Thursday, FEB. 25, 2010 - Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge

Today we stayed clear of the parks and took a special trip to Papa Rick's favorite place, Fort Wilderness. This also holds many memories for me as this is where we spent multiple vacations when I was a kid. It definitely has had a facelift with a new park and boat launch/store. But many things are still the same and there is just a real laid back feel here. Our resort had a boat launch as well, so we headed down to the boat launch and waited for the blue flag boat that would have us cruising across Bay Lake for some relaxing fun on this chilly day.
Emily was in her element feeding the birds some of her snack, it was funny to watch her chasing and squeeling. Again, these little things are sometimes what makes the trip so much fun.







When you get off the boat at Fort Wilderness you will immediately find the Play park. And this is where you would find us for the next next few hours. The kids just loved being free.







We made our way past the Fort Wilderness Ranch and said hello to the horses before meeting up with the 2 1/2 mile nature trail that would take us to Wilderness lodge. This trail would lead us through the Florida wilderness where Riley made a pixie wand and we kept our eyes open for wildlife. We were able to see a deer, which leaped by so quickly that we couldn't snap a photo, and then we came across an armadillo, a first for my kids. It was a really nice trek, but we would be happy to reach the other side for some lunch at the "Roaring Forks Cafe".







On our way back to the hotel we took advantage of a photo op at the Mickey sculpture outside the hotel. Aren't these kids cool.


In the evenings the resorts (as most of the resorts now do) had an outdoor theatre and played a different movie each night. We did catch a flick with the kids on a couple of the nights and we also had a chance to take them up to the Top of the World Lounge for the fireworks display. The kids also had an opportunity to play in the Contemporary Hotel's Game Station Arcade, since we had some cool and rainy weather during our stay.