Florida Continued! | Adam and Leanne

After the sad farewell to the Chens, Leanne and I stayed back to squeeze out a few more days with family before we head to Japan. Even though Aliya and Kaden were in school, everyone else has work, they all still took time to spend time with us and make us feel special during our short time home.

If there is one role I play for the Rawji’s, it’s undoubtedly tech support. I spent a full day setting up all the new tech to bring Mom & Dad to the current year 2023, with new gadgets and gizmos. To be honest, the short break after the full beach day, Disney, and Universal was needed! But the break *would* be short lived.

Aliya, Kaden, Zahra, and Mom the week before had gone to Discovery Cove to meet dolphins, swim in the reef with sting rays and fish of all kinds, relax on the lazy river, and refresh with pineapple ice cream. Mom wanted to re-create this experience with Leanne and me, and by goodness she did!

Discovery Cove was incredible. Leanne and I were accompanied by Aliya, Kaden, and Mom. Unfortunately the rest of the family had work and couldn’t come. We started the day with a nice breakfast, then snorkeled under the reef. Under the reef was hundreds of fish, massive sting rays majestically swimming about, and there was even a tank with sharks! SHARKS! Hours flew by in what felt like minutes just appreciating all of the beauty. After lunch (and ice cream), we headed to meet a real-life dolphin.

(This is obviously not our family but just pretend, I can photoshop it later!)

We headed to the lazy river. This was a long stretch of warm water (there were a lot of kids in there come to think of it.. did the water have a yellowish tinge to it? sorry Aliya!!) for which MOST people could use a pool noodle to relaxedly float down and around. I say most people because I was not one of those people! I think Kaden stole my pool noodle 3.. or maybe 4 times? And Aliya got me with jumps and splashes. Mom and Leanne steered well clear of the chaos 😛

On the way to the end of the lazy river was an aviary where we fed tropical birds from all over the world. Leanne loved this part (Leanne actually loved every part, but also this part). In the middle of the lazy river was a literal monkey island where a bunch of little monkeys lived that we got to see. Sea otters was next before we got to the end where we could enjoy being in the water while eating pretzels and cookies.

After the lazy river, it was time to meet a dolphin. Meeting the dolphin was such a cool experience. Our dolphin was one of the “silly” ones, and her personally showed in the way she swam to us upside down. Kaden made sure to ask the photographer for extra pictures so we got more time to pet the dolphin. He didn’t want the pictures, just more time with the dolphin, and I can’t blame him because so did I!

Then it was time to head back to the reef. Now having seen it once, I was.. still completely blown away by the majesty and beauty of the animals within the reef. Leanne looked like a kid in a candy store. Aliya showed me all around the reef. When I tried to take Aliya around the reef, I got so distracted by all the sea life under me I didn’t make it further than 5 feet from where I started. It was clear Aliya needed to the take the lead! And lead she did; we saw the fish, stingrays, sharks, hidden areas, eels, starfish, and just explored and explored. By the time we knew it, it was already 5pm and time to go. No pictures were taken because phone + water = bad news.

The day wasn’t quite over though, because it was a special someone’s birthday! Kaden!! Maa came over with tumbwadeezi and samosas, Zahra made delicious food, and we spent time together celebrating Kaden’s birthday. Gifts included but were not limited to: the aformentioned orbi gun (I got hit with this a few times), a periodic table of elements with pieces of the actual elements (except the radioactive ones!), and lights that float using.. either physics or magic. It looked like magic.

Yum! Subs!! Kaden challenged us to eat them with no thumbs 😛

Happy 12th birthday Tom DeLeone! I mean Kaden! Sorry, the jersey confused me for a second.

Magic or physics? You decide.. Actually the answer is physics.

Sadly, eventually, the week did come to a close. I loved spending time with family, especially since we’ll be moving to Japan soon. I’m ecstatic for the Japan adventure to come and have been enthusiastically watching J-dramas, anime, reading manga, and learning the writing characters while going through old photos of me and Zahra from our Japan trip. But I’m also going to really *really* miss family. As I said in the last post, I wouldn’t trade this week in Florida with everyone for anything.

Here’s some more photos from the rest of the week.