Day One: Staycation-Sarasota

Sarasota, Florida: This week we had initially planned on travelling to Indianapolis for my wife's Scentsy convention.  However, the plans for the trip fell through due to the lack of funding and we cancelled the trip.  But we decided to keep our vacation time and do a staycation instead.

For those of you who have never heard of a staycation, it is a vacation in which you begin and end your days from home and do trips to attractions that are within driving distance from your house.  It is a vacation that has increased in popularity due to the current financial crisis.

Today we decided to go to Jungle Gardens in Sarasota.  Located in our backyard, Jungle Gardens is one of those places that we have always wanted to go try but always passed it up for Lowry Park Zoo, Busch Gardens or Animal Kingdom.

On the way to Jungle Gardens, we stopped by the Visitor's Center to pick up a discount coupon.  While admission to Jungle Gardens isn't that expensive, any dollar saved helps and at the Visitor's Center we were able to pick up $1 off coupons.

As we were leaving the Visitor's Center, we noticed a few of the powerboats still at 10th Street Boat Ramp from yesterday's Suncoast Off-Shore Grand Prix.  While I didn't make it to the race like I would have liked to, I did manage to get a few photos of the boats that had not left town yet.  After the short delay, we were back on track and headed to Jungle Gardens.

Located along Sarasota Bay in northern Sarasota, Jungle Garden is a botanical garden with animal exhibits throughout the property.  Much of their collection of animals are tropical birds and the sounds of the birds overwhelms you when you pass through the doors.

We started the tour of Jungle Gardens via the Reptile House.  Inside the reptile house, a summer camp group was learning about snakes while a zoo keeper had a large Burmese python hanging around his body.  While an awesome sight, you couldn't help but feel a little creepy.  Outside the reptile house, we stood in amazement as a crocodile sat along the edge of the pond with his mouth wide open.  The amount of destruction he could inflict by crushing the jaws was evident.  

As we continued to travel down the paths, I looked at the map and realized why it felt like we had the place all to ourselves, we were heading in the wrong direction.  So we turned around headed back to the start of the tour and things began to fall into place. 

Jungle Gardens features dense tropical foliage throughout much of the park.  There are a few areas of open grounds, but much is in the shade.  This is nice to take a break from the sun, however it also brings out the humidity of the Florida summer.  

Throughout the paths, you will find animal exhibits around every corner.  From birds of prey to lemurs, they can all be found here.  They are great to watch but almost impossible to get good photographs because of the enclosures.  I did the best I could with the photos, but I was not very happy with the results.

Midway through the walking tour is the park's famous resident flamingos.  Unlike other zoos, at Jungle Gardens you are actually part of the flamingo habitat.  You walk right up to them and get actually feel them.  It adds a personal touch that you do not get with most other zoo attractions,

There was a bunch of great animals along the tour but our favorite animal was the screech owl. 

After we finished the walking tour, we headed to watch the Bird Show.  It was the only show we were able to see during our visit.  We missed the Reptile Show walk doing the walking tour and we had an afternoon appointment which caused us to miss the Birds of Prey Show (the one I was really looking forward too).  

The Bird Show was great. The birds did a great job performing their acts and our zoo keeper Kalicia made the show enjoyable and informative.  One thing that really surprised me about the birds is that the lead up to 80 years.  That is an amazing fact that I never knew.

After the show was over, we made our way to gift shop and the park exit.  Our time was cut short due to our afternoon appointment and we missed the Birds of Prey Show in which we were really looking forward to.  But the trip was a very enjoyable time, we had a great walk and really enjoyed learning about the animals.

When we left, we headed up Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport to watch some planes while eating our lunch.  It was a slow period at the airport and we only saw three total aircraft.  But more importantly we ate lunch and everyone was happy again.

A somewhat uneventful ending to our first day of Staycation as the rest of the afternoon was consumed with personal errands and appointments.  That is the only downside to taking a Staycation in lieu of a vacation, you never really leave the real world.

Tomorrow our Staycation shifts to Orlando.  On deck we have a visit to the Orlando Science Museum and the Orange County Regional History Museum.  Who know what else Orlando may throw at us but be sure to check back for more from our travels.