2 kids, 2 dogs, 1200 miles: 2 weeks and 2 birthdays in Florida - COMPLETED!

Hi from another Wisconsinite. :wave2: I'm a little late...gotta go back and catch up on everything!
 
Hi from another Wisconsinite. :wave2: I'm a little late...gotta go back and catch up on everything!

Welcome to my TR! I skimmed some of your TRs and I can totally appreciate how nice it is living so close to the airport. When we used to live near Appleton, it was a 2 1/2 hour drive just to get to the airport. Now if we do fly, it's 30 minutes from our door to the ticket counter. :cool1:
I actually work right next to the airport. If you take off to the west, we are the last building adjacent to the runway on the south. Depending on air traffic patterns, our building can shake a little bit when the big jets come roaring by. :thumbsup2
 
I started this reply probably 45 minutes go. I put in the title and then just stared at the big, empty white box on my computer screen. I don't know if I got nostalgic or writer's block or what. I just couldn't come to bring myself to end the trip. I know, I know, it actually ended over a month ago. But I've been reliving, just as all of you have been living it for the first time. This won't be the last entry for the Trip Report. I have at least one more to sum everything up and provide some parting words. As for now, let's pick up where we left off.

We had spent last night at Epcot's Extra Magic Hours. I love staying at the Beach Club - you get off your last ride and it's literally a 10 minute walk and you're at your hotel room door. As much as I love the Disney buses, I love not riding them just as much!:thumbsup2

So we wake up on Thursday morning. I really didn't pay attention to the clock. We finished off the food we had in our fridge for breakfast, packed up what need to be packed up, and hauled it out the van. We put our swim suits on in the room, kept a bag of clothes to change into and bid farewell to room 557. Next stop - Storm Along Bay.

When I bought our waterproof camera (Olympus Stylus 770SW) a few years ago, I purchased a second battery so we would always have one charged. Silly me, I tried to save a few bucks and bought a generic battery. A full charge on that battery lasts about 5 pictures. For some reason, I haven't thrown it out yet, and that was the battery that was in the camera this morning. Long story short - no pictures of swimming this morning. :guilty:

Anyway, the 4 of us spent a good couple of hours playing and swimming. The kids love the sandy beach. We built several sand castles. Unfortunately, each one met the same fate - being trampled by giant monsters! Arrrgh!

The kids also love the little water slide. It's only about 12' long, but they would slide down, swim to the steps, climb up, and slide down again. Over and over and over. There were a few other kids there as well. One of them cut off Evan in line and Madison darn near punched him. She's a very protective older sister. :love:

Around 11, we told the kids that it was time to get going and get some lunch. Around 11:30, we actually convinced them to get out of the water and get changed! We couldn't really decide where to eat, so we hit an old stand-by - Chili's - that was on the way back to Grandma & Grandpa's house.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We made it back to two very happy dogs shortly after lunch. We started doing some laundry and cleaning in preparation for our long drive home the next day. Grandma & Grandpa spent the evening with the kids and said their goodbyes. (They both had to leave for work before the kids would be awake)

The next morning was spent staring at the back van, trying to figure out how to re-pack everything. The biggest problem was Madison's Cinderella Castle play set. It was big, ackward, and breakable. Not the idea item to squeeze into an already full van for 1200 miles! I was able to get it protected, load up the bikes, kids and dogs and we hit the road around 10:00 am.

We stopped at a rest area in northern Florida to let the dogs out, hit the restroom, and grab the lunch that we had packed. I remember 2 things about this rest stop. 1. It was ungodly hot, and 2. There was a gentleman there working on something in the back of his SUV. He was not wearing a shirt, had about 6 inches of plumber crack staring back at me and breasts that would make a stripper blush. Toto, I don't think we're in Disney World anymore. :scared1:

Most of the drive seems like blur now, so I'll let Facebook tell the story.

Facebook, 10/23 2:05pm: In Valdosta, Ga for gas and bathroom break.

This was taken about a half hour later. Allie really is a sun dog. Any patch of sun coming in and she'll find it and lay in it.
IMG00188-20091023-1435.jpg



South of Macon, GA, I started looking at the Atlanta area traffic reports on my Blackberry (settle down out there, Bambi was driving. :lmao:) It showed a 14 mile stretch of interstate around Macon that was moving at "0-10 MPH". This is where our investment in a GPS paid off. We hit the "detour" button, got off the Interstate and drove through Macon. Nice little town. We stopped to gas up, grabbed Subway for dinner and kept heading north once we were past the traffic problems.

That's not to say we didn't catch any of Atlanta's traffic. Through the city was fine, and we were good as long as we had the high occupancy vehicle lane. As soon as that ended north of Atlanta, we were in bumper to bumper traffic for about 30 minutes. Frustrating, but it didn't last too long.

Again, we hit Chattanooga in the dark and I didn't get to see any of the mountains. (We've got driving trips planned for March and December of 2010. We'll see how the timing works out then!)

Facebook, 10/23 9:43pm: Just west of Monteagle, TN. 624 miles down, 628 to go. Looks like fall in Tennessee, at least from the yellow glow of the rest area street lights.

Nothing very exciting goes on for a while. I'm driving through Nashville around midnight while everyone else sleeps. I coast in to a Shell station on fumes, but no one needs to know that...:rolleyes1

We trade off driving a few times. I even pulled into a rest area and caught a quick nap with everyone. Driving home after 2 weeks of partying just isn't quite as easy, is it?

Facebook, 10/24 6:10am:Just about to the Indiana/Illinois boarder. Should be home in 2 more hours

Facebook, 10/24 8:06am: 23 hours, and we're home. now to unpack and figure out how to integrate back into "normal" life. And start planning our next vacation. :)

The problem with getting home at 8 in the morning is that you have a full day in front of you. We unpacked and started sorting out our stuff. After being gone for 2 weeks, our kitchen was pretty empty so we went grocery shopping. We got home, but the cold and frozen stuff away and then all 4 of us took a nap.

As I said before, I'll have at least one more official entry in my Trip Report. I'll try to sum everything up and come up with something profound to say. If I can't do that, I'll just go on with some mindless blathering for a few paragraphs.
 
From there, Bambi & I took Madison to do Soarin' while Evan played in the fountains and soaked himself.

Madison was a bit nervous on Soarin, but she got over it pretty quick. We were front row, which means we got lifted as high as you could. My little thrill seeker loved it.

Our daughters are so similar!

FreezinRafiki said:
We met up with a very wet Evan by the fountains, changed him into dry clothes (yeah, we've been through this before) and rode Figment again.

That's a veteran move right there.

You had to go and mention the cheddar cheese soup at Canada...Sigh...Le Cellier is our favorite place to eat in WDW.

Your TR has been cracking me up. Very fun read. I'm sorry to see it coming to an end...
 


There were a few other kids there as well. One of them cut off Evan in line and Madison darn near punched him. She's a very protective older sister. :love:

These kids are too cool.

FreezinRafiki said:
The next morning was spent staring at the back van, trying to figure out how to re-pack everything. The biggest problem was Madison's Cinderella Castle play set. It was big, ackward, and breakable. Not the idea item to squeeze into an already full van for 1200 miles! I was able to get it protected, load up the bikes, kids and dogs and we hit the road around 10:00 am.

I hear ya! We always seem to forget to leave room for the sack full of unnecessary and expensive souvenirs on the return trip! :rotfl2:

FreezinRafiki said:
Toto, I don't think we're in Disney World anymore. :scared1:

:rotfl2:

FreezinRafiki said:
As I said before, I'll have at least one more official entry in my Trip Report. I'll try to sum everything up and come up with something profound to say. If I can't do that, I'll just go on with some mindless blathering for a few paragraphs.

I vote for mindless blathering! :thumbsup2
 
I applaud you for driving straight through. :faint: Thank you for taking us along on your vacation. Let us know if you do another report!
 


There were a few other kids there as well. One of them cut off Evan in line and Madison darn near punched him. She's a very protective older sister. :love:

Kids are funny, sometimes they want to kill each other and others they will stick up for each other. As a parent, you always love to see that.:thumbsup2

He was not wearing a shirt, had about 6 inches of plumber crack staring back at me and breasts that would make a stripper blush. Toto, I don't think we're in Disney World anymore. :scared1:

:eek: :rotfl2::rotfl2: Very funny!


As I said before, I'll have at least one more official entry in my Trip Report. I'll try to sum everything up and come up with something profound to say. If I can't do that, I'll just go on with some mindless blathering for a few paragraphs.

I also vote for the mindless blathering. This report has been a lot of fun to follow along. Well done.:thumbsup2
 
Wow I can't believe it is over. Say it ain't so!!!! :sad2:

Nice review on the F&W Fest. We didn't even make it into Epcot in October... I think I would of liked trying all the different food. I think I would of liked to try some wine too, although I am nore of a beer type of guy. I guess I could of been 'civilized' for one day. :lmao:

The kids seems like they really enjoyed the pool at Beach Club. Did you guys get a chance to 'snack' on the kitchen sink at Beaches and Cream? I need to try that sometime.

Nice job driving straight through! My DW would want nothing to do with that. LOL
 
These kids are too cool.
Thanks! I probably won't pass your compliment on to them - they have big enough egos that I try no to feed them anymore.:rotfl2:

I hear ya! We always seem to forget to leave room for the sack full of unnecessary and expensive souvenirs on the return trip! :rotfl2:
I'm thinking about getting a tramp stamp tattoo that reads "© DISNEY"


I applaud you for driving straight through. :faint: Thank you for taking us along on your vacation. Let us know if you do another report!

I've got two trips coming up in 2010, so there's a good chance I'll do TRs for them. It's almost like I get to extend my trip for the month or so that it takes to write them. You know, except that it was 26° on my way into work this morning!

I also vote for the mindless blathering. This report has been a lot of fun to follow along. Well done.:thumbsup2

I'm sure I'll come up with something good. :scared:

Nice review on the F&W Fest. We didn't even make it into Epcot in October... I think I would of liked trying all the different food. I think I would of liked to try some wine too, although I am nore of a beer type of guy. I guess I could of been 'civilized' for one day. :lmao:
"Civilized" is when you take the cans of beer out of the plastic drinking helmet
"High Class" is when you put it in a glass
"Hoity Toity" is when the glass is clean.

The kids seems like they really enjoyed the pool at Beach Club. Did you guys get a chance to 'snack' on the kitchen sink at Beaches and Cream? I need to try that sometime.

We've done it once, before we had kids. It was amazing. Maybe we'll have to meet here in March!
 
nice trip report barry!!! had fun reading it!!! cant wait for the pre trip report for the next trip!!!:thumbsup2
 
great report....Had a great time reading along with the memories

on a side note....My mom bought the boys a treat (the giant tub of cheese balls from Sams) and it made me think of your report right away....:lmao:
 
nice trip report barry!!! had fun reading it!!! cant wait for the pre trip report for the next trip!!!:thumbsup2
I'm on the fence about a pre-trip report. It seems they're mostly for planning and organizing your thoughts. I have my plans and thoughts re-organized for me so often, that it just doesn't seem worth it. :rotfl2:

All good things must come to an end....Great Job!:thumbsup2

Thank you!

great report....Had a great time reading along with the memories

on a side note....My mom bought the boys a treat (the giant tub of cheese balls from Sams) and it made me think of your report right away....:lmao:

I guess it doesn't matter why I'm famous, as long as I'm famous! :thumbsup2
Have fun on your trip! I'd love to read a TR, so if you do decide to do one, post a link on this thread so I can find it!
 
Well, this is it - the final entry for my first Trip Report. I hope everyone had as good of a time reading it and I did writing it.

As I said in the opening, we had been to Disney World several times, but this was our first time driving from Wisconsin. We weren't sure we could do it, but we rose up to the challenge and made it without a problem. The kids, dogs and adults all did great. I'm proud of my family!

I'd like to take a few moments to extend some heartfelt thanks to some people.

First and foremost to my children, Madison and Evan. For being the light of my life and the center of my world. As much as I was a fan of Disney before you guys came along, being able to share it with you has made my enjoyment of it so much sweeter. Someday you'll be big enough to read this trip report, and I hope you can look back fondly on these times. Even when you're all grown up, you'll always be my babies. :love:

Secondly, to Bambi's parents. Thanks for being such good grandparents. Madison and Evan talk about you constantly. You may never read this, but thanks for the roof, the food, and everything else you did to make this trip the success that it was. :grouphug:

And last but certainly not least, to my Darling Wife, Bambi (I know you're reading along with this TR!). It was you, way back in high school, that passed on to me your love of Disney. It was you, that when we got married, insisted on having Mickey & Minnie on top of our cake. It was you that gave me such a wonderful family and extraordinary life. And it will be you, when we're old and gray, sitting next to me on a bench, eating Casey's mini corn dogs and watching our grandchildren's wide eyed wonderment as they experience Disney World for the first time. I love you. :hug:

With that, I'll bring this Trip Report to a close. Thank you to everyone who read along. I hope I was able to convey the fun, excitement, magic and wonderment that we felt on this trip to you. We're going in March and December of 2010, so watch for more trip reports in the future.

Where ever you go and what ever you do, always have a Disney song on your lips, some Disney magic in your heart, and a little Pixie Dust in your pocket!
 
That is what a Disney Trip is all about, family. Great job on the TR, I had fun reading the entire way through. :thumbsup2

I can't wait for the next one.:rolleyes1
 
I really enjoyed reading your report, Barry. Looks like you have a sweet, fun-loving family and you have a great sense of humor that makes for an entertaining read. Thanks for taking us along! :thumbsup2

I guess I'll tune back in at the end of March...
 
Wow! I missed it. I missed the end. :confused3 :sad1: :sad:

Now what am I going to do with myself. :rolleyes1

Again, great report! :thumbsup2 I will be looking for the upcoming reports. Only 3 months to go! woohoo! :woohoo:
 
ummm...I think I need to start over and read through. If your done...I've obviously missed allot...but I have a Doctor's note! :lmao:
 

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