Category: fun

Posted in family, fun

A beautiful day at the farm

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A trip to Sykes Family Farm in Elkton, Florida wasn’t cheap, but it was a fun way to spend a cooler-than-usual, perfectly sunny, post-Halloween, last-weekend-of-the-season Saturday afternoon with three granddaughters.

Seventeen bucks person was okay, I guess, with a few bucks off for my senior citizen ticket and a freebie for the two-year-old. A few St. John’s county sheriff’s deputies were on hand to guide us into the parking area, which was already full fifteen minutes after opening.

  • We started at the two huge inflatable bounce pads filled with energetic kids.
  • A good-sized turkey wasn’t very happy that it was November, but he was a good sport and posed by the fence for pictures.
  • A corn pit? What’s a corn pit? The girls loved the circular bin filled with dried corn. Who wouldn’t like to be buried under corn and make corn angels?
  • The hayride was okay. The tractor took us out through the sorghum fields and and acres of sunflowers. Longer than many I’ve experienced.
  • The food was pretty reasonable. Our lunch was three orders of fried mozzarella sticks, a hamburger, pepper and onion smothered hot dog, a bag of Fritos, and some bottle of water. Thirty bucks.
  • Rows of picnic tables adjacent to the food vendors was next to giant connect-four, plinko, and tetris tumble games. The kids loved these. (We’re going to try to find some online.)
  • Next, we went to the bubble barn. Sticks with ropes dipped into suds produced impressive giant bubbles drifting across the field. So much fun!
  • A ride on the “cow train” was a string of cars pulled by a small John Deere tractor. Thrilling for the littles!
  • We gave the girls a choice: something from the store or face-painting. the two youngers chose a stuffed unicorn wearing a Sykes Farm T-shirt. The older opted for very nicely done purple pixie face-painting.
  • We climbed on a spider web, slid down some dark irrigation tubes, pumped water for duck races down half-pipe PVC, and passed on the corn maze, pumpkin painting, and take-home sunflower.

At just about every activity, the operator offered the kids candy. It’s the last weekend; lots to get rid of! We accepted, but pocketed it for later. Face painting, pumpkin painting, and s’mores cost extra. Cash only, but a few ATMs were onsite.

I asked the guy at the drink booth how things were going. He said it was a slow day so far. They had only been rained out one day in October, so it was a good year.

The event was supported by several corporate sponsors. I’ll bet this is their biggest money-making event of the year.

And I’ll bet they do very well.

Posted in fun, Life, Travel

Extreme tubing at Highlands Outpost

Posted on by William Douthwaite

It’s just sliding down a hill. It’s basic, simple, and so entertaining. It’s one of the reasons we drove to Highlands Outpost on Scaly Mountain, west of Highlands, North Carolina. Along with gem mining (who doesn’t have gem mining in this area?), an alpine slide (crazy fast and fun), a BBQ restaurant (which was closed the day we were there), and trout fishing (a stocked swimming pool-sized pond), they advertised “extreme tubing.”

At a local playground, my grandchildren love sliding down the astroturf hill on a cardboard box. In the winter, we slid down my dad’s snow-covered backyard hill on saucer sleds until we were too cold and exhausted to climb up for another run. Extreme tubing? This is going to be great.

A simple hill and inflated tubes lived up to the hype. For twenty bucks you had access to the hill for an hour. At the bottom we grabbed heavy-duty five foot diameter tubes and dragged them to a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt then took us another three hundred feet up the hill. At the top of two slides, staff dipped our tubes in a soapy solution and shoved us down the slide after we hopped in.

The soapy solution and sprinklers along the way combined to make this a fast ride down the hill. The first time I went down alone, spinning the whole way. I got a little air over the three dips in the hill, before sliding to a stop at the bottom. Subsequent slides were in pairs, trios, and even four of us liked together, holding on the feet of the person behind you. The more weight, the faster the ride!

My four-year-old grandson, small enough to sit cross-legged in the tube, spun and giggled the whole way down. Inhaling as much air as I could, I screamed for an entire run in one breath. Everyone I saw was laughing by the time they reached the bottom of the hill. So basic. So simple. And so much fun!

Each round trip took about five minutes, so we each got a dozen rounds in before our time was up. With unlimited energy to burn, the grandsons would have gone all day if they could. The grown-ups enjoyed every slide, too. What a fun afternoon!

In the winter, the same tubes take you down snow-covered hills, which are probably even faster. I’ve got to come back for that.

Posted in fun

Is that a hippo?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I forgot to include this great moment from my trip to the zoo the other day.

As we walked around the African loop on our way to see the ostrich and rhinos, we spied a man fully outfitted in scuba gear, just about to enter the brown, muddy, murky, duckweed-covered water below. As he put on his mask and regulator, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What can he see down there?” I have no idea what was down there that needed repair.

Anyway, once we got a nice close-up view of one of the rhinos, we started walking toward the giraffes and saw lots of bubbles coming up from the brown, muddy, murky, duckweed-covered water. I knew it was the diver, but a few other people didn’t. I heard them wondering out loud, “What’s down there? What animal is that? Is it a hippo? I think it’s a hippo! Look, it’s a hippo!”

I kept my chuckles to myself. I guess they haven’t seen many hippos. They wouldn’t have seen them here since the Jacksonville Zoo doesn’t have any. And hippos don’t breathe underwater. If they are in the water, they typically wade or lay around with their eyes, nostrils, and ears just above the surface. Otherwise, the ones I’ve seen like to lay at the edge of the water.

I have seen hippos at other zoos and in the wild. We saw them on safari in Kenya. Since they are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, armed guides kept an eye on them as we took pictures. If the hippos decided to get aggressive, we’d be escorted out of there. When they began bellowing at us, it was time to leave.

Now those are hippos

I did not spoil their fun and tell them about the scuba diver.

Posted in fun

Hit me baby one more time

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I forget who came up with the genius idea to “pie the pastor,” but it turned out to be a great youth fund raiser about twenty years ago. My youngest daughter, perhaps four years old at the time, clearly enjoyed the experience. I think we charged a dollar a pie. Many members of the congregation kept giving her dollar bills, a little reluctant to throw the pies on their own.

Yep, same little girl only 16 years later (I think) with yet another pie in her hand and many on my face!

I think I’ll do this one more time. I think we may have yet another new generation of pie throwers ready to hit the bull’s eye!

Posted in family, fun

Animal Kingdom

Posted on by William Douthwaite

We were up and out the door at 6 am this morning, on the way to Disney’s Animal Kingdom with my daughter, son-in-law, and two of our grandsons. For the little guys, Elijah and Daniel, it was their first Disney experience, so we were all very excited.

The drive through Orlando wasn’t too harrowing, even through rush hour. It’s pretty much one big construction zone the whole way, though. The crowds pouring through the gates were formidable from the minute the park opened.

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First stop was the Festival of the Lion King, a wonderful music and dance performance by some extremely talented folks. Eli’s a big Lion King fan, so it was a hit. 

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Next stop was a fast pass appointment with Mickey and Minnie!

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Eli rode the Triceratops ride at least five times. 

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The weather wasn’t too hot, but still perfect for a nice, messy, sticky strawberry popsicle. 

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Pluto spent a lot of time dancing around the bone yard…

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…while Eli made a lot of trips down a big spiral slide. 

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A random nice person gave Eli a long stuffed purple snake won at an arcade game!

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Eli capped off his day by scoring a really cool bubble wand. 

We also enjoyed the “It’s Hard Being a Bug” show, the safari, and the “Finding Nemo” musical.

A few tips for those headed to Animal Kingdom in the future:

  • The app lets you know all the wait times. Great resource.
  • The park was most crowded in the morning, then thinned out in the afternoon. Going later is a good idea.
  • A 210 minute wait for the Avatar ride? Three-and-a-half hours? Better use your fast pass or forget it. It must be an amazing ride. (We didn’t even go to that part of the park.)
  • There’s a Starbucks on property! It’s worth going just to see how quickly they can crank out the lattes.
  • Dress your child in a red shirt if you are going to let them eat the red popsicle. And the frozen chocolate covered banana is plenty big to share.
  • It’s OK to bring your own water into the park.
  • You can eat paleo at the park. Grilled chicken salad for lunch.
  • The bars have a nice selection of beers. For $10 each! I didn’t drink today.
  • Even though it takes longer to load up the dinos than the ride itself, the Triceratops ride never gets old. Like the Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom.
  • Animal Kingdom feels more relaxed than the other parks I’ve been to.

I hadn’t been to a Disney attraction in years. Taking the little ones made it worthwhile.