Back home! :)
We arrived back home from our vacation this afternoon. We had a really nice time -- the weather cooperated amazingly well (other than a couple chilly days at the very end) and, other than a recurring cold virus (of course Typhoid Donny started sneezing in the car on the way to the airport!), there were no disasters to deal with. Yay. :)
BTW, Very Big News (if you are six years old) -- Donny lost his first tooth while we were there. :) He is, needless to say, extremely excited about it. And when I say excited, I mean he has been telling everyone -- and I mean everyone -- he could make eye contact with (and many whom he couldn't) about it. There are now numerous strangers in Tampa Bay, Florida, including most of the wait-staff in a certain Busch Gardens restaurant and airline workers in the Tampa airport, who have ooh'ed and ahh'ed over his new gap. ;)
The trip was quite nice, and the kids had a great time.
Day 1 -- Flying out. I was a little apprehensive about flying alone with the kids, but it all went fairly smoothly. The biggest stress was checking in at the Indy airport, since the e-check computer told me to see an attendant to check in (it turned out Donny's ticket wasn't attached to mine for some reason and couldn't be checked in via computer), but the only person working there was handling International flights and was really backed up. We finally got checked in, only to find out that they had spread us out in single seats throughout the plane on the first leg of the flight. With kids? Um, no. The gate attendants were all friendly and sympathetic, but the bottom line was "you'll have to work it out on the plane". Luckily, the people in seats around us were also very friendly and sympathetic, and I was able to just swap everyone around with very little trouble. The rest of the trip went smoothly, however, and my in-laws were there at the Miami airport to meet us and drive us over to the condo we were staying in.
The condo was nice -- it was one of those large, sprawling time-share vacation complexes, with multiple swimming pools, planned activities, and nicely appointed units. Ours was a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, with two living areas (one of which Amy slept in), a kitchen/dining area, and a balcony. It was about 20 miles inland, actually closer to Ft. Lauderdale than Miami, and made for a nice central home base for our various activities.
Day 2 -- Florida Keys. We spent the morning getting acclimated and swimming in the pool, then drove US-1 all the way to Key West for dinner. It was a bit of a hike -- about 4 hours each way -- but it was something I've always wanted to do, so I was very pleased. (For Donny, it was a good news/bad news thing -- he was really suffering from his cold, but that meant he slept most of the way there, was up for a few hours, then slept most of the way back. I felt a little bad for dragging him all over when he was sick, but if he was going to sleep all day anyway, he might as well do in the car where the rest of us could get a trip in, right? ;)) After dinner, we walked around the waterfront area, watching the street performers and enjoying the sunset, then drove back in the dark. A low-key evening in many ways, but it gave us a nice taste of the area. I'd like to go back with Jim someday and do it properly.
Day 3 -- Everglades. More swimming and relaxing in the morning, then we spent the afternoon at "Shark Valley", a section of the Everglades National Park. We took a guided tram tour around that area of the park, where we saw lots of alligators and other wildlife. Cool stuff!
Day 4 -- Miami Seaquarium. This is a small Seaworld-type place out on one of the little islands near downtown Miami. We walked around through the various exhibits, and took in a couple shows (Donny, that night on the phone: "Dad, we got splashed by a real live Orca!!!" *g*) and just basically had a good time. Finally feeling better, Donny, especially, was beside himself with delight. :)
Day 5 -- The Beach. Neither of the kids had ever gone swimming in the ocean before, so we drove out to Deerfield Beach, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. The water was wonderful and Amy and I spent a long time swimming and hanging out. Donny swam for a bit, but once he discovered that a mouthful of ocean water tastes very different from a mouthful of swimming pool water ("Yech!!"), he was happier on the beach digging in the sand. Amy got a bit sunburned (life lesson -- if you can't reach your back with the sunscreen, ask for help), but overall, it was a great day.
Day 6 -- Driving to Orlando. A transition day ... an easy morning, followed by a drive up to Orlando for the next part of our trip. We checked into our hotel in time for an early dinner, then spent the evening at the pool and playground, then went to bed early in anticipation of ...
Day 7 -- Disney World! The original plan was that I would take Donny to the Magic Kingdom (the original park in WDW and what I remember from when I was a kid), my in-laws would go to Epcot, and Amy would split her day between the two. What ended up happening is that I spent most of the day with both kids at the MK (Amy really wanted to go, even if it meant going on mostly "kid rides"), then we all went back to our hotel for an early dinner and some rest, then went back to the MK for the night-time fireworks. Amy spent an hour or two at Epcot in the evening, then rode the monorail back to the MK by herself to meet me & Donny for the fireworks -- the things one can do at almost 12 years old!
The kids were on their absolute best behavior all day, so maybe there really is something magical about Disney World. *g* Even waiting in line wasn't all that bad -- to my surprise, Donny was really good and there was next to no whining. They have awnings set up for shade in the lines, and the lines moved along pretty well; only once did we have to wait for longer than 45 minutes -- most waits were in the 15-30 minute range. For the most popular rides, they also have "Fast Passes", which you can sign up for once every 2 hours -- basically, you reserve a time to return, usually a couple hours ahead of time, then can go to the front of the line. They are a big help, especially if you figure out how they work early on and can take advantage of them. (I didn't, but a woman waiting near us in line explained it to us after lunch, which was very helpful.) All in all, we covered the park pretty well, hitting most of the things the kids were interested in. (And yes, Donny loved "It's A Small World", but we only went on it once. *g*)
Coming back for the fireworks was one of those things that seemed like it would be a pain, but it turned out to be well worth it. They don't last long -- maybe 10-15 minutes -- but they were pretty nice. They're choreographed to music while Jiminy Cricket narrates over the loudspeaker. It sounds hokey, but it was actually really neat -- I was mainly doing it for the kids, but when they started playing "When You Wish Upon A Star", I felt like I was in freakin' Disney commercial, LOL. All in all, a lot of great memories for the kids, no question.
Day 8 -- Busch Gardens. This was the only disappointment of the trip, though it's hard to say how much of that was the park and how much was just that we were all tired and ready for some downtime. We flew out of the Tampa airport, so we'd driven there in the morning, then went to BG in the afternoon. This was also the one time that I got really frustrated with my MIL (which, if you knew my MIL, you'd be very proud of my restraint ;)) because I'd been saying over and over (and over) that we wanted to have a low-key final day, that I wanted the kids to get to bed early (because Donny was up hours past his bedtime the night before), etc. From almost the time we got there, the kids were saying they were ready to leave ... and I would have been happy to accommodate them.
Granted, we did find a few fun things to do later on -- my in-laws took Donny to this kiddie playground while I took Amy to a bird show -- but for the most part, I felt like the park was trying to be two things at once, and neither really well. My understanding of Busch Gardens was that they had a nice zoo-like component, but it felt to me like they hadn't kept that part up well -- we waited over an hour (longer than any line at WDW!) to ride the train to see the animals, yet there were only about 10 different types, many of which we could barely see. There were, however, several fancy roller-coasters in the park, which we heard as much, if not more, about on our "tour". (If one were a coaster person, however, I would think you'd want to check them out -- a couple, in particular, looked really impressive!)
Now even all of this would have been OK if we'd just left at 6 pm, the way we tried to. Except then my MIL decided we should have dinner at the park "so we don't have to go back out again after we get to the hotel". And she insisted that we visit a more upscale restaurant she'd been to there several years ago -- one on the opposite side of the park from where we were, and one at which we had to wait 45 minutes to be seated in. So we sat outside, trying to keep warm (since the temps had dropped quite a bit by this point) and trying to keep the kids from losing it, until they called us. And in truth, the dinner itself was very nice, or would have been if I'd actually felt like eating more than a taste of it.
After all this, we didn't even get back to the car until 8:45 pm (past when I wanted the kids asleep!), where we still had to figure out where our hotel was with vague directions, drive the several miles there in the dark, drag everything to the room, get the kids in bed (Donny fell asleep in the car and had to be slept-walked up the stairs), then repack all the suitcases and carry-ons for the morning plane ride (all while my MIL kept coming in with more items that we "should take with us"). I finally got to bed a little before midnight, knowing the alarm would be going off before sunrise. I survived, but not before calling my husband to vent about his mother. ;) (Note: Nothing I told him was a surprise and he was quite sympathetic. ;))
Day 9 -- Flying Home. Up at 6:30 am, continental breakfast at the hotel by 7:15 am (the kids were really hard to wake up), then to the airport by 8 am. Check-in went smoothly this time, though we had a bit of a hike down to our terminal. Flight left at 9 am, but on the plus side, our connecting flight's gate was practically next to our incoming gate, which saved a ton of time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of turbulence and Donny got airsick a couple times, but other than that, it all went pretty smoothly. (Can you tell I'm used to kids who get carsick that such a thing doesn't even phase me?) Oh, except for the fact that, once again, on our connection back to Indy, we were spread out in single seats all over the plane -- though this time, she fixed it in the computer and I didn't have to ask people to swap seats by myself. Oy, why couldn't they have just done that in the first place?
So now I'm back home and relaxing. Donny's tooth is under his pillow (so exciting! :D) I had 75 real emails and 580 spam emails to go through, and will have at least a few loads of laundry to get to tomorrow.
On the plus side, I downloaded the first two episodes of DW S3, as well as both Confidentials, and Amy and I watched "Smith and Jones" (the first ep) before she went to bed. I'm tempted to watch the second ep myself tonight, just so I can start going through my f-list without being spoiled, but it might need to wait until tomorrow. It was great to have something fun to look forward to, though! Made coming home after a great vacation almost worth it. :D
BTW, Very Big News (if you are six years old) -- Donny lost his first tooth while we were there. :) He is, needless to say, extremely excited about it. And when I say excited, I mean he has been telling everyone -- and I mean everyone -- he could make eye contact with (and many whom he couldn't) about it. There are now numerous strangers in Tampa Bay, Florida, including most of the wait-staff in a certain Busch Gardens restaurant and airline workers in the Tampa airport, who have ooh'ed and ahh'ed over his new gap. ;)
The trip was quite nice, and the kids had a great time.
Day 1 -- Flying out. I was a little apprehensive about flying alone with the kids, but it all went fairly smoothly. The biggest stress was checking in at the Indy airport, since the e-check computer told me to see an attendant to check in (it turned out Donny's ticket wasn't attached to mine for some reason and couldn't be checked in via computer), but the only person working there was handling International flights and was really backed up. We finally got checked in, only to find out that they had spread us out in single seats throughout the plane on the first leg of the flight. With kids? Um, no. The gate attendants were all friendly and sympathetic, but the bottom line was "you'll have to work it out on the plane". Luckily, the people in seats around us were also very friendly and sympathetic, and I was able to just swap everyone around with very little trouble. The rest of the trip went smoothly, however, and my in-laws were there at the Miami airport to meet us and drive us over to the condo we were staying in.
The condo was nice -- it was one of those large, sprawling time-share vacation complexes, with multiple swimming pools, planned activities, and nicely appointed units. Ours was a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, with two living areas (one of which Amy slept in), a kitchen/dining area, and a balcony. It was about 20 miles inland, actually closer to Ft. Lauderdale than Miami, and made for a nice central home base for our various activities.
Day 2 -- Florida Keys. We spent the morning getting acclimated and swimming in the pool, then drove US-1 all the way to Key West for dinner. It was a bit of a hike -- about 4 hours each way -- but it was something I've always wanted to do, so I was very pleased. (For Donny, it was a good news/bad news thing -- he was really suffering from his cold, but that meant he slept most of the way there, was up for a few hours, then slept most of the way back. I felt a little bad for dragging him all over when he was sick, but if he was going to sleep all day anyway, he might as well do in the car where the rest of us could get a trip in, right? ;)) After dinner, we walked around the waterfront area, watching the street performers and enjoying the sunset, then drove back in the dark. A low-key evening in many ways, but it gave us a nice taste of the area. I'd like to go back with Jim someday and do it properly.
Day 3 -- Everglades. More swimming and relaxing in the morning, then we spent the afternoon at "Shark Valley", a section of the Everglades National Park. We took a guided tram tour around that area of the park, where we saw lots of alligators and other wildlife. Cool stuff!
Day 4 -- Miami Seaquarium. This is a small Seaworld-type place out on one of the little islands near downtown Miami. We walked around through the various exhibits, and took in a couple shows (Donny, that night on the phone: "Dad, we got splashed by a real live Orca!!!" *g*) and just basically had a good time. Finally feeling better, Donny, especially, was beside himself with delight. :)
Day 5 -- The Beach. Neither of the kids had ever gone swimming in the ocean before, so we drove out to Deerfield Beach, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. The water was wonderful and Amy and I spent a long time swimming and hanging out. Donny swam for a bit, but once he discovered that a mouthful of ocean water tastes very different from a mouthful of swimming pool water ("Yech!!"), he was happier on the beach digging in the sand. Amy got a bit sunburned (life lesson -- if you can't reach your back with the sunscreen, ask for help), but overall, it was a great day.
Day 6 -- Driving to Orlando. A transition day ... an easy morning, followed by a drive up to Orlando for the next part of our trip. We checked into our hotel in time for an early dinner, then spent the evening at the pool and playground, then went to bed early in anticipation of ...
Day 7 -- Disney World! The original plan was that I would take Donny to the Magic Kingdom (the original park in WDW and what I remember from when I was a kid), my in-laws would go to Epcot, and Amy would split her day between the two. What ended up happening is that I spent most of the day with both kids at the MK (Amy really wanted to go, even if it meant going on mostly "kid rides"), then we all went back to our hotel for an early dinner and some rest, then went back to the MK for the night-time fireworks. Amy spent an hour or two at Epcot in the evening, then rode the monorail back to the MK by herself to meet me & Donny for the fireworks -- the things one can do at almost 12 years old!
The kids were on their absolute best behavior all day, so maybe there really is something magical about Disney World. *g* Even waiting in line wasn't all that bad -- to my surprise, Donny was really good and there was next to no whining. They have awnings set up for shade in the lines, and the lines moved along pretty well; only once did we have to wait for longer than 45 minutes -- most waits were in the 15-30 minute range. For the most popular rides, they also have "Fast Passes", which you can sign up for once every 2 hours -- basically, you reserve a time to return, usually a couple hours ahead of time, then can go to the front of the line. They are a big help, especially if you figure out how they work early on and can take advantage of them. (I didn't, but a woman waiting near us in line explained it to us after lunch, which was very helpful.) All in all, we covered the park pretty well, hitting most of the things the kids were interested in. (And yes, Donny loved "It's A Small World", but we only went on it once. *g*)
Coming back for the fireworks was one of those things that seemed like it would be a pain, but it turned out to be well worth it. They don't last long -- maybe 10-15 minutes -- but they were pretty nice. They're choreographed to music while Jiminy Cricket narrates over the loudspeaker. It sounds hokey, but it was actually really neat -- I was mainly doing it for the kids, but when they started playing "When You Wish Upon A Star", I felt like I was in freakin' Disney commercial, LOL. All in all, a lot of great memories for the kids, no question.
Day 8 -- Busch Gardens. This was the only disappointment of the trip, though it's hard to say how much of that was the park and how much was just that we were all tired and ready for some downtime. We flew out of the Tampa airport, so we'd driven there in the morning, then went to BG in the afternoon. This was also the one time that I got really frustrated with my MIL (which, if you knew my MIL, you'd be very proud of my restraint ;)) because I'd been saying over and over (and over) that we wanted to have a low-key final day, that I wanted the kids to get to bed early (because Donny was up hours past his bedtime the night before), etc. From almost the time we got there, the kids were saying they were ready to leave ... and I would have been happy to accommodate them.
Granted, we did find a few fun things to do later on -- my in-laws took Donny to this kiddie playground while I took Amy to a bird show -- but for the most part, I felt like the park was trying to be two things at once, and neither really well. My understanding of Busch Gardens was that they had a nice zoo-like component, but it felt to me like they hadn't kept that part up well -- we waited over an hour (longer than any line at WDW!) to ride the train to see the animals, yet there were only about 10 different types, many of which we could barely see. There were, however, several fancy roller-coasters in the park, which we heard as much, if not more, about on our "tour". (If one were a coaster person, however, I would think you'd want to check them out -- a couple, in particular, looked really impressive!)
Now even all of this would have been OK if we'd just left at 6 pm, the way we tried to. Except then my MIL decided we should have dinner at the park "so we don't have to go back out again after we get to the hotel". And she insisted that we visit a more upscale restaurant she'd been to there several years ago -- one on the opposite side of the park from where we were, and one at which we had to wait 45 minutes to be seated in. So we sat outside, trying to keep warm (since the temps had dropped quite a bit by this point) and trying to keep the kids from losing it, until they called us. And in truth, the dinner itself was very nice, or would have been if I'd actually felt like eating more than a taste of it.
After all this, we didn't even get back to the car until 8:45 pm (past when I wanted the kids asleep!), where we still had to figure out where our hotel was with vague directions, drive the several miles there in the dark, drag everything to the room, get the kids in bed (Donny fell asleep in the car and had to be slept-walked up the stairs), then repack all the suitcases and carry-ons for the morning plane ride (all while my MIL kept coming in with more items that we "should take with us"). I finally got to bed a little before midnight, knowing the alarm would be going off before sunrise. I survived, but not before calling my husband to vent about his mother. ;) (Note: Nothing I told him was a surprise and he was quite sympathetic. ;))
Day 9 -- Flying Home. Up at 6:30 am, continental breakfast at the hotel by 7:15 am (the kids were really hard to wake up), then to the airport by 8 am. Check-in went smoothly this time, though we had a bit of a hike down to our terminal. Flight left at 9 am, but on the plus side, our connecting flight's gate was practically next to our incoming gate, which saved a ton of time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of turbulence and Donny got airsick a couple times, but other than that, it all went pretty smoothly. (Can you tell I'm used to kids who get carsick that such a thing doesn't even phase me?) Oh, except for the fact that, once again, on our connection back to Indy, we were spread out in single seats all over the plane -- though this time, she fixed it in the computer and I didn't have to ask people to swap seats by myself. Oy, why couldn't they have just done that in the first place?
So now I'm back home and relaxing. Donny's tooth is under his pillow (so exciting! :D) I had 75 real emails and 580 spam emails to go through, and will have at least a few loads of laundry to get to tomorrow.
On the plus side, I downloaded the first two episodes of DW S3, as well as both Confidentials, and Amy and I watched "Smith and Jones" (the first ep) before she went to bed. I'm tempted to watch the second ep myself tonight, just so I can start going through my f-list without being spoiled, but it might need to wait until tomorrow. It was great to have something fun to look forward to, though! Made coming home after a great vacation almost worth it. :D