MOSI in Tampa, Florida

While at the Rally we had a couple days before the rally started and spent one day at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). Our entrance fees for MOSI were covered by reciprocal membership from Boonshoft so we got in for free...a savings of $95.60.

We were supposed to meet another family from the Rally here but we didn't confirm where exactly to meet. When we arrived, we didn't see them at the main entrance so we went straight to the Children's Science Center at MOSI hoping they would too but somehow we missed them.

 Daddy had to lay on the bed of nails before Sierra would try...

 Even after he did she was still a bit unsure but she gave it a try.

 Aayla's favourite part of any science centre or children's museum is always the restaurant/grocery store etc. They had very limited food available to play with.

The tug of war was a lot of fun.

 Some other pictures from the children's centre.

Then it was time to take a break and play on the playground.

 Here is their rope climbing/zip lining platform. We didn't try it as we didn't have the proper footwear on to try it out.

Back in we went to see the Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit. This by the way is a must see! It was extremely cool to be able to use the controls and move these big steal dinosaurs around as we learned about robotics.

Next we headed back inside the main building. Daddy rode the bike across the tight rope which was up on the second story. This freaked Sierra out a bit and couldn't even watch him go across.

The earthquake simulation was also not so great for her today. Too much sensory overload. The rest of us thought it was neat to "experience"an earthquake.

Aayla loved the wind tunnel.

I missed a picture of Sierra in this brain development display but Sierras comment when she came out was "man that brain was having a party in there"!

 Full size Operation game!

On our way out of the museum we took a ride in an automated car.

And then finished off the museum with the butterfly garden...but the flight encounter was closed so we couldn't go in with the butterflies.

 I loved the benches they had to sit and watch though.

If I am to be honest I was glad we got in free to MOSI as if I had paid almost $100 to go I would have been very disappointed. We loved the Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit but there was so much here that was way above our girls heads so we wouldn't have gotten our monies worth. There were a lot more exhibits geared towards older children.

Thank you Walmart of Lutz, Florida

Thank you Walmart for allowing us to spend the night in your parking lot. This location is in Lutz, Florida at 1575 Land O'Lakes Blvd.

 This location had a huge parking lot. The store was so far off in the picture I had to take a picture with the road sign in the background so you could make out the store name.

I use RV Parky to find possible Walmart locations to over night at when needed. I always call to confirm with the location to make sure the App's info is correct as being woken up at 3:00 am and being asked to move with young children does not seem like fun to me.

After a wonderful night here, surprisingly it wasn't too noisy being so busy and so close to the road; we are off to the Fulltime Families Rally...whoooo hoooo. We couldn't get the extra night at the rally so we are very thankful to Walmart for this over night stop.

Sierra coloured in rally poster...excuse the dirty wind shield

Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park REVIEW, Crystal River, Florida

I did a past review of Rock Crusher Canyon RV Resort  HERE the last time we were here so I am not going to redo a full review this time as our opinion has not changed about this park. I will just touch on a few things I didn't talk much about in my last review.

Since our last visit this park has changed ownership and is now part of Sun Resorts. We found the small time feel of the park had changed a little and wasn't as warm feeling as before but it still is a wonderful place to stay and I have nothing bad to say about this park.

This time we were on site 106 which is in the back of the park and even though we were fairly close to the road we didn't take much notice of that fact. Our site was large and had a very natural setting. The site did slope a bit from the road but our "driveway"type pad was very level. All hook ups were easy and well maintained. Lots of large tree around.

This time we found horsehoes, shuffleboard and a dog run up behind the playground. I do not know if these were new since we were last here or if we just missed them our first visit.

The pool was heated and a nice enough temperature for me to even get in.

 Recently they added all new chairs around the pool area.

One nice change from our last visit is the hot tub was no longer 16 plus... younger children could use it with adult supervision. This made my girls very happy. The only thing we noticed this time missing was there are no showers by the pool. Obviously these were not here the last time either but for some reason it struck me as odd this time. There is a shower in the pool area but that is more of a "please shower before entering the pool" type shower. Leaving the pool to go to the bathhouse to have a shower seemed a little silly.

The playground still is in like new condition and had some nice new picnic tables near by.

The laundry room by the pool with washers and dryers for $1.50 per load.

There was another bathhouse with wash rooms, showers and laundry in it.

This park is very family friendly. The girls loved riding their bikes all over the park.

 

They were also allowed to ride their jeep here which made them very happy campers. We will definitely be back here again. Hopefully next time we will have a kayak or two to enjoy the springs with.

One last little tid-bit about the area is we found a BEACH! That was the only thing from our last review that we thought was missing.

Creative Community Playground, Crystal River, Florida

 We found a little hidden gem in Crystal River for those of you with young children. We are always on the look out for free or cheap family fun and this lovely wooden playground fit the bill perfectly!

Crystal River Creative Community Playground can be found at 698 NW 2nd Ave, in Crystal River. There is not a huge amount of parking. However there was a completely empty parking lot just across the road so we parked there as we were hooked up to the RV.

Just across a small road was a pond, river and covered picnic table area.

I can't help but stare up at the beautiful moss and ferns on the trees. It never gets old for me.

There are also picnic tables at the playground.

 Definitely worth a stop...we may be partial to large wooden playgrounds though.