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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
