I skipped out on the last two days of blogging. To be honest I needed some time to do nothing! Occasionally I will get to that point. I let the kids sleep in Thursday and I cleaned up the condo, did all our laundry, started the packing process, and spent my time all by myself. We went swimming at the condo pool and visited the park in the late afternoon and evening. My photo taking slowed down and I really tried to soak in the memories first hand. Here are a few pics of it all:
Morning view from the balconyOur walk back from the pool we had to ourselvesWildlife to observe while we waited in line for a drink Second time for ET, convinced Noah to ride with us Last time walking out of the parksAda playing in sand at Discovery CoveForced smile on a grumpy morning “for me and memories sake”Our sand hut atop a mountainMore wildlifeLeaving the condo for the long trip home
Discovery Cove was amazing! No real photos as the phone was in the locker most of the day due to so much time out in the water. We went around in the wind away river several times, floating through the aviary and the otter and marmoset areas. We played and swam with a 60 year old dolphin named Capricorn. And we absolutely loved snorkeling in the Grand Reef, watching giant sting rays bigger than our whole bodies glide right under us, tropical fish longer than my arm in all colors and designs, and huge schools of fish. All this might have been my favorite part of the trip and something the kids likely will never forget.
Sadly we didn’t know to take our goggles and snorkels to the front at the end and turned them in, finding out right before leaving they get to take their snorkels home as a souvenir if they want. I got on Amazon last night though and they will have a surprise of new goggles and snorkels on the porch when we get home. They are going on a beach vacation to South Carolina in four days after we get home so they should be able to use them.
Now it is one more day of driving and back to normal life, for me at least. I feel so blessed to have my job that affords me this much time away from work and the money to give these experiences to my kids. God really has been so good to me this last year, even when I didn’t understand and things looked worrisome. I think that might be the topic of my next blog.
I have been grateful to have something to write about this last week. And grateful to everyone who has followed along. If you like what you see, I would encourage you to share my blog from my blog page! Til next time!
Day two on the road. Today we travelled from Jackson, MS to our arrival at Celebration, FL. Our day started out with a great warm breakfast at the hotel.
Both flavors were great
We packed up, did a few extra sweeps of both rooms and got on the road just before 8am. Today was our long day on the road, estimated at 10 and a half hours. We returned to the same scenery of tall trees towering on each side of the road.
I turned on Imagine Dragons once more while the kids got settled into their electronics. Pretty soon we were out of Mississippi and into Alabama. Here around Mobile, we caught our first glimpse of the Gulf. Hit some traffic and had a quick detour through town and across a pretty cool bridge. My kids snapped pics of the bridge and a very cool Alabama battleship (will add visual when they wake up).
At the three and a half hour mark, we crossed the border into Florida and noticed a few taller palm trees along our route. We saw and nearly missed darker storm clouds with lightning to our north.
Traffic slowed some during the downpour of rain. My son put away his laptop and paid attention. I remember being a kid and always paying close attention when my parents would drive through heavy rain, like my watching was making them see better. Thankfully, my car faired well in the first real test of heavy rain.
It was wild to go from sunshine to pounding rain and back to sunshine. I noticed this rain didn’t have much wind to it like in Oklahoma, and fell straight down in buckets. A few times sun shone on the road from the west as clouds and rain were directly over us.
The rain cleared up and we decided unanimously to delay our journey for the opportunity to walk in the ocean at Pensacola. The tide was high but the sand was white and not scorching to our feet.
Happy to be out of the carShe loved the water, wanting to jump in and stay.Right before a big waveI couldn’t see my screen in the sunlight so took this blind. Dang flip flop!
Returning to the car with sand covered feet and weighed down by pockets of interesting shells and rocks (Ada’s doing of course), we cleaned off with one of our beach towels and made a quick pit stop before being back on our way.
The kids made a great discovery at this gas station of 10 feet long charger cords, one for the iPad and one for the jet pack. Taking some souvenir money, we spent $20 and added comfort to the rest of our trip.
The rest of our journey was eventful with construction delays and one truck wreck that delayed our trip about an hour altogether. Building boredom and anticipation prompted putting on a movie around 4 and a half hours left to go.
We watched The Amazing Spider-Man from my phone mounted on the dash. I listened along while focusing on the heavy traffic. It certainly did the trick and made time go by quickly. With and hour and a half left, we started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Both happen to be related to Universal as there is a Spider-Man ride and the Chocolate Emporium just outside the park. We plan to try and stop by for some Wonka bars.
Our movie ended with five minutes left to go. Nightfall had set in and with the time change, it was now 9:15pm. The town of Celebration is a destination to itself, with quirky and quaint sites to see. We walked up to the condo located just above Celebration Tavern and successfully gained entry. Got everything from the car in a single trip and set the thermostat to cool.
Quickly, I found out nearly all good places had closed or were soon closing. I switched my search to fast food and found a McDonald’s a couple miles away. I left and had a very silent drive to pick up much needed food. It really hit the spot for all of us.
We turned on Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+ in our Disney themed condo while we ate and decided on our sleeping arrangements. As kids went to take showers and baths, the rain returned as though it was following us. It was torrential downpour and had me questioning the flimsy emergency ponchos I bought for the trip.
The rain was very heavy but the heat held strong
We pulled out the hide-a-bed downstairs for Noah, prayed, and I left all organization of things to take to the next day. We were wiped out. Surreal feeling being here already even though it was such a long journey. Feeling absolutely blessed to be having this experience with my kids.
For Christmas, in lieu of presents and with my kids’ blessing, I instead pooled the Christmas money with vacation savings for an epic vacation. It had been four years since our 3 day Disney World trip so I wanted to make it count. The kids had no idea where it was we were going until Christmas so there was still an element of surprise.
I wrapped a countdown timer carefully set to go off at 8am June 4th. I put the timer counting down the seconds into the box and wrapped it with Harry Potter themed wrapping paper. I thought it would be a dead giveaway but eventually had to tell them we were headed to Universal Studios in Florida in 167 days. Let the excitement begin!
Mid-Spring I did have to add an hour to the timer due to daylight Savings time, but other than that the timer was spot on. It sat in our living room as a constant reminder and anticipation built as the number became smaller and smaller. We had a movie marathon weekend of Harry Potter and then started reading a few chapters a night of the Harry Potter book series. That might have been the most exciting part of this whole vacation, before it even happened.
Picturesque clouds from Louisiana
I planned meticulously, purchased tickets and made lodging plans. I budgeted and saved, and decided on an all cash envelope system for food, gas, and souvenirs. We made it out the door as the countdown hit zero. First big hiccup was realizing while the charger from my son’s Occulus did charge the Mifi jet pack, the other side connection was also a USB-C and would not charge in the car. We were working with limited juice.
The kids graciously accepted this fact and we were on our way. We listened to Imagine Dragons on Spotify for about ten minutes before switching over to finishing up some episodes of the Great British Baking Competition. Noah had a brief interlude of playing Gumball’s “We’re on our way” song which had us all cracking up.
Switching back to music, we spent a long time in Texas, getting gas and Chick fil A on the other side of Dallas. I happened to pick the one exit under construction for miles and made a quick detour through the Wal-mart parking lot to get to the restaurant. Glad I adjust the gas budget to include more for this trip as average prices are around $4.50/gallon right now.
Our second stop for gas and bathroom breaks was outside Shreveport Louisiana. The drive through the trees was beautiful. I needed a little more active listening, so I switched Spotify over to NF while Noah logged onto this laptop for Minecraft and watching livestream of the Fortnite live season finale event. Ada alternated between her app to document all the different license plates we saw, games, and sleeping. We have found 26 states so far!
Just as we were about to cross the Mississippi, Noah and I heard a loud pop like the side of a pop can popping out in the trash can. A minute later, Noah noticed a small bullseye crack on the windshield on the passenger side. I knew we would have a few not-so-great things happen, so this was one of them. I called my Dad and confirmed it would be okay for the rest of my trip and I could deal with it back home.
Coming into Mississippi after crossing the River
The scenery got even better after the Mississippi River. Our GPS said under 30 minutes and our jet pack finally started beeping low battery. The Wifi held up until the end of our day though, so we weren’t deterred with the charger cord fiasco. We made it to our hotel room, ordered pizza for delivery and turned on the TV to find Jurassic Park playing.
Ada snuggling in after a long day driving Noah connecting to the internet and games at the hotel
After some yummy Pizza and cheese sticks from Pizza Hut, we changed and headed down to the pool. The water was warm and the pool wasn’t in the direct sunlight. When we arrived there was only one other boy and his mother in the pool. Noah managed to get my sun hat off and dunk me. We splashed until a truce and then dunked until another truce. Ada and I floated on our backs. I got out and let the kids play some more and got some great pictures.
Ada challenging Noah though the truce had already been madeVacation has begun finally!I love how they love each other completely!
Soon a couple of families with small children came and the pool was getting crowded. I convinced the children to end our swimming without much opposition, though Ada would have stayed hours. We came back to the room and saw Secrets of Dumbledore was playing. Ada called the first to change and slid the barn-style bathroom door shut. When she came out she struggled with the weight of the door when the entire door fell off the track and came crashing down on the wall across from the bathroom.
Noah and I together were able to lift up the extremely heavy door and get the wheels back on the track. I realized that one wheel was very loose whenever the door was shut to the bathroom. We finished changing without closing the door again and I went down to the front desk to let him know of the damages and what happened.
The front desk attendant was great and wished he could have comped our room for the night but I had already paid. In fact, I used my one reward night from booking ten hotel nights through Hotels.com so I had only paid $30. In place of that, he moved us to two neighboring king size suites. We spent the rest of the evening in one watching the movie and relaxing, and then I prayed and said goodnight to the kids in the other. This worked out well so I could stay up a bit later (though not much later as I was exhausted from nine hours driving) and wake up at my usual time of 4 hours after I go to sleep.
And so you find me here, on the couch of my spacious room at 4am excited to blog about our trip! We did pretty good on gas budget but food budget was a bit skimpy as I was trying to save most on travel days. I may adjust some from souvenirs budget to cover the difference.
Now to see how long I will wait in the quiet of this early morning to wake the kids and make the second leg of our journey to Celebration, Florida!
4daystil 