Patrick Kelly, DVM's Travel Page

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We love to travel and our children are very fortunate that they have been able to see so much in their young lives. We are lucky to live in Florida and are only 2 hours away from Orlando, so we take full advantage and visit there often.

Our family borders on the fanatical when it comes to anything Disney.We are annual passholders, stockholders and have every pass and card they have to offer. We make it to Disney World on average of 8 times per year. Disney just opened the Animal Kingdom Park and will open new sections of the park in the next few months. I cannot recommend strongly enough that if you do visit, that you try and stay on Disney property. There are many advantages to staying at a Disney resort facility. The biggest one, is that Disney hotel guests are admitted to a selected Disney theme park 1 1/2 hours earlier than the general public, so you have a head start before the crowds set in. We have made it a family tradition to spend a night at our favorite Disney resort, the Wilderness Lodge at Christmastime every year. It is a very special treat. The Wilderness Lodge is modeled after the old hunting lodge of the early 1900's at Yellowstone National Park. They even have a geyser by the pool that goes off on the hour like Old Faithful.

Seaworld of Florida is another one of our favorite theme parks. We also have year passes and take full advantage of them. The kids love Shamu the killer whale and all the incredible aquatic wildlife there.

Universal Studios of Florida is also in Orlando and well worth visiting. They keep adding new rides and have just opened the Twister ride.

Gatorland in nearby Kissimmee is a very inexpensive and thoroughly enjoyable animal park. Their alligator and snake shows are not only entertaining, but very informative as well.

We live 2 hours north of Miami and can highly recommend Parrot Jungle. We own 19 parrots and enjoy not only the incredible variety of birds, but the lush botanical gardens as well.

Our favorite vacation destination is Colorado. We visited 4 years ago and the children were able to see snow for the first time in their lives! We visited the Denver Zoo, Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park. We hand fed mule deer and saw elk and bighorn sheep roaming everywhere! The mule deer came right up to our cabin in Estes Park and I actually had a mule deer doe take bread right off my lips. That was the highlight of my trip! Carolynn and I honeymooned in Vail, so we have a very special place in our hearts for Colorado.

We just returned from a trip to Virginia and Washington, D.C. We love Washington, D.C., Carolynn was born there. We saw just about everything you could see there. These included: The White House, Monticello, Mount Vernon, The National Zoo, The Smithsonian Institution Museums, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the National Mall, Arlington National Cemetery, and the US Capitol. It was the experience of a lifetime to view the spectacular show of fireworks on July 4 as they lit up the Washington sky with the monuments in the foreground!

My brother Kevin lives in San Diego, California and I visited twice last year. The San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park definitely lived up to expectations!

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