorite floor had a dinosaur room, many weather exhibits, and a hands-on area called The Hive where Mia and I got to make a movie with our friends and had a chance to try needlepoint for the first time.  The Science Center had lots of fascinating exhibits, and I had a good time. 

                                                           🗲 Plasma globes are so fascinating!

          

     These butterflies were projected on the wall and when shadows fell on the wall, the butterflies would land on the shadow

                                                            A terrarium on the ground floor 

                                                     Alligators and turtles resting together on a rock

                                                            I located the gecko from Geico 

                                                    This spider was beautiful in a creepy way 

                                                    My dad with a geode we found on the fourth level

                                                        

                                                       Mia and I with our friends at the Science Center 

                                                                                        Inside the hurricane simulator 

     To top off the fun day at the science center, we saw a double rainbow when we were driving home (the second                          rainbow is about an inch above the first in the picture)

            On Thursday our friends came to the campground to swim, and we had a fun time playing Marco Polo and Pirates and Mermaids. Then on Saturday we went to our friends house to see them one last time before we headed farther south and wouldn't be able to see them for a month. Sunday we packed up for our departure the next day, and early Monday morning we pulled out of Sherwood Forest for the next campsite in Wauchula, Florida. Wauchula is a sleepy town rich in orange groves, and this campsite was my dad's first back-in site. He did great for his first time though, and we were set up in our fastest time yet. 

                                                                    At the pool in Sherwood Forest 

            The library at the Wauchula campground had lots of nice books, and I took 2 back to the RV, including a book from one of my favorite series, the Mitford Series.  The campground also had trails near the river that led to the two opposite ends of the campground.  Since there wasn't much to do in or around Wauchula, we planned to do more campground activities like shuffleboard, which we've never played before. 

            On Thursday we drove about a half hour to Hammock Highlands State Park; a place my mom had heard about when she went to the post office.  The beautiful state park had hiking and biking trails with names like Wild Orange Grove Trail and Fern Garden Trail.  Most of the hiking trails were super nice, with gnarled, giant trees occasionally on the trail and distinct wildlife.  We saw deer, woodpeckers, and tiny frogs at the beginning of our day, and later on when we went on a boardwalk trail over the swamp, we saw two big alligators; one of which had babies.  Mia was very happy; she'd been wanting to see a big alligator. While we were biking, I turned and saw a black animal right on the edge of the woods.  Panicked, I thought at first that it was a panther, but it was closer to the size of a dog.  I wasn't thinking clearly because I thought I was about to be attacked by a wild animal, so I tried to jump off my bike in order to escape from the unknown creature, which I soon realized was a wild boar.  I must have scared it in my attempts for flight, however, because it snorted and ran back into the forest.  Apparently my escape from the boar looked very funny, because when I calmed down I realized my family was laughing at me.  I was glad I got to see a boar in the wild for the first time, but my legs were shaking after the experience. 

                          The roots of this uprooted tree were giant! My dad is the reference for the roots' height

                                                                Trees hanging over the road 

The swamp on one of the trails

                                        The first alligator we encountered on the Cypress Swamp boardwalk

                                                                        Baby gators on a log 

                                                                Mama gator wasn't far from her babies

            One of the amazing things that I've noticed while RVing is that there are so many things out there to see.  Sometimes you don't even plan to see them, they just happen.  Things like a wild boar (I'll never forget that), a beautiful cathedral (St. John's Cathedral in downtown Savannah), a double rainbow, or a dolphin not in captivity, just swimming in the ocean (we saw two at Clearwater Beach near Tampa).  There's millions of amazing things to see out there, both small and large. You just have to look.