Stalzer/Obele Family Blog

On February 6, 2008 was my birthday. I turned 5 years old. This was very exiting.

When I woke up and wanted to go downstairs, the was a Happy Birthday banner outside of our bedroom. When I got downstairs there were balloons everywhere.

A short while after I was up Dad joint us. He had promised to help me build the Lego race car. This was quite some work but we did it. I have a great fast race car that can catapult through a turning ring of fire (of course there is no fire, but it looks almost real).

As this was my birthday I could decide what we should do. First I wanted to go into the pool. This was wonderful. Then we had breakfast.

I decided that we should go to Magic Kingdom. I still remembered that there was a roller coaster (Goofys barnstomer) which we were allowed to use (all the really big, scary roller coasters have height restrictions that Felix and I do not meet).

It was a terrific day at Disney. A lot of people wished me a Happy Birthday. They knew this, because I had a big birthday button on my t-shirt.

At home waited a real surprise for all of us. There was a big birthday cake on the living room table with a nice birthday card. Mom told me that this was from Susan and Alan, the owners of this beautiful house.

Thank you very much, Susan and Alan, this was a super surprise. I also love the card it was from Woody, a character of my favorite movie "Toy Story". The cake was delicious.

This was a super birthday, but I was a little bit sad, that my grandma and grandpa and my aunt Gabi und aunt Renate could not be with us.

After being here more than a week, my Mom finally made us sit down and tell something about our vacation and all the exciting things we discovered.

The flight to Orlando was very, very long. After a while it go quite boring. We played games, watched movies, drew some pictures, had lunch and dinner and still the flight was not over. Our dad told use that the flight was 10 hours and 30 minutes.

We (Max and Felix) did not sleep on the plane. So after the flight when we had to wait in line to go through immigration we were very tired. Max could hardly stand. After the long wait and the even longer wait to finally get our suitcases, we woke up again when we went to get the rental car. The car is a white huge Ford Explorer. We liked it the moment we saw it.

On the drive to the house that we rented we fell asleep right away. Mom and Dad had to wake us up when we arrived at the house. The house is big it has 5 bedrooms. We picked a room upstairs with American Football and Basketball covers on the bed.

Then we checked out the garage - yes there was an Air Hockey table. We ran through the house and looked at every room, but soon we got so tired that we wanted to go to bed. It felt really good to lay down.

The next day was great. After waking up we went straight into the pool and had a great time.

Boy, were we hungry. After the breakfast we drew some pictures while Mom and Dad had some work to do.

We decided to go to Disney Marketplace to visit the Logo shop. Maxis birthday was on the Februrary 6, so he could pick out something nice. Max decided on a Lego Race car set. I picked out a rescue helicopter.

After we finally got home (Mom and Dad had to stop and do some shopping at the supermarket) we could play with our Legos.

Tomorrow was Maxis Birthday and we wanted to go to Disney.

Today we decided to visit Gatorland. It is a nice park which really has quite some areas to walk. After breakfast we prepared everything; i.e. lots of Gatorade, small water bottles, and, and, and even more…

During that time Felix and Max watched some cartoons. When it was time to get dressed both of them did not want to go. Felix was a little tired (he got up early) and wanted to stay home and do nothing. This was soon forgotten and finally we were on our way… 

When we arrived at Gatorland - it looked closed. There was construction work going on and we thought "oh no…", but a little bit to the side stood a small sign that said "Entrance". The parking lot was almost empty (compared to the giant parking spaces in Disney).

There was a temporary entrance  without any lines (… this was heaven - finally some place that was not so packed!!). When Max saw the picture on the wall he got the idea to pose as if he was holding that big parrot.

Felix immediately caught on and decided to pose as if he was petting an alligator.

It was unbelievable - no large crowds - simply wonderful for a change. Our two wildlife explorers had plenty of opportunities to get close to all kinds of animals.

Well, we did not get too close to Chester the "Big Dog Eater". This guy Chester is quite huge.

Then we passed a display of Florida snakes. Felix and Max very excited and could even name some of them.

I prefer the parrots to the snakes or the many fish.

Then we watched "Gator Jumparoo". This was a funny show with a show host and two "Hillbilly" guys. One guy always talked about his "uncle daddy".

After you see this you do not lean over the fences any more - very scary.

Then some more "nice" friendly animals.

We also found a playground with slides which the boys had to test immediately before we went exploring.

The signs were not very reassuring.

We had a great time - so many things to discover. It is a nice area with many animals…

… and of course even more gators.

There is an observation tower which allowed us to get a perfect view of the wild life in and around the lake.

Plenty of all kinds of birds and even big turtle.

Wonderful and peaceful.

After our walk through that wonderful exploration trail we decided to ride the train around the premises.

The train is really slow and allows passengers to enjoy the surrounding.

Then we went to a "Up Close Encounters" show.

There were scorpions, snakes, and other creepy, crawly things - thank goodness they did not pick us to help.

Some more walking and of course another round through the playground before we started for the exit.

After exiting the park we drove over to a Target Super store. Felix and Max finally got their sandals and we stocked up on toothpaste (I love Arms&Hammer), hazelnut coffee and many other things. We stopped again at Publix to get food for the hungry explorers (guess what I got).

We needed a quick fruit snack before we enjoyed the pool. But after that we worked up quite some appetite.

This was a wonderful day with excellent weather (sunny, dry with a nice breeze).