Disney Christmas Trip - Day 10

We woke up early in the morning at the Holiday Inn Express and ate breakfast at the hotel before departing Florence (SC).  Our trip home was pretty easy and didn't take as long as it had to get there. Some traffic near Fayetteville, NC, caused us to detour towards Elizabeth City to finish the trip.  Great to be home after such a fun time!

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 9

It was our last day - and we wanted to try something new. We visited the Holy Land Experience theme park (arrived at 1200). It is a recreation of Jerusalem and other Biblical sites with actors playing the role of people from the First Century. There were some interesting reenactments and lots of fun for the kids. Erin got sick, so we took it easy for most of the day. Brenna and I checked out a display of old Bibles - some from the early Church. We didn't stay as long as we thought we would, but it was probably for the best. We decided to leave for home around 1700. We drove through Daytona Beach on the way - I was hoping to stop at Embry Riddle to see the campus - but we couldn't get in. The Tornado we had narrowly avoided on Christmas Day had caused significant damage. We did see the Speedway and got a little flavor of the area, but we will have to come back again some day. As we continued north, I began to get tired.  There have been times when I would have just kept going - tonight, though, I called "Uncle" as we approached Florence, South Carolina.  Fortunately, we easily found a Holiday Inn Express there and got to sleep before midnight.  We'll finish our drive home tomorrow...

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 8

We went to Epcot for the whole day today. There were plenty of interesting international experiences and we enjoyed the weather again - it is getting much cooler, though. The highlight of the day was when we were able to have dinner in Italy and then got an exclusive seat for the Disney Candlelight Procession. The performance was a narration of the Christmas story by Marlee Matalin accompanied by excellent singers. We enjoyed the event and avoided a late afternoon shower - there was a roof over our heads... Mollie was getting tired, so we returned to the condo. Nicky decided to take the twins back to the Magic Kingdom for some late night fun. It was much more crowded and very difficult to get on many rides. Still, they enjoyed themselves...

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 7

We spent the whole day at the Animal Kingdom. I think this really might be the kids' favorite place of all of the Disney Parks. We enjoyed several parades and shows and tried many of the newer rides that have been added. At the end of the day, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for one more night. As before, the night temperatures were much cooler - it scared many of the other people away, I guess. We had lots more fun this time...

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 6

We took a break from Disney today to visit Sea World. What a fun way to spend the day! Mollie had never been and was very excited to see all the animals and the dolphin/orca shows. We would never had left at all, since we were having so much fun, but the temperatures took an even steeper dive today and the kids were not dressed for the night at 40 degrees. Still, the whole day was kind of relaxing and a nice change of pace... Kids were a little cranky tonight, so it looks like an early bedtime for two, anyway. Brenna (who was acting sweet for some reason) and I sneaked out and tried Disney Quest at Downtown Disney. We were there for a long time and had fun with all the free video games and interactive entertainment.

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 5

We woke up early and went over to Epcot for another Disney Princess breakfast. Mollie was too little last time to really enjoy it. This time, the kids all had fun (it was still raining outside, so at least we were all dry!). Later, it cleared up - and the crowds still hadn't arrived. So we checked out some of the rides that are made for the older kids: "Mission Space" and "Soarin'." Brenna loved them all and I even got Erin on them, too. I took Mollie on the "Finding Nemo" ride in the evening and then I walked with the kids through the "Living Seas." It was a good day - and the rain seems to finally be gone. Temperatures are definitely going down, so I'm glad we already had our fill of Typhoon Lagoon...

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 4

We got up really early to open Christmas presents around our little purple tree (the kids insisted we bring it - I think it was purchased at the Disney store about 20 years ago...). We didn't spend a lot of time at the condo this morning - we needed to hurry so we could get to the Magic Kingdom for the Christmas festivities. Nicky had planned to watch the Christmas Parade - thinking it was on TV - but it turned out that they had filmed the broadcast version earlier in December... Oh well, the parade was still great. Mollie and I explored some of the little kid rides while the twins were with Nicky. In the end, there was a Tornado Warning and a HUGE thunderstorm (oh, and all the umbrellas were in the car...). I stood by Mollie under the only place we could stay out of the rain - but the puddles made us wet too. Mollie was wearing a Disney rain poncho (we purchased it here four years ago when it was raining during another visit) but got just as wet sloshing around... By the time we were all together in the car again, we were soaked! We made things lighter with a nice dinner at Pizzaria UNO, we went back to the condo to rest (naps were actually taken!). We realized around 1800 that it had stopped raining, so we headed back out to get some Character autographs at the Animal Kingdom. Because of the earlier wet rain, there was NOONE there at all! We had all of the rides to ourselves and had some memorable moments with Mickey, Minnie and Donald. It was a late bedtime, but we can put this Christmas near the top of the list!

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 3

Woke up rather early - wanted to take advantage of one more day of Typhoon Lagoon since the temperatures are still good. On the way, I took the kids to Orange World - the building is shaped like a giant orange ("World's Largest" - 92 feet wide, 60 feet high and 35,000 pounds)! We found some flip flops that should work at the park (wish we had them yesterday). The huge wave pool at the water park is so big it is like a huge Tsunami - scared Mollie. We enjoyed many more rides with few other guests. While we were there, we learned about the Photo Pass option - photos without a camera. We ended up with some great shots of the kids on the rides. The pass came in handy throughout the trip - lots of family pictures to share with our family. Nicky picked us up at about 1500 and we went back to the condo to unwind for a little while. Around 1800 we drove over to Winter Haven for Christmas Eve with Nicky's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Walt. It was a nice time - I always like chatting and smoking cigars with Walt. They were off to the Northeast in the morning, so we went back to the condo and actually got to bed early.

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 2

We arrived in the Orlando area at 0300. Since we hadn't planned on this scenario, we ended up with a long search for a reasonably priced hotel.  Once we found one (Quality Inn Plaza by Rosen Hotels & Resorts), we finally got a few hours of sleep. Everyone else was ready to go by 1015 and we headed towards our time-share condo at Orlando Vacation Villas in Kissimmee.  We don't (yet?) own a time share - this was a test stay - and we were hoping to take full advantage of the experience. After getting the car unpacked, we drove to Shades of Green to buy our tickets. With that completed, Nicky dropped me and the kids off at Typhoon Lagoon, one of the Disney Water Parks.  She told us it was "too cold" for her to enjoy swimming. Maybe that was true but we had SO much fun (weather at 85 degrees and hardly any people). The folks at the ticket booth gave the kids some "First Time" gear (pins, stickers) since they had never been to one of the water parks. Highlights of the day were the Family Waterslide (we did that one five times) and the "Garbage Pail" ice-cream (a sand pail full of about ten scoops and assorted toppings). Later in the day, we met up with Nicky and then drove over to MGM Studios to have dinner. We ended up eating at a place called Hollywood & Vine. Afterwards, we went to watch the "Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights" (a spectacular show - lights and music). After a few hours, the kids insisted that we try out the Magic Kingdom before bed - they are open late - so we ran over there with just enough time to stroll around before they closed. There was a night parade and some fireworks. Then we headed back to the condo. What a day!

Disney Christmas Trip - Day 1

We left Hampton Roads kind of late today because we really weren't ready for the trip. The kids got out of school at the regular time, but we didn't drive out of town until about 1700. By then, the holiday traffic was unbelievable :-(. After several detours to avoid the jams on I-95 (we paralleled the highway for quite some time on US-117), we reached an area of the Interstate where we could move. Unfortunately, the rain storm hit right after that and the drive was severely slowed again. We stopped for dinner at South of the Border ("see Pedro") and then continued all the way until the trip turned into Day 2...

Great Dismal Swamp, VA (USA)

The kids and I checked out the wildlife preserve today. It is on the Virginia-North Carolina border and actually has wild bears. We walked on a few old roads and boardwalks looking for them, but they never came out of the swamp. We did see signs of them - they like to scratch their claws on the 4X4s on the boardwalk. Later, we explored around Suffolk to see if we could find the Planters' Peanut factory - we did, but they don't do tours... Instead, drove over to Williamsburg and checked out the Great Wolf Lodge. It is a HUGE indoor water park! We tried out the "Cub Club" activities center and got information for visiting the place some time. It looks like it would be very fun around Christmas or the New Year. Had dinner at a Waffle House on the way home - both Erin and Mollie very sick after driving around in the car all day.

New Orleans, LA (USA)

[with Karl - from Norfolk (attempts to Stennis Center, MS) to Atlanta to New Orleans to Norfolk]

Jacksonville, FL (USA)

[Norfolk to Jacksonville to Camp Springs to Norfolk - with Sean]