Florida Driving Trip - Nov 10-20, 2011

Still catching up on posts....

In November we took another longer driving trip, this one down to FL and back to stay at Disney World for a few days.  Noah hadn't been since December 2008, which for him seemed like a lifetime...it was time. We had been planning this for months, so anticipation was very high.  Gramma Kathy came along with our family for the adventure too. Grammy Mary was going to be watching Baxter and Delia while we were away.  We all piled in our van with lots of luggage on Thursday 11/10 after school to start our trip (Noah's teacher was awesome about the trip and didn't assign any homework except to have fun and bring back tales of adventure).  Didn't think this through very well when planning the dates, but this time of year it gets dark at like 5 p.m.  wow -made for lots of night driving. It is more the lack of scenery and light for doing things in the car that became the issue.  I think this is the latest in the year we have done the trek.  Next time, not so late in the year- duly noted. But the dates were chosen months in advance as a "slow week" there, and onward we were going!  The first night we only made it to Rockford IL and we were all tired from a regular long day plus quite a few hours of driving.  Subsequent days we made sure video player was well charged or had access to a car port for viewing in the long dark night. ;-)

Day two was long driving day from upper IL all the way to mid-Georgia.  Of course we had to stop in Metropolis IL to see Superman along the way. ;-)  The big cities were pretty with all the lights (Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta) - but Friday night driving through much rush hour traffic in the dark towns made for a long day.  All were very tired by the time we finally stopped.

Day three was mid-Georgia to our destination at Disney with a few stops along the way including  a quick stop in Celebration FL (right outside Disney) to say quick Hi to our friend Joanie and have dinner at Celebration Tavern (not quite as good as I remembered from last time, but still felt good to be out of the car for a meal).  That first night after checking in at Disney's Old Key West Resort (we had 2 Studios next door to each other - Noah and Gramma bunked together)  we also had park tickets to catch a late night at Magic Kingdom.  Though we were all tired, we had to catch a glimpse of that castle.  Well...so did everyone else that night- wow what a zoo! My mom had a wheelchair and we had to navigate post-parade crowds of people waiting for the big fireworks show.  We stayed a bit for Extra Magic Hours and then called it a night -after a very long day.

Our first full day there was Sunday spent mostly at Epcot for catching the last day of Food & Wine Festival.  That park was pretty packed too since many of the locals like that festival as well as all the out of town tourists.  Didn't accomplish as much as I hoped there with the crowds, but it still felt great to just be there. Things were sort of fresh for Noah again since it had been quite a while for him, so was fun to see him either try things he didn't want to try before or a few things were actually new - including a virtual roller coaster that you get to "build" and then ride your creation - that was pretty cool!  Dinner that night was at Chef Mickey's at Contemporary - we had a very fun time there with our character hosts (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy) making their rounds.

Monday we started our day at Downtown Disney for a bit of shopping and some lunch at the Earl of Sandwich -yum!  Then it was back to Magic Kingdom for another fun-filled day. Noah also had a haircut appointment at Harmony Barbers - tradition for every trip - including a gel "do" with a mickey in the back.  Dinner was another character meal at Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore.

Tuesday was back at Epcot since that park is so big.  We missed a lot on Sunday with the crowds and having to leave early for our big dinner, so still had a lot to cover. Crowds were much better this day and we caught things we wanted in Future World including Soarin', and Test Track and Mission Space as well as visiting the sea creatures in the Nemo & Friends pavillion (have to see our Manatees!). Noah and Brent also tried something "new" to us - Kim Possible mission. They had a scavenger hunt with clues on a Kimmunicator (i.e. cell phone) in Mexico in World Showcase - was fun - about 20 minutes or so to get through -fun if you have time in an afternoon or whatever - not "timed" so could do whenever that day.  We had dinner reservations at Teppan Edo in Japan for teppanyaki dinner. Always a treat there - our Chef put on a good show as always and since we were on the Disney Dining Plan and didn't have to worry about pricing, we had steak and shrimp - mmmmmm....We walked around some of the countries too.

Wednesday we visited Disney's Animal Kingdom. It wasn't too packed there, so though we got a late start, we did get mostly what we wanted to see accomplished. Including Noah rode Dinosaur for the first time -conquered his fear of the dark and really enjoyed hte jeep ride through time to rescue a dino.  We did Mount Everest too - which is a great roller coaster in Disney's tallest Mountain being chased by the Yeti (who was hiding out that day - we didn't see him). The boys did Kali River Rapids ride and got quite wet, but it felt good since it was a pretty warm day.   We did the Kilimanjaro Safari to see all the animals on the Savannah - with a great personable driver and then we ended our activities with the Festival of the Lion King show (our fave show on proerty) and Noah even got to dance during the part where they pull some kids from the audience to participate - how fun!  After the show it was time for our dinner ressies at Tusker House - African Buffet - even had the same waiter we had there in March 2008 - how funny...apparently he has a good gig there - stays put!  After supper the sun was setting and the park was closed, so time to head out.

Thursday was our last Park day.  We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Before the park though, Noah got to swim in the big pool to try out the refurbished water slide (looks like a huge sand castle) since all the other swim times had been after dark when the slide was closed.  It was a grey morning, but still fun -love that pool area at Old Key West.  At the park, we tried the Star Tours ride that had bene refurbished to now have random parts so there are over 50 possible combinations to your ride experience. Noah got picked to be a rebel spy in our shuttle- so he thought that was cool to be on the screen - we did it twice with a different experience each time - like those kind of rides that incent you to keep trying them over and over. We also waited in an eternal line for Toy Story Mania since my mom had never done it, and they were long out of FastPasses - wow that was long. But that is a totally fun ride. We had dinner at Sci Fi Dine In Theater - hokey, but still totally fun since you eat in like old vintage cars in front of a drive in movie screen with a dark sky overhead. Some of the carhop servers are even on skates.  Fun theming!  That day Noah also tried Rockin Roller Coaster for the first time ever, again overcoming his darkness phobia (indoor rollercoaster in the dark with lots of inversions etc).  Way to go Noah!!  Hard to leave that night knowing we were heading back for the long drive home the next day, but all in all a very fun trip despite feeling "short".  Perfect weather (70-80's) and mostly low crowds.

Friday we had breakfast ressies at Olivia's at our resort after we checked out of our rooms. My Mocha came with a chocolate Mickey Head poured into the top froth - LOVED IT!  We made one last trip to Downtown Disney. Did some shopping in the overstimulating character shop and hit a few others, including a section of one store that had  RIDEMAKERZ in it. I had heard of a deal for DVC Members (our timeshare) of BOGO cars to customize. Always had wanted to let Noah do that when it had been at the MOA, but never got there - so this was the time for one last treat. Dad and son built custom cars - and Noah's got made into a RC one.  Total fun!  pic tires, and rims, and sound effects and spoiler, and exhaust and lights etc etc.  Then help put it all together.  A nice surprise to end the trip!! and a lasting memory to bring home. Dad got a Lightning McQueen and Noah got a red hot rod RC car with flames and all kinds of accessories.  By then it was starting to get late and we needed to head out of town - hit a Target for some groceries for the ride and hit the highway. We were going to take an alternate route up for variety; up through Savannah GA. Originally we were going to head to NC to visit our friends, but turns out they were in MN the weekend we were on the way back - go figure!!  We spent the night in Savannah GA. 

Next morning (Saturday 19th)  we took some time to drive around historic Savannah to see some sights, but didn't have time to really go in anywhere :(  We did even track down Paula Dean's store and her son's restaurant - but didn't get to go in. Much different than I pictured - very much more modest. I bet the food is yummy!  Another trip! 

This was a long driving day ending back in mid Illinois after much city driving and all the way through the mountains in TN.  That is usually my fav part of the drive, but it was pretty much dark the whole way through (started that part at sunset) so all to be seen was winding roads and tail lights of lots of semi's. 

Sunday we woke up to a rainy grey day in the 60's - our start back to reality with coolish weather. But at least no snow yet.  Illinois is a long state. Especially in the rain.  I had gotten a cold our last park day so not feeling well didn't help and by this point we were all tired and ready to be home.  That night in Wisconsin we finally stopped at a Cracker Barrell for dinner since we had seen them through the whole trip and had not gotten to stop yet. Love that place. Miss the one by us. Again felt good to eat not in the car (packed lots of sandwiches/snacks).  We laughed that this whole trip became a tour of McDonald's across the country since most of our bathroom stops in between gas fill ups were at Mickey D's - and sometimes involved snacks/caffeine. No two McD's are the same - I find that kind of interesting.  By the end of the night we got to some snow in western WI and FINALLY we were on the home stretch to HOME.  We had a snow storm at home that we got Saturday and at least missed the storm part, but came home to a small layer of white to top off our return.

Everyone was tired, but agreed we had a great time, and decided to unpack the next day and just go in and crawl into beds - our beds after many days of travels.   We'll have to start the planning process of the next trip, whenever that may be...  :)  Thanks for folowing along our grand 3,409 mile adventure!!!

For the full picture albums visit: http://nelsonpix.shutterfly.com/4413  (our camera pics) and http://nelsonpix.shutterfly.com/4665  (Disney's PhotoPass pics)

Jen