Orlando was my second home for nine years, where I graduated college and where I was when King came into my life. Although not directly part of Orlando, King was born in Sanford, Florida only thirty minutes or so north of Orlando. King did not always start as my dog. It is a long story that I feel like I should touch on briefly. Originally I had picked out King as an anniversary gift for a girlfriend I was dating at the time. We fell apart, she wanted nothing to do with King and told me to pick him up. At the beginning I was honestly nervous if I was the best person to be raising him. Work was and still in an important part of my life. I mean at this moment I am writing this blog post in a hotel in Holly Springs, North Carolina before flying out tomorrow for Buena Vista, Colorado. This is all while King is being trained with a great pack of dogs in Los Angeles. I do not want to compare raising a dog to raising a kid but I did have the feeling that I was not sure if I was ready for it all. Luckily I think King knew what was going to happen all along and he knew how important he was going to be in my life. Here is just a small story about the day we meet to show his understanding of it all. When I met up with the local breeder there were eleven puppies that had not been spoken for. I hopped into the pen with those eleven and they all instantly swarmed me to see who I was. After a few minutes one backed away and went to sleep in a corner and slowly this continued to happen for the forty-five minutes I was inside the pen until there were only two left. Being born on Christmas, Rudy and Comet were the names of the last two pups playing with me. Comet kept playing with my shoelaces while Rudy would jump over my legs and roll on his back. I decided one of these two would be the pup, but I needed to run to an ATM for the cash deposit. So running to the bank real quick and coming back I was surprised to have the breeders tell me that I had to take Rudy. They had a look of joy in their eyes but I wanted to know the reason. I was told that once I left he had walked to the edge of the pen sat down and waited for me just staring at the front door. I felt like this could be some selling tactic but I did already said I was grabbing the money so I was not sure the objective if it was a lie. That is when the wife pulled out her phone and showed me the photo she just took and the time stamp to prove. Rudy, before he was King, knew what I needed and as King he continues to. He has helped me grow, explore the Continental United States and make me get out of my head on some darker days. I do not know how he knew what I needed but I do know that I am lucky to have him by my side and to have everything work out how it was suppose to!
King:
Even as a little pupper I knew what Dad needed! And he has always taken care of me since then! My favorite is when we get to travel and sleep out of the van and Dad always lets me share his pillow with him.
Now that I got our past out of the way lets talk about our favorite places to visit in Orlando! If you are ever in the Lake Nona area or North Kissimmee then you need to go check out Boxi Park. This is a great venue with live music most nights, tons of different types of food, beach volleyball courts and a dog park. Not to mention the whole venue is a very dog friendly place. King and I spent a lot of time here playing beach volleyball while he dug holes, relaxed to some local bands and using the commotion as a perfect place to work on some of our training. We had become such regulars that a few of the staff were able to see King grow up through the year.
King:
I saw my first concert here, got to play with so many kids everytime we went and all the stay bring you treats if you are on yoir best behavior!
If you are looking for more of a day time adventure you can either head east to Canova Dog Beach, south of Cocoa, or head over to Baldwin Park where there is a great dog park with a lakeside beach. Both spots are great based on the time of year! We have already touched a bit on Canova and honestly this is the perfect week day, spring time spot. Not to much traffic, generally all other dogs are nice and a great spot to let your dog off the leash to get some energy out. On the other hand I would only go to Lake Baldwin if it was fall or winter as there has been some cases of dogs picking up infections if they have any open wounds and go into the water. This park is a lot more open, even with a whole wooded section, so I would be on the lookout more for your dog as it is very easy to lose them in the sheer size of it all. Both locations have places to wash your pup and get them all cleaned off after a big day of playing in the water. We are more of the beach going type so we went to Canova a lot more. Even if it was too cold for a Florida boy like me to get into the water I knew an hour or two of running the beach would wear King out for the day!
King:
My first time at the beach was in Tampa but it was nothing like the Atlantic Ocean! There are these things called waves that can push you down and are sometimes really loud. Also some times it gets hot out there on the sand. My favorite part of the beach is digging holes in search of buried treasure!
Another great spot is Lake Eola in the heart of Downtown Orlando. It is a pretty busy loop most of the time of day and you will see tons of other dogs out and about! If you and your pup are really up for it you can do on Sunday during the Farmer's Market. Again you and your pup should work up to this or be able to pick up your little guy. There are a ton of dogs, tons of amazing smells and countless people running around! King and I would meet our friends here, do a loop through all the markets and then end with a relaxing picnic on one of the grassy areas. This is when King would usually meet a new friend and they would get to have some playtime together. But our favorite little day adventure is to head over to King's Landing and paddleboard or Kayak! King's first time was on a Kayak as I was not so sure how he would be out on the water. After that we moved up to my paddleboard and he got his own life vest to be safe.
King:
Paddleboarding is so much fun but my you have to be careful! Cause one bad step and you’re swiming with the fish. Also make sure you find a tree before you get onto the board cause there is no trees out on the water. Another tip your Mom or Dad will love is don't jump off to taste a naner peel, and especially don’t run away with it...
As always let us know if there is any spot that we missed so we can make sure to catch it on our next time in Orlando! Also please feel free to let us know what your favorite spots or if you had a different experience so that we can all stay up-to-date and knowledgeable about these places. Thanks for reading and we look forward to sharing our next adventure with you!
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