Day Two: Staycation - Orlando

Orlando, Florida:  The second day of our staycation sent us on a road trip to Orlando for a museum day.  We have been to Central Florida on many occasions in the past, but we never ventured off the theme park path, until today.

As we drove to Orlando, it felt weird driving past the theme park exits.  Its almost like our truck is on autopilot to Disney or Universal.  Today was one of just a handful of times I have ever ventured east of Universal on I-4 and the first time I have ever been into downtown Orlando.

Our first stop of the day was the Orlando Science Center.  The four story museum is a hands-on science museum that helps educate while entertaining.  You enter the museum from the garage pedestrian bridge onto the second floor of the museum.  Quickly your focus goes to the four story rotunda which portrays a Central Florida Cypress Swamp.

We began our tour on the second level.  Much of the second floor features exhibits that entertain the younger members of the family.  This is also one of the more crowded floors, at least during our visit.  Much of the exhibits here were more for First Grade and younger and the ones in the Science Park that appealed to our eight year old son were overcrowded by the field trips from various summer camps.

We then decided to ditch the crowd and head to the first floor to explore the Nature Works exhibit.  This by far was our favorite exhibit in the museum.  Here you go on the ground of the cypress swamp that fills the rotunda.  The swamp is filled with gators, turtles and fish much like a real wilderness swamp.  Throughout the path, you get to see other species of animals both live and recreated.

After spending some time in Nature Works observing the animals, we headed up to the third floor and fourth floors.  On the fourth floor, we toured our second favorite exhibit, Dino Digs.  It is amazing to see the overwhelming size of the dinosaur skeletons.

While on the fourth floor, I couldn't help but gaze out the windows at downtown Orlando.  I have always been fascinated with big cities and being the first time in downtown Orlando, I just wanted to photograph the city as well.  I wish the SunTrust Terrace was unlocked because the panoramic view of the skyline would have made a great photo.

It was then time to head to the first floor to see a movie. When we got down there, we were informed that the movie was running late due to a large number of school groups who did not allow the first show to start on time.  Then as a large group of more school groups filed in behind us, we decided that we were going to skip the movie and the crowd.

After browsing the store, we headed out to the car and off to lunch.

Our next stop on the trip was just a short drive deeper into downtown to the Orange County Regional History Center.  The museum is housed in the historic Orange County Court House and gives a look into the history of Orange County from the Indians to Mickey Mouse with everything in between.

The museum is a chronological journey through history.  The journey starts in the fourth floor and works back to the ground while passing each era of history.  The museum offers a free audio tour which I highly recommend since it help enhance the tour experience.

The tour begins with natural Florida and the flora and fauna of the region.  From there we meet the first people of Florida and then segway into European settlement.  Then we move from the Indians to the pioneers and later their effect on the cattle and citrus industry.

As we headed to the second floor, we entered the most stunning display in the entire museum, Courtroom B.  The courtroom was an original criminal courtroom from the courthouse.

Two interesting facts of the courtroom is that there was a fire in the courthouse in which the charred floor can still be seen by the judge's stand.  The second is that the defendant table has "Ted Bundy" carved into the table, Bundy was tried in Orlando but it can not be confirmed if the table was used during the trial.  Real or not, it makes a great story.

Then we concluded the tour of the third floor as we followed tourism and travel through before and after Walt Disney as well as took a look at the Armed Forces and aviation effects on Central Florida.

The final exhibits were on display on the second floor of the museum.  The first was a look back and African-American history and the other was a temporary exhibit about Universal Orlando.

The History Center was by far my favorite museum we have been to in quite some time.  I have always loved history and I thought the lay out of the museum did a great job of telling the story of Central Florida.

After we turned in the audio tour and browsed the gift shop, we headed out to tour the city.  We decided to drive the city and take some photos and view the city.  We had no clue where we were going, we just spent about 45 minutes just driving street and taking in the sights.  I really want to come back with a plan and get to really experience the city.

We ate dinner at Popeyes and I had the intentions of heading to Orlando International Airport to do some plane photography.  Well forget that.  Obviously my navigation of Orlando is horrible because I took the wrong turn and headed up going westbound on I-4 instead of towards the airport.  So rather then making a bunch of U-turns and going even further out of our way, I made the most of it and headed to Downtown Disney to go mini-golfing.

We have been promising our son to take him mini-golfing and Pirates Cove looked awesome from the interstate so that was where we went.  We were feeling ambitious so we decided to play both 18-hole courses.  We started on the Captains Course and had a blast.  However the 96 degree heat with a heat index of 110 proved to be too much with the little bit of shade and it quickly took a toll on our body.  So we took a rain check on our second round and will come back again on our next trip and play the Blackbeard's Course.

Today was a very fun and educational day.  We had a great time at both museums and really enjoyed getting to look around downtown a bit.  A little bummed the airport stop didn't work out, but oh well, the rest of the day made up for it.

Tomorrow will be another great adventure as we head to Palmetto to go kayaking at Emerson Point Preserve.  It is a first time experience for all of us and I am really looking forward to it.  So pending I don't flip over and drown, check back later for photos and more from today's trip as well as more from our staycation.