The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! COMPLETE 4/12

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The Bros !! The Bros !!!! I can't waitto meet them and you and your Mom again!!!

I knew you would enjoy the pictures Rosie. Originally we weren't going to take pictures in the restaurant but Mom said we couldn't disappoint Rosie!

I am cracking up at the butt pictures. Funny stuff. The pic of you and your mom was really nice!

Thanks! Lots more funny coming up.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Toledo Visit

As we got near the border we got a call from our Aunt Christine, she was checking to see how far out we were as our cousins were anxious to see us and they had thought we would have arrived already. We were only an hour away at that point, about to cross the border in Windsor.

No lines at the border which was surprising as it was a long weekend in Canada.

To our delight the highway construction was complete in Detroit so we did not have to drive through the scary and ghetto Mexicantown to get to the highway.

Once we got to Toledo Mom got lost as per usual. She grew up in the city yet she can never remember which turnoff to take on the highway. She took the wrong turn and we ended up going over this funky new bridge that was completed in the last year or so.

We turned around and made our way to the correct turn-off and then got off the highway. We made a stop at Kroger to pick up steaks to barbeque for dinner. We are always amazed about how cheap food is in the States. In fact pretty much everything is much cheaper in the States (except for tuition).

We took some pictures in the grocery store of strange/cool American products to show our Canadian friends.

I spotted this and laughed, seriously, Disney dog food!???

Food in hand we made our way to our Uncle Jim's. He is our mom's brother.

Our cousins Andrew and Caroline were anxious to show us the Moutain Dew pop can tower they were making in the basement.

We laughed because Erich does the exact same thing but with apple juice cans.

We hung out in the backyard while Uncle Jim grilled the steaks.

Caroline

Andrew

After dinner the boys played video games while Caroline showed me her newly decorated room which was covered with Harry Potter (mainly Ron Weasley) posters.

Then the boys went and played a board game while Caroline asked me to watch tv with her.

I don't think we went to sleep until 2am that morning. I had been awake since 10pm the night before. That is 26 hours with no sleep, why does this always happen to me on vacation?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The next morning Uncle Jim went off to work and we went out to breakfast at IHOP with the cousins and Aunt Christine.

The boys were questioning Erich's eating abilities so he decided to stuff his face full of pancakes.

I didn't think Erich was going to be able to swallow it all.

Erich's belly shot on Day 2

He wanted to get a shot each day of his expanding gut as he gorged himself on vacation.

After breakfast we dropped Aunt Christine off at home and continued on to the mall with the cousins.

We started heading into the Disney Store when Caroline stopped us and said she didn't want to go in as it was "just for kids". I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear this coming from a blood relative. We knew we had to correct this ASAP so we dragged her into the store with us.

After the mall we decided to head to Penguin! Yum yum! Time to get my Smurf ice cream.

Ottawa Hills (a Toledo neighbourhood) had these lovely flower baskets hanging from each light post.

Our first Penguin stop of the trip.

Alek, Erich and I all got a Smurf

Alek and Erich decided to annoy me by pretending that they did not like the Smurf ice cream.

Our family has been going to Penguin since my Mom was a little girl. In fact our family went to Penguin on the day my Aunt and Uncle got married, a brief stop on the way to the reception after the wedding. The whole wedding party pulled up in the limos and got out and enjoyed some ice cream in their wedding finery.

After Penguin we had to drop the cousins off at home and then we made our way over to the grandparents house where we would be staying for the rest of the trip.

 

[jcc0621]

We started heading into the Disney Store when Caroline stopped us and said she didn't want to go in as it was "just for kids". I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear this coming from a blood relative. We knew we had to correct this ASAP so we dragged her into the store with us.

I hope you set her straight!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you get anything?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We spent a few hours at their house, Mom had me show them some pictures from our cruise and then we all went back over to Uncle Jim's house for a family dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa drove over separately as they would not be staying as long as us.

On the drive over a crazy storm started (RAIN CURSE). The rain came down like crazy and then the hail started, the lightening was so loud! A huge tree branch in our uncle's neighbourhood got hit by lightening.

Now it would have been a good idea for us to just wait in the car for the rain to let up but Erich was impatient so we made a mad dash to the front door of the house and got totally drenched.

Grandma and Grandpa pulled up after us. Grandpa got out an umbrella and covered Grandma on the walk to the house. She then took the umbrella and left him standing in the rain. Poor grandpa!

Aunt Christine handed us all towels to dry off while the cousins laughed hysterically at us.

Their poor cat Rascal also got caught in the rain storm, poor kitty, he was absolutely drenched.

We sat around chatting for awhile.

We loved all the different flavours of Mountain Dew in the States, up here we just have regular Mountain Dew.

For dinner we ordered up pizza and Aunt Christine made cheesy pasta, salad and brushetta also. Erich decided it would be a brilliant idea to combine all of these and make a "pizza sandwich". It looked disgusting but was also very funny.

The rain ended and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

After the grandparents left we all sat down for a game of Flinch. It was hilarious as we had to improvise with the rules as the card deck is only large enough for 5 people to play, not 6.

We didn't stay too late that night, went back to the grandparents around 9pm.

I hung out in the family room with Alek and Erich for awhile, we watched South Park and Erich fell asleep at some point and started snoring. It was so loud! We couldn't help but record it to show him in the morning.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I hope you set her straight!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you get anything?

I didn't get anything but Erich got a Wall-E alarm clock and Alek got a Wall-E beach towel. Well Caroline did say that she wants to go to Disney World with me.

 

[jcc0621]

OMG he snores like a truck driver.

Lessa, your cousin looks just like you! The one picture of her coming from the stairs (it looks like) I thought it was you are first!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The next morning I enjoyed a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls from Wixey Bakery. Another family tradition, our family has been going to this bakery for as long as I can remember. Their cinnamon rolls are delicious! I did notice they were skipping on the icing a bit though.

After breakfast we made our big shopping trip to the grocery store (Meijers) with Grandma tagging along.

This store didn't have nearly as many funny/strange products as the Kroger even though it was a much bigger store.

We did spot Jolly Rancher pop though we didn't buy any.

Most of our purchases ended up being Pop, and a lot of it was stuff that we were buying for people back in Canada. All I bought was some Cherry Pomegranate Crystal Light, delicious!

We drove around a bit, not sure what exactly Mom and Grandma were looking for but they never found it. We did spot this funny sign though, Toledo always has the oddest traffic signs.

For lunch Grandpa took us out to a Mexican restaurant and we also drove through the neighbourhood where he grew up.

I had a chicken quaesadilla for lunch and it was huge! Erich and Mom had to help me finish it off. It was very good though.

Oh yeah, it also rained for while (RAIN CURSE). The original plan for this day was for us to go to Cedar Point/Soak City with the cousins but we had put it off a day hoping that the weather would improve.

After we got back from our Mexican lunch Grandpa went for a nap and Mom and Grandma went through some family history documents. Alek, Erich and I decided to head down the street to a park/playground that we have enjoyed since we were little.

Walking down the street I saw these enormous lilies, I have never seen them grow that high before!

There was the cutest dog at the playground, he was very old and did not move very quickly.

Alek and Erich each attempted to do upside down sit-ups.

On the way back we spotted a face on a tree. Cool or creepy you decide....

Then we saw another one, it didn't blend with the tree as well though.

I guess this is the latest yard decorating trend???? Andrew and Caroline told me that it is very popular in Toledo.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

OMG he snores like a truck driver.

Lessa, your cousin looks just like you! The one picture of her coming from the stairs (it looks like) I thought it was you are first!

Their does tend to be a strong family resemblance. Erich looks like me, Andrew looks like Erich and Caroline also looks like us a bit. Poor Alek doesn't look like anybody!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Once we got back from the park the grandparents were still resting so we gave Andrew and Caroline a call and told them we would come and pick them up for some mini-golf. They had been waiting around at home all day waiting for our call.

The place we went was pretty cheap. $5 each for mini-golf and then they also had go-karts which was also $5.

Mini-golf took a long time to play with 6 of us. I felt bad for the group behind us and they were always waiting for us to finish up.

The course had these areas where water was supposed to run through but I guess they had it turned off that way. We always had to have somebody standing "defense" when we were near these areas in case the balls got hit too hard as the course charges a $10 lost ball fee.

Caroline ending up beating us all by 15 strokes!

Caroline wanted to go go-karting next. Mom and I opted out but the boys all went with her. I found a nice spot to take pictures from.

After go-karting we went to...... Penguin!

I once again got a Smurf, no idea what the others got. It was delicious as always.

We had to make an emergency stop for Erich on the way back to the cousins house.

While waiting for him we spotted this cool looking car parked at the Pizza Hut.

We dropped the cousins off at home, finalized our plans for the next day with Aunt Christine and then headed back to the grandparents. The dinner plan that night was Little Caesars, we went back to their house first to make sure that grandma wasn't going to surprise us with dinner even though she had said she wasn't making anything.

She indeed had not made anything for dinner and she and Grandpa were actually all dressed for bed so I took Alek and Erich out to pick up our Little Ceasars. That night we watched Dumb and Dumber or Wayne's World. Don't remember which one though we watched both at some point on the trip.

I had to drug myself to sleep that night as we were waking up early the next morning as we were headed to Cedar Point/Soak City!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I woke up to the lovely sound of my cell phone alarm going off at 6:30. I was grumpy about getting up so early but today was my birthday! We had lots of fun planned. We were scheduled to be at the cousins house for 8am where we would all pile into Aunt Christine's mini-van and make the one hour drive down to Sandusky, Ohio. We were going to spend the day at Soak City which is the water park at Cedar Point. Cedar Point itself was vetoed as Erich, Mom and Andrew do not like roller coasters.

I once again enjoyed a cinnamon roll for breakfast before we headed out.

Aunt Christine has the coolest mini-van! It is a Stow-N-Go van with two sliding doors which close automatically, the windows in the back roll down, they have Sirius radio and a DVD system built in. Very nice!

Caroline had brought along Full House DVD's for us to watch on the way down.

I was a bit sad that we were not going to Cedar Point as the coasters came into view but the water park would be lots of fun too!

First order of business was to rent some lockers and get changed. There wasn't enough room in our locker for all our stuff thanks to Alek and Erich's sneakers so Mom and I had to stow our purses in Aunt Christine's locker.

This red coaster weaved around the water park.

I stowed the camera in the locker and then we were off to our first slide! Mom and Aunt Christine went to hang out by the wave pool and gave us instructions to come get them once we were ready for the lazy river.

Since we were there right near park opening there were no lines for the slides yet.

Alek and Erich amused the lifeguards with all their "screaming" on the slides.

One slide that I went down makes you go airborn for about a second and also messed with my suit, I nearly gave everybody at the bottom a show.

There is also a family raft slide but only 4 people can fit in a raft so Alek, Erich and Andrew rode together and I rode with Caroline.

After we had done all the slides we went over to the wave pool to retrieve the "adults" as it was time for the Lazy River. Mom decided not to go but Aunt Christine tagged along. Alek, Erich, Andrew and Caroline raced each other through the river. My poor cousins are getting corrupted by my brothers. I floated along and chatted with Aunt Christine. They all lapped us eventually and then we all floated along together.

After the lazy river we went into the wave pool for a bit and then it was lunch time. We decided to grab Subway which was of course horrendously expensive and had very limited options. It was still cheaper than the other food offerings though.

After lunch I grabbed the camera again so I could get some pictures of the park.

Another gut shot

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

They all had a lot of fun playing around in the water playground, they especially liked getting drenched by the big bucket of water.

This would have been the perfect picture if that random kid hadn't walked into it.

Here's a 30 second video of them at the water playground Water Palyground

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I think by far the favourite attraction at the water park was The Lilypads. The attempted to cross these at least five times throughout the day. It was hilarious!

Erich

Alek

Andrew

Caroline

We took a break from the Lily Pads and they decided to go on the raft ride again. I didn't go on and instead waited at the bottom so I could catch them coming down on camera. Aunt Christine had found us at this point so we waited together.

I went and dropped the camera off with Mom and then we went to ride some more slides and Aunt Christine came along with us.

I only ended going on once as I was feeling rather light-headed so I though it best if I went and relaxed on a lounge chair for a while.

Mom and Aunt Christine went off to float around on the Lazy River so I had some alone time which is rare when visiting Toledo as Caroline usually sticks to me like glue.

There was some excitement in the wave pool at one point. Everybody in the pool stopped moving and a lifeguard dived in and was in the deep end for about 5 minutes. I guess everything turned out to be okay as I didn't see them bring anybody out and they turned the waves back on.

Everybody came back to our chairs eventually and it was decided that we should head out. It was just after 3pm and we had dinner reservations in Toledo for 6:30.

They wanted to have one last go on the lilypads before we left.

Erich and Caroline finally made it all the way across!

Here's a video of them epically failing on the Lilypads earlier in the day. The one kid I caught on tape was amazing though, he made it look easy which it definitely was not!

The Lilypads

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We all got majorly burnt as well although Erich was definitely the worst off. Yesterday morning when he woke up he had sunburn blisters on his shoulders, this was two days after he got the initial burn. Ouch!

Alek said that being surrounded by the coasters all day made him really want to go to Cedar Point, maybe next year!

As we were leaving the Cedar Point area we saw something amazing and made Aunt Christine pull over so we could get a picture.

It was the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile!

As you can see Erich's bad influence has made an impression on Andrew.

Everybody was pretty tuckered out on the drive back to Toledo.

Once back in Toledo we went back over to the Grandparents house to get ready for my birthday dinner. We had a reservation at my fav Toledo restaurnt, Biaggi's.

Grandma and Grandpa were coming too but they drove over separately. We were a bit early so we browsed around the neighbouring bookstore before heading over. Once it was closer to 6:30 we went over and this is where things went a bit sour. Grandma supposedly can not stay in places that are "too loud" and apparently this restaurant was too loud for her so she decided that she would just go sit in the car while Grandpa stayed and ate dinner with us. I don't know why she didn't just drive home and then we could have taken Grandpa back with us. Anyways.... The restaurant was also late in seating us. The reservation was for 6:30 but they didn't seat us closer to 7.

The food was wonderful as always though and we all had a great time together. Alek, Erich, Andrew and Caroline had fun drawing on the paper the was covering the tablecloth.

Right as we were paying the bill Grandma came back into the restaurant all upset at Grandpa about how long it was taking. So he got up and they left, we though they were going to meet us at Penguin but they never showed up. So anyways Grandma was upset at Grandpa which made Mom upset. This type of drama almost always happens with Grandma when we are in Toledo. It's not an official vacation without Grandma drama.

Anyways after our delicious dinner we all made our way over to Penguin for our third visit of the trip!

Can you guess what I had?

We were there for almost 2 hours just talking and laughing. We left as they were starting to close up for the night so close to 10pm.

Well all hugged goodbye and said we would see them next summer. Caroline was all excited because it was briefly mentioned that we should do WDW together in 5 years as a graduation celebration for her (high school) and me (Nursing school). Who knows if that will actually happen though.

Back at the grandparents we packed up all our stuff so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning and we got a surprise visit from Uncle Jim and the family! They had forgotten to give me my birthday card so they drove over to deliver it. So we all hugged goodbye again and then went to bed.

We left Toledo at 5am and got back home just after 1pm. It was a fantastic trip aside from the grandma drama that last night. Hope you enjoyed my mini-TR!

 

[KatGarcia]

Sounds like a great trip!! Holy sunburns!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sounds like a great trip!! Holy sunburns!!

Yeah no kidding, poor Erich has called in sick to work for the rest of the week as he can't lift his arms past a certain point due to the burn blisters. I barely burnt and it is already pretty faded, I am lucky that way. I am sure he has learned his lesson though.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

WDW TR update coming up in about an hour. I know you all have been dying of excitement waiting for it.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We woke up early again, I wanted to make a run to the drug store to pick up some new sunscreen before heading to Hollywood Studios. I decided to get Hawaiian Tropic since I seem to now be allergic to Coppertone. You all will be happy to know that the Hawaiian Tropic worked great and didn't give me a single rash.

All stocked up on sunscreen we were off to Hollywood Studios. I was excited to ride Toy Story Mania again!

We were there fairly early and were second in line at the turnstyles behind a dad who had come to the park by himself. Turns out that he had missed riding Toy Story the other day so he had left his family sleeping in the hotel so he could come over and squeeze in a ride. I think we scared him with all our talk of the insane mad dash to Toy Story that the whole park makes right at rope drop.

All the signage for Star Wars Weekends was up, we were planning on attending opening day the next day (our last day at WDW before the cruise!). I was so excited!

Once they let us into the park we were able to grab a spot right at the rope. Here's a picture of the crowd behind us.

Scary!

Some pictures from the rope drop ceremony, my least favourite after Epcot's.

As soon as the rope dropped we were off! I was speed walking to Toy Story Mania, tickets in hand. I was determined to get to those fast pass machines as quickly as possible and then into the stand-by line. I was fairly successful and there were only a few people in front of me at the machines and then Mom and I jumped in line.

Didn't have much time to take pictures as we pretty much got to walk right through the queue and onto the ride. Waited maybe 5 minutes.

Despite my best efforts Mom continued her winning streak and beat me. At least I always win on Buzz!

Mom was wearing her new mouse ears this morning but they were hurting her head so she took them off after only 15 minutes or so. I would have worn them but I think I would have looked strange with two pairs of ears on.

After Toy Story we had about an hour until our fast passes were good so we headed down to Hollywood Boulevard so that I could ride the thrill rides.

We stopped for a photopass picture along the way.

Sigh, Mom really doesn't know how to do fake scared for pictures. Oh well not like I am that great at it either.

So I went off to ride Rock N' Roller Coaster by myself as Mom was too chicken to try it. Not sure what Mom did while I was gone, probably browsed the shops.

The single rider line wasn't open so I had to get in the regular stand-by line, the posted wait time was 20 minutes so I didn't mind.

I ended up riding with another single rider. It was her first time on the ride and she was very nervous. She kept second guessing whether she wanted to get on the ride or not and she was afraid that she would get sick. I talked her through it though and she ended up loving it.

My very blurry ride photo, they switched the photos off the screen so quickly that I didn't have a chance to try and take it again.

Next I headed over to Tower of Terror where the posted wait time was also 20 minutes. The line however was all the way to the entrance sign so I knew that the wait had to be much longer than that. I didn't want to keep Mom waiting so I decided to skip it for now.

I met back up with Mom and we started to make our way back over to Toy Story. First we stopped at a bakery on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood. Mom bought me a yummy cookie there and got one for herself as well. The cookies there are pricey! I think Mom paid $5 for two cookies!

Once we were back at Toy Story we had to wait a few minutes for our fast passes to become available. The line for the ride was really long by now, even the fast pass line was long.

Grrrr, Mom beat me again! What am I doing wrong!

Click here to continue

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Glad you had a nice little mini-vaca! Can't wait for more of the Disney trip!!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Glad you had a nice little mini-vaca! Can't wait for more of the Disney trip!!!!

Thanks, yep we had a fab time visiting the family. Time to get this WDW TR back in gear before I go off on vacation again in three weeks. I should be done or almost done the WDW part by then.