Celebration Bike Tour: Truly an Experience to Celebrate! #MyKissimmee #iFlyAlaska

Travel consideration provided.
I have a confession to make: I can’t really ride a bike. I did have a bike for a brief period as a child: At that time, we lived in a not-so-nice neighborhood in Portland, so between that and my parents’ protective natures, I wasn’t allowed to ride around by myself and was limited to biking in circles around the house. I got down the basic concept of balancing on a bike, but you can’t really learn to maneuver around when you’re pedaling a straight line in the driveway. We got rid of the bike when we moved not too long afterwards, and that was the last time I rode a bike until I was an adult. (Fun fact, I visited this neighborhood a few years ago and it has been so gentrified that I barely recognized it! You could definitely ride a bike solo there now. 😉 )

I most recently rode a bike ten years ago during a girls’ trip with my in-laws. We got on bikes to ride from a vacation home we had rented into town, and I thought nothing of it. I learned how to ride a bike when I was a kid, and you never forget! But surprise surprise, biking on actual trails takes a little more finesse than biking around your house, and I may or may not have crashed into a bush during our outing. Smooth!

So when I got my itinerary for my most recent girls’ trip with Carol and Jana to Kissimmee Florida, I was a little intimidated to see that we were scheduled for a bike tour. I had to chuckle at the fact that riding a bike was making me more nervous than the zipline! Fortunately, Celebration Bike Rental are prepared for all levels of experience and comfort, offering everything from tricycle bikes to electric surrey carts. Phew!

Alligators, armadillos, and tricycle gangsters. We got a little crazy in #celebrationflorida this week with @experiencekissimmee @mommywants @beebashcroft @momstart #iflyalaska #travel #sunshine #wanderlust #mytinyatlas #adventureisoutthere #adventure #travelgirl #traveldeeper #bicycle #travelblogger #instafun #instagood #instatravel #outdoors #outdoorgirl #celebrationbikerental #biketrail #orlando #florida #carolandjana #portlandiscoming #carolbeebjana #gangster #girlstrip #disney #thuglife #photooftheday

A post shared by Jana Seitzer | Merlot Mommy (@merlotmommy) on Mar 24, 2017 at 5:21pm PDT

Besides looking super cool, touring Celebration on a tricycle was such a neat experience! My bike nerves subsided and I got great practice as we enjoyed a long, leisurely ride through the town. If you’re not familiar with Celebration, it is literally the town that Disney built: Walt Disney originally had the idea to build a futuristic “City of tomorrow” alongside Disney World. Unfortunately, he passed away before he had the chance to get started, so the project was put on hold until the company revisited Walt’s dream in the 1990s. They decided to build Celebration as a sort of a classic “Anytown, USA” – a town designed with Americana aesthetics to make you feel at home, representative of the whole country. It’s really a unique place, and a great deal of thought has been put into every single detail of every building and landscape. Celebration was designed to be bike-friendly and has 10 miles of trails, and having a knowledgeable guide take us around was the perfect way to learn the fascinating history of Celebration.

#Partner Starting the Celebration Bike Tour! #MyKissimmee #iFlyAlaska #PortlandIsComing #CarolBeebJana

A post shared by Beeb Ashcroft (@beebashcroft) on Mar 23, 2017 at 1:51pm PDT

Celebration is a beautiful town and such a wonderful setting to enjoy a relaxing ride.

We also had the opportunity to see all kinds of awesome native wildlife: Many lazy alligators could be spotted lounging by the water, and I spotted one little baby gator in a drain a few feet away from where I was biking. (And you know wherever baby is, mama isn’t far behind, so I didn’t bike TOO close. 😉 ) We also got to see an Armadillo, who ran away too fast for me to get a photo. I’d never seen one in person before so it was really neat!

You don’t have to be a daily cyclist to take the Celebration Bike Tour. I had a really great time on my tour and got to see a lot of things I would have missed on foot or in a car. I also had the chance to get more comfortable on a bike, since I was literally riding the grown-up version of a bike with training wheels. 😉 Celebration Bike Rental offers all kinds of options for seeing the town on wheels, from regular and specialty bike rentals to guided tours like the one I took. I definitely recommend checking them out! And if you want a break from our dreary weather this winter, don’t forget that Alaska Airlines now offers direct flights to Orlando from PDX, so a ride in the sunshine is now a quick flight away!