Switching Blog Address
15 years ago
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Vacation
We are back from Disney. We had a great time and are so appreciative of the generosity of Shannon's parents.
We left very early on Wed. Feb 18. Of course it snowed when we left and the roads were very icy all the way until Black River Falls. After that it was much better. We drove to Nashville, TN. The HOJO was very scary and it was not a good night sleep for me. After putting chairs in front of the door, and hanging out with Abbey who puked because she was coughing so bad from her cold, I finally fell asleep. We headed out to downtown Nashville in the morning and had a great time seeing the sights. We also took in a wax museum and stopped at "Cooter's" and saw a bunch of memorabilia from "The Dukes of Hazzard."
We left Nashville and drove to Pigeon Forge, TN. We spent the night in Pigeon Forge and then the next morning got up and checked out the town. If you don't know, it is the home of DollyWood (Dolly Parton) and it reminded us all of Wisconsin Dells. We all said that we would like to come back and have a vacation there. We then drove through the Smokey Mountains and it was so beautiful.
We spent the night in GA and headed towards Savannah. We stopped and took pictures at Paula Deen's place and walked around and looked at the beautiful buildings. We also saw where the Girl Scouts started.
From there we headed to Florida. We arrived in town and found our house we were staying at (finally-the roads in Florida are not marked well at all).
I have to admit as we approached Disney, I cried. I was overwhelmed with joy at bringing my girls to Disney for the first time. The four of us had breakfast at Cinderella's Castle. The girls were so excited and they met a ton of the princesses. We spent the day at Disney. Then On Monday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. Tuesday we went to Cocoa Beach. The ocean was very cold and it was windy that day but we all had a lot of fun. On Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom and that was where the girls got to meet a lot of the other character's from Disney. On Thursday, Shannon and I took the girls back to the Magic Kingdom. We spent the whole day there and caught all of the parades and the fireworks. The girls were able to ride in the front cab of the monorail and got a special license and card from the driver. Abbey was also selected to write her wished in the "Blue Fairy" book-and of course they let Ashley do it as well. It was very cute. We were able to do most of the stuff we had missed on the first day. The next day we headed to Epcot. Abbey was so excited to go to Epcot. I was impressed that the girls went on Fast Track. They both loved it. They were scared on the Stitch ride and so then we had to buffer all rides after that throughout the week.
We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool at night and the girls did a great job swimming. They had gained a lot of confidence in the pool. Ashley actually put her whole face in the water.
We did have one bad night with Ashley being sick while we were at the house. The day we went to the ocean, she coughed the entire way back home and we kept thinking she was going to puke. She kept crying and asking to see the doctor and for medicine...it broke my heart that she was in that much pain. Yes we had given her medicine but nothing was helping her. We even took a shower when we got home, which relieved some of the coughing for a little bit, but then she was back to her coughing spell. Now we realize she was coughing it all out as she was better the next day and continued to get better.
We left Orlando and drove to Tallahasse. We spent the night there and then drove to New Orleans. We missed Mardi Gras by one week. We spent 2 nights in New Orleans. The first night we were so lost. We had gone to our hotel and then went to eat and that is where we got lost. We ended up finding a nice police officer who helped to get us back where we needed to go. We were staying in East New Orleans and ended up in South New Orleans. He was a funny guy and got us back. The next day we headed to the French Quarters.
The French Quarters is beautiful. The buildings and the history were amazing. We took the girls on a horse and carriage ride. We even saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house. We also met cousin's of Shannon: Bob and Rhonda.
My cousin owns his own restaurant, Iris, in the French Quarters. He wasn't in town while we were there but I did take pictures of the restaurant from the outside. He was voted one of the top 10 chefs from "Food and Wine" magazine in 2007.
The devastation of New Orleans from Katrina is still very evident. It broke our hearts to see the homes that are still destroyed because of the hurricane. You would be driving and that is all you would see are blocks of destroyed homes. Our you see a block that has been rebuilt and then there is one house that they haven't been able to do anything to. I can't believe that they have not received more assistance in cleaning it up.
Basically after we left New Orleans we drove home. We only stopped to eat, sleep and use the bathroom. We got home on Thursday, March 5 around 2:00. It is definitely good to be home.
We left very early on Wed. Feb 18. Of course it snowed when we left and the roads were very icy all the way until Black River Falls. After that it was much better. We drove to Nashville, TN. The HOJO was very scary and it was not a good night sleep for me. After putting chairs in front of the door, and hanging out with Abbey who puked because she was coughing so bad from her cold, I finally fell asleep. We headed out to downtown Nashville in the morning and had a great time seeing the sights. We also took in a wax museum and stopped at "Cooter's" and saw a bunch of memorabilia from "The Dukes of Hazzard."
We left Nashville and drove to Pigeon Forge, TN. We spent the night in Pigeon Forge and then the next morning got up and checked out the town. If you don't know, it is the home of DollyWood (Dolly Parton) and it reminded us all of Wisconsin Dells. We all said that we would like to come back and have a vacation there. We then drove through the Smokey Mountains and it was so beautiful.
We spent the night in GA and headed towards Savannah. We stopped and took pictures at Paula Deen's place and walked around and looked at the beautiful buildings. We also saw where the Girl Scouts started.
From there we headed to Florida. We arrived in town and found our house we were staying at (finally-the roads in Florida are not marked well at all).
I have to admit as we approached Disney, I cried. I was overwhelmed with joy at bringing my girls to Disney for the first time. The four of us had breakfast at Cinderella's Castle. The girls were so excited and they met a ton of the princesses. We spent the day at Disney. Then On Monday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. Tuesday we went to Cocoa Beach. The ocean was very cold and it was windy that day but we all had a lot of fun. On Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom and that was where the girls got to meet a lot of the other character's from Disney. On Thursday, Shannon and I took the girls back to the Magic Kingdom. We spent the whole day there and caught all of the parades and the fireworks. The girls were able to ride in the front cab of the monorail and got a special license and card from the driver. Abbey was also selected to write her wished in the "Blue Fairy" book-and of course they let Ashley do it as well. It was very cute. We were able to do most of the stuff we had missed on the first day. The next day we headed to Epcot. Abbey was so excited to go to Epcot. I was impressed that the girls went on Fast Track. They both loved it. They were scared on the Stitch ride and so then we had to buffer all rides after that throughout the week.
We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool at night and the girls did a great job swimming. They had gained a lot of confidence in the pool. Ashley actually put her whole face in the water.
We did have one bad night with Ashley being sick while we were at the house. The day we went to the ocean, she coughed the entire way back home and we kept thinking she was going to puke. She kept crying and asking to see the doctor and for medicine...it broke my heart that she was in that much pain. Yes we had given her medicine but nothing was helping her. We even took a shower when we got home, which relieved some of the coughing for a little bit, but then she was back to her coughing spell. Now we realize she was coughing it all out as she was better the next day and continued to get better.
We left Orlando and drove to Tallahasse. We spent the night there and then drove to New Orleans. We missed Mardi Gras by one week. We spent 2 nights in New Orleans. The first night we were so lost. We had gone to our hotel and then went to eat and that is where we got lost. We ended up finding a nice police officer who helped to get us back where we needed to go. We were staying in East New Orleans and ended up in South New Orleans. He was a funny guy and got us back. The next day we headed to the French Quarters.
The French Quarters is beautiful. The buildings and the history were amazing. We took the girls on a horse and carriage ride. We even saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house. We also met cousin's of Shannon: Bob and Rhonda.
My cousin owns his own restaurant, Iris, in the French Quarters. He wasn't in town while we were there but I did take pictures of the restaurant from the outside. He was voted one of the top 10 chefs from "Food and Wine" magazine in 2007.
The devastation of New Orleans from Katrina is still very evident. It broke our hearts to see the homes that are still destroyed because of the hurricane. You would be driving and that is all you would see are blocks of destroyed homes. Our you see a block that has been rebuilt and then there is one house that they haven't been able to do anything to. I can't believe that they have not received more assistance in cleaning it up.
Basically after we left New Orleans we drove home. We only stopped to eat, sleep and use the bathroom. We got home on Thursday, March 5 around 2:00. It is definitely good to be home.
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