Florida Road Trip 2010.....And other stuff
Take a look at the calendar. Can you believe that it's almost August? Do you know what that means? School starts on August 13th for both girls. I just don't know where the time went. Here's a recap of what happened over the past 30 days:
At the end of last month, Alyssa went to Girl Scout camp at Camp Agnes Arnold while Jessica spent a few days at the Snapshots daycamp at the Cypress Academy. After that, we spent the July 4th weekend celebrating Glenn and his dad's birthdays out at Little House and then we went to the Sam Houston Race park to watch the horses race and to see their Fireworks Show. My Uncle Vic passed away in his sleep (He will be deeply missed). I found out some very disturbing news concerning a close friend and I am still trying to come to grips with it (and so far NOT succeeding very well). We are constantly praying for Sr. Lucy, a close family friend, who was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancers. On the 17th of July, we were back at Little House to celebrate Uncle Paul's 75th birthday. The following day we headed out on our week long Road Trip to Florida. We drove non-stop from Orlando, back to Houston on July 24th. And last but not least, I spent today at MD Anderson for a bone marrow aspiration. A very jam packed month to be sure!
Happy 75th Birthday Uncle Paul!
Our Florida Road Trip 2010 was such a blast. We weren't sure how we would do cooped up in a car for that period of time, but it turned out better than I expected. For future reference, we must remember not to let Alyssa or Glenn have any beans before an extended trip in the car. Remember, the day before, we celebrated Uncle Paul's 75 birthday?? Well, we had Hickory Hollow BBQ for dinner, with - you guessed it.......baked beans! The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful.......we drove for around 9 hours on Sunday and stopped off in Pensacola Beach for a couple of days to take in the beautiful emerald green waters and sugar white beaches. I had never been to a Florida beach on the Gulf of Mexico side and was pleasantly surprised! What amazed me the most was that whole shells would wash up onto the shore.......I don't ever remember seeing the kinds of sea shells on Galveston beach as I did in Florida. What also amazed me was that the beaches as well as our hotel were virtually empty. I guess the news media made an impression on everyone and they stayed at home. I keep thinking that if I had listened to their stories, I would have missed out on a wonderful time at the beach!
The Florida State Line
First stop for Gasoline in Louisiana
Poolside at the Springhill Suites by Marriott
Beachside on Pensacola Beach
Poolside at the Floridays Resort in Orlando
Universal Islands of Adventure - Superhero Parade
Thing 1 and Thing 2 @ The Downtown Disney shops
Blending in with the Lego Family
Captain Jack!
Inside the Ice Cave at the T-Rex Cafe
On Tuesday, we got back into the car and drove another 7 hours to Orlando. We decided against going to Disney this time and did only the Universal Studios theme parks. We went to the Universal Islands of Adventure and the Universal Studios Florida. We opted to stay at the Floridays Resort again this time around. On International Drive, right down the street from Universal Studios. Universal Studios Florida had a lot of movie-based rides and Islands of Adventure had more of the Super Hero based rides. Islands of Adventure also had the brand new Harry Potter area which was very crowded but we did manage to ride a couple of things in that area. I rode the Chinese Fireball (a roller coaster that made me slightly queasy) with Jessica and as a family we rode the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. Let me tell you this......this ride used state of the art technology and cinematography to make you feel like you were riding along with Harry Potter through the mountains. The only problem is that I think they used too much because the WHOLE family was green by the time we got off of that ride. If anything could be called a true "Barf" ride, this would be it. Luckily, we rode this toward the end of the day, because we all had to leave the park.....even Glenn! And he's the roller coaster freak in our family! On Friday, we took time off from the parks and went to Downtown Disney to have lunch. We ate at the T-Rex cafe which is similar to the Rainforest Cafe but with a dinosaur theme. I thought the food was much better at the T-Rex and we ate in the ice cave which changed colors after a meteor shower every ten minutes. Really unique!
I think that the next time we go to Orlando, we'll skip the Universal theme parks and go back to Disney. Universal was fun, but I think that Disney is more on our level which amounts to being less "barfy", I guess:)
On Saturday, the 24th, we headed back home. We left the hotel at 6:30 am and arrived back in Houston around 9:30 pm. It was a long day, but well worth the trip just to sleep in my own bed that night.
Home Sweet Home
At the end of last month, Alyssa went to Girl Scout camp at Camp Agnes Arnold while Jessica spent a few days at the Snapshots daycamp at the Cypress Academy. After that, we spent the July 4th weekend celebrating Glenn and his dad's birthdays out at Little House and then we went to the Sam Houston Race park to watch the horses race and to see their Fireworks Show. My Uncle Vic passed away in his sleep (He will be deeply missed). I found out some very disturbing news concerning a close friend and I am still trying to come to grips with it (and so far NOT succeeding very well). We are constantly praying for Sr. Lucy, a close family friend, who was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancers. On the 17th of July, we were back at Little House to celebrate Uncle Paul's 75th birthday. The following day we headed out on our week long Road Trip to Florida. We drove non-stop from Orlando, back to Houston on July 24th. And last but not least, I spent today at MD Anderson for a bone marrow aspiration. A very jam packed month to be sure!
Happy 75th Birthday Uncle Paul!
Our Florida Road Trip 2010 was such a blast. We weren't sure how we would do cooped up in a car for that period of time, but it turned out better than I expected. For future reference, we must remember not to let Alyssa or Glenn have any beans before an extended trip in the car. Remember, the day before, we celebrated Uncle Paul's 75 birthday?? Well, we had Hickory Hollow BBQ for dinner, with - you guessed it.......baked beans! The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful.......we drove for around 9 hours on Sunday and stopped off in Pensacola Beach for a couple of days to take in the beautiful emerald green waters and sugar white beaches. I had never been to a Florida beach on the Gulf of Mexico side and was pleasantly surprised! What amazed me the most was that whole shells would wash up onto the shore.......I don't ever remember seeing the kinds of sea shells on Galveston beach as I did in Florida. What also amazed me was that the beaches as well as our hotel were virtually empty. I guess the news media made an impression on everyone and they stayed at home. I keep thinking that if I had listened to their stories, I would have missed out on a wonderful time at the beach!
The Florida State Line
First stop for Gasoline in Louisiana
Poolside at the Springhill Suites by Marriott
Beachside on Pensacola Beach
Poolside at the Floridays Resort in Orlando
Universal Islands of Adventure - Superhero Parade
Thing 1 and Thing 2 @ The Downtown Disney shops
Blending in with the Lego Family
Captain Jack!
Inside the Ice Cave at the T-Rex Cafe
On Tuesday, we got back into the car and drove another 7 hours to Orlando. We decided against going to Disney this time and did only the Universal Studios theme parks. We went to the Universal Islands of Adventure and the Universal Studios Florida. We opted to stay at the Floridays Resort again this time around. On International Drive, right down the street from Universal Studios. Universal Studios Florida had a lot of movie-based rides and Islands of Adventure had more of the Super Hero based rides. Islands of Adventure also had the brand new Harry Potter area which was very crowded but we did manage to ride a couple of things in that area. I rode the Chinese Fireball (a roller coaster that made me slightly queasy) with Jessica and as a family we rode the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. Let me tell you this......this ride used state of the art technology and cinematography to make you feel like you were riding along with Harry Potter through the mountains. The only problem is that I think they used too much because the WHOLE family was green by the time we got off of that ride. If anything could be called a true "Barf" ride, this would be it. Luckily, we rode this toward the end of the day, because we all had to leave the park.....even Glenn! And he's the roller coaster freak in our family! On Friday, we took time off from the parks and went to Downtown Disney to have lunch. We ate at the T-Rex cafe which is similar to the Rainforest Cafe but with a dinosaur theme. I thought the food was much better at the T-Rex and we ate in the ice cave which changed colors after a meteor shower every ten minutes. Really unique!
I think that the next time we go to Orlando, we'll skip the Universal theme parks and go back to Disney. Universal was fun, but I think that Disney is more on our level which amounts to being less "barfy", I guess:)
On Saturday, the 24th, we headed back home. We left the hotel at 6:30 am and arrived back in Houston around 9:30 pm. It was a long day, but well worth the trip just to sleep in my own bed that night.
Home Sweet Home
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