I am proud to report that we had a wonderful trip to Florida! We put over 1800 miles on the van and, except for hitting the tail end of Nashville’s rush hour on the way home, the driving was smooth. We also had excellent weather! Here’s how the trip went (please forgive the length)....
WE LEFT EARLY on Sunday morning and drove straight through. The only time we took a major stop was to eat supper in Gainesville. We were to stay in a condo in Poinciana which is near Kissimmee and about 30 minutes south of the Disney World area. We could not have asked for three kids to travel any better!
At one point we were driving down Highway 192 (which is just south of the Disney property) and the kids were pointing out all the weird things they saw on the souvenir shops. Vicki called attention to a store with a 50 foot mermaid on the front. Jenna didn’t see it at first and asked “where?”. Pointing Vicki said, “Right there. She’s huge!” Spotting it Jenna said, “Oh, she’s VERY huge.” Without missing a beat Nate said, “She’s VERY cute, too!”
We used our timeshare points for our condo which was basically a two bedroom apartment. The room the kids stayed in had a queen bed and a love seat with a pullout single bed. We had intended for Jenna to have the single bed but when we checked on the kids before going to bed ourselves we found Ben had crowded into the bed with Jenna. It seems that Nate’s little legs have a lot of kick in them. Needless to say Nate got the pullout for the remaining nights.
A DAY AT THE BEACH. Jim took two days off work to be with us for part of our visit so we met him, Dianna, Alex and Chris at the beach on Monday. We went to the Spessard Holland South Beach Park in Melbourne Beach. The park is kept up well and there is no commercial development nearby. We had a great time playing in the sand and water.
Nate was scared of the water at first and was content to sit under an umbrella and play in the sand. Once he learned not to take his sandy hands and rub his eyes he had it made. The rest of us waded and played in the surf and the kids tried to build a sand castle but it was below the high tide line and the water took care of their efforts pretty quickly. When Nate did discover the water he was very sad to leave. Fortunately, the showers the park provides for rinsing off were a great diversion.
For supper we drove back into Orlando and met Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda at Dixie Crossroads which is in a mall near Universal Studios. We had a good time eating and visiting.
A DAY AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK. Tuesday found us at Universal’s Islands of Adventure! I think the Pteranodon Flyers was the biggest hit with all three of our kids but Jenna also liked Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall a lot. Ben had a hard time deciding which he liked best but finally settled on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls (for those who remember this is similar to Opryland’s Floom Zoom). It is also etched in his memory that the T-Rex almost ate him on the Jurassic Park River Adventure (and he refused a second ride). We all rode the Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges (this is similar to Opryland’s Grizzly River Rampage) and none of us survived it dry (except for Jim, Dianna and Nate who did not ride). Vicki, being a roller coaster connoisseur, took in all they had to offer and I think she would be hard pressed to have a favorite ride. She did say, after riding The Hulk twice, that it is a lot more fun to ride it while screaming. We are not sure if Jim has permanent hearing damage because of this.
It was here that Jenna’s penny pinching characteristics came to the surface. Before our trip we had emptied all the kids banks and rolled up the coins. Each one had $50 of spending money. Ben had already hit a souvenir shop and bought a couple of things that he wanted. Jenna simply could not let her money go. She finally did buy some candy for less than $2. Nate found it the next morning and ate just about all of it before he was discovered.
Since the park closed at 6:00 Jim and Dianna suggested we all go out to eat for supper but between three tired kids and being soaked to the bone we declined. This was a good thing because the kids were asleep before we got on the interstate and didn’t care a thing about supper when we got back to the condo and went straight to bed.
A LATE START. By Wednesday we were worn out and were very glad we didn’t have a full schedule. We stayed around the condo most of the morning and relaxed. We left at 11:00 and drove to Jim and Dianna’s house in time for lunch. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob also came over and visited a while (but not nearly long enough).
All the kids had a great time playing together (and swimming in the community pool) and the adults had a good time visiting (we saw Jim for about an hour after he got off work). I had to laugh at Nate. Jim and Dianna have a small library and in that room their boys’ large collection of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff was stored (the wooden kind with the magnetic couplers). When Nate found this he simply closed the door behind himself and started in. I later found him in the middle of the biggest mess of train cars and track, happy as a lark.
After supper we visited a bit longer and left for our condo. As we were driving out of their subdivision I heard Ben sniffling in the back. When I asked him what he was crying about he managed to whimper, “Good-byes are sad!”
ANOTHER LONG DAY ON THE ROAD. We got up early Thursday morning and hit the road. We drove with a purpose and the kids all traveled very well again. The reason we drove so hard was that we had made reservations to stay in one of the railroad cars at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and we wanted to have a little time to explore when we got there. They have a bunch of old passenger cars which have been converted into hotel rooms. This was a big hit.
After checking in we hit the gift shop, ate supper and wandered around their garden. The boys made a slalom course out of the columns that hold up the roof over the old passenger loading platforms and after being cooped up in the van all day we let them run.
SIGHTSEEING IN CHATTANOOGA. Our hotel package included tickets to several area attractions. After breakfast we visited the large model railroad that is on display at the hotel. Then we left for the Tennessee Aquarium and a film at the IMAX theatre. The film was a 3-D safari to find elephants, white rhinos, lions, leopards and Cape buffalo in southern Africa and was really good. The aquarium was also fun but since it tends to feature a lot of fresh water fish it isn’t as spectacular as the one in Gatlinburg which has all colorful, tropical, salt water fish.
When we had seen everything we had tickets for we got in the van and headed home. This was a very traumatic experience for Ben. I’m just glad he slept most of the way. We got home right after sunset.
BACK HOME, BACK IN THE FAST LANE. It is unlike the boys to sleep past 7:00 but they did yesterday morning. As a matter of fact, we all took it easy. It was at lunch that Vicki remembered that the choir retreat was that afternoon. Choir members had to be there at 3:00 to hear and practice the upcoming Christmas musical. While they were rehearsing the kids and I went up to Steve and Connie Freeland’s to try out their corn maze. Then we joined the family pot luck supper at 5:30.
All in all I’d say we’ve had a great Fall Break.
Joe
