A Parkless Disney Adventure. A Trip Report *COMPLETE 1/18*

[BennyFedora]

Hey everyone!

*crickets*

OK, so I’m not sure how many people will actually read this, but for the record, this is my second trip report. I wrote one about 25 years ago which was essentially a paragraph of run-on sentences proclaiming to a teacher that going on Space Mountain 6 times in a row made that day the best day of my life. Fast forward to my early 30s and hopefully this trip translates into as much fun on paper (interwebs) as it was in real life! Anywho…I’m Ben, and my DW (Joyce) are crazy about Disney. Well, she’s crazy about Disney. I just really enjoy it a healthy adult amount. Here we are in Epcot earlier this year displaying our enjoyment level:

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%202/Photo0023FourBySix.jpg





Intro (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=42919280&postcount=2)

Day 1: Part 1, Happy Birthday to Me! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=42938386&postcount=4)

Day 1: Part 2, Happy Birthday to Me! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=42948279&postcount=22)

Day 1: Part 3, Happy Birthday to Me! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43001545&postcount=30)

Day 1: Part 4, Vero Beach...At Last! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43010307&postcount=35)

Day 2: Part 1, Discovering Vero Beach (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43037783&postcount=44)

Day 2: Part 2, Treasure Hunting! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43106721&postcount=53)

Day 2: Part 3, Sin Zin? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43116153&postcount=60)

Day 3: Food, Sleep, Repeat (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43145464&postcount=66)

Day 4: Squid Lipless (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43162851&postcount=75)

Day 5: Part 1, Good Bye Vero Beach :-( (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43171913&postcount=77)

Day 5: Part 2, Hello Hilton Head! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43171945&postcount=78)

Day 6: Part 1, Jellyfish Dodging (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43210395&postcount=85)

Day 6: Part 2, Is Captain Hook Right-Hooked or Left-Hooked? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43210842&postcount=86)

Day 6: Part 3, Oceanology…Oceanography…FACT! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43234957&postcount=93)

Day 7: Part 1, What Other People Do in HH (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43264825&postcount=96)

Day 7: Part 2, Coton de Tuléar (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43315828&postcount=99)

Day 8: Savannah! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43670313&postcount=101)

Day 9: Part 1, So THIS is Savannah! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43671060&postcount=102)

Day 9: Part 2, We Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43745358&postcount=107)

Day 10: Part 1, Hmmm…What’s for Breakfast? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43749125&postcount=108)

Day 10, Part 2: Scavenger Hunt (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43749646&postcount=109)

Day 10, Part 3: Me, Joyce, and Sunday Savannah Nightlife… (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43771248&postcount=115)

Day 11: Off to MCO...But Saratoga Springs Isn’t THAT Far Out of the Way, Right? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43780122&postcount=118)

[BennyFedora]

On a WDW trip a year ago we purchased 50 years of magic (DVC). Using points, we stayed at AKLKV earlier this year, but then decided to take our second DVC vacation WITHOUT GOING TO WDW! You heard that right. Joyce and I planned to fly into MCO, walk right by ME, rent a car and drive east. (Is that even possible?) The plan was to spend 4 days in Vero Beach, 3 in Hilton Head, and 3 in Savannah (not at a DVC resort).

Joyce has been writing PTRs and TRs for about a decade now, and I’ve been stalking them for probably the last 5 years. (Don’t worry, that’s well after we met!) Since we’ve been together we’ve been to DL once, WDW three times, and are planning another WDW trip for just about a year from now. (You can read about that here (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2815678)...if you’re so inclined!)

To my dismay, Joyce decided to forgo writing this TR and dive straight into the PTR for next year. SADFACE. Since I’m sure you’re all (both, anyone?) dying to know about VB and HH (and Savannah), I thought I’d try my hand at this DISBoard thing. After an inordinate amount of time thinking of a DISBoard name, and an equal amount of time looking for and cropping a Johnny Fedora picture, I’m finally ready to get this TR underway!

[Joyciemc]

A trip report I don't have to write! How exciting!

Good start, Ben! You didn't get anything wrong, yet ;)

[BennyFedora]

When planning this trip, we didn’t have a specific date in mind, but just generally knew we wanted to go in the fall…September-Octoberish. We knew we’d need a bit of a longer vacation because we were going to be visiting 3 different cities and driving on the order of 1,000 miles. *Side-bar…I’m kind of a nerd. OK, more than kind of. I’m a chemical engineer. Nerding is my 9-5.* Anyway, before this trip I calculated miles and driving times between Orlando, Vero Beach, Hilton Head, and Savannah. I priced out flights to all major airports from Raleigh to Tampa, as well as car rentals and one-way fees vs. returning to the same airport. I even considered renting a car in Boston and just driving down and back. After ALL of that, I figured the best thing to do was to fly non-stop from PVD-MCO, drive a buttload, and return MCO-PVD. In hindsight, it was definitely the best way to do everything we wanted to do. All we needed were plane tickets and a car that was up to the challenge!

It just so happens that I have a September-Octoberish birthday that fell on a Friday this year, so what better way to kick off a vacation than leaving on your B-day?! Yeah, there isn’t one. Since we were doing the PVD-MCO flight that we’ve done umpteen times before, our standard plan was in place. We’ve got friends that live in our town that can look after our 4 cats and bunny, and then we would just bring our dog to my parents’ house, and they would drop us off at the airport (20 minutes away).

We were leaving at 8AM (Southwest), so it was a bit on the early side to get all of our morning animal chores and travel done, but the drive was uneventful, as was check-in, and we were at the gate in plenty of time. As we were sitting at the gate, I remembered that FL has toll roads in and out of MCO, so I went to gather some change. The guy at the newsstand was quick to exchange my $4 for quarters with a smile and a have a nice day!

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Every time I’m at PVD I’m always surprised with how friendly everyone is. Maybe it’s because it is such a small airport, and it never seems busy in the morning when we’re there, but from TSA to the ticket counter, to the store fronts, they just don’t have the grumpy New England attitudes I’m used to in the morning. (Perhaps management lubes everyone up with plenty of Dunkin Donuts.)

With plenty of time still at the gate, Joyce looks at our tickets and chuckles. Turns out our confirmation number through Southwest was WDWCHH—Walt Disney World Columbia Harbour House. I didn’t immediately recognize it, but I’ve seen enough on DISBoards to know that people abbreviate EVERYTHING. In response to her chuckle and explanation, I dubbed her Acronasty…her new rapper name for whenever she chooses to retire her animal shelter pants. For the rest of the trip, we’d string together 10 or so letters and then SITOPCG (See If The Other Person Could Guess). This was actually a fun game for the rest of the trip…ILV…(I Love Vacation).

Being a Southwest flight, we didn’t have assigned seats. What we did have (as always) was somewhere around C50 as boarding spots. (For the non-Southwesties, groups A, B, and C board in order from 1-60.) PVD-MCO flights are also always disproportionately childful, so as we would walk down the aisle, we’d constantly find two seats together that were actually occupied by little ones. Luckily, persistence prevailed and we sat in literally the last row…you know, the non-reclining one next to the bathroom? Yup, lucky us. Oh well, ALWCST.

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With the flight leaving on time, we landed at MCO around 11AM. We had checked bags, so we headed to the baggage claim. Using ME makes this easy, but alas, we were not headed to WDW. This would be a parkless Disney adventure. On the way, I saw a security person on a Segway. I turned and commented that cops on Segways would be “The Roly Police” (read police as polys). Acronasty turns to me and:

Joyce: The RPs. (I hear this as “therapy-s” with an odd cadence.)
Ben: What?
Joyce: The RPs.
Ben: What?
Joyce: I can’t say it another way.
Ben: Well there’s really no way for me to know what you’re saying unless you try.
Joyce: THE…ARE…PEES.

With this, I got it, and hilarity ensued. Now the bags were on the belt and luckily it wasn’t much of a wait at all. The one other thing of note was a family with three fairly young and rowdy kids. At one point, the littlest one decided to jump up on the belt which instantly got a parental shout of “Trinity”! Uh-huh, they named their third child Trinity. I didn’t catch the other names…maybe Ace and Gemini…but I hope it wasn’t purely coincidental that little T was number 3.

OK, got the bags, now off to find Thrifty Car Rental. Let the Memories Begin! Here’s a memory for you. If you rent from Thrifty, it is actually the last counter, down the end, approximately 3000 ft from where you would like it to be. At the counter the woman tries everything possible to get us to tack on upgrades and packages and bells and whistles. I probably rent 10-20 cars a year while I travel for work, so I’m used to the process and just declining everything. When I’m stuck on getting an Economy car, she’s like, well you said you’re planning on driving a lot, wouldn’t you like power steering, power windows, and cruise control? First off, I don’t think they even rent cars without power steering in 2011 (I didn’t tell her this), but I was adamant about just an Economy and she finally let us just go pick out our car. (They don’t assign specific cars; you just take one from the appropriate section.) With this, we pick out a red Chevy Aveo (which happens to have power steering, AND power windows, AND cruise control) and head for the highway!

With a 2 hour drive to Vero Beach, we figured we’d need to eat somewhere along the way. Hmmm…wheels turning in head…what about Disney? Sure, it’s the OPPOSITE direction. Sure, we don’t have park tickets. Sure, it wasn’t on our vacation itinerary. BUT, it’s my birthday (actually it was Joyce’s idea) and I love lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café at the WL, which conveniently won’t require tickets!

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%203/IMG_5283.jpg

[Joyciemc]

We are on our way!

Ben forgot about a bit of trouble we ran into before we could leave the airport... we had to get in the right car. Once we found the Thrifty row, we picked out a nice vehicle and piled in our bags. We both changed out of sneakers into sandals before I realized we were settling into an Economy car. Oops. We sheepishly gathered our stuffed and found the itty bitty cars that we were choosing from. We picked the red one.

[Belleofthehouse]

Got a reader here!:cool1: I have always wanted to take a parkless trip, so I am really enjoying this!! Please go on:banana:

[BennyFedora]

.

[BennyFedora]

Got a reader here!:cool1: I have always wanted to take a parkless trip, so I am really enjoying this!! Please go on:banana:

Woohoo! My first reader (that's not my DW :rotfl:). Thanks for checking in!

[jskacoc]

Another one here!popcorn::

[AKL LOVER]

So I randomly click on this TR to see what a whole parkless-Disney adventure is all about and imagine my surprise when I see that it is YOUR TR!!! :goodvibes

Loving it so far--I'm in! :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

Another one here!popcorn::

Glad to have you on board, hope you enjoy it!

[BennyFedora]

So I randomly click on this TR to see what a whole parkless-Disney adventure is all about and imagine my surprise when I see that it is YOUR TR!!! :goodvibes

Loving it so far--I'm in! :thumbsup2

Haha, thanks! Great to see a familiar face! Do you have PTRs for your two trips in your countdown?

[BennyFedora]

We are on our way!

Ben forgot about a bit of trouble we ran into before we could leave the airport... we had to get in the right car. Once we found the Thrifty row, we picked out a nice vehicle and piled in our bags. We both changed out of sneakers into sandals before I realized we were settling into an Economy car. Oops. We sheepishly gathered our stuffed and found the itty bitty cars that we were choosing from. We picked the red one.

Oh yeah, we originally got in a Compact car, but then Joyce noticed that it had power windows and cruise control. Clearly this COULDN'T be our car because the lady at the counter specifically said we'd need to upgrade to get those! That's when we moseyed on down to car #2 in the correct section :rolleyes1...when getting in the Chevy Aveo, we had to double and triple check that we were in the Economy section because it had all the "fancy" features as well! Stupid counter lady...

[tankgirl427]

ALWCST????

Always
Last
Winner
Claims the
Seats by the
Toilet

[Practically_Perfect]

ALWCST????

Always
Last
Winner
Claims the
Seats by the
Toilet

I'm going with....

At
Least
We
Could
Sit
Together

[tankgirl427]

I'm going with....

At
Least
We
Could
Sit
Together

That is such a better answer!

[discorsner]

I'm reading along too. :)

My DH and I are big Disney fans and he is a Chemical Engineer as well. How funny!

We attempted to do a no parks trip in June but we ended up in MK for one day! We just couldn't do it.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of your report. :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

ALWCST????

Always
Last
Winner
Claims the
Seats by the
Toilet

mmmm...not quite:goodvibes

[BennyFedora]

I'm going with....

At
Least
We
Could
Sit
Together

Completely Perfect! :thumbsup2 Thanks for playing along!

[BennyFedora]

That is such a better answer!

Yup, that was it!

Oh, and I forgot to say hi...Hope your trip is going well!

[BennyFedora]

I'm reading along too. :)

My DH and I are big Disney fans and he is a Chemical Engineer as well. How funny!

We attempted to do a no parks trip in June but we ended up in MK for one day! We just couldn't do it.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of your report. :thumbsup2

Thanks for joining in! Fun that your DH is a ChemE that loves Disney...those 4 years suck the kid out of most people!

At lunch we were tempted to take the boat to MK...but figured it wouldn't be worth the money for a few hours...especially with our room being 100 miles away!

Hope you enjoy the rest of my TR...maybe we'll be your inspiration for your next trip!

[BennyFedora]

***
Joyce just pointed out that I can reply to several posts in 1 box to save room. Brilliant!
***



With our direction decided, we were off to the WL! The toll money came in handy, and we had a quick trip following the GPS in Joyce’s phone. I’ve never actually DRIVEN to Disney (well, my parents drove me, and a CM drove ME, but you know what I mean…), so anyway, this was a new experience. To get to WL, you’ve got to go through a few gates and at one point we were told to follow a certain colored line on the pavement, which actually turned out to be very helpful. At each gate, we just told them we were going to eat at WCC, so we got waved through.

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In what felt like no time, we were there! It was now a bit after noon, but there was only a short wait to be seated. I’m not much of a “waiter”. I’m more of a talker (to anyone within earshot), or otherwise a self-entertainer. Sadly, I was interrupted by the hostess before I could build the barn to go with my new house…

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I had only been to WCC once before, but that one time was enough for me to know that if I could have ONE lunch at a resort on my birthday, this is what I’d want. Joyce and I went here in the spring for lunch as part of the Backstage Magic Tour. On the tour, we got delicious all-you-can-eat BBQ ribs, chicken, sausage, potatoes, beans, coleslaw and cornbread, followed up by the most delicious strawberry-peach cobbler (with vanilla ice cream) that perhaps has ever been made. Seriously, I’m not a desert person, but this was something that I wanted to continue eating even after my stomach was pushing against my kidneys!

For those unfamiliar with WCC, it is an Old North-west themed restaurant (appropriate for WL) where the CMs are loud and often amusingly gruff. Some people are put off by it, but I thought it was amazing when someone asked for “a little more iced tea” and the CM came back with a salt shaker sized “glass” of tea. I also saw someone drop a fork, and the CM came back with a 3 ft long wooden one that the woman “might be able tuh getta better hold’uh”. I’ve heard that you should ask for ketchup here, but unfortunately we didn’t think of it because neither of us got anything that would require ketchup.

Our CM was quite a character (is that redundant?). Joyce is a big fan of Sierra Nevada Torpedo (which they had in bottles, but is something that is not all that common), so she ordered that. I was looking through the beers and wasn’t familiar with the Drifter Pale Ale by Widmer Brothers Brewing. I asked the CM if she knew if it was good, but she didn’t. I contemplated for a minute, and the CM butted in “Live on the edge, it’s your birthday”. Challenge accepted!

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%201/IMG_5882.jpg

The food came out shortly and was just as good as I remembered. As we enjoyed our lunch and beer—I only had 1, I was driving…safety first!—the table next to us started to have a problem. A mid-30ish couple had 3 kids, the smallest of which was still big enough to make an unstoppable disruptive fuss. The couple kept apologizing and passing the child back and forth rocking and hushing, but obviously the baby resented this. CMs kept coming by to make sure everything was alright, and to joke with the older kids, and then:

CM: *to the mom* I bet you could use a shot of whiskey.
Mom: *deep inhale, defeated eyes* Absolutely.

The CM nods, walks away, and the parents continue to mitigate damage. A few minutes later, the CM comes back WITH A SHOT OF WHISKEY! The mom takes it in a bit of disbelief, thanks her, and puts it on the table. The couple exchanges a few smiles-glances-chuckles, and then dad pours the shot into mom’s coke and mom takes a few healthy swigs. By this time, order has been restored, and a bit of Disney Magic has just turned a potentially difficult meal into a smile, a story, and an absolutely better afternoon!

Joyce and I ate a reasonable amount, but I wanted to save room for desert which was 80% of the reason I wanted to come here. When the CM came back, Joyce ordered the banana bread and I proudly ordered my reason for life.

CM: I’m sorry, we don’t have that here.
Ben: Um, yes you do! I had it here 6 months ago!
CM: Well, you definitely didn’t have it here.
Ben: Oh, never mind then. I’m not going to have anything.

From Joyce’s seat, apparently my expression was similar to that of a lost puppy. Hurt, confused, sad, cobblerless. I resisted the urge to tantrum like my tiny neighbor (though that might have gotten Joyce a shot of whiskey) and I was able to put on a smile when Joyce’s bread pudding came to our table with a candle in it and the whole WCC sang me happy birthday.

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The bread pudding did help dry my tears, and when we were all done and washed up (ribs are messy!) it was still only a bit after 1. We decided that it was still early enough delay our drive to VB with a little Lewis and Clarking around the WL. The grounds are great and have a lot of cool touches. They’ve got animal tracks in the cement walkways, and even a waterfall and geyser near the pool! This is definitely a place we’d like to come back and stay sometime.

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Now that we’ve fully checked out the resort (and I’ve fielded a few happy B-day phone calls from relatives), it was time to head to VB…Right?!?

[AKL LOVER]

Haha, thanks! Great to see a familiar face! Do you have PTRs for your two trips in your countdown?


Not yet...I still haven't finished my TR yet :rolleyes1 and I figured that I would be a real negligent DISer if I started a PTR before finishing my last TR!

I think the best part of this TR is going to be guessing all of your acronyms!!

And I cannot believe that a CM actually brought her a shot of whiskey...man have I been eating at the wrong places while at Disney! ;)

[kokotg]

Since I’m sure you’re all (both, anyone?) dying to know about VB and HH (and Savannah), I thought I’d try my hand at this DISBoard thing.

I kind of AM dying to know about Hilton Head! It's not that far from us, so sometimes I come sort of close to booking a weekend trip there...but I can never quite figure out exactly what people DO there. So I'm in!

[klacey1]

Haha, you and Joyce have the same sense of humor-- too funny! I love all of her TRs and I know this one will be great, too! Excited to read more about your trip :goodvibes.

[melmar136]

joining in, can't wait to see Hilton Head!

[BennyFedora]

I kind of AM dying to know about Hilton Head! It's not that far from us, so sometimes I come sort of close to booking a weekend trip there...but I can never quite figure out exactly what people DO there. So I'm in!

HH was awesome! I'd highly recommend it for a weekend, especially if you can just drive there. As for the stuff to do, the resort and beach/beach house are great, and there are some great restaurants, but it's really more of a relaxing destination than a "doing" destination.

Haha, you and Joyce have the same sense of humor-- too funny! I love all of her TRs and I know this one will be great, too! Excited to read more about your trip :goodvibes.

Thanks! Joyce has set the bar pretty high, so I'll do my best not to disappoint :)

joining in, can't wait to see Hilton Head!

I'll try not to keep you waiting too long, but since it took me 2 pages to get 5 hours into the trip, HH may make its first appearance somewhere on page 24 :rotfl2:

[Joyciemc]

I found it hysterical that the waitress brought over the shot of whiskey; I thought she was asking as a joke and the mom clearly thought so, too.

What was even more awesome was that after just a bit of hesitation, she drank it (after her helpful DH mixed it in her Coke)!

Can't wait to see what happens next, Ben ;)

[ronnmel]

I'm following Joyce's PTR so I'll be reading this too. :)

[BennyFedora]

***

I’ve been uber busy lately, so I haven’t had a chance to write much, but I promise to get more out soon!

***

I don’t think I mentioned it earlier, but when we got to FL, the weather was beautiful. There was a tropical storm off the coast that we were hoping didn’t come inland, but as of now, it was all clear. Walking to the car, the clouds started to gather, and a sprinkle turned to RAIN by the time we got in. Half way to the WL gate, the sun was out, and in fact, the road was DRY. Only in Florida can you have a downpour in half of a parking lot!

Once we determined the rain was not a “storm”, but just nature’s way of keeping it as humid as possible, we began to double-think our plans. Did we really need to go to VB right now? I mean, it’s a 2 hour drive and it’s only 2pm. Maybe we could squeeze in a liiiitle more Disney. But how?

After quickly putting on our procrastination hats, we settled on Winter Summerland MiniGolf at BB. Yup, maybe we weren’t quite on our way to VB :goodvibes.

At the entrance of WSMG, there were two very nice CMs that asked us if we were celebrating anything. If you’ve read any of Joyce’s TRs and PTRs, you know that we’re not too keen on the buttons and the celebrating at this point--what with being accused of taking a “fake honeymoon” and a “late anniversary”. However, today WAS my birthday, so they gave me a “My Birthday” pin. Joyce got a Celebration pin with “Ben’s B-Day” written in. Not to be outdone, the other CM handed me a phone, though I hadn’t seen him dial anything. On the other end, Goofy sang me Happy Birthday! Only at Disney!

When I went to pay, I remembered to ask if I get a DVC discount. (I ask this everywhere now!) The CM said yes, and asked to see my DVC card. Unfortunately, we never got cards in the mail…DOH! A room key would do, but we hadn’t yet checked into a room…Double-DOH! The CM asked if we had anything with our member number on it, and I remembered that I actually had my reservation paperwork back in the car. Just as I was about to run and get it, one CM looked at the other, then motioned to Joyce and said, “She looks honest”, and gave me the discount anyway. Woohoo! At 10%, that’s a hot $2 back in my pocket!

We chose the snow course over the sand course and ineptly putted our way through. While the snow may have tried to give the impression that it was not gross out, let’s be clear, it was gross. It didn’t feel humid as much as it just felt like we were actually under water. Needless to say we had serious cases of SSTOB.

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The course is actually very interactive. Sensors make things happen at most holes that help keep it fun. I won't give it all away, but I will warn you that the snowman is hooked up to a sensor in the hole. When you come up after picking up your ball, he squirts water at your back (or front if you’re facing him). I intentionally did this so I would get a refreshing squirt. What I REALLY got felt more like he peed on me. Y-U-C-K! With that, we finished our round of golf, and now we really, really, were on our way to VB...Right?

[BennyFedora]

I'm following Joyce's PTR so I'll be reading this too. :)

Thanks for reading...I'm sure I owe a lot of my readers to Joyce :goodvibes

[hushupu]

all caught up and checking in. I'm trying to play along
SSTOB = sweat soaked to our bones?
I like reading TRs that have different itineraries and still keep the Disney magic to them so looking forwared to future updates

[Practically_Perfect]

Completely Perfect! :thumbsup2 Thanks for playing along!

That is such a better answer!

Thanks! All it takes is a government employee to figure out an acronym or two...better yet, a Canadian government employee, since we have to learn acronyms in two languages (and they are almost never similar)!!

Needless to say we had serious cases of SSTOB.


Okay - this one's harder :confused3


:idea:

I'm going with...

Shirts
Sticking
To
Our
Bodies (or maybe Backs...)

[Joyciemc]

Reading this reminds me how hard I was trying to finagle my way into a park.

Picture me at every hole on the golf course saying something like:
"We could try to go to the Halloween Party..."
"Does getting Annual Passes make sense?"

[BennyFedora]

As we headed from WSMG to VB, we had 2 options. It was essentially the same time to drive back past MCO, across to the coast, and then down 95 OR to take the “scenic” route at an angle across to VB. Since this was a road trip, we went with option B, and lemme tell ya, it did NOT disappoint!

Some of you may know that Joyce is mildly obsessed with abandoned stuff (parks, hotels, houses, etc.). I don’t know the history or economics around this region of FL, but I can certainly tell you that it is full of places that were run-down, over-grown, and other adjectives as well. Our camera really couldn’t capture the “beauty” of it, but there were hotels, “luxury condos”, a mini-golf course, a driving range, and tons of other decrepit-ity structures. Two of our favorite hotels—not sure if they were still open or not—were the Polynesian Inn and the Holidays In Resort (yup, only 1 “n” there). They were as lovely as they sound. Can you imagine booking an AMAZING deal at the Polynesian Inn and then wondering where the monorail was? :headache: Or not wanting to spend Disney money, so you stay at the recognizable name of “Holidays In Resort”?

The Gator motel may have missed the mark on advertising. There was a HUGE alligator (fiberglass?) out front eating a car—a real car-sized car! I can picture checking in and there being a small TV on the counter with Lake Placid on loop…

I wanted to stop at "Alligator Alley at the Country Castle", but got out-voted 1:1 by Joyce. It was a big green and yellow building with the top looking like a castle. The best we could figure it, inside was some kind of large open venue. Upcoming activities included a beer pong tournament and an MMA event. Come on Joyce…beer pong? Please? FROWNYFACE.

We also passed Church City. It was really more of just a church. Kind of a big church, but definitely not a city. We didn’t stop there either…general admission was $10 and priority admission was $20. Haha, yeah, not sure what that was all about, but they did have line dividers set up for all the people they were expecting!

Now we were almost to VB, but I decided we needed to stop at a Publix for provisions. Joyce had her “letsjustgettherefirst” pants on, and did her best to make puppy dog eyes. Unfortunately for her, I’ve developed an immunity to PDE when logic is involved. From our AKLKV trip, we found that brewing coffee and having bagels and cream cheese on hand make for a quick and cheap way to start the day. For good measure, we also got the Widmer we had at WL, some Hoegaarden, and some Yuengling Black and Tans.

Leaving Publix, there was now nothing stopping us from VB…or was there?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Haha, no, there was not.

We pulled up to the resort and first impressions were great. (I'm not saying that in an ironic foreshadowing way) Since this resort was the first off-site resort and built in 1995, we really had no idea what to expect. We had read some Trip Advisor reports, and I’m sure Joyce had also read up on whatever she could find on DIS. We checked in quickly and received more pins. These were 1st visit pins. (First visit to VB, let's CELEBRATE! with a bit of sarcasm) We thought about not taking them because, well, honestly, how many pins can two people carry, but we just said thank you and pocketed them.

The lobby was very nice and open, and we could see the stairway up to the GCR (Green Cabin Room). The floor was wood with what appeared to be odd, random, semi-circular gouges in it. I asked a CM and he said that no one knows for sure, but the two theories are that either A) it’s supposed to look like the marks sea turtles make on the beach or B) it’s supposed to look like a chain was dragged across the floor. I can’t vouch for what either of them would look like (or why that would make sense for the wood floor of a lobby) but I guess Disney doesn’t get EVERYTHING right :confused3 VB does have a lot of sea turtles, and they’re kind of a big deal here, so I think CMs should just stick with telling option A. If they said it with authority and certainty, I’m sure I’d have been like, “oh yeah…I see it now…silly me!”



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5929.jpg



Behind the desk was a really cool and detailed mural of all sorts of stuff—wooden ships, turtles, Mickey, the ocean, a compass. I’m kind of crazy about hidden Mickeys, and even jokingly point out (for example) the completely detailed Mickey painting as a “hidden Mickey” in the mural. One thing that did catch my eye, was just below a ship in the middle. I could SWEAR I saw some numbers. Maybe a “33”. I pointed it out to the CM and she looked at it and didn’t see anything. She humored me for a while and was pointing, “here”, “oh, here”…this went on for a bit and then she said there was really nothing there. Joyce blamed it on my laser eyes and how I now think I can see through doors since my vision is amazing. (I had LASIK 2 years ago.) I was determined to get someone to agree with me, so I asked a second opinion from a CM on this side of the counter. This CM actually sees what I’m talking about and trades places with the CM behind the counter. Apparently it’s sort of like a mosaic where you can’t see it up close, but you can see it from farther away. No one knew if it had meaning or was an accident, but score one for the laser eyes because I just won! :cool1:

Phew, sorry about that. I promise I’m fun and not always stubbornly turdy, but I knew it was there! What do you think? (Check out the splash in the middle bottom of the boat just to the left of the tip of one of the masts of the ship that is off the bottom of the screen.) There are 6 “of”s in that sentence.



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5926.jpg



The CM actually pointed out one flaw that was known about the mural. You can almost see it in my picture. The compass numbers are 170, 160, 150 and they line up with 10, 20, and "80" (just off the screen). This 80 is supposed to be 30. If you’re ever there, point it out to a CM like you just noticed it on your own. I bet they give you a pin.

OK, so now we’re checked in—Room 2405! Taking the elevator up to the 4th floor, we got a good look at the really cool rafters and fun chains that hung down for the chandelier in the lobby. (Perhaps the chains that marked the floor?) Also, how fun is it that the elevators have Mickey hands?!?



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5931.jpg

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We would never pay extra for a “view”, but we always hope we get a nice one (fingers crossed). We were pleasantly surprised with this:



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%201/IMG_7639.jpg



As long as you kept your eyes fixed on the horizon, it was beautiful. If your eyes wandered down…



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%201/IMG_7641.jpg



The room itself was very nice and spacious, and we even had a fun little towel-turtle! We also had wireless internet throughout the resort (free for DVC, and I think $10/day otherwise). Unfortunately it was sloooooow in our room because of the poor signal.



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%201/IMG_5938.jpg



You can kind of tell from this picture, but our balcony was tiny. Literally there were 2 chairs that touched the railing and the window at the same time. There was no room for a table because if you opened the swinging door, you had just enough room to bump it in to one chair, so you could squeeze through and around to sit. Then the next person could squeeze out and sit shin-to-shin. Again, not a problem if you're 5'-nothing like us, but just not really usable, especially for adult-sized adults. Honestly though, why would we hang out on the balcony when the resort has a beach, a pool, and a water slide?!?


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At this point our WCC bellies had returned to normal size and we were actually getting a bit hungry. We walked around the resort briefly just to get our bearings, and then came back through the lobby to eat at the GCR. We split the southwestern egg roll, crab cakes, and spinach dip which were all really good and hit the spot.

As we finished, Bernie was just warming up. Bernie is a lounge singer. He’s not a particularly good one, but apparently he’s got a contract through next September. (Yeah, I asked.) We looked up online and he’s been there forever, he always says the same jokes, and people only like him ironically. He also NEVER finishes a song. We didn’t notice at first, but eventually developed a game of guessing when he’s going to quit a song. As an example, during UB40’s Red Red Wine, Joyce said, “I bet he doesn’t get to the ‘rappy’ part”. Surprisingly, he actually started the rappy part, but definitely stopped short by at least a minute.

After losing our amusement with Bernie (though the place was pretty packed) we decided that instead of paying Disney prices for drinks, we’d go back to our room and enjoy a few of our own on the cheap. (Hurray for a minifridge and liquor store access!) The looooong day finally caught up with us and we probably only had one beer each while we learned everything that there is to know about Bethenny Frankel on E! True Hollywood Story and then PTFO! (Please use “Flip” here…this is DIS :rolleyes1)

[BennyFedora]

all caught up and checking in. I'm trying to play along
SSTOB = sweat soaked to our bones?
I like reading TRs that have different itineraries and still keep the Disney magic to them so looking forwared to future updates

Glad to have you on board!
Good guess, and that totally works, but not quite the words I had in mind! :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

Thanks! All it takes is a government employee to figure out an acronym or two...better yet, a Canadian government employee, since we have to learn acronyms in two languages (and they are almost never similar)!!



Okay - this one's harder :confused3


:idea:

I'm going with...

Shirts
Sticking
To
Our
Bodies (or maybe Backs...)


It's like you're in my brain!
I was thinking "Backs" :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

Reading this reminds me how hard I was trying to finagle my way into a park.

Picture me at every hole on the golf course saying something like:
"We could try to go to the Halloween Party..."
"Does getting Annual Passes make sense?"

But now we get to enjoy the new-ness of the Halloween Party with Sebastian and Hilde!

[kokotg]

You had me googling "Church City" because I had to know more! But I couldn't find it! This was a great disappointment. Maybe it's already shut down.

Love the towel sea turtle!

[Practically_Perfect]

It's like you're in my brain!
I was thinking "Backs" :thumbsup2

Yes!!!! I'm 2 for 2 :cool1:

The looooong day finally caught up with us and we probably only had one beer each while we learned everything that there is to know about Bethenny Frankel on E! True Hollywood Story and then PTFO! (Please use “Flip” here…this is DIS :rolleyes1)

Alright...now to go for 3 for 3 (it's become my mission on this TR!!) ;)

Passed
The
Frak (What - no Battlestar Galactica fans? Me neither...just have integrated that word into my vocab)
Out

[BennyFedora]

You had me googling "Church City" because I had to know more! But I couldn't find it! This was a great disappointment. Maybe it's already shut down.

Love the towel sea turtle!

We also tried looking it up online, though also unsuccessfully. It was weird. The admission fees were out on the sign that usually would have a bible verse or something in front of a church. The church was pretty big and had more of a "warehousey" look than a church look, though did have plenty of crosses. Out front of the door they had a canopy covering the lines that snaked back and forth a couple of times, so that was certainly nice of Church City. Maybe they were having a special guest appearance? :confused3 I didn't see a time, so it could have been either a Friday night thing, or an early set up for Saturday...either way, I'm pretty sure that the church was still functional...it just had a funny name, and I've never seen a line with admission for a church before, so we thought it noteworthy!



Alright...now to go for 3 for 3 (it's become my mission on this TR!!) ;)

Passed
The
Frak (What - no Battlestar Galactica fans? Me neither...just have integrated that word into my vocab)
Out

Nope, I meant, um, Played...Tray Flip...Outside...yeah...that's what I meant...

Haha, no, you got it. Though you do know that now the next one will be nearly impossible :rotfl:

I've got Battlestar Galactica in our NetFlix (with about 300 other things), so I will get to it someday :goodvibes

[tankgirl427]

hi ya Ben. All caught up with the busy trip y'all had so far. You're doing a great job!

[OhMari]

Will be doing something similar in April. We are going to Barrett Jackson Auction in Palm Springs and I was wondering how far away Vero Beach is. we are driving then to the Keys for a few days, then back to Orlando for a few days. my dh has a convention and I have 2 days to do what I like. Last year I did Typhoon Lagoon and DTD and Epcot.


Looking forward to seeing how you liked Savannah. Been there a few times.

[BennyFedora]

Unlike our WDW vacations, this one had only a very general framework of a schedule. Fly to MCO (check). Get to VB (check). Now we know at some point on Tuesday we’ll drive to HH, then on to Savannah at some point on Friday, and head back for our flight on the following Monday. Other than that, it’s essentially beaches, pools, beers, and exploration. No wake-up alarms for rope drop. No dining reservations. No lines. No buses. If nothing else, this was going to be a very different type of Disney trip!

We woke up at 9ish and had coffee with bagels and cream cheese. This would become a standard of this trip—Breakfast of Champions! After breakfast, we put on our bathing suits and went to check out the pool and the beach.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5908.jpg


On the way to the pool, we snapped a couple of quick shots out from the resort towards the water:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5909.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5911.jpg


Hidden Mickey?


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5932.jpg


Even at ~10, it was hot and humid! The SLR camera lens took a while to de-fog...


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5910.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5915.jpg


The pool area was great. Presumably because it was the end of the season it seemed very empty, but even if it were full I think there would be plenty of chairs. The pool was in the shape of a Mickey, though it was hard to notice except from the top of the slide. And what a slide! Shaped like a lighthouse, it was the largest one I’ve seen at a resort. Later in the week the CMs organized a “slide race” that involved both adults and kids. (Joyce and I were just spectators on that.) To give you an idea of the slide, the “times” from the race ranged from about 9 seconds as the fastest (large dudes) to about 15 seconds (tiny kids with life jackets). Either way, that’s some serious slide!


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%204/IMG_5959.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%204/IMG_5945.jpg

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They also had a kiddy slide coming out of a pirate ship:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%204/IMG_5942.jpg


Next we decided to check out the beach. Apparently a hurricane a while back had really eaten up the beach, but Disney has been making it better bit by bit. The first picture is actually a “ramp” down to the beach. The sand was pushed so far up that the “hand rails” are more “ankle rails”.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%204/IMG_5954.jpg

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http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%204/IMG_5955.jpg


The beach in front of the resort had quite a slope to it, and in spots the water was a bit rougher than what I really felt comfortable in. Now, mind you, there were plenty of people in the water throughout the week and the waves varied a lot depending on high and low tide. The main problem was that I have an irrational nervousness about waves on the beach. Well, it’s not completely irrational…as some of you know (and the rest of you will know in a second), a wave at a beach in St. Lucia stole Joyce’s engagement ring about 12 hours after I proposed. :scared1: We mentally overcame the tragedy after just a few hours, and now have a story that trumps all others, but I still get a knot in my stomach when I see waves breaking. :sad2:

The weather kept going from sunny to cloudy to sunny, but never actually rained at all. Joyce and I decided to skip the water for the moment and took a walk down the beach to the south. Next to our resort was another resort that was apparently being renovated. It was quite large, but completely empty. It didn’t look decrepit or anything, but I’d imagine it is going through some type of major overhaul inside and out. We passed a few groups of friendly people setting up camp (chairs, umbrellas, radio, coolers) and then got to a place that had much calmer waves. We went in and enjoyed the salt water and watching jumping fish. We also made the future executive decision that our rings would stay in the hotel safe for beach time and we wouldn’t even bring our rings on our next vacation involving a beach.

At this point we realized we were probably a mile down the beach, so we started the hike back before we got hungry or thirsty. (Hunger and thirst are our kryptonite. If either of us starts getting quiet or cranky, a lack of food and/or drink is the problem 99% of the time.) After a dip in the pool and enough time for us to dry off again, we did indeed require food and beverages, so we checked out the pool restaurant (Bleachers). I had the Cuban sandwich and Joyce had the tropical pita, which were both very good.

We finished a bit after noon, and we were done with the pool and the beach for now, so we headed back up to the room to shower and change. Vero Beach is located on the “Treasure Coast” and there were actually some treasure museums not far from the resort. Joyce had done some research ahead of time, and the McLarty Treasure Museum was supposed to be the best around. Time to jump in the car and start discovering Vero Beach!

[BennyFedora]

Will be doing something similar in April. We are going to Barrett Jackson Auction in Palm Springs and I was wondering how far away Vero Beach is. we are driving then to the Keys for a few days, then back to Orlando for a few days. my dh has a convention and I have 2 days to do what I like. Last year I did Typhoon Lagoon and DTD and Epcot.


Looking forward to seeing how you liked Savannah. Been there a few times.

Thanks for joining in!

Vero Beach is about an hour and a half North of Palm Springs, so you could definitely stop there on a drive down from Orlando. The top of the Keys are about 2 hours South of Palm Springs, but then it's another 2 hours if you're heading all the way to Key West. The drive back up to Orlando from the Keys would take you 5-7 hours depending on how far down you start. Hope that helps!

Savannah was great...though it might take me a while to get that far in this TR :)

hi ya Ben. All caught up with the busy trip y'all had so far. You're doing a great job!

Thanks! Can't wait to hear about your trip as well!

[Practically_Perfect]

Wow - an entire update and no acronyms for me to try and decipher. I'm really liking this game though - testing my skills!! It's truly the government thing...for example, we have a week each June that is to recognize public servants. The English acronym: NPSW (National Public Service Week). The French acronym: SNFP (Semaine national de la fontion publique). And that's an easy one. Try these ones: GCWCC (English) with CCMTGC (French). Google them - you'll find it!


The main problem was that I have an irrational nervousness about waves on the beach. Well, it’s not completely irrational…as some of you know (and the rest of you will know in a second), a wave at a beach in St. Lucia stole Joyce’s engagement ring about 12 hours after I proposed. :scared1: We mentally overcame the tragedy after just a few hours, and now have a story that trumps all others, but I still get a knot in my stomach when I see waves breaking. :sad2:


I have a scary/funny (depending on your point of view) water in St. Lucia story too! I was there about 6 years ago with my dad, stepmom and two stepsisters. Well, one of my stepsisters has a massive fear of sharks. Thanks to a trustworthy :rolleyes1 babysitter who let her watch Jaws when she was six, she's ridiculously scared of them to the point where she wouldn't swim in the lake one summer at our cottage because of it.

Anyhow - the resort we were staying at had kind of a sheltered, shallowish bay, and it also had a swimming area roped off where they had cleared the rocks, etc. My sister (who was 18 at the time), decided that the roped off area had a net to keep out the sharks, and hence she was perfectly fine to swim in the roped off area. About the third day of our trip, she shared this with me. I told her there was no net, it was just a rope with some buoys (like lane markers in a swimming pool). She would only believe me when I swam under the rope and came up on the other side. At that - she freaked, half-swam, half-ran as fast as she could to shore. Then, the staff at the resort found out about her fear, and would start playing the Jaws theme whenever she got close to the water!! Kinda mean, but ever so funny!!! :lmao:

[AKL LOVER]

Great updates! I'm interested to see if you all run out of things to do at VB. I'm not sure I could spend a whole week at a DVC resort outside of actual WDW...one of the main reasons we haven't bought into DVC yet.

Did they have a lot of activities planned at the resort to keep people busy (besides slide races of course ;))?

[BennyFedora]

Great updates! I'm interested to see if you all run out of things to do at VB. I'm not sure I could spend a whole week at a DVC resort outside of actual WDW...one of the main reasons we haven't bought into DVC yet.

Did they have a lot of activities planned at the resort to keep people busy (besides slide races of course ;))?

We honestly didn't do a whole lot at VB other than pool/beach/food/drink. Same with HH. (I'm sure your family would LOVE that:rotfl:.) At both resorts they had daily planners for things throughout the week, but we didn't go to any of them. We spent most of our non-sun hours discovering the area outside of the resorts. Since there's no ME, we have a car! :)

I was really glad we split it up in a few different places because a whole week at either VB or HH might be a bit much. Since the cost of staying there is so cheap on points relative to just paying for that type of resort, I'm definitely glad we have them as options. Napping was also an integral part of this vacation--especially early on--and spending a lot of time just lounging around a resort is very conducive to that. :thumbsup2 In the future I could see us going to WDW for part of a week and combining VB for some down-time. We also want to visit Charleston the way we did Savannah and that is less than 2 hours from HH. The resorts themselves are great, so if we ever want a beach vacation (in the US), those will probably be the places we go!

Wow - an entire update and no acronyms for me to try and decipher. I'm really liking this game though - testing my skills!! It's truly the government thing...for example, we have a week each June that is to recognize public servants. The English acronym: NPSW (National Public Service Week). The French acronym: SNFP (Semaine national de la fontion publique). And that's an easy one. Try these ones: GCWCC (English) with CCMTGC (French). Google them - you'll find it!



Yeah, sorry about that. I wanted to get an update in before I leave for CA for the week for work and we had an EXHAUSTING weekend. (Full of fun though!)

Regarding your AcroNasties, could I get a context clue...perhaps use one of them in a sentence? With absolutely NO help from Google, I'll say:

Greater
Canada
Water
Conservation
Council

and then basically the French version of that. ;)



I have a scary/funny (depending on your point of view) water in St. Lucia story too! I was there about 6 years ago with my dad, stepmom and two stepsisters. Well, one of my stepsisters has a massive fear of sharks. Thanks to a trustworthy :rolleyes1 babysitter who let her watch Jaws when she was six, she's ridiculously scared of them to the point where she wouldn't swim in the lake one summer at our cottage because of it.

Anyhow - the resort we were staying at had kind of a sheltered, shallowish bay, and it also had a swimming area roped off where they had cleared the rocks, etc. My sister (who was 18 at the time), decided that the roped off area had a net to keep out the sharks, and hence she was perfectly fine to swim in the roped off area. About the third day of our trip, she shared this with me. I told her there was no net, it was just a rope with some buoys (like lane markers in a swimming pool). She would only believe me when I swam under the rope and came up on the other side. At that - she freaked, half-swam, half-ran as fast as she could to shore. Then, the staff at the resort found out about her fear, and would start playing the Jaws theme whenever she got close to the water!! Kinda mean, but ever so funny!!! :lmao:

WOW (not an acronym), I can't believe the staff would torment her like that! Although, I guess she was fair game at 18...it'd be different if she were 8 :)

When I was little--like one of my first memories little--I slept over my cousin's house and our parents watched Poltergeist. We were supposed to be asleep upstairs, but we snuck down to peek out from behind the big reclining chairs. When they got to the part where the kid is eyeballing the clown doll on the chair from his bed, and then it's not there, and then the clown arms grab him from under the bed, my cousin screamed and blew our cover. She was 4 years older than me (now 36), but to this day she HATES clowns. :laughing:

[Joyciemc]

Maybe Ben would get bored with a whole week at Vero or Hilton Head, but not me! I could go to the pool every day and be very happy! Though next time, I'll have to sneak some WDW park time into the trip!

[CarolynK]

I've been enjoying reading along...we are also DVC members. I am curious to read the rest of your Vero report, since we've been there twice (most recently this summer, also experienced the "ankle rails"). Both times, we combined Vero with WDW. We'll probably do the same this summer.
I like how you guys procrastinated leaving WDW...that's the great thing about having a car and no solid plans - winging it can be so much fun!

[Practically_Perfect]

Regarding your AcroNasties, could I get a context clue...perhaps use one of them in a sentence? With absolutely NO help from Google, I'll say:

Greater
Canada
Water
Conservation
Council

and then basically the French version of that. ;)


Okay - I'll give you two. First, since I'm with the Government of Canada, you can almost guarantee that anytime you see the letters "GC" together in an acronym, they're for "Government of Canada".

The second clue is that it has to do with a workplace charitable campaign (that may have been 3 clues in one). ;)


WOW (not an acronym), I can't believe the staff would torment her like that! Although, I guess she was fair game at 18...it'd be different if she were 8 :)

When I was little--like one of my first memories little--I slept over my cousin's house and our parents watched Poltergeist. We were supposed to be asleep upstairs, but we snuck down to peek out from behind the big reclining chairs. When they got to the part where the kid is eyeballing the clown doll on the chair from his bed, and then it's not there, and then the clown arms grab him from under the bed, my cousin screamed and blew our cover. She was 4 years older than me (now 36), but to this day she HATES clowns. :laughing:

:lmao:

Okay - same babysitter also let them watch Poltergeist. A different one woke up with nightmares for a month thinking that a clown was going to reach up from under the bed and grab her. :scared1:

Yeah....that babysitter didn't last too long after my dad got in the picture :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

Okay - I'll give you two. First, since I'm with the Government of Canada, you can almost guarantee that anytime you see the letters "GC" together in an acronym, they're for "Government of Canada".

The second clue is that it has to do with a workplace charitable campaign (that may have been 3 clues in one). ;)


Wait, so is it Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign? If so, I think your clues might have been a little too easy :rotfl2:

I've been enjoying reading along...we are also DVC members. I am curious to read the rest of your Vero report, since we've been there twice (most recently this summer, also experienced the "ankle rails"). Both times, we combined Vero with WDW. We'll probably do the same this summer.
I like how you guys procrastinated leaving WDW...that's the great thing about having a car and no solid plans - winging it can be so much fun!

Thanks for reading along! I agree. Combining WDW and VB is a great idea. VB lets you just relax without the pressure of thinking you're missing out on a park by being at your hotel AND it's the cheapest points around! It's also such a nice resort, and you can't beat being able to walk from your hotel to the beach to a pool with a crazy water slide, all the while still feeling the Disney experience. :cool1:

Maybe Ben would get bored with a whole week at Vero or Hilton Head, but not me! I could go to the pool every day and be very happy! Though next time, I'll have to sneak some WDW park time into the trip!

I can totally do a whole week at a pool/beach! (ahem, Sandals? :)) I guess I just meant that it is tough to do a whole week when VB is so close to WDW, and HH is so close to Savannah and Charleston :goodvibes:

[BennyFedora]

***

Alright, I’m back from CA (was there for work) and promise to do a better job of posting updates! Now, on to the TR!...almost. Quick question. Am I the only one that thought there was a Hidden Mickey in the cloud on the left from the morning of Day 2? (pasted again below) Don’t worry; there was an even better one in HH ;)


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5932.jpg


***

Anywho…after freshening up, we were off to find some treasure! Not too far from the resort, we came to McLarty’s Treasure Museum in Sebastian (just north of Vero Beach). On the way in to the museum, we saw this crazy tree. It starts on the left of the palm tree, loops over to the right, has a “hand” looking part grab on to the palm to the left, and then continues. Weird, right?


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5916.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5917.jpg


The museum was filled with cool stuff from about 300 years ago. I wasn’t up on my coastal Florida history, but conveniently there’s a 30 minute video in a 20 person movie-theater-type area which told us all about it. popcorn:: (I've wanted to use that emoticon since I first saw it!) Apparently, Spain was in trouble economically after a major war in the early 1700s. At the same time, the king planned to marry the princess of Italy. Spain was a major global power, so the king told all the colonies to send their gold, silver, jewelry, pottery—basically everything they could—to Cuba, which would be condensed on 11 ships, and sent back to Spain. Unfortunately for Spain, a hurricane wiped out the entire fleet near VB, sending billions of dollars of treasure to bottom of the ocean! :headache: A major salvage effort was undertaken by Spain, but with the limited technology of 1715, much of it was unrecoverable.

Over the years, the fleet was forgotten and Spain's empire fell apart (in large part to the lost revenue). Then, a hurricane in the 1950s kicked up some pieces of eight, and a local VB man named Kip Wagner found them on the beach. He kept finding more and more by chance, so he then focused his efforts to figure out where it was coming from. His research suggested it was this missing fleet, and over the next decade or so, he located most of the wreckage and pulled up millions in treasure! "Experts" estimate that about 80% has been recovered so far, but more is still even being found today. (The crown jewels for the new queen are among the items not yet found.) After major storms, people flock to the beach with metal detectors and even amateurs regularly get lucky and take home a doubloon! At this rate, someone in St. Lucia will likely find a lovely engagement ring sometime around 2308. :rotfl2:

McLarty's is at the site of the original recovery effort. The museum also had a walkway out to the beach which was well covered by “sea grapes”. The survivors of the shipwrecks had little in the way of supplies, and had to rely heavily on the local Indians. Sea grapes were actually a major source of food for the locals, but the Spanish couldn’t figure out how to eat them. I tried one, and I’ve got to tell you, there’s not much to them. There is a very thin grape-like flesh over a big seed. I’m not sure what the local trick is, but I figure you’d have to eat about 10 of them (spitting out each seed) to be the same as eating 1 regular grape. Doing the math, it’s not hard to see why the Spanish didn’t think much of these as an actual food source!


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5918.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5919.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5920.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5921.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5923.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_5924.jpg


After we had our fills of sea grapes and views of the lovely beach, we decided to drive around Sebastian. As another side-note, here’s a trivia question for you. In what town is Disney’s Vero Beach Resort located?

*
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*

You get half credit if you said NOT Vero Beach, FL.

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You get full credit if you said Wabasso Beach, FL! :worship:

Vero Beach is actually about 10 miles SOUTH of the resort. Wha-thah-wha? Yup. Unfortunately, I didn’t pester the CMs with that the way I did the mural and the floor designs. My best guess that Disney had a typo on their first marketing brochures for the resort and already sold some DVC contracts before they noticed…

OK, sorry for the jumpy thoughts. Back on track!

Leaving the museum, we were a bit tired and thirsty, so our eyes perked up when we saw a Dunkin Donuts—ahh, feels like home :goodvibes. This DD also had a Baskin Robbins in it, which is not uncommon, but the set-up was totally bizarre. There was one long counter with the BR on the left and the DD on the right, but the BR did not have its own register. :confused3 When we got in line on the DD side, the people that were getting ice creams on the BR side kept cutting in front of us to pay. I’d have been OK with alternating, but probably 10 bikers and/or old people squeezed in front of us like we weren’t there. YGTBKM! :mad: However, I wasn’t about to yell at bikers or old people, so bit my lip until we could get our big-ole caffeinated icy liquids.

Quenched and refreshed, next on the agenda was to find a store. At the pool and beach, we had come up with a short list of things that would make our vacation better. We’re always learning on these trips!

Suntan Lotion, cheap cups, case of 20-oz Coke Zero bottles,
case of 20-oz Gatorade Bottles, rum, a small beach bag,
and a collapsible cooler bag.

We soon found a Wal-Mart which proved to be perfect. We found everything except a good beach bag, but we figured we could probably get one back at the resort. Right next to Wal-Mart was a liquor store. Normally I drink Captain Morgan, but I’ve heard good things about Sailor Jerry. Seeing as how this is vacation, I figured what better time to try it! Sailor Jerry may sound like a cheap knock-off, but it was actually a bit more expensive. I’ve had Admiral Nelson which IS a cheap knock-off, but Jerry did not disappoint! :thumbsup2 (How many “job on a boat” + “name” rums are out there?)

Since the museum and a store were all we really had planned at that point, we headed back to the hotel. Quickly popping in the gift shop Joyce found this:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%202/IMG_6224.jpg


This bag is now pretty much her favorite. It’s water resistant, has a zipper that fully closes the bag, is fairly neutral looking, but does have some Mickey—can’t beat that!

Now back in the room, we packed away our treasures and decided to make a reservation at Sonya’s—the fancy restaurant at VB. With that scheduled for 7, we relaxed, had some Sailor and Cokes, and took naps, because, hey, it’s vacation!

[Joyciemc]

I was just about to yell at you to hurry up with an update :laughing: good job, Ben!

[Practically_Perfect]

***
Quick question. Am I the only one that thought there was a Hidden Mickey in the cloud on the left from the morning of Day 2? (pasted again below) Don’t worry; there was an even better one in HH ;)


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5932.jpg


***

I see it now! I didn't see it the first time you posted this pic, but now I do. It looks kinda like a Mickey balloon.


Leaving the museum, we were a bit tired and thirsty, so our eyes perked up when we saw a Dunkin Donuts—ahh, feels like home :goodvibes. This DD also had a Baskin Robbins in it, which is not uncommon, but the set-up was totally bizarre. There was one long counter with the BR on the left and the DD on the right, but the BR did not have its own register. :confused3 When we got in line on the DD side, the people that were getting ice creams on the BR side kept cutting in front of us to pay. I’d have been OK with alternating, but probably 10 bikers and/or old people squeezed in front of us like we weren’t there. YGTBKM! :mad: However, I wasn’t about to yell at bikers or old people, so bit my lip until we could get our big-ole caffeinated icy liquids.



YGTBKM - seriously?!?!?!?! This one's just mean....it's gonna bother me all day until I figure it out.

For some reason I think that "BKM" is Butt-Kickin' Mad...but I can't make that work with YGT.

Yet.

Give me time ;)

[CarolynK]

YGTBKM...you've got to be kidding me?

[Practically_Perfect]

YGTBKM...you've got to be kidding me?

Of course! So simple...silly me for trying to complicate it up! :headache:

[BennyFedora]

I see it now! I didn't see it the first time you posted this pic, but now I do. It looks kinda like a Mickey balloon.



I don't know why I love Hidden Mickeys so much, but I just do :)



YGTBKM - seriously?!?!?!?! This one's just mean....it's gonna bother me all day until I figure it out.

For some reason I think that "BKM" is Butt-Kickin' Mad...but I can't make that work with YGT.

Yet.

Give me time ;)

While that's got potential, the correct answer goes to:

YGTBKM...you've got to be kidding me?

:thumbsup2

[AKL LOVER]

Sailor Jerry is great! Even though it's a bit more expensive than Captain, the stronger proof makes up for that! :thumbsup2

[BennyFedora]

After our nap, we were ready for a fancy dinner. The restaurant was really nice, but in hind sight, probably not worth the big bucks. I had a creamy crab soup that had hints of curry and cinnamon which really worked well together. Joyce had (and enjoyed) a cheese plate that was really fancy, but I’m just not a fancy cheese guy, so it was a bit lost on me. My main course was tuna (rare) over lemongrass and some other vegetables. The waiter warned me that it was spicy (which I like), but this was hardly-edible-spicy. The toughest part was that I really couldn’t taste much other than the lemongrass anyway, so this meal got a big-ole-SADFACE from me. On the other hand, Joyce’s crab cakes were delicious, so I guess I just picked wrong…We split crème brûlée which had 3 separate dishes—vanilla, chocolate/alcohol, and fruit. This was also a bit of a letdown.

The best part of eating at Sonya’s was that it reminded us of a funny work story. One company that I work with is located in Germany, and they had a deadline that really put them on the spot with their customer. Ruth (one of the women in our logistics department) was able to pull some strings and get everything straightened out in time. Jens replied back calling her “Super Sonja”! I tried Googling it, but only came up with inappropriate links, so I’m assuming she is the German equivalent of Wonder Woman…either way, Super Sonja is now one of our favorite exclamations!

After dinner, we headed to the GCR, and Bernie was on in all his glory. Joyce dubbed him Magical Mystery Tones. We tried to use MMT for “short”, but “Bernie” is actually shorter. For the second night in a row, Bernie asked if there were any newlyweds in the audience, and said he had a song for them called “What Was I Thinking?” He played a verse or two of the country song, and then stopped to say, “It’s a joke”. Yup, funny every time..this guy’s got laughter on tap! :lmao:

On the brighter side, we were sitting at the bar with our new instant-friends Susan, Scott, and Craig. Scott and Susan were married and probably 50ish, and Craig was their friend from the UK. While it was Scott’s birthday, he was driving, and it was Susan and Craig who were TSTTW! When Susan heard that there were newlyweds in the crowd, she thought it was us, so she gave us hugs and kisses and infinite congratulations. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was the 21ish year-olds at the end of the bar, so Joyce and I just played along a bit. :rolleyes1 Craig and Scott were actually licensed divers and had both found a few pieces of treasure, so we chatted a bit about McLarty’s and pretended that we had known about the 1715 fleet for more than just 12 hours. They were definitely a fun crew and it turns out that Bernie isn’t bad background music, as you never get bored of his 60 partial-songs per hour!

The bartenders were also really nice. Paolo and Cosmo were both from Italy and worked the crowd well. From the banter with the other wait-staff, you could tell that this would be a fun place to work. One overly inebriated lady seemed intent on picking up Paolo even though he was wearing a ring and mentioned he had a wife and child on 1 or 6 occasions. Here’s an approximation of one of their better exchanges:

Lady: Do you have “Sen Zen”?
Paolo: “Sin Zin”? (a bottle of wine they did have on the shelf)
Lady: Zen Zen.
Paolo: Sin Zin?
Lady: Sun Sin.
Paolo: Sin Zin?
Lady: No, nevermind. I’ll have another Blue Moon.

Around last call, the actual honeymooners quickly headed for the door to the balcony. The husband quickly shuffled her outside saying, “she needs some, er, a lot of air!” Oh, young love…

With last call, we decided it was time to head back to the room and have a few beers to Inmate TV. Haha, well, we didn’t PLAN on watching Inmate TV, but when we saw it, we really couldn’t turn away. It was all about romances and marriages between inmates and people on the outside. Joyce and I kind of love train-wreck television. :happytv:

With such an eventful day under our belts, did VB have anything left for us?

[BennyFedora]

Sailor Jerry is great! Even though it's a bit more expensive than Captain, the stronger proof makes up for that! :thumbsup2

I was really glad we tried it! It's probably not going to replace Captain on my shelf on a regular basis, but I'll be all over it if SJ is on sale!

[tankgirl427]

TSTTW


Oh oh oh! I know this one!

Two sheets to the wind!

[Practically_Perfect]

TSTTW


Oh oh oh! I know this one!

Two sheets to the wind!

You beat me to it!!

My record's going downhill.... :sad2:

[tankgirl427]

You beat me to it!!

My record's going downhill.... :sad2:

It'll probably be awhile before I ever get another one, so your record is safe for now. After that first one..... :worship::worship::worship::worship::worship:

[BennyFedora]

TSTTW


Oh oh oh! I know this one!

Two sheets to the wind!

Great job...I thought that was going to be a tough one! :thumbsup2

You get full credit, but for others keeping score, it is technically THREE sheets to the wind. Anyone that got that on their own without seeing your answer first gets a bonus point :goodvibes



You beat me to it!!

My record's going downhill.... :sad2:

Well, you told us up front that you are only practically perfect :rotfl2:

[BennyFedora]

This day, like most days on this vacation, started with rolling out of bed around 9am (no alarm clock) and very little in the way of a plan. That is something we got used to in a hurry!

Bagel & Cream Cheese—check!
Coffee—check!
Rings in the safe—check!
Sunscreen—check!
Cooler bag with Gatorades and ice—check!
Mickey bag with phones, camera, eReader—check!

Now off to the pool!

The weather was nice again, and we enjoyed the fairly empty pool. We did notice a few guests at the pool, however. Mr. Squirrel spent quite a bit of time running around, but was all-in-all not a bother. Our dog (Penny) is very intense about squirrels. When she sees one, a switch just flicks in her brain and she’s like the dogs from UP. Luckily we live near a lot of trees (squirrel escape routes), so Penny has never really gotten close enough to say hello the way she wants to. She would have also made our situation MUCH less relaxing if she were with us :goodvibes


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5935.jpg


The other guest wasn’t still there, but a bit of animal Sherlocking gave away his visit. Any guesses?


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5933.jpg


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If you said bunny poop, pat yourself on the back! Joyce works at an animal shelter, and we actually have a bunny at home (George), so it was easy for us to figure out. Some of you may be thinking “EWWW”, but honestly, bunny poop is probably the least gross poop around. They are essentially dry, round, fairly-odorless balls of well processed plants. Joyce is probably going to yell at me for over-sharing, but our cats and dog LOVE them. Since they are tiny marbles, the cats find them to be perfect toys to bat around and chase. They reach in George’s crate and try desperately to get them, on the chance that some are not in his litter box. Penny, on the other hand, is more interested in them as “bunny gum”. If we leave George's crate open and unattended, chances are that Penny is poking around trying to score some chew. If you didn’t EWW before, feel free now :rotfl:. On the plus side, this makes us extremely aware of keeping our house extra clean!

The pool gave way to the beach, another walk, dip, and return to the pool. The icy Gatorades were an excellent addition to our adventure, but by about 1, we were getting pretty hungry. Since we had tried Bleachers yesterday, we decided we'd do lunch at Shutters.

Once we got inside, we realized that it was Sunday, so they had their brunch going from 10-3pm. It was a bit pricey, but the food looked really good, it was all-you-can-eat, AND you got a complimentary mimosa or Bloody Mary…so, yes, I believe that we will ;)


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5936.jpg


I’m not going to say that the reason we got brunch was because of the Bloody Mary, but it was a big factor. As a background, neither Joyce nor I had had a Bloody Mary until about 4 weeks before the trip. I know, I know, you’re thinking, they’re in their 30s, HCTEBP?!? I’m not sure why, but neither of us had ever gotten around to trying one. A month before this trip, one of my friends got married, but Hurricane Irene forced him to bump up the wedding time from 5PM to 10AM to be ahead of the storm. (Can you imagine getting that call from the venue 23 hours before you’re getting married?) Luckily he was able to switch all of the vendors, and at 9AM Bloody Marys were replacing coffee for about 200 people. THAT Bloody Mary left us with an “eh, OK” feeling, but we saw the drink’s potential and had heard wondrous stories of olives and spices and celery that were lacking in the mass-produced-wedding version. I figured we should get one of each on the chance that Joyce didn’t like it, she could fall back on the mimosa. THIS Bloody Mary turned out to be delicious, so we did halfsies.

The food was also excellent! If I had to pick one thing that stood out, it was the seafood chowder, but there was a looooong line of tables of good food. I thought they did a great job with Eggs Benedict which can be very hard to serve to the masses, and the desserts were exceptional for just a brunch. Needless to say, we unintentionally ate our weight in food. You know when you’re so full that somehow your brain tells you the only way you’ll feel better is to take another sip of soda or perhaps finish that half of a crêpe? Yeah, that was us…

Waddling back up to the room, we let our food coma set in and somehow needed naps after being awake for only 5 hours and having spent most of that time lying down. While we lay there, I saw that Bolt—a movie I had never seen—was just starting, so I actually caught that instead of some ZZZs.

About 2 hours later, we showered and changed and planned to head to re-explore a bit north of the resort. We wanted to eventually go to Squid Lips for dinner and check out Earl’s Biker Bar for some late night festivities. Squid Lips got great reviews on Yelp, and Earl’s reviews said it was full of bikers, but a friendly atmosphere for non-bikers and had a cool tiki bar out back. Joyce and I are always game for anything, so it sounded good to us!

We drove north and found both places, then continued north just to see what else was around. The short answer to that is “nothing”…haha :lmao:. We turned back and drove by Squid Lips again, but at this point it was 6ish and we were still FULL from brunch. Time to head south and check out the real Vero Beach!

Vero Beach also didn’t seem like it had a lot going on, but we probably drove around for another hour or so just poking around. There was a restaurant on our list in this area called Brewgrrs, so we decided to check it out. It actually only had about 2.5 stars on Yelp, but we realized that it was skewed by some stupid people. One person complained that they had “too many beers on tap”. Another complained about wooden benches being hard. HAHA, really. With an open mind, we went in and found it to be awesome. The place looked fairly new or newly revitalized, so there was no problem there. They had about 50 beers on tap, and not just a lot of taps of the standard variety. Many of them we had heard of, and some of we hadn’t. Joyce and I are beer people, so this was perfect! The bar stools were actually kegs converted to have a round squishy seat—fun and comfortable! After half a beer, we weren’t hungry, but it was late enough that we figured we could eat. The menu was different, too. Joyce had a grilled cheese with ham in it, and I tried the Aussie Burger. Mine was a good size burger with bacon, cheese, pineapple, fried egg, and a slice of beet. Lemmetellyou, it was on the short list of best burgers I have ever had! Be warned, I have a large mouth, so it quite literally would have been difficult for many to eat—Joyce failed her attempt to bite it. I also have a penchant for weird food. I’m not talking about eating dirt or chalk or dryer sheets, but in college I invented the Colonial Sammich (peanut butter, jelly, and ham), I enjoy dipping marshmallows in Tostitos Queso, and loooove whipped cream on cold pizza. I've tried other combinations that did not work well, but if you've got courage, those 3 are some of my better weird combinations.

We had another beer or two while watching late night football and decided to it was time to head back. On the way out, I quickly sat down in a bench along the wall and confirmed that wood benches here feel exactly like wood benches in other parts of the country. The bartender (who had been great all night) gave me a funny look, so I told her I was just testing it. Joyce and I started laughing, and the bartender played along, but I am positive that she did not get it. With that, we were on our way to the resort to go to call it a night.

[BennyFedora]

Just realized I forgot to include a picture...

Much like a Disney octopus, Joyce tends to blend in well with her Disney surroundings. Today was no exception.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5941.jpg


Some of you may also remember her famous bus impersonations...


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%204/IMG_5348.jpg


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%205/IMG_5448.jpg

[Practically_Perfect]

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%203/IMG_5936.jpg


I’m not going to say that the reason we got brunch was because of the Bloody Mary, but it was a big factor. As a background, neither Joyce nor I had had a Bloody Mary until about 4 weeks before the trip. I know, I know, you’re thinking, they’re in their 30s, HCTEBP?!?

Oh oh oh!!

How
Could
That
Even
Be
Possible??

Hope I'm right :goodvibes Now back to read the rest of the update ;)

[Joyciemc]

Seriously? Octopus? Wouldn't Chameleon be the more appropriate color-changing-animal analogy?

I am amazed at my ability to match Disney surroundings... without even trying!


Also, I could definitely go for that Shutter's brunch right about now....

[BennyFedora]

Seriously? Octopus? Wouldn't Chameleon be the more appropriate color-changing-animal analogy?

I am amazed at my ability to match Disney surroundings... without even trying!


Also, I could definitely go for that Shutter's brunch right about now....

I guess it's the animal-nerd in me. An octopus is actually much better than a chameleon at changing color. It can even change its skin texture and shape to nearly completely disappear into its surroundings. I could have gone with cuttlefish (related to octopus) which is the best in the animal kingdom at camouflage, but I thought that would have been stretching it. (Is there a NERD emoticon?)



Oh oh oh!!

How
Could
That
Even
Be
Possible??

Hope I'm right :goodvibes Now back to read the rest of the update ;)

Congratulations, you are back on top!

[tankgirl427]

Ben,

You missed Joyce blending in with the scenery in the Canada pavillion on your trip!

That was my favorite one.:rotfl:

[BennyFedora]

Ben,

You missed Joyce blending in with the scenery in the Canada pavillion on your trip!

That was my favorite one.:rotfl:

I guess I missed it because she blended in so completely with Canada that I didn't even know she was there!

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%206/IMG_5484.jpg

[tankgirl427]

I guess I missed it because she blended in so completely with Canada that I didn't even know she was there!

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20WDW%20Day%206/IMG_5484.jpg

That really is my favorite one! The trailer is deadly quiet and I just busted out laughing. Thank you Ben & Joyce! Or maybe just thank you Joyce for unknowing matching your surroundings on a daily basis!

[Joyciemc]

That really is my favorite one! The trailer is deadly quiet and I just busted out laughing. Thank you Ben & Joyce! Or maybe just thank you Joyce for unknowing matching your surroundings on a daily basis!

Betsy- you are amazing for remembering that picture!

I honestly have no idea how I keep matching my surroundings :rotfl:

[BennyFedora]

While it may not sound exciting, our standard morning (breakfast/pool/beach) was again the perfect way to start the day! I also decided to do laundry. While we didn’t need to do laundry, it was conveniently located near the elevator on the 4th floor (with the ice machine) AND it’s free since we brought powdered detergent. The wash cycle only takes about 30 minutes, and the dryer is only about 45, so combining laundry and pool time is a piece of cake!

For lunch we went back to Shutters—no brunch on Monday—and split the conch fritters, turkey Reuben, and cheeseburger flat bread. The conch fritters were fantastic, the Reuben was also really good, and the flat bread tasted EXACTLY like a McDonald’s cheeseburger! We almost never eat fast food, and a McDonald’s cheeseburger is no Aussie Burger. However, the cheese, meat, ketchup, mustard, pickle, and onion have a unique and somewhat nostalgic taste. All in all, it was a great meal, and didn’t leave us in as much pain as the day before. ;)

After lunch, it was time to get Joyce a special treat that she had noticed earlier in the week when we got the Mickey Bag:


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Joyce loooooves Mickey Bars. Every time I see them I laugh and think of this:


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Joyce’s sad expression in this picture was from our fall 2010 trip (in AK at the time) just after I mentioned that I probably didn’t want to go to WDW every year. To Joyce, I clearly stated that I hated Disney. I tried to convince her that I just meant that I’d like to also take other vacations (tropical, road trip, etc.), but I did want to come back to WDW. About 24 hours later, we bought DVC, and Joyce’s smile returned :rotfl:

Back to VB, Joyce finished up her prize, and we decided it was time for some Jerry, Coke, and Gin. Haha, not that kind of Gin…


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While we were playing, we noticed our friends that we had become so close with on our trip in May:


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Back at AKLKV on our last trip, there were love bugs EVERYWHERE. Once we got used to them, they weren’t much of a nuisance, but we had hardly noticed them on this trip. I always think they look so funny, stuck back-to-back, with the lady basically dragging the guy around wherever she wants.

After a fairly intense game of Gin, we figured it was time to head back to our room, relax with some beers and TV, and—as you’ve probably already guessed—take a nap!

Waking up and cleaning up, it was time to head out for dinner. Since we missed out on Squid Lips and Earl’s the day before, that was now our plan for this evening. Heading 10 minutes up the road to Sebastian, we quickly found out that Squid Lips was CLOSED on Mondays :headache:! With this being our last full day in VB, it seems like Squid Lips would have to wait for a future trip…

Heading back south, we saw Mulligan’s. It was out over the water and looked pretty nice, so we thought we’d check it out! Turns out it was a great spot. Nice view, good food (fish tacos, mahi mahi sliders), and cheap margaritas :thumbsup2


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After dinner, we stopped at Suzy’s Tiki Hut, which we had seen on the drive down from Squid Lips. The place was a bit dark and looked EMPTY, so Joyce was a little skeptical about getting out. I convinced her that it looked like a fun little place, so she agreed after a few minutes. Turns out, Suzy’s was a pretty cool place. There were some corn-hole games set up for a tournament that they do during the week, and a fun little area of Adirondack chairs set up in the sand near a fire pit (which had no fire at this point). At the tiki bar on the water, there were two guys our age, the bartender (about our age), and her parents. Everyone was really nice, and they had Yuengling drafts for only $2!


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The older couple was originally from Long Island, but had lived here for about 20 years. We told them about how we were going up to HH the next day, so they recommended we stop in St. Augustine. St. Augustine is actually the oldest city in the US (1565) and conveniently located half way between VB and HH, so it would be the perfect spot to stop for lunch. I asked for a recommendation on lunch, and the couple quickly agreed that the Gypsy Cab Company was the place to go.

As our last night in VB came to a close, we not only had thoroughly enjoyed our time here, but now also had a fun new destination to see. VB was the perfect spot for a relaxing beach/pool/resort vacation and would make a great addition to a future WDW trip. With our first off-site DVC resort stay a success, we were really looking forward to checking out HH! :goodvibes

[Joyciemc]

That picture of me eating the Mickey bar in Animal Kingdom is not a sad face. It was MAD. Like really, really mad cause you pretended that you'd be ok going to WDW the next year (and we even had a trip booked), then changed your tune. But look who won that fight- we bought DVC and went back to WDW just 6 months later. :laughing:

[BennyFedora]

Waking up around 9, we quickly packed and bid a sad farewell to VB. Stopping at DD, we were fueled up and ready to start the next adventure!

After talking to our Long Island buddies at Suzy’s Tiki Hut, we now had a rest-ination on the way to HH. St. Augustine was about 3 hours away, and as we approached we were HUNGRY! Luckily, we also had a place in mind for lunch, so we went straight to Gypsy Cab Company.

The drive from the highway to GCC took us through St. Augustine which had some amazing old buildings and Spanish architecture. We then had to go over a bridge which put us in a part of SA that was more 1970s than 1570s. Ick! It didn’t really seem sketchy, but it was a time-warp from the other side of the bridge. We quickly found GCC and ran in to quell our hunger.


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GCC was a bit different atmosphere than we had thought, though honestly I’m not sure what we expected. It had an interesting décor—maybe sort of like a large home renovated into a restaurant—and the eating areas seemed sort of spread out and separated. The menu had a wide variety, though not as many options as you’d expect on a diverse menu. I also couldn’t tell what their “specialty” might be. I had a dish that consisted of haddock, crab, and garlic pasta, while Joyce had an enchilada. Both of them were OK, but not great. I was a bit surprised about the whole thing because our STHLIB gave it instant glowing reviews. In hind sight, I should have also asked what to order. On the plus side, lunch was quick—probably 45 minutes from parking to paying!

We headed back over the bridge, put 2 hours on a meter on a side-street, and started to enjoy The Ancient City!


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Soon after, we found St. Augustine Fort and debated taking the tour. While we REALLY wanted to, it was 45 minutes, and we didn’t think we wanted to spend that much time on it since we still wanted to see more of SA and still had another 3.5 hour drive to HH. However, we certainly had about 10 minutes :rotfl:

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Walking through the downtown area was cool, but at times seemed a bit “themed”, like I was walking down Disney’s Main Street St. Augustine. Buildings that were really old were mixed in with buildings that looked newly renovated to look old and was a bit “touristy”. That said, there were still fun to walk around!


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After an hour or so, the heat and humidity were getting to us, so it was time to get back on the road. Another open-road drive quickly got us through Florida, through Georgia, and finally to South Carolina—hurray for 70 mph speed limits! Right around 6pm, we were finally at HH!

[BennyFedora]

I had originally wrote this as 1 looong update, but apparently had too many pictures...BOO DIS! Haha. Anyway, here's Part 2!

The HH resort was a bit tricky to find going down some windy roads off the main road, on our first try. HH is a very “green” island, so the signs are muted, and the lights are low, so pay close attention in the daylight if you want to get around later :rolleyes1.

We pulled up to the resort and excitedly went in to check out our new digs! On the way in, we noticed Shadow’s house. Shadow is a golden retriever that supposedly was roaming the grounds on which the HH resort was built. He stuck around and found himself a home as well—as the story goes. Unfortunately, we didn’t see Shadow during our visit :guilty:


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The lobby is on the second floor and had a fun rustic theme. The CMs quickly greeted us with lemonade and cookies, and you guessed it First Visit pins! Honestly, HMFVPDOPN?


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The only room available for us was a handicapped accessible room, but we had no reason to object. It turns out that the accessible room was right off of the lobby. Conveniently for us, this building is the only one that actually has an elevator, so we didn’t have to carry our bags upstairs. We quickly checked out our HUGE room and were pleasantly surprised.


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Throughout the resort, they actually included little tributes to Shadow, such as the paw prints on the tile in the entrance to our room.


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We also were greeted by a toweltopus.


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The surroundings of the resort are tidal marsh, so the water level actually rises and lowers quite a bit. But, at any water level, the resort still is pretty!


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This pool also had a slide, which we were a bit sad to see was quite a bit shorter than the VB slide. Wonder how it will stack up?


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The Mercantile was the HH gift shop and located near the pool. True to theme, they even had a little door for Shadow!


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We were also really excited to see that they had corn hole near the pool!


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Back in the room, we took showers, changed, and knew it was DINNER TIME! (These last few days have apparently stretched our stomachs…) We had made a list of HH restaurants and chose A Lowcountry Backyard to be the first we tried out. With the address in hand and Joyce’s phone with Google Maps, we hit the road for the 3 mile drive…

Remember my note about the signs and the lights? Well I didn’t have that advice until I came up with it during our 3 or 5 or 7 mile drive. While it’s great that the island is so “natural”, it is VERY inconvenient to newbies, causing a lot of turning around! That combined with our hunger, and it seemed like 30 minutes of driving back and forth before we actually found the place! Luckily, it would have been worth a 60 minute drive. :thumbsup2

The atmosphere was really cute and we really felt like we were in somebody’s kitchen/dining room. They did have outside seating which did seem like a backyard—this area of SC and GA is called “lowcountry”, so the name of the restaurant makes complete sense—but we preferred the A/C at this point. Kim was our waitress and she was full of energy and bubbling over with southern charm :goodvibes. I got a fried, breaded, cheese type thing with Cajun shrimp on it and cream cheese whipped potatoes. (Belly says YES! Arteries say NO!) Joyce really enjoyed her meatloaf, and then we had some DELICIOUS bread pudding.

This vacation has already added 5 lbs, and at this rate, all of my clothes will be tight by next Monday! After our loooong day, and our newest food coma, it was time to head home and pass out…as long as we could find it!

[Practically_Perfect]

Oh, goody!!! It's two-for-one Monday :dance3:

I was a bit surprised about the whole thing because our STHLIB gave it instant glowing reviews.

...because our

Suzy's
Tiki
Hut
Long
Island
Buddies

gave it instand glowing reviews.

The CMs quickly greeted us with lemonade and cookies, and you guessed it First Visit pins! Honestly, HMFVPDOPN?


Honestly,

How
Many
First
Visit
Pins
Does
One
Person
Need?


Hilton Head looks gorgeous...I just bought a house, so no buying DVC for a while, but when I do, I'm definitely booking a trip there!! I loved the walkways through the marshland - beautiful!!

[BennyFedora]

That picture of me eating the Mickey bar in Animal Kingdom is not a sad face. It was MAD. Like really, really mad cause you pretended that you'd be ok going to WDW the next year (and we even had a trip booked), then changed your tune. But look who won that fight- we bought DVC and went back to WDW just 6 months later. :laughing:

I'd argue that it was my 2 hours of fuzzy math that pointed us towards DVC. On the other end of that, we ended up not only going to WDW the following year, but we went 6 months EARLIER than the trip we canceled! :goodvibes

Lest you forget, I wrote a trip report nearly 20 years before you did :cool1:


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[AKL LOVER]

I'm really loving the way the HH resort looks. Very cool how the marshy area surrounds the resort. HH is close enough for us to drive to...that might be a great place to spend a few days next summer with the kids!

[BennyFedora]

Oh, goody!!! It's two-for-one Monday :dance3:



...because our

Suzy's
Tiki
Hut
Long
Island
Buddies

gave it instand glowing reviews.



Honestly,

How
Many
First
Visit
Pins
Does
One
Person
Need?


Hilton Head looks gorgeous...I just bought a house, so no buying DVC for a while, but when I do, I'm definitely booking a trip there!! I loved the walkways through the marshland - beautiful!!

Yes, and also yes!

HH was awesome. The theming was great and the resort grounds were expansive and beautiful...and I haven't even got to the beach house yet!

In hindsight, I wish I took more pictures of VB and SA as well. VB had a fire pit area with nightly activities that we never took advantage of, and there were also a number of large villas that would be fun to rent with a large group. It was more than just a 4 floor hotel on the beach! :goodvibes SA also had a lot of pretty architecture, but it was so hot and humid that we were ducking in stores just to get a break, and we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to the car and get on our way to HH!

I'm really loving the way the HH resort looks. Very cool how the marshy area surrounds the resort. HH is close enough for us to drive to...that might be a great place to spend a few days next summer with the kids!

I would totally recommend staying there. We will definitely be back!

[klacey1]

The HH resort is so nice! Love the rustic theme and all of the doggie details. Does this dog actually exist?? :confused3 Your room looks really big, too!

[BennyFedora]

The HH resort is so nice! Love the rustic theme and all of the doggie details. Does this dog actually exist?? :confused3 Your room looks really big, too!

We loved the resort and the rustic-isity, and yes, the room was very big. The bathroom was huge, and the deck could have hosted about 20 people. Hurray for accessibility!

I think Shadow exists, or at least did exist. I Googled Shadow and found some pictures. However, HH opened in 1996, so if Shadow was fairly young back then, he would be really old for a golden retriever today (more than 15). If they have an actual Shadow, I'd guess he's Shadow2 or Shadow3 ;)

[BennyFedora]

What’s that? Is that an alarm? Yup. For the first time in what seemed like a month at this point, the cruel sound of “Naked as We Came” by Iron and Wine poured out of my phone. OK, it wasn't that bad. A) That’s a great song to wake up to. We wake up to it every day in the real world. and B) That alarm means it’s time for PARASAILING!…almost…

I set the alarm to give me enough time to wake up, run to the supermarket, get bagels, cream cheese, cream for the coffee, English muffins since they were on sale (now I needed butter, too), get back, make breakfast, and THEN get to the Palmetto Yacht Club for 9:30AM. (Our heroine would stay asleep through Phase 1 of doing-everything-there-is-to-do-in-HH-day.) It didn’t actually take as long as it sounds since there are 3 supermarkets within 2 miles of the resort. (Not that I went to all 3, but the subtle signage of HH may have made me miss a couple before I found one.)


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With all our parts fueled up and in working order, now it was time for parasailing!

We pulled in right at 9:30 (PHEW!) and found out that they say 9:30 so we’ll be ready for 10…ugh. Not really a big deal. The kid working the desk was pretty funny. We had to sign a waiver saying that they wouldn’t be held liable if anyone has a heart attack or gets eaten by a shark. While we were waiting outside, I overheard him mention to another person that they HAD to check out Kid History on YouTube. (Mentally noted.)

We also poked around the marina a bit.


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By the time I failed to get a reasonable picture of a huge butterfly after ~20 tries, Captain John (25-ish) gave us a quick rundown of what to expect. The rest of our group consisted of a couple in their 50s, and a 40-ish year old woman with her 10 year old kid. There was also a co-pilot on the boat (also 25-ish). Even though they were pretty young, they seemed to know what they were doing. While they were funny, they did take everything they did seriously.

Joyce was nervous because she had never gone parasailing before. I had gone once about 10 years ago in Aruba, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t nervous, but actually I don’t think I was nervous about it then either. It probably didn’t help that the woman with her husband said that they went parasailing in Jamaica and one of the braids of the line broke while she was up in the air. (YIKES!) They also landed her on the beach which didn’t go well. CJ said that it’s actually no longer legal to do a beach landing in the US for safety reasons, and he assured us that our gear was thoroughly checked. We would be taking off from the boat, and landing back on the boat, so we didn’t have to even get wet if we didn’t want to. For those of us who did want to, he would dip us in the water at the end of the ride. With that, we headed on to the boat and set off!

They had a few packages we could buy as far as recording our fun. We could put a little camera on our head (with a headband) and record the whole thing (not sure how much that was) or we could just pay $20ish and they’d take a ton of pictures and give us a 2GB card. We went with that option.


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The whole experience was awesome! We pretty much just floated there (no airplane-type turbulence or anything) and within about 5 seconds, Joyce was no longer nervous. I have no idea how long the rope was, but we were WAY up there (as you probably noticed). The ride actually felt a lot like Soarin’…less piney and orangey, more real and amazing!

We opted for the dunk which was FUN. What was LESS FUN was that on the way down, we noticed jellyfish. Lots of them! As we’re going in, we’re heading for danger, and hoping we don’t get stung. After 2 dips, we came out unstung and happy. Immediately after landing, the CJ says, “Oh yeah, I forgot. Those are cannonball jellyfish. They don’t have stingers, so don’t worry!” That was the second piece of information about HH that WHBNTKAOT!

The couple and the girl and her mom went in that order, and then we headed back in to the marina. As much fun as the parasailing was, it was also great just to be out on the boat for so long. I think we each had something like 20 minutes up in the air, so we were on the boat for well over an hour. The scenery was beautiful, and the homes on the water were, well, “homes” probably isn’t the right word. Private resorts, maybe? Anyway, they were the kind I couldn’t even afford the tax on.

There are also apparently a lot of dolphins around HH. We spotted a few, but they were every bit as elusive as that dang butterfly.

All-in-all, we would definitely recommend parasailing in HH, especially through Palmetto Bay Yacht Club. Back at the dock, we got in the car, sucked down a Gatorade, and headed straight for the Beach House!

[BennyFedora]

Look at that, 2 updates for the price of 1! :goodvibes

The Beach House is probably about a mile away from the resort. You essentially have to go through a windy tree covered, parking-lot-road-way area to the main road, cross it, then go down more windy tree covered road. They also have a tunnel under the road (we didn’t use it), so it seemed like you could probably ride a bike back and forth pretty easily. We drove, and were happy to find a spot in the garage so our car didn’t bake. We got the last spot, but there was plenty of parking in the lot in the sun.
BH had a nice pool area with a CS eating area and bathrooms, all of which you needed your card to access.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6008.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6010.jpg

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http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6012.jpg


After quickly scoping out this area, we decided to go check the beach. They had plasticy semi-buried walkway mat out to the beach, which I think is supposed to make it handicapped accessible. (We didn’t notice it as good or bad, just mostly blue.) The beach here was MUCH nicer than VB. It was pretty flat and didn’t have any ring-takers—though we’d still be leaving our rings in the safe anyway!


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6001.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6002.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6004.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6005.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6006.jpg


This beach also had the best Hidden Mickey of the Trip!


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6007.jpg


Another fun thing (though I didn't take a picture of it) was that from the beach, you could hardly see the BH. It had a low profile, and there were trees obstructing it, so it was very incognito. Perhaps this was so non-DVC people didn't try to get in and use the facilities. Although I guess it goes with the theme of making EIHHITF, unless you already know where it is.

After we took a dip and lay out to dry, we decided it was time to head up to the pool. We de-salted, and noticed that there was a corner of the BH that had corn hole and ping pong. Corn hole, don’t mind if I do! Joyce and I had a rousing game of ineptitude, but I eventually won because I rule. We actually felt a bit awkward playing, because the whole pool area was not only empty, but it was silent. I think there were maybe 3 people there, all reading books. There wasn’t even any music playing. Weird. Us, on the other hand, were making plenty of sound. Corn hole was under an overhang in a walled corner, so it was extremely echo-y. After ever bag we threw, it was THUD, THUD, THUD. Nobody complained, but by the time we were done, we were ready to sneak over and just get us some lunch!

Joyce got the steak & cheese and I got the turkey melt. Both were excellent! The CMs at the counter were also pretty funny while we waited. There was an older woman who was half-heartedly sweeping and mostly standing around while the younger kid took our orders, made the sandwiches, got the fries, etc. The guy said, “We’ve got a partnership here. Why am I doing all the work?” She responded, “You’re terrible at sweeping, so I’m just keeping you out of trouble…that’s a partnership”.

After eating, we lounged at the pool a bit more and decided it was time for some Jerry and Cokes…back to the room!

Feeling like making a good time of it, Joyce and I made 2 JC’s apiece to take to the pool, and finished off the last bit of rum since it didn’t quite look like enough for another drink. Taking the deck of cards with the rest of our cargo, we played Gin and enjoyed the pool area.

After finishing our drinks, it was time to check out that slide and see how it stacked up. I’m not sure if it was Jerry talking, but this slide was fantastic! It was much shorter than the VB slide, but most of it was covered, and it was pretty fast, so it was a lot of fun. Plus, the stairway was pretty short, so we literally would run up the steps (OK, not literally…running and horseplay are not allowed), but we would literally walk very fast up the steps, slide down, and go up again, over and over. Shortly thereafter, a CM got on the microphone and said Ice Water Trivia was about to begin…sign us up!

IWT was a game where everyone was in the pool and the CM would ask a true/false or yes/no type question. You would then answer by moving to one side of the pool or the other. She had a bucket and a big cooler of ice, so she would make an ice water bucket and throw it at the people who got it wrong. It was actually a lot of fun and there were probably 20 or so people playing (mostly kids). The one question that I remember was whether Captain Hook had his hook on his left hand or his right hand.

Guesses?

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Left hand, or actually left stub.

I got this correct because I figured he was probably right handed in his sword fights with Peter.

After IWT, it was time for us to go back to the room for ice coffees, showers, and some relaxing before dinner.

[tankgirl427]

HH looks really pretty. I'm going to have to think about your abbreviations since they keep getting longer and longer! Is it time for you guys to book Oct yet?

[BennyFedora]

HH looks really pretty. I'm going to have to think about your abbreviations since they keep getting longer and longer! Is it time for you guys to book Oct yet?

I think the last one might be the toughest yet!

I actually called this morning because we weren't sure if we could book our home resort for 10/13/2012 on 11/12/2011, but it turns out we do have to wait until tomorrow. They open at 9, so we'll probably be on the phone early to make sure we get the dates we want!

[Joyciemc]

I got both of those acronyms. Cause I am acronasty!

[tankgirl427]

Joyce, have you seen A&E's Monster In Laws yet? I'm thinking that could be my newest obsession a la Toddlers & Tiaras. LOL!:lmao:

[Where'sPiglet?]

EIHHITF

Everything
In
Hilton
Head
Impossible
To
Find

WHBNTKAOT

Would
Have
Been
Nice
To
Know
Ahead
Of
Time


I am not sure I've commented on your report yet, but I've read through all of it and have really been enjoying it! I have not been to any place in Florida aside from MCO and WDW....and the streets in between. Oh, and a Walmart on Vineland/Apopka that looks suspiciously like most other Walmarts in America.

[BennyFedora]

EIHHITF

Everything
In
Hilton
Head
Impossible
To
Find

WHBNTKAOT

Would
Have
Been
Nice
To
Know
Ahead
Of
Time


I am not sure I've commented on your report yet, but I've read through all of it and have really been enjoying it! I have not been to any place in Florida aside from MCO and WDW....and the streets in between. Oh, and a Walmart on Vineland/Apopka that looks suspiciously like most other Walmarts in America.

Thanks for reading along, and you're 2 for 2! :thumbsup2

That drive was great...to do once :lmao:. Next time we go to VB, we'll probably just take the highway to the coast and down since we've seen all we need to see in that part of the state :goodvibes

[BennyFedora]

As a little bit of personal Disney news, Joyce and I booked our Fall 2012 trip this morning! We’re staying at our home resort (Bay Lake Towers), so we could book 11 months out. On Sunday, DVC opens at 9am, so Joyce set the alarm for 8:55 :banana:. It’ll be our first couple’s trip and are really excited. If you want to hear more about it, check out Joyce’s PTR (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2815678)!

Now, back in HH…

After some relaxing, it was time to head out to dinner. Tonight’s feast would be at Patty’s Pig ‘n’ Pit. Since it was dark, I studied the map online in detail before we left to get a really good idea of where we were going. Aside from just streets, I wrote down other businesses that were around it as markers to look out for like a trail of breadcrumbs. This tactic paid off, as we found it on the first shot!

We had heard great things about PPNP wings, so we got that as the appetizer. The wings were AMAZING! We got something like 10 wings and could pick 2 kinds (the garlic parmesan wings were my favorite, but the Jim Beam Barbecue were also yummy). I then got the pulled pork platter, and Joyce got BBQ shrimp. Those were good, but not anything I’d need to get again. Next time we’re in HH, we’ll definitely come back for the wings, but probably just order them to go.

The ambiance was also a bit funny for a BBQ place because it looked like it should be really fancy. It did lead to this lovely picture of my DW, though :lovestruc


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6013.jpg


After dinner, we decided to try out Pirate’s Island Adventure Golf. pirate: (I’ve wanted to use that emoticon since I started this TR) While it may seem like mini golf is something Joyce and I do a lot, these 2 times in 6 days probably equaled the total number of times we’ve played mini golf in the last 5 years…PIAG was very well themed and a lot of fun. The only tough part was that our Boston bodies are not used to maintaining a layer of water on their surfaces for an entire evening. It didn’t really feel hot, it just felt wet. Yuck! That aside, we actually played a full 36 holes (18 on the Black Beard course and 18 on the Captain Kidd course).


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6014.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6015.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6021.jpg



This Scallywag scared Joyce.



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6022.jpg



So I rang the village warning bell as instructed.



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6017.jpg



And Joyce was able to enjoy the rest of her night…



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6019.jpg



Hidden Mickey?



http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6023.jpg



I won one by one, and Joyce won one by one. (Say that 5 times fast!) When walking over to return our putters, I apparently was doing a bit of a potty dance. As soon as I handed the club to the gentleman at the counter, he pointed and told me where the bathrooms were. Now that’s service! When I came back, he chatted us up a bit and was telling us about HH. Apparently he and his wife came down for a vacation from iforgetwhere about 20 years ago and decided they didn’t want to leave. Shortly thereafter they found a condo and made HH their new home! He told us that a lot of people recommend the Chart House, but Skull Creek Boat House (essentially right next door) was a lot better. Looks like we now know where we were having dinner tomorrow! Our new friend also made a few recommendations on bars to go to in the area, but we felt like we were fading fast. Instead, we just headed back to the resort.

In our room we cracked open a few beers and decided to check out this Kid History thing that we heard about earlier in the day. Kid History has 6 episodes on YouTube and they are pee-your-pants funny! The premise is that these family members have told their kids stories about when they were kids. They then record the kids retelling the stories. The kid voices are then dubbed over the adults reenacting the stories exactly how the kids are telling them. In the last month, I cannot even count how many times we’ve quoted these internet gems! I highly recommend checking them out. The title of this section is just one of the many lines that are now burned into our brains. I think we watched each of the episodes at least twice before we finally went to sleep…

Since this is a short update, I didn’t have a good spot to get AcroNasty, so I’ll just throw out some of our favorite lines from Kid History episodes:

KH4: IGTCUAPYLIAKD
KH6: IKIGBWEIAI?

[kokotg]

All caught up! And now I can't remember what I was going to say. Someday I'm going to need to take a vacation that involves a lot of waking up late and hanging out at the beach. Let's see...last kid will be out of the house in 13 years or so....

That Hilton Head beach looks awesome! We are sort of weird beach people in that we spend a week in Florida every year, live 4 hours or so from various beaches in Georgia....and yet only go to the beach on Cape Cod. My kids don't know that beaches can be warm and sandy. Which reminds me...just processed that you live in Quincy...we used to live in Dorchester, and I spent a lot of time in Quincy right around 11 years ago, because my midwife's office was there the first time I was pregnant. anyway! small world!

Now I'm off to check out Kid History. I'm intrigued!

[BennyFedora]

All caught up! And now I can't remember what I was going to say. Someday I'm going to need to take a vacation that involves a lot of waking up late and hanging out at the beach. Let's see...last kid will be out of the house in 13 years or so....

That Hilton Head beach looks awesome! We are sort of weird beach people in that we spend a week in Florida every year, live 4 hours or so from various beaches in Georgia....and yet only go to the beach on Cape Cod. My kids don't know that beaches can be warm and sandy. Which reminds me...just processed that you live in Quincy...we used to live in Dorchester, and I spent a lot of time in Quincy right around 11 years ago, because my midwife's office was there the first time I was pregnant. anyway! small world!

Now I'm off to check out Kid History. I'm intrigued!

At least you can occupy yourself with WDW until that fateful day comes. Do the tickers count out to 13 years? :lmao:

I totally hear you on the beach thing. We can literally walk to Wollaston Beach from our house, but never seem to go. I'm pretty sure we've been to beaches in Jamaica, FL, SC, and St. Lucia since the last time we took a dunk down the street. :rolleyes1

It is a small, small world! I actually worked right near Neponset Circle for 3 years before I got to set up a home office.

I hope you enjoy Kid History! When we watched the first two we thought they were kinda funny, but episode 3 hooked us. I think that's when they hit their stride, because from there on it is comedic genius!

[BennyFedora]

Before we get started, I’ll back up a bit to Day 6. Joyce couldn’t find the Hidden Mickey at the beach, so I’ll give you all another chance…


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6007.jpg


Need a hint?

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http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6007_HM.jpg

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http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%206/IMG_6007_HM2.jpg


Well I thought it was a good one :goodvibes

The acronyms were probably a bit unfair, but if you watch KH as much as we have, you’ll pick them out pretty easily:

KH4: IGTCUAPYLIAKD!
I’m Going To Come Up And Punch You Like I Always Keep Doing!

KH6: IKIGBWEIAI?
I Know It’s Green, But What Else Is About It?

If you liked KH, you’re welcome! (If not, sorry!:rolleyes1)

***

Anywho…

It’s now a week into the trip, so there’s little mystery as to how we started it (CABWCC). We then headed off to the beach and noticed that they actually have free coffee in the lobby. Nice touch!

At the beach, the waves were much bigger and the tide was way in from where it was yesterday. Nothing crazy, just very noticeably different. We also saw that the water level at the resort fluctuates quite a bit, so I guess this made sense. We bounced back and forth a few times between the water and the towels, and then headed up to the pool.

The pool area was much louder today, and there were a bunch of kids splashing and making a ruckus. (Where was this yesterday to distract the quiet crowd from our corn hole game?) Pool time did provide two odd people interactions since there were actually some people there.

First, we set up shop at two chairs that were sort of away from everything else. Across the way a bit were two more chairs (away from the others) that looked unoccupied except for a pair of flip-flops sitting on one of them. A jolly looking 60ish year old couple comes over to those chairs, is confused about the flip-flops, looks around, and then asks me if they are mine. I say no and that they have been there for a while, so the woman picks them up walks about 10 ft over to the next set of chairs and puts them down. Right about at this time, a large grumpy lady (clear across the pool) looks up from her book and shouts, “Hey, what are you doing with my sandals!?”

I’m not good at estimating, but I’d guess there were on the order of 75 lounge chairs around the pool. Maybe 20 of them were being used. I know that there’s really no shortage, but if you’re going to put your shoes on an empty chair, shouldn’t you sit, well, on the same side of the pool as them?

Grumps was all in a huff and walked over to get them, but I think she got tired on the way. She grabbed them, muttered something under her breath, and stomped back. Granted, the Jollys could have sat in any 2 of the other 50 shoeless chairs, but seeing how those were away from the other chairs and didn’t look claimed, I’d have to side with them.

Fun interaction #2 actually involved us. We also had 2 chairs that were a bit away from the others, facing the pool (back to the ocean and railing). Our camp site was clearly marked with bags and towels, so we went for a swim. While in the pool, a young couple (20ish) takes two chairs sort of near ours, moves them closer to ours, then turns them so they are facing the ocean and are essentially foot-to-foot with us. Well, the girl was lined up with one of our chairs, and the dude was a bit further to her side past the railing. (Not sure if I’m drawing a clear picture, but hopefully you get the point.)

As we’re about ready to get out of the pool, we notice this and quietly debate if we should just move to different chairs. I’m a bit more on the stubborn side, so I decide I’ll just play toesies with the chick and Joyce can have the other chair. I thought this would probably cause them to turn their chairs back around, slide them back over, something…but nope.

I didn’t mind terribly. If she wanted to lie in a bikini and aim her business at a random guy lined up a few inches past her feet, that was her choice. We probably only ended up laying out until we dried off anyway, and then decided to go back to the resort to check out their CS for lunch. (HH does not have a sit-down restaurant on-site.)

In hindsight, without those people, it would have been a REALLY uneventful morning! :rotfl:

Back at the resort, we stopped at Tide Me Over. It’s upstairs near the pool and has a very limited menu. We both got bacon cheeseburgers which were pretty good, but expensive ($9/each)—my huge delicious Aussie Burger was only $10.50 in VB!

While we ate, a family was getting lunch as well—mom, dad, 4 boys close in age (~5-10), and an au pair. I can imagine vacationing with 4 kids would be pretty tough, but I thought it was a bit odd to bring an au pair on vacation, especially when you’re just staying at a resort. At least it sounded like the parents were pretty nice from what we overheard. (Don’t judge, you eavesdrop, too! ;)) The mom told the au pair that after lunch, they were going to go to the beach, but she could stay at the resort if she wanted. She said she’d be at the pool and the youngest boy said he wanted to stay with her. The mom told him he couldn’t because she needed “alone time”. He started getting fussy, but the dad distracted him with a Mickey Bar and crisis was averted—and mess was created!

Back to OUR story…

The deck has a nice view and also lets you know how far you are away from WDW:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6025.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6024.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6026.jpg


It’s also right next to the gym—which we desperately needed on this trip. Unfortunately, this was the closest we got…


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6028.jpg


Instead, we went down to the pool and enjoyed the slide again—about 50 times!


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6030.jpg


I went back up and got Joyce a Mickey Bar because that’s how nice I am, and then we played corn hole again on the set near the pool. After corn hole, we went back to the room, got a cooler of beers, and sat outside playing Gin. :cool1:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6033.jpg


Joyce is pretty.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6034.jpg


I look like a Yuengling ad.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6032.jpg


I then got in this hammock…


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6031.jpg

… and unsuccessfully tried to let Joyce in with me. Mostly I just did a complete 180 and landed on my behind. It all happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to worry about falling, but just ended up sitting 2 feet below where I was sitting half a second earlier with nary a scratch!

At this point, it was time to head back to shower, change, and find us some dinner!

[merbobear]

I just read all of your updates - I have followed/lurked your wife's TR's and saw this thread linked from her new PTR.

My best weird food combo is doritos (regular, not cool ranch) dipped in syrup (pancake syrup, not real maple). :thumbsup2 ISWBIRG....


It Sounds Weird But It's Really Good!

[BennyFedora]

I just read all of your updates - I have followed/lurked your wife's TR's and saw this thread linked from her new PTR.

My best weird food combo is doritos (regular, not cool ranch) dipped in syrup (pancake syrup, not real maple). :thumbsup2 ISWBIRG....


It Sounds Weird But It's Really Good!

Thanks for checking in!

Hmmm...doritos and syrup...haven't tried that one yet, but I've already got the syrup, so looks like I'll be grabbing some doritos on my next trip to the store!

[BennyFedora]

After freshening up, we headed out to the Skull Creek Boat House. Our PIAG friend had told us it had an amazing view, so we NEEDED to sit outside. Getting there at about 5, we learned that while we could sit inside immediately, it was a 45 minute wait to sit outside. HAHA, yeah, right. Once hunger sets in for us, 45 minutes might as well be 45 days because we get HANGRY and need to eat on the quick! We chose to sit inside, perused the menu and got orders in pronto.

Once we ordered, our hangry went away because now we had beers and knew food was on the way. I also took this moment to see what there was to see outside. My reaction was, “eh”. There was an outside bar/deck area, and it was on a marina, but I didn’t think it was anything special. Maybe it was just that I was still hungry and overly confirming to myself that there was no way this was 45 minutes better!

Back inside, our appetizer came out pretty quickly. We got spicy tuna, deviled egg with caviar because honestly, where else do you see that on the menu! #1: We love spicy tuna (think sushi). #2: We love deviled eggs. #3: We never get caviar, but they are sooo fun to pop between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. #4: This is the kind of combination I live for! As you may have guessed, we loved them. For our meals, I got the grouper with capers and artichoke, and Joyce got the crab cakes. Both were awesome! Oh yeah, and Joyce had a salad which, according to my notes, was the best she’s ever had. Perhaps she can fill in the details on that…

***Side Note***
With some inspiration from merbobear and what I had immediately on hand, I invented another excellent combination for lunch today—egg salad on a blueberry bagel with turkey bacon and a bit of syrup. In hind sight, I sort of reinvented the McGriddle, but it was a success either way!
*************

All-in-all, this was absolutely a place that we’ll be back to, though we’ll make sure that we always come early. On our way out (probably less than an hour later), there was a wait at the valet that was 4 cars deep. (We just parked ourselves, but that was before the parking lot was full!)

Back to the resort we decided to walk over to Scott’s Fish Market Restaurant & Bar. It didn’t have great reviews as a restaurant, but you can actually see it from the resort, and we were only going for the bar. We sat at the little outside bar (probably 15 seats along 3 sides) and listened to the one-man-band. (As I wrote one-man-band, I thought of that scene with Bert in Mary Poppins, and then thought of how Joyce and I always find it funny that Bert’s outfit once he jumps into the chalk is the most expensive thing at Sid Cahuenga’s One of a Kind at DHS…something like $50,000.) So this guy was no Bert…mostly just had a guitar and a microphone…but was still good background music. We also had this for a view:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%207/IMG_6036.jpg


The whole place wasn’t that full—it was a random Thursday—but the bar did have some interesting characters. Valerie was a talkative gal. Well, I’m talkative. She was trying to set a record or something. She also had already had probably 4-5 drinks before we got there. She was a special needs teacher, who was “from money” in Chicago, but left to pursue her passion and live on her own. She’s 41 and a size 4, and not at all jealous of her sister who “married for money”, but now lives in a house that she rented to Nicholas Cage while he was filming a movie. Valerie was entertaining though, and fine with being the center of all conversation. She also had a dog…

V: I’ve got the cutest dog. He’s really rare.
B: What kind is it?
V: He’s a breed that no one has ever heard of.
B: Joyce works at an animal shelter, she might know.
V: It’s the official dog of Madagascar.
J: A Coton de Tuléar?
V: YEAHhessocute!

So I don’t know if Valerie was trying to play trivia with us, or forgot the name and luckily Joyce knew it, but it was amusing either way. After we learned all we could about Valerie, she got a text and was super excited that Bill was on his way to the bar. Bill the Builder (this was a name Joyce and I used later because we thought it was funny) was in fact a builder—sort of a project manager for home renovations. He pulled up on his boat (how awesome is that!?) and joined us at the bar. Bill turned out to be a really cool guy, though not exactly the Pierce Brosnan type that Valerie had painted over the 30 minutes he took to get there. A few beers later, a stumbly Valerie tried desperately to get Bill to walk her home, in spite of his overwhelming IJNTIY vibe. He finally conceded when she said she would just drive. (She apparently lived just across the main road, but in her condition she had just as good a chance driving into the water!)

Since our live movie had ended, we walked back to the room and watched KH again. We were a bit sad to be leaving HH, but really looking forward to Savannah. HH is definitely a place that we’ll come back to, probably next paired with a trip to Charleston, though right now that’s probably going to be 2013 at the earliest!

[Joyciemc]

I really, really can't remember what made that salad so delicious. But I do know that it was awesome, but didn't have any crazy ingredients. It was a regular salad that just tasted REALLY good.

And it was at that bar with Valerie, Bill, and the bartender that we learned how 'small town' HH is. When Valerie said Bill was on his way, the bartender immediately said "Bill _______ (insert last name I don't remember)?" And Valerie couldn't believe that he got it right!
But it pretty much turned out that everyone in HH knows everyone else. As in, if we mentioned the "guy who works at Pirate Adventure Golf", they knew who we meant. It was weird. But really, really neat. We love it there!

[BennyFedora]

Hey everybody! Sorry for being such a bad DIS-er, but holidays are crazy right? Yup, that’s my excuse. I posted the last update a wee bit before Thanksgiving, and now here it is a week into twenty-12. I’m poised for some epic trip reporting to round this thing out, so please bear with me :goodvibes

If anyone’s still on board, you’ve probably also seen Joyce’s PTR for our October 2012 WDW trip which now includes a bonus WDW May 2012 trip (sadly only for her and her friend Mark since I can’t get the time off), as well as a squint-your-eyes into the future trip of potentially April 2013 with some of our other friends. They all probably think we’re crazy for planning 2013 vacations, especially since at that point I’ll have been to WDW twice in 6 months and Joyce will have been in 3x in 12 months, but hey, do what you can, when you can, right? The brilliance of this will be that all the trips will be covered under APs! While we’ll definitely be back to HH and VB, that won’t likely be before 2016 or so—sheesh!

Now back to our show…

Since Savannah is only about an hour away from HH, and we figured we couldn’t check in until noonish, there was really no rush to leave. Even though we again didn’t really need to do laundry, it was practically outside our door off the lobby, so we did it anyway. For the next hour and a half, we just lounged around, ate breakfast, packed up what we could, and played some Gin on the deck. Checking out at 11, we were on our way to Savannah!

The drive was quick and uneventful, and we shortly pulled up to our new destination—The Inn at Ellis Square. This hotel is in a great location, right on Bay St. at the west edge of the historic district. In fact, it’s “perfectly positioned”. (Haha, that’s actually their slogan.)

The hotel itself is really nice, but not nearly what we had been used to in VB or HH.

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We were really excited to see the city, so after quickly putting our stuff in the room, we headed out for lunch. Some of our friends had recommended a burger place called B&D’s, and it DID NOT disappoint! The fried pickles and “potato pancakes” were awesome, and the burgers were excellent. Mine had fried egg, salsa, and pepper jack cheese. It wasn’t as crazy as the Aussie burger, but IJLOFC!

We then walked up and down River St. and Bay St. a bit and were sort of underwhelmed. We figured that we were probably just not seeing the right places, so we decided to check online for a walking tour and booked a tour with Savannah Dan for 10AM the next day. In the meantime, we figured we might as well take advantage of Savannah’s law that let’s you walk down the street with alcohol :thumbsup2

First we went to Wet Wily’s on River St. We heard it was a “must do” place, but Joyce and I really aren’t big on frozen drinks. What we ARE big on is taking our drinks “to-go”!


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We found one of the squares that Savannah is so famous for, and stumbled upon this interesting business card stuck in a bench:


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We then made our way to Abe’s (on Lincoln St.) which was a cute old looking bar. Looking around, we were still amazed that they just have piles of plastic cups near the door that you can pour your own drink into as you leave!


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This did lead us to an unfortunate realization…Joyce cannot drink beer and walk at the same time! She was OK with the frozen drink because of the straw, but she just can’t get the technique down with an open cup. The more beers we had, the more spilly she got, so the novelty of drinking outside wore off a bit. On our way through several more bars, we did end up seeing more of the charm of the city, including a dog with a stuffed animal of itself!


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After more wandering, drinking, and eating at Moon River Brewing company, we turned in early (9pm) so we could get a bright and early start the next day. With today feeling a bit lackluster, we were excited to see what Savannah Dan could tell us about what we hoped would be one of our new favorite cities! (Hint: we now love it!)

[BennyFedora]

With no toaster or refrigerator in the room, we were forced out of the room for breakfast for the first time in what seemed like a month! We headed down to the continental breakfast which was INSANELY packed! There was a waffle machine with 20 people in line, so that was a no-go. They did have biscuits and gravy which I thought were OK, but Joyce didn’t like them at all. Otherwise, we basically had toast, juice, and coffee…oh yeah, and we had to just stand with plates, because there were absolutely no seats…ARGH!

Oh well, off to meet Savannah Dan at Johnson Square!

Savannah Dan is a colorful character that had great reviews online. In person he was everything we hoped for! If you go to Savannah, and aren’t familiar with the city, I’d say spending a couple of hours with Savannah Dan is an absolute MUST!


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He told us about not only the “standard” history, but had many other interesting stories including the cemeteries that were built over by houses, Forrest Gump, bed bugs, and any other question we had. We also got to see a bit of a wedding (you can rent out the squares!). Without boring you with all the history (which Joyce and I actually found quite interesting), here’s a flurry of pictures, and I can reply on anything you want!

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In this church, there was a funky optical illusion on the ceiling. The first picture is from close up, the second picture is from near the entrance of the church…cool, huh?


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The last picture is called the Pink House and located the square where we ended. It apparently was painted white over brick, but then a fire many years ago altered the chemistry and made the brick red blend into the white making it pink. The owner painted it white, but it turned pink again. He painted it white again, and it turned back to pink. After a few times, they just left it pink.

It’s actually a really good restaurant, and we were STARVING at this point, so we figured we’d check it out. We had some awesome crab soup to start and they had amazing “cheese sticks” that were like long Cheez-It tubes. I got fried chicken (which was great!) and Joyce had a delicious Dixie chicken wrap.

I think I’ll take a break in the TR here…but I’ll be back soon!

[Joyciemc]

Holy Wow, I thought you totally lost interest in finishing this!

Ahhh, I would LOVE to be back in Savannah right about now!

[AKL LOVER]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Savannah and your pictures made me want to head back there right this minute to visit. All the beautiful squares. And the moss hanging from trees. And the booze. *sigh* We haven't been in like 5 years, so I think we are due for another visit soon.

One of the things I love the most about Savannah (besides the ability to walk around with your liquor ;)) is the history. I think that's one of the reasons I like Savannah so much. I could sit and listen to people talk about the history of Savannah for hours. And visiting all the historical houses, cemetaries and other places is so interesting.

Keep the Savannah updates coming--I loving 'em!! :thumbsup2

[klacey1]

Wow, Savannah is gorgeous!! Those pictures are fantastic! Savannah Dan sounds great, too-- I love hearing history/folklore of places.
Awww, that doggie makes me miss my pup! :sad1: We had a basset hound, too-- although ours wasn't as much of a chub as that cutie!

[BennyFedora]

Holy Wow, I thought you totally lost interest in finishing this!

Ahhh, I would LOVE to be back in Savannah right about now!

Nope, just got busy :lmao:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Savannah and your pictures made me want to head back there right this minute to visit. All the beautiful squares. And the moss hanging from trees. And the booze. *sigh* We haven't been in like 5 years, so I think we are due for another visit soon.

One of the things I love the most about Savannah (besides the ability to walk around with your liquor ;)) is the history. I think that's one of the reasons I like Savannah so much. I could sit and listen to people talk about the history of Savannah for hours. And visiting all the historical houses, cemetaries and other places is so interesting.

Keep the Savannah updates coming--I loving 'em!! :thumbsup2

We can't wait to go back either...though logistically it will probably be at least another 3 years or so.

We also love the history of the city. It just has so much character! The fact that it's 20 degrees here right now and never 20 degrees in Savannah is also a plus :cool1:

Wow, Savannah is gorgeous!! Those pictures are fantastic! Savannah Dan sounds great, too-- I love hearing history/folklore of places.
Awww, that doggie makes me miss my pup! :sad1: We had a basset hound, too-- although ours wasn't as much of a chub as that cutie!

Savannah was beautiful, and we've got plenty more pictures coming.

Sorry to hear about your pup! We've got a house full of "kids" and it's always tough when you lose one. Savannah is VERY dog friendly, so Joyce and I have thrown around Savannah as a potential retirement location :goodvibes

[BennyFedora]

After lunch, we headed to the Owen House. Savannah Dan had said that if there were one historic home to visit, that would be the one. Joyce and I love that kind of stuff. We’re from Quincy and if you’re ever in that area, we highly recommend a tour of the Adams’ houses.

On our way, we stopped at Loepold’s which was a famous ice cream joint. It had a bit of an odd feel since it was both old-timey and decorated with a bunch of movie memorabilia. Regardless of the ambiance, the ice cream was delicious! I got pistachio ice cream which was loaded with nuts and didn’t have any of the fake-sweet flavor that pistachio ice cream sometimes has. Joyce got a chocolate shake that was nice and thick and chocolaty.

We walked over to the Owen House and luckily had perfect timing. The next tour was at 2pm so we spent 40 minutes enjoying our treats in an adjacent square. What was even perfect-er was that the tour was supposed to be $15/person BUT there was a promotion where Bank of America customers got in free on the first weekend of every month. Today was 10/1 :banana:

The tour was really cool (if you’re into that stuff), but the people that worked there were weird. Our docent was kind of twitchy, but seemed really into the history of the place, so that was good. She was also perhaps the least confrontational person I’ve ever met. In one of the rooms, an older gentleman was leaning a bit against a wall—completely unintentionally, and also didn’t realize he was doing it. The docent said something like, “Now would be a good time to mention that we all need to be careful not to touch anything.” She didn’t even direct it towards him, so he kept leaning. She then added, “That includes leaning up against the walls because of the delicate wallpaper.” The older gentleman still didn’t quite get her hint, so I sort of did an “ahem” with a head nod, and then he straightened up.

The house had a cool “bridge” feature connecting two parts of the upstairs, and also had double staircases that went up each side from the foyer. The house had a cistern upstairs, and one in the basement, so the entire house had running water. It was really cool to see some “advanced” features of such an old house.

Anyway, we really enjoyed it, and then headed back to the hotel for a nap—it’s not vacation without naps, right?! Around 5:30, we woke up to head to Jazz’d Tapas which was pretty close to the hotel. We got shrimp fritters (Great!), empanadas (Good.), and chicken lettuce wraps (OK.) We finished it off with a chocolate torte which was double-thumbs-up fantastic! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2

Now, on to the haunted pubcrawl! For those of you who don’t know, Savannah is the most haunted city in the WORLD!!! OK, well Joyce and I don’t believe in ghosts, but if you do, this is apparently the place to go. Many of the buildings in Savannah have had their own stories about being built over graves, or having body parts hidden in them, or shootouts, all of which have left restless souls looming around. We signed up for a haunted pubcrawl that started at Moon River Brewing Company and then headed to a few more choice bars. While we didn’t see anything unusual, it still was a lot of fun…especially since we were drinking and walking around the streets with beers :goodvibes

Below are some pictures from upstairs at Moon River Brewing Company which probably aren’t as spooky as it was in person:


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Here’s your dynamic duo fully enjoying some beers:


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We ended up at O’Connell’s that had a cute pitbull out front:


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They also had an awesome shot named a “Pickle Back”. It’s a shot of Jameson whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice. I know what you’re thinking. EWWW…whiskey! But no, they’re actually pretty good. With the pickle juice, you don’t even notice the whiskey! We brought this idea back home with us and actually have much improved upon it. Now we do shots of tequila and follow them with shots of banana pepper juice—named a “Pepper Back”. I even got the local bar down the street from us to make them for us on our annual Christmas Eve pubcrawl.

After the haunted pubcrawl came to an end, we wandered around and ended up at the Marshall House. The Marshall House is a hotel that has ghost stories of its own. Apparently when they were renovating the basement, they found piles of hands, feet, arms, and legs—but no full bodies. It turns out that during the Civil War, it was turned into a hospital, and all of those body parts were amputations from soldiers. Instead of disposing of them, they just sort of buried them, leaving them forgotten after the war ended.

The Marshall house was pretty cool, and we got to hang out with some fun people that had just gotten married and were having their reception there. Here’s a picture of Joyce enjoying herself:


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On the way home, we saw this sign that we thought was pretty awesome…Hey, Man…and Sons


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Then back to the hotel with no alarm to wake us up…or so we thought…

[BennyFedora]

Remember how we were going to sleep in? Well we woke up to an alarm at 7:30…only, it wasn’t our alarm. It was the FIRE alarm! Yikes! We scramble to just grab my laptop case, the SLR, and throw on some clothes and hit the stairs. Six flights later, we were outside with the rest of the guests in the hotel, waiting for the fire trucks. Hmmm…fire trucks? Well about 20 minutes later, a truck rolled up and firefighters rolled into the hotel. A few minutes later the alarm stopped and we were told that it was a false alarm. Apparently the heat turned on last night for the first time this year and some dust or something started smoking which set off the alarms. I was really glad that our hotel didn’t burn down, but honestly, 20 minutes? No wonder so many places burned down in Savannah!


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Well, now it’s about 8, but it is still WAAAY too early for us, so we went back to sleep until about 10. At this point we were pretty hungry, and the hotel breakfast wasn’t something we wanted to try again. A quick internet search showed that Goose Feathers (just down the block) was a highly rated, so that’s where we headed. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was a 45 minute wait. Apparently 10AM on Sunday is pretty popular for going out to breakfast—haha, yeah, couldn’t have seen that one coming. Anyway, we decided that was going to be much too long, so we would just head on down to Huey’s on River. Savannah Dan had suggested it, and we had also found it reviewed well online. That 10 minute walk brought us to another 45 minute wait. ARGH!

OK, so at this point, we weren’t STARVING and it was about 10:30, so we figured we’d start walking towards Forsyth Park. In that area were both the Mercer House (from Midnight in the Garden of Eden) and Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. We wanted to eat at Mrs. Wilkes’ and I knew it opened at 11, so we figured we could make that work. On the way we stopped at Starbucks and were peppy, but starting to feel a bit of a growl in our bellies, but hey, we’ll be eating soon, right?

Wrong. Around 11, we finally found Mrs. Wilkes’. The problem was, that it is not open on SUNDAYS! OOPS! We’ve now walked about 1.5 miles, and were getting HANGRY (hungry-angry). We were quite a bit off the beaten path where we’d find restaurants, so we figured we’d head back towards the river where there were more restaurants. On our way we came across Soho South Café, but there was ANOTHER 45 minute wait! At this point, Joyce was ready to give up, but I was determined not to wait! I know it’s not rational. If we had just stayed at Goose Feathers, we would have already eaten by now, but I was totally in the zone at this point. The cranky zone. My excuse to Joyce for not waiting at Soho was that it was stupid and arty in there. Haha, yeah, that makes sense!

Where to next? Angels BBQ! It’s basically lunch time now, right? Angels was a place that was on our list of places to go and it was only five blocks away. With every step we were getting angrier and snippier. We walked to the address and strangely, there was no restaurant at all! We did two laps around the block and still couldn’t find it. What-the-What?!? At this point, Joyce sat down on the curb and started to cry. OK, well maybe not full tears or anything, but we were in a bad way. (Turns out that Angels BBQ is a hole-in-the-wall place that is ALSO not open on Sundays, so that’s why we couldn’t find it.) After collecting ourselves, we decided to just walk back to the hotel in defeat…it was now 11:30.

We dragged ourselves back towards the hotel and on the way, we walked by Goose Feathers again. This time there was essentially no wait! We just spent 2 hours walking almost 3 miles, only to end back where we started. This food best be worth it!

With no expectations, we both ordered Eggs Benedict on croissants with sweet tea, and I also got shrimp grits. Super Score! Even though we were about ready to pass out, the food here was beyond compare for a breakfast. It almost made our rough morning journey worthwhile…well, no, probably not.

It’s amazing what food and drink can do for us. We walked in distraught shells of ourselves, and were now full of pep and ready to take on the world! (or at least ready to get back on track with our vacation :rotfl:)

[BennyFedora]

With fresh legs, we decided we’d actually head back to Forsyth Park since we never quite made it in the morning. Forsyth is a huge park that looks like this:


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The park also has the best public restroom area we’ve ever seen—no joke!


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After having our fill of park time, we walked back and continued to enjoy the scenery:


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Just before the trip, I had seen Midnight in the Garden of Eden (and Joyce read the book because she’s cool like that), so we stopped by the Mercer House.


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We also saw this electric meter which was doing its best “Joyce blending in” impression.


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At this point, we felt like we’d had our fill of Spanish moss and squares, so we went back to the room to plan out the rest of the day. Looking online, I saw that Tybee Island was just a short drive away, so we were off to see what it had in store for us!

The short answer. A lighthouse. There’s not really a whole lot at Tybee Island. Some beach, some touristy trinket places, some sketchy bars and restaurants, some icecream joints…and that’s about it. In fact, this is the only picture we took:


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I should also mention that our small camera was about out of batteries at this point. We came with 2 batteries, but I forgot the charger, so the pictures get a bit thin from here on out :headache:

Being a bit disappointed with Tybee Island, we decided to stop at St. Bonaventure Cemetery. Joyce and I aren’t big on cemeteries, but this one is famous, so we thought we might as well see it. The only picture we took here is below, which we thought seemed like the most ironic thing we’d ever seen:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2010/IMG_6068.jpg


We were now tired and ready to go back and take our final nap to gear up for our final night of the trip :sad1:! When we got back to the room, we quickly flipped through the pictures and realized that the last pictures we had looked more like we were on a photo scavenger hunt than a vacation…haha

[klacey1]

Augh-- what annoying quest for breakfast! I'm just glad the food was worth it in the end-- how horrible would it have been if it sucked?!

[Practically_Perfect]

I'm back to try my hand at this again...

A few beers later, a stumbly Valerie tried desperately to get Bill to walk her home, in spite of his overwhelming IJNTIY vibe.

I'm
Just
Not
That
Into
You

It wasn’t as crazy as the Aussie burger, but IJLOFC!

And...I'm stumped!

[BennyFedora]

Augh-- what annoying quest for breakfast! I'm just glad the food was worth it in the end-- how horrible would it have been if it sucked?!

It was by far the worst part of the trip to that point (ominous foreshadowing music), but the food was truly delicious. In fact, Joyce and I drool over Goose Feathers' Eggs Benedict croissants on a regular basis!

I'm back to try my hand at this again...



I'm
Just
Not
That
Into
You



And...I'm stumped!

Glad to have you back! In fact, glad anyone's still following after I took so long between updates! :lmao:

Yes on the first one, and then I Just Love Odd Food Combinations! I'll be sure to turn my acronasty button back on now that I know you're still playing :rotfl2:

[Practically_Perfect]

Glad to have you back! In fact, glad anyone's still following after I took so long between updates! :lmao:

Yes on the first one, and then I Just Love Odd Food Combinations! I'll be sure to turn my acronasty button back on now that I know you're still playing :rotfl2:

Don't worry - I've been even longer....I have a mild excuse. I took all my notes on my blackberry, and I've since suceeded in crushing the screen in my car door, so you can only see the top two lines of text. Still though, I could go from pics and memory, right??

Wow - I was actually pretty close!

I figured that IJL was "I Just Love". And, since you were talking about a burger, I guessed that the F was for "Food", but I just couldn't make the O-Food-C make sense :(

[BennyFedora]

Don't worry - I've been even longer....I have a mild excuse. I took all my notes on my blackberry, and I've since suceeded in crushing the screen in my car door, so you can only see the top two lines of text. Still though, I could go from pics and memory, right??

Wow - I was actually pretty close!

I figured that IJL was "I Just Love". And, since you were talking about a burger, I guessed that the F was for "Food", but I just couldn't make the O-Food-C make sense :(

Yikes...sorry to hear about the BB! Is there any way to save the files to an SD card and pop them in the computer or forward them to another phone?

Super close on IJLOFC! It was pretty tricky :goodvibes

[BennyFedora]

Sorry about this, but STOP, REWIND, PLAY…Pretend we’re still back at the Owens-Thomas house…

Dr. James Gray Thomas was the person who gave the house to the Telfair Museum of Art, and he died in October, so the curators decided to give visitors a feel for mourning in the Victorian age throughout the month. They had mirrors draped with black fabric and curtains drawn and it was all pretty cool. In one of the rooms, they had a coffin with a “mourner” next to it. When we walked into the room, a woman was draped all in black and sitting motionless next to the coffin trying to give the appearance of being a mannequin. She then breaks into this way over dramatic rant about the loss and sort of collapses on the coffin—a performance which reminded me of someone who thought they were really good in drama club in high school. When she starts a minute or so after we get into the room, some people are really shocked because of her stealth. Joyce and I weren’t as startled because when we were in the next room over, Joyce noticed the familiar blue glow of a person checking something on her phone through her vail…BUSTED!

OK, maybe that wasn’t worth mentioning, but at the time Joyce and I thought it was high-laryous, and I’ve already written it…

Now back to our show…

Around 5pm, I wake to Joyce calling out “yes, yeES, YES!”…but not in a sexy-times way. Apparently, she had a dream where she was in the bathroom and my rats kept coming in through a crack in the door. She would kick at them and get some of them out, but they kept coming back in. After a while I asked her if she wanted me to take the rats away, and she tried to say “yes”, but just couldn’t. Finally she managed out a meek yes, followed by a better one, and then a loud one for good measure. That’s when I woke up and woke her up. Satisfied that all the imaginary rats (I have no rats) were gone, we got up and headed out to enjoy our last night on vacation :sad2:

Side Note:
Do you remember your dreams? I practically never do, but Joyce often remembers hers in detail, and I’m a bit jealous. I’m pretty sure I have awesome dreams most of the time, but they're gone within seconds of waking…they totally need to invent a dream recorder.

Anywho…after Joyce’s wake up call, we decided to walk on over to Wild Wings Café which is really close to the hotel. It’s in an area called City Market that has a lot of shops, and restaurants with outside seating, and they even had a band playing. The band was comprised of 3 kids that seemed like 10-15 years old with brothers on the drums and bass and the sister was the lead singer with a guitar. I can’t remember what they played, but they were really good!

At Wild Wings we got buffalo chicken nachos as an appetizer, Joyce got pull pork sliders, and I got a buffalo chicken wrap—guess my hots-sauce-meter was reading about a quart low! Joyce got a SweetWater IPA and I got a SweetWater 420. We had never heard of SweetWater before, but the brewery is apparently located in Atlanta and also apparently really good at making beer! The timing of dinner was also convenient because I got to catch a bit of the Patriots game—even though it was only playing on 1 of their 50 TVs and two rooms away from where we were sitting. I missed the game the week before, and I’m kinda sure that was why we lost. Luckily, Joyce didn’t mind me getting up every so often to help beat the Raiders.

After dinner we decided to walk clear across town and stop in at 17 Hundred 90. It was a place that Valerie (from HH) had mentioned, as well as a couple of other people we’d met along the way. As we were walking, we got to an intersection with a light that I thought I had time to get across, even though I’d be crossing a green light and a car was a bit down the road. About 2 steps into the street, Joyce shouts “Stop and wait for the light!” and I do. The reason I mention this is that there was a dude walking towards us from the other side of the street. Apparently he thought Joyce was talking to him because he stopped, turned back, and waited for the light. HAHA! It changed a moment later and then we all crossed and he gave Joyce a bit of a confused look. Can you imagine thinking that a stranger across the street was yelling at you not to J-Walk? We can…

A few streets down, Joyce and I were starting to cross while the hand signal was flashing, but there were definitely no cars in sight. All of a sudden, a woman across the street shouted at US to stop! There were still no cars coming, so we kept going anyway (after our initial startle) and she yells, “I said STOP!” At this point we were really confused at being reprimanded and jumped back onto the curb. A moment later, I noticed that she was yelling at her 10 year old son essentially right behind me. Since it happened twice in 10 minutes, we figure that this sort of thing must happen all the time in Savannah…

We crossed all the rest of the streets without incident until we finally found 17 Hundred 90. We can prove it:


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2010/IMG_6069.jpg


This is a really old restaurant/tavern/inn that was full of character and characters. Can you guess what year it was built?

I hope so :rolleyes1

Again, our pictures are limited, but the inside had a low ceiling and a lot of old looking brick and wood and had an overall cool feel. We sat at the nearly empty bar, drank SweetWaters and immediately felt like we were on the set of a sitcom.

Next to us was an old man who was reading a newspaper, half-watching the Brewers-Diamondbacks NLDS game, and complaining, grumbling about several things to nobody.

Across from us was an older woman (think Mimi from the Drew Carey Show) flipping through a magazine that I couldn’t identify from this side of the room, but I’d guess was something from the rack at a grocery store check-out line.

To the right end of the bar was an extremely flamboyant gentleman telling Mimi and the bartender (a 30ish snarky girl who knew these regulars by name) about how he was really excited to have just “been chosen” to decorate for some fancy Christmas party. It must be SOME party because Christmas was still almost 3 full months away!

The only other people in the bar were two couples in their 60s at a table who were quite a few rounds of wine into the evening. The bartender shouted over to them that it was just about 7, so Happy Hour was ending and they should order another round now if they want one. One of the guys asks, “What happens when Happy Hour is over?” and she dryly replies, “It gets very serious in here…” This is where I imagine a bright “LAUGH” light flashes for the audience.

We didn’t really get involved in any of the conversations, but just happily watched the show for two beers and then continued on our way :goodvibes

Next we headed to Isaac’s which was one of the bars from the haunted pubcrawl the night before. In this bar, apparently they used to have boxing matches where a local Savannah hero beat all his opponents. One day a huge man from DC or something showed up and actually killed the Savannah boxer in the ring. The angry mob then hanged that guy and not knowing what to do, bricked him up in a wall in the basement. Many years later during a renovation, the unusual, non-load bearing wall was removed, and the bones were re-discovered. Yup, only in Savannah!

Isaac’s was totally empty except for us and the bartender, Marla. She was really nice and apparently lived with a roommate from Boston for quite a few years in CA. She was surprised that we didn’t really have accents since her friend still calls her “Maah-luh” and never lost even a bit of his accent. (As a note, Isaac’s is the only bar around that has Dogfish Head 60 Minute, so if you’re a fan like we are, this is the place to go!) A while later, a couple that seemed about our age came in and said that they had just come from a vacation in Charleston and were stopping through Savannah for two days before heading out of Atlanta. They LOVED Charleston and we talked to them about it quite a bit because that’s a city that we definitely want to combine with HH and visit in the near future. They had gotten there at about lunch time today and were kind of disappointed with Savannah so far. We told them that we knew exactly what they were talking about, and how Savannah Dan saved our trip. They decided they’d check him out and hopefully he saved their Savannah experience as well!

After a couple of MORE beers, it was off to JJ Bonerz—yup, that’s right! This bar had $2 PBR tallboys and free peanuts. I’m not a fan of PBR, but my wallet made me get them. At this point, Joyce was unaware that she would soon become a target…


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2010/IMG_6070.jpg


…of peanut shells! By closing one eye, drunk Ben only had one Joyce to shoot at and became much more accurate.


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2010/IMG_6071.jpg


We then wandered around and found this helpful sign, but I can’t quite remember where…


http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2010/IMG_6072.jpg


We ended up at Kevin Barry’s Irish pub. You can’t believe we’re still standing right? Well we’re professionals, so this is probably a good spot to envision your favorite public service announcement.

At Kevin Barry’s, our bartender actually had lived in Boston for a while, so that was fun, but we were again basically the only people at the bar. We then headed over to the next room where the world famous Frank Emerson was on stage and singing to the one other couple in the room. Frank really isn’t all that famous. I just Googled him, and from his website, he mostly only plays at Kevin Barry’s. Regardless, it was amazing to have live Irish music when you’re drunk and basically the only people in the joint!

After a few more beers it was about a quarter to pass-out-o-clock, so we stumbled back to the room. We were sad that our vacation was coming to an end, but so happy that it really turned out to be everything we had hoped for. Our flight was out of MCO (5 hour drive) but it wasn’t until 8 pm, so we knew we weren’t in a rush to get up and out the next day. We had toyed with the idea of just flying out of the Savannah-Hilton Head airport which was only about 20 minutes away, but the flight would have cost more, not been non-stop, and the car rental would have cost about an extra $500 because of the one-way fee. Besides, our flight wasn’t until late in the day, so we’d have plenty of time, right? WCPGW?

[ronnmel]

Hey! I think I know that one!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

BTW, I'm still following the trip report and enjoying the read. :)

[BennyFedora]

Hey! I think I know that one!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

BTW, I'm still following the trip report and enjoying the read. :)

Excellent work on the acronym! :thumbsup2 I'll try to wrap up our final day soon, because I'm sure I've got you on the edge of your seat! :scared1:

While it's fun to relive the vacation through a TR, it's always nice to hear that other people are enjoying it, too! :goodvibes Since this was my first TR--and a non-park one at that--I wasn't sure if anyone would join along, especially after my long break. Thanks for sticking around!

[BennyFedora]

CAUTION...this final section is a lot of writing, but a lot of action!

Ahead of our “safety alarm” set for 10:30, we actually woke up closer to 9 and were in surprisingly good spirits considering the previous evening’s liver workout. While Joyce packed up our stuff, I went to the business center and printed out boarding passes which unfortunately had boarding assignments that left us hoping that back row would be available again. A short while later, we checked out and packed up the car on our way to our new favorite breakfast place, Goose Feathers.

While the menu did tempt us, we really couldn’t get anything other than the Eggs Benedict on croissants. This time we did get an extra croissant to share, though, because A) they were the best croissants we’d ever had, and B) we had to ration croissant the day before to make sure we cleaned the plate of all the egg and hollandaise sauce. An extra croissant just made life a little better.

On the way out, the waiter asked us if we wanted sweet teas to go. I love sweet tea. I extra love the fact that this whole beverage to go thing in Savannah extends to non-alcoholic beverages as well! Finally, at 11:20 we headed out. Here’s the last picture we have before our camera told us it was officially done.

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af191/jmcfaddencaranci/2011%20DVC%20Day%2011/IMG_20111003_110707.jpg

With a 5 hour drive to MCO, we figured that would put us there around 4:30 with 3 hours to spare before the flight. We knew we had to get dinner somewhere, so the plan was to stop somewhere kind of close to MCO for dinner, burn a bit of time, and then drop off the car and head out. Along the way, we started getting a bit hungry and saw a sign for a Sonic. Now, Sonic isn’t anything special, but neither Joyce nor I had actually even been to one. We’re just never usually in Sonic territory. I think there might be 3 in New England or something—certainly none near us when we’ve ever been hungry. Joyce was looking on her phone and it seemed like there was one in Daytona that would be convenient, but then it turned out to be closed or something. So then I ask (much to Joyce’s delight) how far exactly is it to WDW if we were to sort of drive by MCO and then swing back? (That was worth about 20 DH brownie points!) I knew it was about 30 minutes between WDW and MCO in general, so I was thinking that it might be close.

We've eaten at many resorts, but had never been to Saratoga Springs, so we thought we'd check that out. If we got to SS at 5, ate right away, and left by 6, we could get to MCO and drop off the car by 6:30 and be right on time for our 7:40 flight…assuming everything went perfectly. Joyce quickly looked on her phone and it turned out that MCO and SS sort of make a triangle off the highway, so it actually takes the same amount of time to get to SS directly as MCO (saving 30 minutes of my estimate) and giving us the cushion we needed to turn this from “wemightjusthavetimefingerscrossed” into a winner!

Through Joyce’s phone, she booked an ADR for 4:30 at The Turf Club Bar and Grill and we flipped through the menu deciding what we were going to get and thoroughly pleased with ourselves for adding yet another WDW stop on our WDWless trip :woohoo:

The time flies by and we’re rocking out to whatever music comes on the radio—country, reggae, katy perry, Metallica. The road is open, the speed limit is 70, and our Chevy Aveo is chugging right along with the cruise control set at 72. We pass by the exit on our printed directions to get to MCO and continue on Route 4. About 10 minutes later…VROOOOOOM…white knuckles…scared faces…:scared1:

As I said, I had the cruise control on 72 basically all week and the tachometer was right around 3000 RPMs which makes sense. Out of nowhere the tachometer jumps up way past 5000 which is NOT good. I quickly tap the break once and turn off the cruise control while switching lanes to the right and let the car just glide for a bit, hoping that somehow the car will decide that it should shift back into 5th gear. I slow down to about 50 and slowly give it the gas again, but the car just stays in 4th gear. ARGH! Any faster than 50 and the RPMs just go way up and the car just won’t shift. It’s like 5th gear fell out on the highway somewhere and from here on out 4th is the best we’re going to get.

At this point, we scrap the SS ADR idea, and I take the next exit to pull into a gas station. As I get to the end of the ramp and am slowing down, the car starts bucking as the tachometer needle bounces near zero. To keep from stalling, I’m keeping one foot on the gas a bit while I’m also hitting the break so the RPMs stay up above 1000. Finally we pull into the gas station, I throw it in park, and Joyce is just about ready to cry.

Plan B. Well, I didn’t want to turn the car off for fear of it not starting again, so we just sat there for a minute, sputtering and bucking while I keep giving it just a bit of gas. With our flight now less than 3 hours away, we figure we just need to get to the airport (or as close as possible) as quickly as possible.

Getting back on the highway, I keep a solid 50 going in the exit lane with my hazards on (remember, most cars are doing 70-80). Joyce keeps freaking out and I’m so nervous that my eyes hurt, and we just keep celebrating the exits like they are little victories. Finally we get to our exit…PHEW!

OK, not phew. See, on the highway, it was a steady 50 with traffic zooming around me on the left. I’ve now got 4 miles of surface roads with lights and constant stop-and-go traffic. The whole time I have to keep doing my two-foot driving with the break and gas which was about 100x worse than the highway. Now every intersection is a victory…

After what seemed like forever, we did get to the car return, but now I’m already starting an argument in my head with the Thrifty person who’s going to tell me that I need to pay for the rest of my tank that was down to about ¼, and you best believe that I’m not turning this car off until I’m at their gate! So when we get to the car return, I jump out and Joyce and I practically kissed the ground. When I handed the woman the keys, I think I got out 3 sentences of gibberish before I calmed down enough to tell her what happened and how I wasn’t going to pay for the gas. She was actually really nice and marked it as full on my receipt and sent me on my way.

Now, PHEW!

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We ate at Macaroni Grill and walked around every square inch of MCO to waste time. We thought it would be a cool picture to add to our scavenger hunt if I took a picture next to the NASA store wearing my NASA shirt with the same logo—alas, it was packed. Once at the gate, we were approximately the last people to board the plane and unfortunately ETLRWT so we DNGTSNTEO…boohoo.

Minus the super stressful ending, this was an amazing trip, and we were so glad that we were able to put DVC to such good use AND sprinkle in a bit of WDW on our Parkless Disney Adventure. Thank you all for tagging along with us, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!