Florida 2020: Chocolate Kingdom Factory Adventure Tour

Since the plan was to skip the theme parks, we sought out smaller local attractions in Orlando. The Chocolate Kingdom Factory Adventure Tour is located in a strip mall near SeaWorld. We love chocolate and we love factory tours, so it was a clear choice for our Saturday afternoon entertainment.

Tickets were 16.95 for adults, and included plenty of chocolate samples. We also added on a custom made candy bar for seven dollars each, more on that later.

We arrived with about twenty minutes to spare before the next tour, so we perused the displays in the entrance hall and checked-out the gift shop.

The chocolate was so tempting, that we couldn’t wait for the samples, so we bought some alligators. They were nearly too cute to eat…nearly. I bit the tail right off, easter bunny style!

The tour started with a short video that set the story for the chocolate kingdom, which kicks off when a friendly dragon accidentally melts a pair of chocolate shoes that a prince was planning on presenting to a princess for her birthday. The prince and the dragon set off to learn about chocolate and to make another pair of shoes. Our tour guide educates them ( and us) on their quest. Puns and corny jokes are abundant. It’s like the chocolate version of The Jungle Cruise.

The theme is cute for kids and carried on throughout the guided tour. We were with one other tour group, grandparents with their elementary-aged grandchildren. I think the small group was due to covid, but also we might have been visiting during an off-peak time. It looks like pre-covid, the tours could be as large as fifty people. I certainly want the pandemic to end, but I’m appreciating visiting places with small crowds.

The tour is education and fun. We saw a model of the castle made from chocolate complete with a chocolate river and we played game where we had to catapult marshmallows into the dragon’s mouth.

The last part of the tour included the actual factory. It was small, definitely not like Cadbury’s, but it was still nice to see the chocolate being made.

We enjoyed large-scale creations made from chocolate. Although, I’m not convinced that a chocolate shoe was what the princess most desired!

The best part was watching our custom candy bars being made. Mine had almonds, espresso beans, and toffee. It was absolutely delicious! We nearly made a stop on the way to the airport to buy more candy bars to take home.

The candy bars had to set in a chiller, but within fifteen minutes, they came out to the front of the store on a conveyor system.

Don’t forget to tip your tour guide.

We enjoyed the tour so much, that we will likely do it again with the kids on our next trip to Orlando. It’s a great activity when the weather is too rainy or too hot to enjoy the parks. Make sure to upgrade to the custom candy bar. It was enormous and worth every penny.

I will end with some chocolate facts.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week 33

I’m writing this post at 6:15 on the evening of Wednesday, November 4th, and we still don’t have a winner in the presidential election. This was expected. The race is heated and so very close. It’s actually more worrisome to have yet another confirmation of the deep divisions in our country. I’m cautiously optimistic that Biden will prevail, but I’m nervous and won’t be surprised, if Trump is victorious. I dread the contention and possible violence that will occur when Trump fights to overturn the results, should he lose. Based on his statements, I don’t expect him to graciously concede.

The election has dominated everything this week, yet we also made some great memories.

Due to covid concerns, we decided not to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. Next year, we will definitely participate. Instead, we went for drinks and Italian food with our friend’s Julie and Ryan. We watched “The Hunt,” and ate Nigella Lawson’s coffee layer cake.

After initial success the previous week, I tried to make Lawson’s layer cake two more times. I attempted a smaller, triple layer cake which was a disaster. I should apply to “Nailed It" after this epic failure.

Luckily, I succeeded with the cake for Halloween. Dan decorated it.

Monday was our 7th wedding anniversary and we celebrated it at the Denver Zoo. I will write a more extensive review for a future post, but we had a great time. I was thrilled to discover that the zoo sells Dole Whip. This was my first Dole Whip outside of Hawaii and Disney parks.

Rather than having a big anniversary dinner, we opted for lunch at a new-to-us curry spot called “Spice Table.” Dan thought the curry was the most English-style he as found in America. It was great and definitely a new go-to spot in Denver. It had pretty, colorful lamps too.

We started watching “Lovecraft Country.” We are three episodes in and it is a completely overwhelming experience. It’s timely, emotional, and quite bizarre. I love the blending of genres and the cast is great. So much has happened that I can’t even imagine where it will head next. We are hooked.

Dan took a pretty picture of our neighborhood during one of our walks. Autumn is a lovely time of the year in Colorado. It has been warm all week.

And the obligatory cute cat pictures. Slinky is showing his Halloween vampire cat fangs! I call him count catula.

Florida 2020: Kissimmee Airbnb

We returned from my August birthday trip to Florida and got the crazy idea to look for a second home in Orlando. The idea quickly picked up steam, and within a few weeks, we returned to Orlando for a two-week trip. This time our focus was not on vacationing. We kept our regular work schedules and during the weekends/evenings, we looked at homes with our realtor.

The Tampa International Airport has become a new favorite, so we opted to fly into Tampa, rather than Orlando. The airport experience was still great with low crowds and stringent covid precautions. A hiccup came from our timing. We screwed up and had to drive during rush hour, which took about three hours, especially due to a heavy summer rainstorm.

The traffic was so terrible, that we stopped off at a Burger King for dinner. I thought this covid sign was hilarious. I know marketing is playing with the whole idea of “Kings,” but thrones are usually a bathroom reference, not for tables.

As we were trying to simulate “real life” in Florida, we decided to rent a house on Airbnb. I’m not a fan of house rentals. Generally, I find them to be a bit creepy. Being in a stranger’s home feels to personal, even if the home is strictly a rental property. I also worry that the cleanliness standards might not be to my liking. Dan was really keen to have a private pool, which I can’t deny, was awesome. A rental home also seemed like the safer bet during Covid and it gave us room to spread out while we had to work. I used the desk in the master bedroom, while Dan worked from the dining table.

Our rental was a bit off-the-beaten path in the suburbs of Kissimmee. We were surrounded by actual people living in the neighborhood, rather than other renters. At our last home in Big Bear Lake, California, we were the only full-timers in a neighborhood full of rentals! It was a quiet neighborhood that was about 15-20 minutes from restaurants and grocery stores, maybe 25-30 min from Disney. It suited our needs, but I wouldn’t want to stay here for a theme park vacation. It’s a little too far from the action.

We were in a subdivision called Orchid Edge on a street called Violet Lane. Lovely.

We only had written communication with our host, but she was quick to respond. We were given a code to enter the property and the house had everything we needed to make our stay comfortable. The house was clean, well-appointed, and fun. Also, it had speedy internet, which was very important for us!

A few of the special touches included a mini pool table/air hockey combo, two slot machines, and a bubble swing. The swing had a crack in the plastic, so I very gingerly sat on it for a quick picture. I think it’s a bit of a liability issue, but a cute touch nevertheless. I imagine kids loving it.

I got a kick out of the eclectic book collection, including a Swedish offering!

The kitchen had all of the gear that we needed and we cooked a majority of our meals at “home.” Dan even made a full-english breakfast! We learned that Florida has quite a huge British community and it is easy to find British import products in the stores. We might need to start making regular trips to Orlando for our Cadbury and Heinz fixes.

I love doing laundry.

Seriously. Zero sarcasm.

I get a huge amount of satisfaction from clean clothes and folded laundry. A two-week trip means we need the ability to do the wash and having a laundry room was a big bonus.

In addition to our master, the home had two additional bedrooms with a shared bathroom. One room had a queen bed, and the other was set up for kids with a twin over full bunk. The house would be perfect for two small families traveling together, with privacy for two sets of parents and a room for three kids.

Our master had a slider for direct pool access, a walk-in closet, and en suite bathroom. It was tastefully decorated in shades of purple.

The pool was definitely the best part of the house. It had beautiful lake views and we even saw neighbors fishing in the lake. A family of birds ( cranes?) visited daily and the patio was filled with adorable lizards. We used the pool nearly every day of our trip, sometimes more than once a day.

Our rental on Violet Lane was perfect for these two weeks, but I’m still a hotel girl. I like the escape from reality and spoiling that happens at hotels. I don’t want to cook or clean on vacation!

We nearly purchased our own rental property, but the deal fell through after the inspection. Honestly, I’m relieved that we set the idea aside, but I hope that we have many Florida vacations in our near future.