Home to Virginia

After a week of exploring Florida it was time to return to Virginia on Monday, back to school.

The group flew from Miami to Raleigh-Durham where they were met for the drive back to Lynchburg, arriving back at VES in the afternoon.

There have been a lot of highlights during the week, & each student will have their favorite memories.  We rode in lots of boats, encountered all kinds of Florida wildlife, visited theme parks, nearly saw a rocket launch, & saw where one of America's greatest writers lived.  And we ate all kinds of foods, with the Chinese & Japanese dinners being most popular.

Final Day in Florida

The students really enjoyed their hotel in Key Weat last night, swimming in the pool until after 10:00pm.

This morning, after breakfast, the first visit of the day was to tour Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West.  The students enjoyed seeing the famous 6-toed cats, the Chinese & Korean language guides that we provided, & the book store were they were able to buy books by & about Hemingway.

From Key West the group drove north up the Keys again, stopping to see Bertha the Giant Lobster & for lunch before visiting the John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park.

The highlight of the visit to the park was a glass-bottomed boat tour over the coral reef, allowing everybody to see the coral & sea life without getting wet!

From the boat tour it was just an hour's drive to Miami & the group's final dinner & hotel.  Dinner tonight was at a Japanese steak house, a fun way to end the tour before tomorrow's flight & drive home to Virginia.

Down the Florida Keys to Key West

After leaving Miami Beach this morning the group traveled south all the way to Key West, driving down the famous Overseas Highway that links the islands of the Keys.

Along the way stops were made to see some of the sights, & in the afternoon the students visited the Key West Aquarium (to see the daily shark feeding!) & enjoyed free time to explore Key West.  Some even went to the beach!

Later everyone met up to watch the famous Key West sunset, at the most southern point of the continental USA, then went for dinner (with Key Lime Pue for dessert of course).

After dinner it was time to check-in at the hotel & enjoy an evening of swimming in the hotel pool or just relaxing.

A Day of Boat Rides

 Today the group traveled from Orlando to Miami, stopping along the way.

Highlights of the day were an airboat ride (looking for alligators & other Florida wildlife) & alligator 'close encounter', a lunchtime outlet mall stop, & a boat tour of "Millionaires Row" in Miami's Biscayne Bay.

Walt Disney World! NEW photos.

Today the group are spending the entire day in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, until after the parade & fireworks at 10:00pm!

At 10:00pm there was an illuminated parade & light show - the perfect way to end the day at Walt Disney World.

Universal Studios & Ming Court - NEW photos

Today we are spending all day at the world famous Universal Resort theme parks!  The parks are divided into two:  Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure.  Half the students chose to visit the original Universal Studios, & half prefered the newer Islands of Adventure.

We awoke to hard rain this morning, later it became dry & sunny, but by evening it was cold & windy!

After visiting the park we met-up again for dinner, tonight at the best Chinese restaurant in Orlando, Ming Court.

The students enjoyed dinner & chatting with our waiters too.

Manatees & Gators! GREAT NEW MANATEE PHOTOS!

We made an early start today, traveling first to Crystal River, a small town on the west coast of Florida.  

Crystal River is famous for its 'warm' springs that attract hundreds of manatees, especially in the winter.  This is the only place in the world where it is possible to interject directly with endangered animals so it is a unique opportunity for us...

First we watched a movie telling us how we should behave near the manatees, then we changed into wet suits (the 'warm' springs are not very warm for us!) before going to our boat & meeting our captain.

On the boat our captain gave us more instructions, then we set off looking for manatees!  

It didn't take long to find manatees, so we were soon getting into the cold water to see the manatees up close.

We saw 3 manatees in total, one alone & then later a mother & her calf!  The water was not as clear as it can sometimes be but hopefully most of the students got a good look at these very rare animals.  Our captain took some great underwater photos for us...

From Crystal River we drove to Gainesville, home of the University of Florida, stopping for lunch on the way.  

Most of the students were excited at finding a Japanese restaurant for lunch, but unfortunately it took longer than hoped for so we were late arriving at the University.

Although we missed our tour we were able to see the campus & visit the campus bookstore.

Finally we returned to Orlando in time for dinner & then an evening in our hotel.