Travels to the South

Every other year since Leah was 3, we've gone to Disney.  I try to save up each month a little bit and by the end, I have enough for a nice trip. When I've had exchange students staying with us, I had an unblemished record of 100% travels to DisneyWorld, with both Penny and Ine getting to go.  I wasn't about to let that change for Astrid, so I spoke with her parents who generously contributed to our trip!  I scheduled it for Astrid's winter break, which coincided with a half day at Leah's school, so she didn't miss an entire week.  I was hoping it would snow like crazy that week so we could laugh our way south, but we never really got a winter here in VA this year. 

I woke the girls up early on Saturday to get in the car, promising them they both could sleep more on the way.  I wanted to get to Georgia early so we could visit the beautiful city of Savannah and still get to enjoy time at the beach on Tybee Island.  Astrid's favorite movie is Forrest Gump and I wanted her to be able to see where Forrest sat on his bench and talked with the people while waiting for the bus.  The bench has long since been removed for preservation purposes.  I also wanted to take the girls for lunch at The Pirate House, which is a cool restaurant in Savannah that my parents used to take me to when I was a kid.  Consequently, we left around 5AM.  We stopped at each welcome center for each state we went to, as I knew we wouldn't be heading south again and it was important to get pictures :)

Leah and Astrid were both barely awake, so this was not a favorite activity of theirs, but they both played along. 

We hit Savannah around 1:30pm and went straight to the Pirate House.  There was only about a 15 minute wait and we had fun posing with and as pirates while waiting for our lunch.  The Pirate's House has been in operation since 1753 and was even mentioned in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.The food was great and they had a Girl Scout cookie baking contest, so we got free cupcakes!

Afterwards, we headed down to Chippewa Square to see Forrest's bus stop.  There was a wedding taking pictures and lots of people milling around, but we still got a great parking spot and spent some time wandering and looking at what little there was to see.  I got a picture of the girls on the square.  We even confirmed with the phone to make sure we were in the right place!  Astrid hadn't remembered the statue and such, but of course the movie was filmed 20+ years ago and much has changed.

Afterwards, we drove out to Tybee Island to spend the day at the beach.  I have been suffering lack-of-beach-time-itis and this was a great opportunity to show Astrid the lighthouse and then for the three of us to just chill.  We dropped our car off at the parking area, took a quick look at the light, and then headed down to have fun in the sand and surf.  Leah didn't even care, she was in that water in a flash!  We took walks, collected seashells, laid out in the sun, it was amazing.  It was sad to leave when the sun started to set.

I felt just great afterwards, so relaxed and happy!!  On our way out of town, we stopped at Sonic for dinner and got tots and dogs and drinks, and then found our hotel.  I had booked the place online and it got TERRIBLE reviews.  I was so tired and chill that although I was nervous, I didn't totally care.  but in reality, it was OK.  Certainly not the worst place I've ever stayed in.  We all crashed pretty hard and when we woke up the next morning, we enjoyed a free breakfast, checked out and were on our way.  Less than two hours later, we were in the Sunshine State!  We stopped for the obligatory picture (we didn't get Georgia till we were on the way back) and then hit the vending machines only to discover that SURPRISE!  There was Crystal Pepsi in there.  not sure if that's making a comeback, but I got a bottle for the girls to try.  It's VERY sweet.  I hadn't missed it at all.  But I guess they liked it.  Leah drank it, primarily.  Maybe it's better if you're a kid!

We stopped off at a Walmart to get provisions for our meals--the food at Disney is crazy expensive, so we usually have breakfast in our room and brownbag one meal while dining one meal per day on the property at whichever park we happen to find ourselves.  Astrid wanted a new bathing suit, which she got and she hit the make up aisle while Leah and I grabbed fruit, yogurt, sandwich stuff, lunchables, water, sodas, and snacks.  Then we headed down to our resort, and happily missed much of the Daytona 500 traffic that was pouring in the same day.  We stopped off at Steak N Shake for lunch.  Astrid said she wasn't hungry and ordered off the kids' menu, but as soon as she took one bite, she said, "This tastes like America!" and proceeded to eat half of Leah's burger and my fries. LOL I had gotten the girls each an adventure bag with goodies to keep them entertained in the car for the long ride, and they included sunglasses.  Astrid forgot her sunglasses at Steak N Shake, and I drove the wrong way down the highway (east instead of west), so we had to double back and see Kenny the Burger Boy, as we dubbed him, who had been holding Astrid's sunglasses in the event of her return!  We were a big fan of Kenny the Burger Boy.

After all this fun and games, we headed to the resort and just as we were arriving, we got a text that our room was ready.  SO COOL!  We unloaded all our stuff and hit the pool for a relaxing afternoon, even though it was a little cool.  Afterwards, we explored for a while to get our bearings of the resort and then we headed to dinner at the resort's cafeteria.  Some people offered to take a family picture, which was fun.  Then Astrid and I split a lasagna and we were done for the evening, time for sleep, because the next day, it was time to go to EPCOT!

We were up bright and early and ate breakfast in our room and headed over to the park.  We had some fast passes, most notably for Mission to Mars, which I had been on once and was totally freaked out about, Living off the Land, and I think the Journey to Imagination, though I can't remember.  We had a wonderful day--we rode Mission to Mars twice, the first time on the easy setting, the second time full tilt, spinning us in circles, screaming, hair flying excitement.  I think we went on Spaceship Earth 3 times so we could try different endings with the computers and had a great time tasting different sodas from around the world, just having fun. 

We stayed for a good part of the day, then went back to the hotel to relax, intending to spend the afternoon at the pool before going back to EPCOT for dinner.  Unfortunately when we arrived, we discovered that our room had flooded.  I called housekeeping to find out what was going on, as the carpets were soaked and huge industrial fans were blowing everything around.  They let us know that we were going to switch rooms, and we would get an upgrade.  Frankly, that didn't happen--the room we got transferred to was exactly the same as the first room we'd been in, only we were on a lower floor and closer to the parking lot.  It turned into a major headache as our bands didn't work on the doors, and I had to get them re-keyed and by the time we were done, we had about 10 minutes for Leah to swim before we had to be back at EPCOT for our FastPass for the new Frozen ride, as well as our dinner reservation.  She did NOT take it well, to put it mildly.  It was all-in-all a headache I could have done without. 

However, we calmed her down and went back to the park, having dropped off our gear and getting one of our three keys to work.  The new Frozen ride at EPCOT has taken the place of the Maelstrom in Norway at the World Pavillion and I really miss the Maelstrom, as it was a favorite ride.  However, the Frozen ride is absolutely beautiful and very moving.  It takes you on a journey through the movie and I really enjoyed it.  We discovered Anna and Elsa have been moved over there as well for the meet N greet, unlike when they were at the Magic Kingdom.  The wait was only 20 minutes, versus 2 hours at MK, so I decided we'd come back for that on our second day at that park.  We went and rode the Rio del Tiempo ride in the Mexico pavillion and then headed to Japan to have dinner.  Astrid is an absolute sushi fiend, so we had booked a reservation at a sushi place there--not something I would have ordinarily picked.  The people working in that pavillion were extraordinarily polite. It was literally an amazing experience just based on the manners and mannerisms of the waiters and hostesses.  Dinner was very good--both girls ordered sushi and Leah's was delivered in a monorail dish.  I got a noodle dish that I couldn't finish and both girls dived into that, as our lunch of PB&J had long since worn off and everyone was HUNGRY.

The food was delicious and incredible.  What an awesome experience, I'm glad I listened to Astrid! :-)

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.  We stopped off at the fire station to get our playing cards for the little interactive game they have, and then, as we had fast passes for Peter Pan's Flight, one of the classic rides that quickly fills up and can involve a 2+ hour wait, we headed there and enjoyed our ride.  We rode the Haunted Mansion, Small World, Space Mountain, Little Mermaid, all kinds of good stuff, but it was VERY crowded as there had been a marathon or something that week and the EPCOT Flower festival was that week, so there were a lot of people around, much more than I'm used to in February, and it was blazing hot. So we had lunch and about mid-way through the day, we went back to the resort and put our feet up at the pool, going back to the kingdom after a while and enjoying more rides.

In previous visits we hadn't taken a break, but I'm so glad we did this time.  It was nice to have that time to relax!

The girls chilling in the pool

The girls and friends at the Haunted Mansion

The next day we were back at EPCOT.  We had a Fast Pass for Soaring, which is my favorite ride ever anywhere, and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Astrid literally screamed when it took off.  I had a hard time explaining to her what would happen and I think she had a hard time explaining it afterwards as well.  It was awesome.  We also got to meet Mickey and Minnie and friends, Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, and had a great morning.

That afternoon, we had reservations to have high tea at the Grand Floridian Resort.  This was a special choice of activity that I wanted to do, and the girls gamely came along.  We were blown away by the resort, for Astrid it was a reason to work hard and aspire to being able to afford staying there, for me it was nice to visit and see but I wouldn't feel comfortable being there long term.  She did a little poking around in the boutique and then it was time for our lunch to be served.

The tea was delightful and the food was good.  We all chose different types of tea and enjoyed it very much.  Afterwards, we went back to the car and Astrid found a hitchhiker on the hood-a little salamander we named Pascal.  Unfortunately, we were already driving away as we discovered him.  We were worried about him getting hurt.  Pascal decided to climb down under the hood.  I told the girls "If that thing pops out on our feet, I'm going to scream and drive into a tree."  I turned on the windshield wipers to try to suss him out of there, and I had forgotten that one of my wiper blades was shredded and needed replacing so we all screamed thinking we had been waving this little salamander around.  That garnered some good laughs!

Back at the park, we went to meet Anna and Elsa, and Leah was struck deaf and mute in the presence of her princessly idols.  Happily Astrid stepped in and saved the day, making Leah giggle and loosening her up around Elsa.  There was nothing to be done in the presence of Elsa.  It was hilarious.

I will treasure this picture of Astrid's smile forever

We went back on the Journey to Imagination where tragedy struck as Astrid forgot her ears on the ride, and when we went back, there were no ears turned in.  She managed to get herself a new set at the store by explaining what happened, while I took Leah to meet Pluto.  Then we had dinner at the Moroccan pavillion in my favorite quick serve restaurant, and Astrid made friends with the man behind the counter, who was newly arrived in the US to work for Disney.  We loved our meals and the good company and they even gave Leah some chips for being cute.

We were trying to kill some time before the fireworks spectacular, which I had promised Leah that she could see that night, so we went to the American Adventure, but of course, right in the middle, Leah had to go to the bathroom.  All of us had feet that were killing us and when we got out of the theater, I couldn't figure out where to go to find a bathroom.  We found ourselves at the top of a huge set of stairs and a bunch of Disney employees were at the bottom.  As we started down, one of them yelled, "The Queen has arrived!" and they all burst into applause.  We tried to be gracious but the bathroom situation was serious and we were trapped in this building we couldn't find our way out of!  Finally we got directions from one of Leah's admirers and met Astrid back at the front when the show ended.  It was stressful to say the least!

The fireworks were spectacular as always, and we all collapsed into bed just a short time later.

The next day was our last Disney Day and we went back to Magic Kingdom.  We climbed the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, hung out with Johnny Depp at Pirates of the Caribbean, rode Splash Mountain, played the interactive game, enjoyed the Jungle Cruise, and more.  It was a great day, and we of course took a break halfway through to go swim and Astrid tried to do some homework. 

Riding Aladdin's Magic Carpets

I tried not to take too many pictures and just enjoyed my time with the girls in this magical place!  We had dinner that night in the resort cafeteria and packed up and loaded the car in preparation to leave in the morning.  Astrid was up early around 4:30 or so, so I got up and got us all loaded into the car.  We stopped for gas, and went over to WalMart to get a blanket because Astrid was freezing to death in the air conditioning, which I keep low when I'm driving to help me stay awake.  We got up into Georgia and got our sign photo, which I had to wake them both up for, then stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel on the way, possibly the same one we'd stopped at with Ine.  Leah's stomach and protests for food seem to run a predictable pattern.

As we approached the South Carolina/North Carolina border, I told both girls we had to stop for pictures at South of the Border.  SotB is a tourist trap in the grand tradition of American roadside attractions and if we hadn't stopped, Astrid's trip would have been incomplete.  We enjoyed posing with various statues and decided next time, we have to bring a "Vote for Pedro" sign, a la Napoleon Dynamite.

In North Carolina, my stupid debit card stopped working, and I had $23 cash to get us home.  We needed gas and Leah was already getting worked up about being hungry, so I put $15 in the tank and prayed it would be enough.  When we got north of Richmond I got a box of chicken nuggets and 3 drinks for everyone to share, and we made it home, happily!  We walked in the door, looked around at the house, I said, "I can't deal with this.  Good night." and that was the end of our trip.  i was in bed and sound asleep in no time. The girls helpfully emptied the car, but we were exhausted and happy to be in our own beds. It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad we were able to make it! :-)  The girls are great traveling companions, and we had a great time.  I have lots of special memories.