Our road trip, resort hopping, HOT, HOT, HOT trip report: August 9-21, 2010

I just got back a few days ago, and while laundry waits for me, I was excited to get started on this.

We are a family of six. There is me, Jenn, my hubby, Sam, 15 year old daughter, drama queen, Lexy (or as she has taken to calling herself by her middle name this trip Ariana :lol:), 9 year old daughter and mini drama queen, Lainey, 8 year old son, Roderick, and finally 6 year old daughter, Bella.

This was our first trip ever driving. My parents drove down when I was a kid, but we have never driven as adults. I was super excited for this new adventure. Sam was really not excited at all! He kept checking every day for flight prices to see if they had dropped.

I think because of this new experience there was more drama and crankiness before the trip. Sam and I were at each other a bit. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I had this horrible mosquito bite. I had been itching it for days and on Saturday, the day we planned on leaving, it was very red and puffy looking. Really half of the back of my calf was involved. I asked Sam if he had ever seen a bug bite look like that and he said no. So we headed to the urgent care because I was worried that if it was getting infected that it would only get worse during our trip. So we spent two hours sitting around in a tiny boxlike room waiting to see a doctor for a prescription. It was crazy and not like we didn't have a million things to do. So we were snapping at each other a little, and I think at this point I didn't even want to go on the trip any more. I was ready to just scrap it. But we went home and starting throwing stuff in suitcases. Sam would have loved to been packed already but since I'm the procrastinator it wasn't done. Needless to say we were running late from our self-imposed leave time. Sam said if we were flying we would have missed the plane.

But at 10:30 at night we were finally ready to go. Here is the three little ones excited to get started. Lexy was cranky and too cool for this picture.

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I have a picture of Sam before we left, but he insisted on loading the garage with the door closed so not everyone would know we were leaving on vacation so he was hot and sweaty. :lol:

We have a 26 hour drive ahead of us without stops, be we left Saturday night because at this point we don't know if we'll want to stop and rest somewhere. We are due in on Monday the 9th and I wanted to be there right away in the morning. So here we go!
 

KnK

New Member

I got real excited when I saw both of these. The top one I go by everyday on my way to and from work. I walk that track weekly, less than a mile from my home.

The second one is almost of my work. If you'd panned just a little more to the left you'd seen my building.

I'd have waved if I knew you were on your way by!
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I got real excited when I saw both of these. The top one I go by everyday on my way to and from work. I walk that track weekly, less than a mile from my home.

The second one is almost of my work. If you'd panned just a little more to the left you'd seen my building.

I'd have waved if I knew you were on your way by!

Isn't that so funny? What I think of as exciting scenic shots, you think of as home! We did a little cheer in every big town that we went through, as one step closer to our destination! :lol:
 

margot2791

New Member
I am from Boston and we always drive down, about 22 hours for us, but never straight through! I have to give you guys a lot of credit for that. Cant wait to read the rest of the report!
 

eagles

Active Member
love it jenn!!!!!!

that death grip is so funny. :ROFLOL:

for me south carolina is the longest strength, georgia for me is only about a 2 hours drive.

more, more:sohappy:
 

UberPlannerMom

Well-Known Member
I lived in Chattanooga for a while and I have to agree with you that it has some really pretty scenery... but the truckers through that area are really horrible. There is an area called the ridgecut that causes at least one truck a week to overturn. And yet, they never learn! And, Chatty has such unhealthy air. I get sick every time I go see my in-laws now! It is just crazy!
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am from Boston and we always drive down, about 22 hours for us, but never straight through! I have to give you guys a lot of credit for that. Cant wait to read the rest of the report!

Well, we did stop for a few hours on Sunday night. The trip back we drove straight through though. We just wanted to get home!

Anxious for more! I love seeing the travel pics! One day soon, I hope to make it to Kentucky to visit my son and DIL.

I'll try to add more soon!

love it jenn!!!!!!

that death grip is so funny. :ROFLOL:

for me south carolina is the longest strength, georgia for me is only about a 2 hours drive.

more, more:sohappy:

Two hours in Georgia would be like heaven! :lol:

I lived in Chattanooga for a while and I have to agree with you that it has some really pretty scenery... but the truckers through that area are really horrible. There is an area called the ridgecut that causes at least one truck a week to overturn. And yet, they never learn! And, Chatty has such unhealthy air. I get sick every time I go see my in-laws now! It is just crazy!

Yea, the driving was pretty scary going through there. :lol: And now that you mention the air quality, I believe when we were driving through they had a message about the air quality on the radio. The lights were flashing telling us to tune in to the station. They mentioned that you shouldn't spend time outdoors if you could help it. :eek:
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So we get to Florida and now we just can't wait to get to Old Key West.

We had to stop for gas and Roddy found a stuffed croc that he thought was cool, so the kids went in to see it. Lexy, of course, was not interested.

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And before you know it, we were at OKW and checking in. I didn't do online check in, mainly because we were staying at three different resorts and I didn't know how that would work, so I just figured I would check in when we got there.

Our room was not ready, but I did think that it was pretty nice that they gave us our building number so that we could go check it out and park the car there. This was our first time having a car on property so we didn't know how it worked. I loved the tropical feel that OKW has. It is just beautiful. - just a word of wisdom, I have the hardest time deciding what pictures to include so this report will have a TON of pictures, if you're bored just keep scrolling.

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Ooh, one thing that I forgot about check in that I thought was really nice, they make balloon flowers and swords every day for kids checking in. The littles thought it was great to get to pick one out. Not that they lasted very long sitting in the car all day, but it is still a nice touch.

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mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I think you can imagine how we were done driving by that point, so it was on the bus we went. It was nice having a car to have the option of driving if we wanted, but equally nice to sit back and let disney drive at times. We found the service at OKW to be good. Probably better than Saratoga where we ended up driving more. Maybe we were just tired by that point in the trip!

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Who's ready for the magic kingdom? We are!

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Roddy loved looking for lizards.

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The kids noticed that the pavement has shells in it.

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So close now!!!!

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I don't know what possessed me to go to the magic kingdom that first day. I knew it would be a busy day, but still we went. It was PACKED! And did I mention hot? There was a huge line at guest services where I had to pick up our APs. It think it might have taken a half hour to stand in it. I don't know I might have been delirious by then. I do know that I was sweating. But, oh well, we're at the MK and we have our new APs in our hands, nothing can get us down!

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foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
Yeah for making it!!! And I see your oldest finally decided to show up in some pictures. Which by the way are fabulous what a beautiful family you have my dear.

I can't wait to read the next installment, which you totally deserved after such a long trip south!
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah for making it!!! And I see your oldest finally decided to show up in some pictures. Which by the way are fabulous what a beautiful family you have my dear.

I can't wait to read the next installment, which you totally deserved after such a long trip south!

:lol: Yes, once she got into the swing of things, Lexy was a good sport about being in pictures.

Thanks for the compliment! I promised the kids that I'd watch a movie with them tonight, but maybe after that I can get some more of day one up.
 

eagles

Active Member
love the pic with the ap's.
so after the movie, put up the next installment. i need something to read while drinking my morning coffee. :wave:
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
love the pic with the ap's.
so after the movie, put up the next installment. i need something to read while drinking my morning coffee. :wave:

I aim to please, Louella! :lol: I figured I could get some up while we are watching the movie! :D
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Alright, so now it's around noon or after and we're hungry after our long drive. I wouldn't let Sam stop for food in the morning because I knew we'd be getting two big meals at disney today. So he was really starving! We made a beeline for Columbia Harbor House.

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Ooh, that air conditioning felt good! We got into a routine of figuring out what the kids wanted and then sending them to get a table for us while Sam and I waited for the trays. With the exception of Fountainview in Epcot, it worked out really well. Although they did often find the furthest out of the way tables, and carrying trays containing six meals isn't the easiest. Oh, well, they found a fabulous table here upstairs overlooking my favorite MK ride.

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I always made Lexy take a picture of Sam and I together, but this one my hair looks so bad in. Forget the heat and humidity, but this morning at the hotel we didn't bring the suitcases in, so I had to try to blow dry it with their stupid dryer with no hair products, which resulted in pretty flat frizzy hair. But it is the first picture of me and my honey on the trip and I think we look pretty happy.

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mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yay for annual passes! How fun!

I was exhausted for you by the time you got there!:lol:

The really funny thing is that I really wasn't exhausted. I'm sure I was just operating on fumes, but I was thrilled. Now my eyes were a different story. After all the driving with only about an hour of sleep before the hotel stay, they were burning and I was having a hard time seeing through all the blur. I was wearing my glasses for the entire drive because I knew my contacts would get blurry, but I didn't realize I would still be blurry with the glasses. :eek: I tried to rest my eyes when I wasn't driving in the hopes of helping them out a bit. But after a few hours in the hotel, when Sam woke me up it was almost worse. They were stinging and feeling so tired. But I got up and put my contacts in and by the time we were there I really didn't think about them anymore.

It's really amazing. I'm exhausted now at home, but I very rarely feel tired at Disney. :lol:
 

mouselvrmom

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, after sitting and looking at it while eating, we had to go on HM after lunch.

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Now I always have to try to get this one while on the HM. Sam hates, hates, hates the bride scene. He won't look at her. So I always snap as many pictures of her as I can. Then, when looking through the pictures on the camera I inadvertantly get on one of them. He won't look at it. It's too funny. He won't even look at scrapbook pages with her on it. He says she's evil.

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After HM, we made our way to Frontierland.

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KnK

New Member
Keep it coming....you're hair looks fine. It's Disney, we are practically perfect when we are there. It's the pixie dust in the air!
 

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