Are We There Yet : Part 2 Archive

It's Almost Time!

Our departure date is getting close, we are heading into the home stretch. I have been putting the final touches on the "Are We There Yet? Part 2" blog. Already had some requests for the URL. We pretty much have our route mapped out on the way down, will play it by ear on the way back. Gillian is worried we won't be back in time for her to get her school supplies.

We're still going to Mammoth Cave National Park, but afterwards we are going to Cocoa Beach instead of Daytona and the space shuttle launch was postponed until October from the end of August.

We're Off!

It was an early start this morning as we started on our adventure to the South. Here are the girls first thing in the morning. We left at 5:45 am and then we left again at 6:45 am. Let's just say one of us forgot something.

We crossed over the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit around 10:15 am, no wait, no questions, other than how many people and where we were going. Other than the contruction on the I-75 right after we crossed the bridge (we detoured through Mexicantown), the other construction wasn't too bad. I drove the first leg and Susan drove the rest. Here we are passing Cincinnati.

Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Brent Spence Bridge, opened in November 1963, with a main span 830.5 ft.

One side is Cincinnati, Ohio, the other side is Kentucky.

A plane coming in for a landing at the Cincinnati Airport.

Can you tell we're in the south, on the water tower in Florence, it has "Florence, Y'all".

After a brief stop at the Kentucky Welcome Centre.

Kentucky is the birth place of Abraham Lincoln.

Claudia playing Guitar Hero.

Angela and Gillian enjoying the ride.

After three states and one time zone change we finished our day in Cave City, Kentucky. The girls wanted to have some genuine KFC in Kentucky for dinner. After dinner the girls had a swim in the outdoor pool. Tomorrow we have a full day at Mammoth Caves National Park. Looking forward to it and will update tomorrow night.

The 2nd Most Popular...

Today we toured Mammoth Cave National Park. According to one of the park rangers, Mammoth Cave is second only to Niagara Falls as Americas most popular tourist attraction. Each of the tours we went on were sold out, each had 120 people. The weather was sunny and hot today, although for the most part we were underground where the temperature is 54°F year round.

On the drive in to the Visitor Centre we saw a wild turkey and a couple of deer at the side of the road.

Our first tour was the Historic Tour, it was 2 hours, 2 mile and had 457 steps with a 300' elevation change. We entered through the Historic Entrance, the same entrance they use 4000 years ago when the caves were first discovered.

Our Park Ranger going over the rules. Due to Homeland Security rules, any kind of backpack, fanny pack, camera case, knapsack, etc are prohibited from being taken on any of the tours. We had to get a special tag in order to take one of the girls fanny packs in with their epi-pens and inhaler. As well they give you a couple of opportunities to back out, tours are not recommended for those with heart ailments, fresh from surgery, claustrophobic, acrophobic, and back problems to name a few.

Down in the cave.

This was Giant's Coffin.

Some 1800's graffiti.

Up until the Giant's Coffin the passageways were pretty open and spacious. As we moved on the walls started to close in from the sides and the top. Here are Susan and Claudia coming down a set of steps.

In the early days of Mammoth Cave tours, a person would tip the guide and have their names written on the ceiling of the various area of the cave. As the one Ranger said, they have a name for it these days, federal offence.

The not so Bottomless Pit.

The pathways are well marked, some are man made, others like this one are packed down from years of use. There are handrails and fencing to keep you from falling into the wrong place. Most accidents happen from people trying to take pictures or video while they are walking and end up walking into something.

This was one of the girls favourite parts of the tour. Fat Man's Misery.

It is a winding pathway that is open above your waist but tight and narrow at places from the waist down, halfway through is Tall Man's Agony.

Angela navigating Fat Man's Misery.

Claudia checking that Susan is still behind her.

Not sure if Susan is giving up.

One of the last stops was the stairs up through the Mammoth Dome. It is a fire tower inside the cave.

Susan and the girls really enjoyed the tour. I did this one when I was here in 1990 on a field trip in my 4th year Karst Geomorphology course. We had a couple of hours in between tours, so we grabbed a bite to eat and toured the gift shop. The girls got whatever they wanted, because they had money from G-ma and G-pa and were told to buy whatever they wanted, even if your parents think it's silly.

2nd Tour

Our second tour of the day was the New Entrance Tour, this tour was 2 hours, 3/4 mile and had 500 steps. The first 280 were as we entered into the entrance. This entrance was discovered in 1923, we had to take a bus to the tour start.

One of the Park Rangers on this tour was Jerry, he was a fourth generation Mammoth Cave area resident, his great grandpa was one of the early slaves in the area. Here is a picture of Jerry with the girls.

A cool picture of the girls in the cave without a flash.

Claudia and Angela going down the stairs.

Angela and Claudia.

Another bottomless pit.

Some photos from the cave.

Angela and Claudia touching the ceiling.

Park Ranger Richard. During this portion of the tour the ranger turned off all the lights and we got to see how dark it is. It was pitch black and very quiet. The longest anyone has been lost in the cave is 39 hours, the person said they could deal with the dark, but not the silence, when they found him he was banging rocks together and singing songs.

A picture of a cave cricket.

On this tour we trailed at the back of the line. On the first tour we were at the front, but the guide walks so slow. As you go through the cave, bottlenecks occur and people start to stretch out like an accordian.

On the New Entrance tour, you also go through the Frozen Niagara tour part.

This area has an amazing display of stalactites and stalagmites in the Drapery Room.

Working our way up the final few steps.

Some more impressive formations.

Daylight again.

We ended our day like we started, seeing some deer as we drove out of the park.

Having taken more photos than I could post on the blog, I have set up an additional page where these and other photos will be posted. If you feel like browsing through more photos click on the folderblog link at the top or click here.

A Look Ahead

Today we are going from Cave City, Kentucky to Marietta, Georgia. We'll be going through Nashville, Tennessee and the girls want to go shopping, so we'll be finding a mall along the way. We will be keeping an eye on the weather over the next couple of days. Tropical Storm Fay is making its way towards Florida, it may make Tuesday and Wednesday a little wet and windy.

Dinosaurs, Opryland and Free Drinks

We left Cave City behind and headed for our next stop in Marietta, Georgia via Nashville, Tennessee.

Before we got back on the I-65 we had to stop and take a picture of a dinosaur for Angela.

This one was in the parking lot.

We entered into Tennessee and stopped at the Welcome Centre.

Here are the girls blending in with some statues at the Welcome Centre.

We found a mall in Nashville called Opry Mills, as you might have guessed it is in Opryland.

The mall had its own aquarium and its own Stingray Bay.

Some sharks chasing the stingrays.

I noticed this sign when we were waiting for Susan.

A closer look at the sign.

After we had a picnic lunch we walked over to the Grand Ole Opry House.

Our new blog photo for now.

Angela and Claudia in front of the Grand Ole Opry House.

The line up for August, last night was Vince Gill.

We walked around the gift store called Opry shop.

Our hotel tonight is the Drury Inn in Marietta, Georgia. We checked in around 6:55pm, we lost an hour just past Chattanooga as we crossed back into the Eastern Time Zone. I was told we had only a few minutes to get our free drinks. At this hotel one of the extras is Free Evening drinks and snacks. the girls had soft drinks and I had two draft beers. the snacks included popcorn, chips, and nachos. Other extras that aren't extra are free long distance calling and free hot breakfast.

The pool was cool, half of it was indoors and the other half outdoors. You could swim under the glass partition. Gillian jumping in.

Angela cannon-balling.

The girls performing their pool routine.

Tomorrow were touring the Georgia Aquarium and then it's on to Gainesville Florida.

World's Biggest Aquarium

Today we visited the world's largest Aquarium, both in square feet and litres of water, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Georgia Aquarium is located right downtown across from the Olympic Centennial Park.

We also had tickets to the Deepo's Undersea 3-D Wondershow. They throw in a few surprises to make it a 4-D show. It was short but very good.

Claudia waiting to go in.

The first stop was the Coldwater Quest.

This was one of the touch pools, we were allowed to touch the starfish and sea anemone.

Angela and Claudia checking out the sea creatures.

We were at the aquarium for the opening and we were one of the first visitors to view the beluga whales.

The girls with Deepo, if you saw it from the side you would see the actual fish body.

An African Black-footed penguin.

Here are the girls popping up in the penguin exhibit.

The California Sea Lions waiting for some food.

Another beluga photo.

The girls with the aquarium founders.

The next area was the Georgia Explorer area of the Aquarium.

Another touch pool was the shrimp pool.

A sea turtle.

They also had a stingray and shark touch pool.

There were two types of stingrays. This was a Southern Stingray.

They had Bonnethead sharks, these were full grown.

Here is a Cownose Ray.

The girls touching the Stingrays.

The next stop was Ocean Voyager.

You can stand on a moving walkway as you go through the tunnel. The big attraction are the Whale Sharks. There were four of them in the tank the size of a football field.

One of the Whale Sharks swimming over us.

A Largetooth Sawfish.

The girls posing with some creature.

Claudia filming a big Grouper.

Angela and Claudia with the Whale Shark.

The next area was Tropical Diver. These were Spotted Garden Eels.

This thing was like a Jelly fish.

A Moon Jelly.

The girls in front of the main tank in Tropical Diver.

Claudia with an alligator in the River Scout area.

A River Otter.

The girls in front of a sign.

Back to the sea anemone touch pool.

We all enjoyed the Georgia Aquarium and we're glad to have stopped and visited.

Atlanta, Georgia

After the Aquarium we were back on the road, but on the way to the car we walked next door and found out who invented Coke. Here is the World of Coca-Cola building.

John Pemberton was the inventor of Coca Cola. Here are the girls posing with him.

A recycling can outside the Coke building.

Some of the Atlanta skyline. The Bank of America Plaza Building, it is the tallest building in Atlanta and 30th tallest in the world.

Across the road was the Olympic Centennial Park.

Change of Plans

We headed from Atlanta to Gainesville, but we changed our plans and due to the Tropical Storm Fay we decided to drive straight to Orlando and get a room there.

Here we are at the Florida Welcome Centre. It wasn't so sunny when we got there.

The Magic Kingdom

We checked into our hotel this morning around 8:30 and we were off to the Magic Kingdom shortly after that. The weather was holding off for the most part early in the day. Even though tropical Storm Fay was hitting the south end of the state, the rain in Orlando was light and off and on.

Our first glimpse of Minnie and Mickey.

Nothing like a Tropical Storm threat to keep the ride wait times short. We were able walk right on to Space Mountain.

The first of many posing's for the Girls this week. The longest wait times in Tomorrowland was about 10 minutes and half of that was just walking through the line maze.

We headed over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then to Splash Mountain, both rides we were again able to walk on. Susan didn't go on Splash Mountain so she took a picture of us coming down the big hill.

Here are the girls with Br'er Fox, Bear and Rabbit.

it was over to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise.

We took in the Enchanted Tiki room show.

The girls with the Tiki statues.

We watched the Country Bear Jamboree.

This was about average for the crowds through the day. This was around 12:30 pm.

We rode the Haunted Mansion, the girls enjoyed the hitchhiking ghosts.

Next it was over to Fantasyland. We rode "It's A Small World", but a lot of the other rides were the busiest we saw all day.

The girls inside the small world.

Cinderella's castle.

Our room was ready so we started our way back to the hotel.

Angela and Claudia with Donald Duck.

A balloon man on Main Street.

We'll be making our way around Disney this week on the Disney buses. There are shuttles from the hotel to each park.

It was back to the hotel for a couple of hours before heading back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner.

Dinner with Pooh

We had some time to kill before our reservation, so we walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse.

Halfway through.

The girls went on Alladin's Magic Carpet ride again.

We even had time to ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again, the wait said 20 minutes, but we walked on as soon as we got to the head of the line.

As you can see it was still raining off and on. It wasn't until about 6:00 pm that the rain started with no intention of letting up.

We had dinner reservations at The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. Before dinner the chef came out and he took us through the buffet line and told us what the girls could and couldn't eat. The first to visit us was Piglet.

Claudia and Piglet are kind of dressed the same.

Winnie the Pooh and the girls.

Right after Pooh was Eeyore.

Eeyore and the girls, as you can see him and Pooh were right after one another.

Where Gillian was sitting the characters kind of sneaked up behind her.

The girls and Tigger. There was a little boy yanking on his tail when he was posing for us.

Susan and I with Tigger.

After dinner we headed back over to Tomorrowland. We rode Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear again and we saw the Monsters, Inc Comedy Club. Claudia was flashed up on the screen with the caption "Daddy's Little Monster". Despite the weather, it was a great start to our week at Disney.

Breakfast With Mickey

This morning we were up bright and early for a character breakfast with Mickey and Friends. It was at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.

Here is the Chef going over the menu for the girls.

First to the table was Goofy.

Chef Mickey with the girls.

Next up was Donald Duck.

Minnie Mouse with the girls.

Minnie Mouse and me.

A celebration in the restaurant.

Finally we had a chance to meet with Pluto.

Inside the Contemporary Hotel.

Epcot

Tropical Storm Fay has decided to take its time moving through, currently it is sitting southeast of us and dropping loads of rain to those areas. As well it is producing showers throughout the day in Disney World.

Claudia and Angela waiting for the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" show.

The weather didn't seem to scare the crowds away like yesterday. Most rides were busy, Spaceship Earth was about 30 minutes. Soarin was 20 minutes and we Fastpassed Test Track and Mission SPACE.

Here we are, a little wet but in the happiest place on earth.

Inside the Spaceship Earth.

Claudia and I in the future.

The girls trying on some new hats.

The Turtle Talk With Crush was enjoyed by all of us.

Spaceship Mickey in the gift shop at the end of Mission SPACE.

We all went on Mission SPACE, Susan and Gillian went on the Green Team, the milder of the two versions. Angela, Claudia and I went on the Orange Team which is the more intense version.

Claudia falling asleep on the bus on the way back.

Mousekeeping

Today when we came back to our room, the mousekeeper had left the girls a little surprise to keep their stuffed animals company. Here is a penguin to play with Angela's penguin she got at the Georgia Aquarium.

Animal Kingdom Extra Hours

After a rest at the hotel, we headed over to Animal Kingdom to take advantage of the extra park hours for Disney Resort guests. The first stop was Everest Expedition, Angela has been dying to go on this ride since she first saw it. The wait was less than 10 minutes.

We rode it twice, Gillian said she had blisters on her hands from gripping the rail so tight.

Here are the Expedition riders.

The girls in another photo pose.

Not sure what this was, but it was in the Asia section of Animal Kingdom.

You can't really see it but the sun actually came out while we were on Everest the second time.

The Tree of Life in the middle of Discovery Island.

The girls with their glasses waiting for "It's Tough To Be A Bug!".

We headed back to Everest Expedition after dinner and Angela, Claudia and I rode it again, this time in the dark for a third time.

The girls a little wet after their second time on Kali River Rapids.

Animal Kingdom at night.

Disney Hollywood Studios

As Tropical Storm Fay sat stationary over the central Florida coast we made our way to Disney Hollywood Studios on our third day at Disney. It was drizzling when we got to the park in the morning.

Our first stop was Sunset Boulevard and the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. We were able to ride this one twice, although Susan only went once, we still laugh when we remember her picture from the ride that they take inside.

Next up was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This one was cool, taking us up and dropping us down over and over. Susan read the guide book and decided this one wasn't for her. The girls and I rode it twice.

The wait at Toy Story Midway Mania was too long and the Fastpass time was too late for us, so we skipped it and decided to it it the next time. We moved on to the Muppet Vision 3-D.

Waiting inside to see the Muppet Show.

Waldorf and Stadler in their box seats with their 3-D glasses on.

Outside the Muppet store. I bought some Muppet figurines dressed up as the Star Wars characters and Gillian bought a bag with Kermits on it.

We Fastpassed the Star Tours simulator ride. We went through a Star Wars phase recently at home with the movies so this was cool.

The girls posing with Mickey's Hat.

We had a good 30 minute wait for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

Pushing the ball back up the set.

The truck blowing up scene.

We did the Sounds Dangerous - Starring Drew Carey, it is a show mostly in pitch black, you wear headphones and they take you through a television episode with just the sound. When he is getting a haircut all you hear are the barber scissors around your head. As you can see the skies were getting a little darker.

Snow White and four of the dwarves.

Mickey's Socerors hat.

The girls with Prince Caspian from Narnia. Gillian was trying to explain to him that we came to Disney by car, after he asked them if they came by horse.

The giant barrel of monkey guys in Pixar Place.

We did the Studio Backlot Tour ride.

These were the Bone Balls from Pirates of the Carribean.

Angela just before the water came down.

Angela with Darth Vader.

Claudia with a Yoda backpack.

A big TinkerToy from the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure.

Popping out of the big roll of film.

As the rain starts again, we head down the Streets of America and head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Whispering Canyon

Tonights dinner reservation was at the Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge. Here is a photo of the lobby of the hotel.

So far our waits to go in haven't been that long. Our reservations are only for the next available table for our size group after our reservation time.

The lights in the lobby are Teepee's.

The girls hungry but still happy.

It is a pretty neat restaurant, not the place to go if your looking for a quiet dinner. Halfway through they had the kids ride their ponies through the restaurant. Angela telling us parents to shush.

Susan shaking the crumbs off her napkin.

Gillian doing the same with her napkin.

Claudia relaxing after big country style meal. We all had the Skillet meal which had ribs, pulled pork, chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, baked beans and peel and eat shrimp. Delicious!

Disney Hollywood Studios: Part 2

We headed back to Disney Hollywood Studios on Friday morning. Of course it was raining in the morning when we arrived at the park. We got in and had to wait on Hollywood Boulevard until the official opening. It was a little soggy.

We headed down to Toy Story Midway Mania! that we didn't go on yesterday. It was a 25 minute wait by the time we got there. The ride is new for 2008, it is like the Buzz Lightyear ride, but better in most of our opinions. It is 4-D midway style ride.

Mr. Potato Head looks like he is grabbing Gillian's head.

We grabbed Fastpasses for Toy Story for later on, it was for 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm. We did the Voyage of The Little Mermaid musical theatre.

As you can see it is still raining on Mickey Mouse.

We headed over to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster for our third ride. Here are Claudia, Angela and I with our Aerosmith hats.

We headed to the Extreme Stunt Show, passing San Fransisco along the way. Look the rain stopped!!

Here are the girls with Sully and Mike.

Here are all of us with the boys from Monsters Inc.

Unfortunately they ended up cancelling the Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show due to the weather.

The girls singing in the rain. As soon as you step over to the umbrella it starts spraying water.

Walking past the Muppet store again.

the girls with Sweetums.

We had some time so we waited to meet Woody and Buzz Lightyear in Woody's Corral.

Meeting giant Woody and Buzz.

The girls with a giant Barrel of Monkeys.

We did the Magic of Disney Animation attraction.

Afterwards we got to meet Frozone.

And then I got to meet Frozone.

When we came out, the sun was out and it was stinking hot.

It was time for our Fastpass for Toy Story Midway Mania, here are Claudia and Susan ready for action.

It was time to hop over to Epcot for dinner and as we were leaving we got to see the afternoon parade.

The crowd filling in after the parade.

The afternoon sky as we were leaving Hollywood Studios.

Epcot Extra Hours

We went straight from Disney Hollywood Studios to Epcot. We had a dinner reservation at the Coral Reef. Only one of them was actually sleeping on on the bus.

Angela wanted to go on the Spaceship Earth again. Here she is in the future.

The weather still holding but not for long.

The girls posing with the Coral Reef sign.

Inside are four huge windows into an aquarium that is big enough to hold the diameter of the Spaceship Earth (golf) ball. See the giant turtle sitting to the right.

Halway through dinner some divers went swimming by a few times.

The Coral Reef is next to the Seas area.

After dinner we headed over to the World Showcase. We managed to get through Mexico before the rain started again and at times the skies opened up and it poured.

Here they are in Mexico.

We Fastpassed the ride at Norway and we went to visit China.

The girls rubbing Buddas tummy.

We rode the Maelstrom ride in the Norway pavillion. Here are the girls trying out some Viking hats.

Gillian and Angela singing.

Even with the rain showers the firewirks and light show still went ahead. We were near Japan when the show started.

Looking towards the United Kingdom.

We finished the night with another ride on Soarin' and then Susan and Claudia went back to the hotel. Angela and Gillian and I went for another ride on Test Track before heading back. Another full day, wet but fun none the less.

Back to Animal Kingdom

On Day 5 at Disney we finally woke up to bright sunny skies. What a a change from the cloudy overcast and often wet mornings we have had. Although with the overcst skies came with more bearable temperatures. As we rode the bus to the Animal Kingdom different families all had the same stories to tell over the past week.

This time waiting for the official opening of the park in the sun.

Some of the characters giving a show to the waiting crowd. This morning we were headed to DinoLand, USA to finish up the attractions we didn't see the other night.

The wait for Dinosaur was 5 minutes so we were able to ride it twice.

The girls with their dinosaur friend.

Another hat fitting for the girls. Buzz Lightyear sitting on Claudia's shoulders.

Gillian with a dino head.

We ran into Pluto along one of the streets.

The dinosaur of DinoLand. Look at the blue sky.

The girls sitting in the car going to Dino Rama.

Here we are waiting to go on Primeval Whirl. Could not have been that good the girls didn't want to go on it again.

While we were on the Primeval Whirl I spotted Goofy down one of the lanes.

One Goofy family.

Time to lather up with the sunscreen.

Leaving DinoLand and heading to Africa.

We found a misting station along the way.

We Fastpassed Kilimanjaro Safaris and took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

We got to meet Rafiki when we got to the Conservation Station.

I would think Jiminy Cricket should be careful hanging out in an area with a Year of the Frog sign.

The girls petting a goat.

We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride.

We walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.

This was an actual person dressed up as a part of the tree.

We headed over to Everest Expedition to get some Fastpasses for the girls scrapbook.

Susan and Claudia waiting for us.

The thing I didn't know what it was the other day has a monkey today.

All the animals on the tree are carved into the trunk.

See the manatee in the background.

We left the park in the sun and headed back to the hotel for a swim. Again the rain cut our swim short and we had to walk back to our room in the rain, good thing we had our swimwear on. We also had a well deserved nap after being on the go for the last few days. We also missed most of the rain. We were headed to Downtown Disney for some shopping.

Downtown Disney

Saturday night we headed down to Downtown Disney for some shopping.

Angela reading in a corner of the store.

Kermit the Frog for only $150.

Angela and one of the 101 Dalmations.

A shelful of Pooh Bears.

It was a good evening, it threatened to rain but it never did while we were out.

The World of Disney.

The girls and a boney friend.

The girls with Cinderella.

Angela in the Lego Store.

The girls with a Lego girl.

Hanging with Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Potato Head.

Mr. Potato Head parts.

Minnie and Mickey and the girls.

Claudia getting tired after another long day.

Port Orleans Riverside

We have been staying at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort during our week at Disney World. Our room is in the Alligator Bayou section.

Some photos from the resort.

Our room had two double beds and a trundle bed.

We were in building 14, it was a good building, close to the main building and South Depot bus stop.

Blizzard Beach

With the sun out it was time to tackle the water parks, of course being a Sunday and only the second day of sun in over a week, it made for a busy day at Blizzard Beach.

The highlight of the park is the 120 ft Summit Plummet, Angela and I braved the wait and the drop and did it once, reaching speeds of 51 mph.

The girls enjoyed watching these guys (Brown Anole) running around all over the place.

Around Blizzard Beach.

Angela and Gillian on Toboggan Racers.

Claudia and Susan in Melt-Away Bay.

We had to keep an eye on the time as we had to get back to the hotel to change and head off to the Hoop Dee Doo Revue for dinner.

Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue

Our final big dinner was the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue at the Fort Wilderness Campground and Resort. Heading from the Outpost to the Settlement on a Disney bus.

We caught the early show at 5:00pm. The chef came and visited us when we sat down and told us everything on the menu was okay for the girls.

Included in the price were the bandanas.

Our seats were on the first floor and at the back. They were good because the table and chairs were higher then the rest of the tables.

The girls howling over something, it could have been when the waitress brought me half a pitcher of beer and left it on the table for me.

Me and my pitcher of beer.

The Hoop Dee Doo Revue Pioneer Hall Players.

Claudia and the big bucket of chicken.

Gillian and the big bucket of ribs.

Some more of the Hoop Dee Doo Revue.

Flinging our crumbs again.

Can you guess what we had for dessert.

Angela playing the washboard during the finale.

The girls really enjoyed this show and want to see it again next time.

Extra Magic Hours

To end an already busy day we headed off to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks. It was also Extra Magic Hours so the park was open until 1:00 am for Disney resort guests.

As you can see the place was packed for the fireworks.

Claudia and I were waiting while Susan and the girls were looking for a t-shirt.

Now for the fireworks.

After the fireworks we headed to Fantasyland as we didn't get to that area on Day 1. the wait for Peter Pan was only about 15 minutes compared to 60 minutes on the first day.

Angela wearing a crown.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh.

Angela and Claudia on the Mad Tea Party.

It was over to Tomorrowland for our last taste of the Magic Kingdom. We almost finished with Space Mountain, the first ride we did when we arrived.

Our last ride was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. By then it was 12:30 am. We even Fastpassed it before we rode Space Mountain.

Typhoon Lagoon

Our final day at Disney World had us at Typhoon Lagoon water park. Today wouldn't be as busy as yesterday but there were still alot of people there.

The girls with Lilo, she was there when we entered the park and suprisingly nobody in line to see her.

The Crush 'n' Gusher, this one was a 'water'coaster.

 Here are the girls having a break from the sun.

It was back to Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool with its 6 ft waves.

Here it comes, Angela and Gillian waiting in the lower centre of the photo.

And there it goes, Angela and Gillian left centre of the photo.

Susan and Claudia in the break zone.

Claudia was having a blast in the wave pool.

Relaxing before the wave comes.

And after the wave comes.

The girls took a short ride on Castaway Creek before we left.

Coming out on the other side of the bridge.

We all quite enjoyed Typhoon Lagoon, even though some of us got a little too much sun, but after the start we had to our week at Walt Disney World, we were trying to soak up as much as we could.

It Was An Excellent Week

Despite being in Florida during Tropical Storm Fay and her record four landfalls in Florida, it didn't slow us down unlike the storm itself which brought record rainfalls and flooding due to its slow movement. Here is the projected path on Sunday August 17, 2008 while we were still in Georgia. Thinking okay by Wednesday night it will have cleared out and we should be good.

Here is the path the storm actually took.

We still had a great time this week, our motto became "just keep swimming, just keep swimming", like in Finding Nemo, we just kept going, the Tropical Storm wasn't going to slow us down. It was actually the guy in Space Mountain on the first day who said it as we were trying to navigate the queue. Everything from the parks, rides, food, resort and animals made out of towels were excellent.

A Holiday Within A Holiday

We figured we would need a little holiday after our week at Disney World, so we headed off to Cocoa Beach for a few days of sun and sand.

We are staying at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, it was hit hard by Tropical Storm Fay last week as the storm centre was about 20 miles southeast when it stalled. The first floor of the hotel had a lot of water damage.

In the main lobby.

But we weren't there to sit in the hotel we came for the beach!

Angela getting caught in a wave.

The waves were pretty good, good thing they got some practice in at Typhoon Lagoon.

Our hotel and the crowds of people around us.

This guy was fishing from the beach and kept catching fish, not sure what they were, it didn't take long for him to hook one.

A sand crab caught out of his hole.

Walking back along the beach after lunch.

The evening sky. The girls were back in the ocean after we had a swim in the pool.

It was a great day chillaxing on the beach.

Sunrise

I was up for the sunrise this morning, it wasn't that bad it was only at 7:59 am.

It wasn't a great one because of some clouds, but still a sunrise.

A sand crab watching the sunrise with me.

I have finally caught up with the blog updates. This post is actually being posted in real time. Hope you have been enjoying the blog.

Surf's Up

This morning we went to Ron Jon Surf Shop. The place is huge and open 24 hours.

The store front along North Atlantic Drive.

It was back to the beach for some more rest and relaxing.

We enjoyed watching the sand crab excavate his hole.

Watching the clouds go by, what do you see in this cloud?

After some waves it was over to the hotel pool.

A nice picture Susan took.

The girls and I headed back down to the beach because it looked like a storm was heading towards us. The waves were a lot bigger and seemed to come one after the other. Yesterday it was a High Hazard, today was a Medium Hazard.

We went to get a Domino's Pizza to take back to the room for dinner. The Domino's was near the city limits. Gillian got across the street before the rest of us did.

Here are the girls posing by the Tiki Man.

While we waited for our pizza there was a cigar stor in the same plaza.

We are headed for home tomorrow so after dinner the girls went for one last swim in the ocean.

It look a storm was coming from the south.

Our family on the beach.

Heading Home!

We started for home today. We figure we'll be about two days. Here are the girls in the hotel lobby with an astronaut.

A fire truck outside the hotel, not sure why it was there.

A palm tree in the middle of the parking lot.

We stopped at the Cocoa Beach pier but only made it half way, i.e. we didn't pay to go to the end.

The next state on our journey was Georgia again.

Lunch break at the Georgia Welcome Centre.

Another break at the South Carolina Welcome Centre.

We lost a little time just outside of Columbia, South Carolina on the I-77. There was a truck that took a corner to fast and combine that with the first game of the USC Gamecocks football season against the NC State Wolfpack. At the start of the 4th quarter the Gamecocks were leading.

Some of the fans on their way to the game.

Finally our last state of the day was North Carolina. We pulled into another Drury Inn in Charlotte, we missed the free beverages due to the traffic jam, but we still enjoyed the free sodas and popcorn.

Our drive today from Cocoa Beach, FL to Charlotte, NC.

We're Back!

It was a long day of driving, we left Charlotte at 8:00 am on Friday morning and headed for home. Our first stop was the Virginia Welcome Centre.

The girls with Thomas Jefferson, born in Virginia in 1743.

After a short drive through Virginia, we crossed into West Virginia.

Some of the West Virginia countryside.

Dad had lent us their GPS, we used it off and on, it was good for finding hotels.

The first time we had to pull out the laptop for movies was our last day of travel. Here are the girls looking pretty happy.

Our second last state, Pennsylvania. Only a couple of hours from the outlet mall.

We stopped in Grove City to visit the Prime Outlets mall. One last shopping binge.

We crossed over into New York state, but there was no Welcome Centre on the I-90, not that we would have stopped at that point, it was more like "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" until we got home. We crossed the border at Fort Erie with no trouble. Five questions, How many of you? What is everyone's citizenship? Where were you? how long have you been gone? Are you all one family? and that was it, have a good night. There was no wait and we crossed over at 10:52 pm. We pulled into our driveway at 12:16 am, tired, but happy to be home. We started and ended with a picture of the girls in the van, so I have put both here, see if you can guess which is which.

Hope you enjoyed our adventure to Walt Disney World. I'll post our trip summary and some words from the girls soon.

Trip Summary

Number of days on the road: 15

Number of digital photos taken: 1,355

Number of kilometres driven: 4720.3

Most kilometres driven in one day: 1,199

Number of speeding tickets: 0

Number of states visited: 12

Number of Tropical Storms: 1

Number of relatives visited: 0

Price of most expensive gas (in USA): $3.799/gallon USD ($1.08/litre CAD) near Jasper, Florida

Price of cheapest gas: $3.519/gallon USD ($1.00/litre CAD) in St. George, South Carolina

Price of gasoline for trip: $386.91 USD

Taking the girls to Walt Disney World and surviving Tropical Storm Fay: Priceless

The Girls Favourite Things

The girls have written what their favourite thing was on our trip to Walt Disney World.

Claudia

"My favourite part was the Tower of Terror. I like the Tower of Terror because it takes you and down and you get to see weird things. Me, Angela, Gillian and Daddy went on it. It was very tall."

Angela

"My favourite part of the trip was Walt Disney World. I liked Walt Disney World because in Animal Kingdom there was a ride called Expedition Everest. I loved it because of the big drop and the part where you go backwards."

Gillian

My favourite part of our trip was at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The rides there were amazing!! There was one called The Tower of Terror, this one lifts you up and then drops you 13 stories down. When your going to drop the doors on the top open up and you can see out to the Hollywood Studios. The whole time we were on that ride I was gripping my dad.

Another really fun ride was the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. You sit in these cars and go really fast through a series of loops, drops, and turns. Me and my Mom sat together and half the time we were gripping each others hands. On some rides they take pictures; Mom's picture on the Aerosmith ride was funny. Her hair was blown back and her cheek was presses against the seat, as if she were in a jet.

Another really fun thing was the Toy Story Midway Mania. In this ride you sit in cars and ride through a series of games. In the games you shoot different objects at different targets. Dad always got the highest score. That was the funnest part.