Orlando day 11: Cocoa Beach and pirate golf

Well, today was mostly oriented around driving to Cocoa Beach to catch a boat at 2 PM for a 2 hour manatee tour in the Thousand Island nature preserve. It was gorgeous; multiple mangrove swamps surrounding a giant lagoon (the so-called Banana River), with all sorts of wildlife just everywhere. I kept a tally of birds: Minor blue heron. Great blue heron. Cardinal. Anhinga. Brown pelican. Osprey. Ibis. Cormorant. We succeeded in seeing dolphins, who were racing back and forth against seawalls (protecting people's houses from erosion) catching fish, and also some manatees, who were doing their manatee thing (eating) but being very shy about coming near the boat. That was a little disappointing but we enjoyed the two hours of chilling out under the boat's canopy, and the scary fundies sitting across from us kept to themselves while the pack of four gay boys got more and more fun as we kept puttering around the channels between the islands. It was supposed to be roasting hot and humid today, but it was cooler near the coast and the breeze was pleasant; really, I thought it was just perfect.

Though short on manatees, this tour was a great nature lesson, and I took some notes, for your edification (and my memory): we saw three kinds of mangrove. Red mangrove: roots drop down, covered w/barnacles. Black mangrove: spiky upwards roots. White mangrove: expansive roots. We also saw lots of Australian pine, which the Nature Conservancy is working to rip out to help restore the little islands to better health. If I come back to Florida in the next two years, rather than staying in Orlando, I'd like to settle myself at the Beach Place guest houses, Atlantic Avenue, Cocoa Beach, where I could walk straight to the ocean, as we did after we were through with our boat ride. We never made it to the wildlife preserve we were going to see, but we had a great time doing what we did do and didn't feel rushed.

We then headed back to Orlando and stopped by the Clarion to pick up my rather tardily-arriving pile of tea from Silk Road teas; then went to Number Uno for more Cuban food (they treated us like kings and asked about my sister and my niece, which was totally gratifying) and then went to I-Drive for a round of Pirate theme goofy golf. It was just ridiculous and totally fun if a bit sweaty; it was cruel that so many of the holes had a water feature that actually meant the ball, if hit incorrectly, would be swept away into a pond in the middle of the property. The water also raised the ambient humidity to near-sauna levels. That said, I did get to shot a hole inside a cave, a lifetime first for me. (Pix are on FB if you're interested.)

We finished up around ten then went back to the hotel, where we got the accounts sorta settled and then packed, took showeres, and did the normal end of day/end of trip stuff. I figure I'll be heading out of here around 2PM tomorrow; I've got a late checkout, but it's not nearly as late as I'd like it to be, so I'll have some time chilling in the lobby. This has really been a great trip - this part, anyway - and I certainly won't mind staying here for a while longer and getting in one last swim during the heat of the day.

Orlando day 12: this was not the ending I was looking for

Well, the day started off lovely, except for not getting enough sleep. I decamped from my room, had lunch with lastwordy_mcgee's mom, then went and hung out at the pool until it was time to go to the airport. I'd discovered earlier in the day that I'd lost my book club book sometime earlier in the week; I only read about three pages of it, and had no luck at the previous hotel getting it. But I had enough money to pay the airport tolls, which was good.

Anyway, I got to the airport, checked in the car, and nearly got run over trying to get out of it. When I got to the BA counter, there was no line, but my bag was overweight :-( and I had to pay $50. Then I realized I didn't have my wallet. I had seen it in the car, right before the other car nearly hit me, and I was so startled I didn'tOb reach down and pick it up from the floorboard of the car. So I had to go back to the rental agency and sweat it out. I noticed while I was there they'd charged me $80 for 8 days of baby seat rental (I'd only had it for 3); so at least I got the opportunity to get that refunded. I got my wallet back, but, joy, the English money that was in it was gone. :-( Then to make it special I had to go pay for my bag.

So, here I am, realizing that anyone clever enough to just take my money out of my wallet might have written down my card numbers, so I'm trying to cancel all my cards, from an airport, without a phone to do it with. Obviously I'm relying on J to help me here but the US credit card is going to be a little more irritating as he's not on it. I suppose things could be worse but it is a bad ending to my trip. I could have used the scale, that's for sure, the one I couldn't find before I left, and I really hope I don't have too many problems getting my train tickets when I get to the station on Friday to go to Bradford.