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Family Disney Trip from Saturday Jan 12 2013 - Sat Jan 19 2013

Zoe couldn't stop talking about the trip leading up to the big week. For Adrianne it was a challenge in making sure her grades were good enough to skip the week of finals. She was able to take her Anatomy test early for her finals and still pass. We got up early Saturday, filled up the tank of the van at the local walmart and used the walmart card for as much as we could during the trip. Savings paid off.
We stopped for breakfast next door at Sonics. Everyone had their favorite. Headed out with little traffic. We did see a wreck on a bridge on I20 where the car shot off the bridge and landed under it in a dry ravine.

With the van, we were able to make it out of TX through I20 and stopped at the walmart for more gas inside Louisiana. I pumped gas while the girl got some soda and snacks. Next stop was in Vicksburg at the welcoming center. Everyone took pics of the center, the Mississippi river and a cannon at the top of a hill overlooking a cool riverboat. We caught 49 and headed south outside of Jackson. There was a cool shop called "Donna's #6 produce" where I picked up boiled peanuts and mom got a sugar free snack and Adrianne got a shirt. I think Zoe got an ice cream but not sure. After that rest stop we drove till we hit hattiesburg and had dinner at a Shoneys for a buffet. At night we drove hwy 89 through till just shy of Mobile Alabama. Saved a lot of time and stopped at another Walmart for Gas, soda and a bathroom break. From there it was a hop over to I10 and a late night drive through Pensacola where we stopped just an hour afterwords at a Days Inn (Chipley). In the morning we filled up, grabbed some mcdonalds and headed for St Augustine.

When we arrived at St Augustine we visited the famous fort in town. The girls were excited. Adrianne, being 16, made sure she took a lot of 'self' pics. It was all we could do to keep her from taking off by herself. I got it though. When I was 16, I wanted to pretend I was doing my own thing and explore too. Part of breaking free and it's important. It was fun for them in trying to figure out already where the ocean was. Not quite there yet till we visit the for first. Picked up tickets and headed inside. We were greeted by the conquistadors at the fort who gave zoe a pack so she could get her pin and badge for figuring out some of the questions. They also had to write a few lines in an essay. Zoe and A both got into the part. We toured the various rooms in the fort and watched them launch the cannon. Found one of the guys there who signed both of their sheets turned out to be a geek. He and I launched into a lengthy discussion about computers, Dr. Who, Galactica and conventions. I got his card so we could talk more later. Cool guy. Lisa got pictures. At the gift shop, I was able to get a decent walking stick because I left mine at home. Also picked up a pin. Again good times.

From there we headed out to the visitors center off the side of the beach. It had a great pier and Zoe and Adrianne headed out to the ocean. It really seemed surreal at this point. It was funny that they wanted to play in the sand more then hit the water right away. It's like they were a little skeptical on what to do at an ocean so big. Eventually after signing their names in the sand they stepped into the cold water. Zoe wasnt sure about getting her clothes wet since she had jeans on but we were ok with it. Go have fun. Adrianne I think wanted to walk the beach by herself forever and that was ok too. Hard to imagine something so big and vast. The sunset was beautiful and we all made sure we took home some sand in the van as well as collect a bunch of shells. Adrianne discovered some cool silver dollar shells and I picked up some bits of coral reef that washed onto the beach. We rinsed off what we could, zoe put on some pj's and we headed out for dinner. We ate at a really nice place called Sunset Grille. Zoe got a good Pizza, Adrianne got a chicken parm with some nice ravioli. From that point it was a nice drive to head out to Orlando to get our hotel. One thing I did notice is it must have been bike week for the amount of motorcycles we saw. Arrived at the hotel in Orlando, Econolodge Maingate Central. Crashed for some early wakeup.

Monday we woke up and headed out hitting a burger king for breakfast. Everyone loaded up for some energy. We were all pretty excited to get into the magic kingdom when they opened. Drove on in and scammed up free parking since we told the woman at the parking purchase that we already had a hotel room and needed to checkin but missed the turnoff. From Hades Parking 108 we picked up our tram and I checked in to will call to get our tickets. Everyone was excited. From their we road the monorail on in. We hit a shop before going in, zoe got hear sparkly ears and then had our bags checked in fingers scanned (Odd as that was) and headed in. The main entrance had lots of shops that we peaked inside but really decided to get those goodies on the way out. Zoe did get her character signing book. At this point we ventured towards the castle that had its front entry blocked for the opening show. We headed to adventureland after a few castle picks.

In adventureland we hit the Swiss Family treehouse which was fun. Not much to do but observe. Adrianne took some pics. After this they road the Aladin carpet ride. Then we road the Pirates of the carabean ride. It was fun seeing the girls weren't quite sure what to expect but they had fun. The rollercoaster for thundermountain was closed to tech difficulties. (we joked about what it could have been). Tom Sawyers island with the raft ride was next. We all explored the caves and the girls out the fort. Apparently there was a secret cave that took you around and out too. After they hit another cave we headed on the raft back out. The haunted house was next. The line wasnt that long and we all had our jokes about the sounds a the grave sites. Zoe rode with me and loved the way they did some of the ghosts. Lots of laughing and fun!

At this point we were all pretty hungry and we hit the "Harbor House" for fish n chips. The fries on my meal were really good and the meal value was worth it and in budget. We sat upstairs and ate. After that I took a pic of adrianne with one of the girls ringing the bell outside. Then it was off to the "Its a small world ride". The girls thought it was cute. I'd seen it enough times so I just watched them enjoy it. From here we went to the carasel where mom and I rode in one of the bench seats while the girls got horses. We checked out the back side of the main castle. I took pictures while zoe admired the mosaic with me about the Cinderella story. The resturaunt in the castle looked nice but zoe and I both noticed it was about $66.00 per person (WOW!). From here we hoped on over to look at the fantasy land castle. We noticed at this point the lines were long for just about everything. I think there was some disappointment in zoe about exactly what this was about. Heading into meet and greet each princess or eat dinner someplace inside. Looked like it was a total bust and skip and Zoe seemed to agree. I could have waited inline as they were always shorter then what they said. Maybe next time. We picked up a line for the pooh ride. This used to be the old Mr Toads Wild ride. Adrianne seemed to think it was cute. Line was one of the longer ones but not that bad. After this it was over to the teacup ride. Adrianne and Zoe love this ride and it was a must. They got a kick out of it.

After this it was over to the racetrack. Again the line was short. Zoe and I got one car, zoe drove. Mom and Adrianne got the other one. Zoe found it interesting trying to steer and let me try. It was pretty erratic on the controls. Not what either of us expected but fun anyways. Next stop was a snack and drinks for a quick cooldown. We picked up the people mover of tomorrow. No waiting again was nice. just hopped on. Then we headed over to rotating theater for the tomorrow show. Adrianne thought it was neat how the seats moved but the theater stayed still. The show seriously needs an update. I dont think there were 10 people in the whole ride. Funny how things change. When I was a kid there was a huge line to this. When we got out there was a character show. I got a few pics of Zoe hugging chip. "No signing please!" Awe. Thats ok Zoe got them to sign later into her book.

At this point it was time for Space Mountain. Zoe and I braved a decent sized line and laughed while we played some of the video games inside during the line. Space shooters and collecting games. Wasnt long before getting on and boy did this ride shake me up. Zoe had an absolute blast. Kept remarking how it was better if I just opened my eyes. That is one brave girl. When we got out, we started our pin collection with a matching space mountain pin and i bought digital copies of our ride together. After this we caught the Stich space ride which was funny, scarey and wet. Yuck, space flem! Time for some food over at Cosmic Rays! Zoe finally got her hotdog, adrianne and mom got their usual and I got a chilidog. Yum! After this it was getting dark.

We started heading towards mainstreet and it looked like the parade had started. I panicked and really wanted to the girls to get a good spot. I got zoe up on a poll with adrianne and all was good. After the end of the parade we made our way to the front of the castle for the castle light show. Wow was this amazing. We really couldnt believe how they did this show the on the castle. Great viewing spot for us right up in front. I couldnt have asked for better. Watching a real live tinkerbell shoot down the from the castle was AMAZING! I was the girls got an awesome experience! The fireworks show was again spetacular! After the show we headed back down to the shops. Looked around and noticed the parade was starting. This time we had great seats right on the brick in front of the shops. The girls got a view of the full show. After the show we got a little more shopping and saw some great things in the stores. We each picked up a souvenier and I got me a mickey wizard hat! We caught the bakery just in time as they were giving away really big samples of the Mickey rice crispy treats. By this time we headed on out on the monorail to head back to our car and hotel. I was disappointed as they told us they didnt allow anyone to sit up with the driver anymore. Not sure if she just was telling us some story but I thought it was sad. Have to look into this next time with the girls. Maybe if things were slower and it was towards the end of the night at a later time to closing it might have been ok but right then they were ushering a lot of people out of the park. Hopped into our van, checked into the hotel and crashed for the night for an early start and Epcot.

With everyone being so tired, Zoe and I ventured to epcot early. We hit breakfast at the hotel but we both agreed it was pretty bleah and not very appetizing. Zoe's waffle ears were hard so that was a disappointment. Her and I headed to the bus and over to Epcot where we got our picture together in front of epcot. We found out with our hotel key that we could get in early and we DID! WOOHOO! I had heard from friends about the "sourin" ride and we jumped right on it. It was by far the best ride in the park. We road it right away and LOVED IT! We both loved he way it lifted us up and we just kept laughing and laughing. We picked up a speed pass for each of us cause we knew we'd be back. On the way out we also got our matching pins! From here we hoppend on the land ride and took a tour of the cool labs. Everything was pretty awesome on the science side for Zoe. She couldnt believe how they just could grow everything so perfectly and using sandy ground too. I liked it as well. On the way out we waited a few minutes and then caught the Soarin ride again. This time we got row 1 and it really was the best seat. Gave us more time to see things too. I thought it was funny that you could see rock climbers on the rocks.
Since we ran to Sourin we headed back to start over at the front of Epcot. From here again we caught a very short line to mission earth to go up into the Epcot ball. After Mission Earth we hopped onto the Ratheon roller coast simulator. Zoe build our roller coaster and she thought that was really cool that we got to ride it together. No going backwards and I was cool with that. We loved it. Then it was over to the shop to meet mom and Adrianne. We bought our lanyards and our pins to get our pintrading going. Boy did we get pins!! We already had a couple to put on from some of the rides already. She really wanted to do this so we did. Very cool! Mom and Adrianne met up with us and from here we ventured out into the countries.

Mexico was first and we checked out the food stop right by the water. Me pesonally I thought this was a bust. The food wasnt that great. I even got a kids meal to split with zoe and it wasnt the great to remember. Mom and Adrianne got some food too but it was seriously lacking. We headed over to the pyramid for the shops and boat ride. I noticed some kids playing some phone game with Phineous and Ferb (pardon the spelling). After the boat ride I had to make sure zoe got a chance to do this game. So I ran back to the bridge outside and picked her up one. oddly enough Adrianne got into it too since she knew the cartoon. This took about a 1/2 an hour to complete but we managed to go through it. I thought the ending we got at the volcano was hilarious! Since mom and Adrianne had not ridden Soarin yet, we headed back where Adrianne, Mom and Zoe road it together. I waited out back. They came back pretty happy about the ride. From here it was a hop to catch the Turtle show which Zoe wanted to do and she did indeed get a chance to ask the turtle a question. Mom thought it was pretty neat. Then we road the mermaid ride. Oddly enough I can't remember much about that ride as there was no line but the walk into the ride itself with no line still was longer then the ride itself.

It was getting pretty dark so we caught the crowd getting ready for the fireworks show. There was a giant iron ball in the middle of the water they did the laser and lights show on as they cycled lights around the park. Pretty cool show. I didnt want the girls to miss the countries so we decided to speed walk it before it closed. We got lots of pictures while mom waited. Each country we tried to get a pic and adrianne wanted to see Paris. It took a little effort but we made it. One thing that was cool is we got to catch the ball coming back through the bridge close up. The guy managing the move gave us a rundown about the ball and we all got a close look. It's neat the lil things you catch when people are rushing out of the park. Took more pics. After that we caught up with mom and headed back out on the bus back to the hotel.

The next day we let mom sleep in and I got the girls and we headed to Hollywood studios. Again another early entry into the park because we stayed in the hotel. Very cool. We picked up the Star Wars ride first since it was one of the popular ones and no lines again! WIN! We road the 3d ride and we all loved it! It was amazing how they make you feel through the ride. After this we caught the muppets adventure in 3d. I could tell Adrianne loved this one. Very funny! From here we slowed down to get breakfast at a bakery. Zoe got this chocolate chip muffin, Adrianne got a cream cheese pastry and I got a chocolate pastry. All of which were HUGE! Couldnt finish it all, zoe tried. After this we hopped onto the backstage tour. The little adventure with the crashing water tank was fun. Just watching the girls was funny since I already knew what to expect. Adrianne lit up when the water started coming at the tram. What fun! Caught up with a few characters. Phineas and Ferb as well as the Monsters from Monsters Inc! More fun! Zoe got her books signed too! We met up with mom at around 11:00 and got lunch around noon on the strip. We caught lunch on the sunset blvd where I got a turkey leg and zoe got her hotdog. Mom got some bbq and adrianne got chicken! This was pretty good food at this point. Then we headed down to get the star wars ride again as well as the Muppets. Amazing again with the weather and no lines. WOW! Afterwords Zoe and I agreed to do the TOWER OF TERROR! Omg did this thing scare me. Before and during and still after. I grabbed for all I could as this thing threw us up and down. I never opened my eyes and screamed till I lost my voice. My voice at this point was pretty shot. I walked out shaking. We hooked up with mom and then Zoe and I got out pins while they had a chuckle about our photo on the ride. We talked about having pretty much done all of MGM and it was still early, we could go back to the hotel for a break and then we could hit the Downtown Disney for the night.

We crashed in our room for about an hr. Zoe passed out and I think I did too for about 10 minutes or so. We caught the bus for Downtown Disney. Out of all the places this was one of the funnest. Lisa exchanged her gift at planet hollywood and we walked through the shops. We all decided at this point we were going to do the pin trading and even mom joined in with her own lanyard too. We bought and traded tons of pins. That made the family experience fun for all of us. We hit a wait for a resturaunt called TREX. A rainforest cafe but with dinosaurs. Absolutely amazing. We found a famous cupcake place, Babycakes NYC, just outside and adrianne got one on the way out. Zoe got herself a build-a-Dinobear inside Trex. Funny considering she had her buildabear gift certificite she could use and got her sabertooth kitty and two outfits. She was so excited. We all got our meal and it was really good. The burgers were amazing. I was stuffed. We hit all the shops on that part of Downtown Disney and pintraded along the way. By the time the night was done we were all pretty wasted and zoe passed out on moms arm on the bus. I think mom liked it. We passed out for the night.
Thursday was Animal Kingdom and it was definitely a little chilly. We all hit the park at 8:30 and got to catch the Safari right away with no lines again. (wow this was going really well). The morning Safari was great. The girls and everyone loved the ride. I though they ushered you along pretty quick and the girl doing the talking on the ride was trained in speed talking not to mention cheesy. Zoe and mom thought the animals were cool. Good thing my phone takes pics really fast. After the Safaris we did the walk through some of the different jungles and caught the gorillas and the birds. The exhibits were pretty cool. While in Africa we picked up breakfast. Mom and I did the flatbread breakfast sandwiches and Adrianne and zoe got cereals. We thought it funny that when I through pieces of flatbread to the birds that the woman cleaning up chastised me for doing so. As we left the girls threw a few more pieces out when she wasn't looking (snicker).
From here we did the long walk around the various countries. We also checked out the pins on the employees and did some trading. We decided to catch the bugs life show inside the tree. Talk about funny. When we got out, I swore that was my last bug ride. Seriously not funny for a person with a bug phobia. The girls though it was hilarious. On heading through Zoe caught another characters signing area and picked up a few more with some more photos. Then it was over the dino kids play area. I really thought we were going to get rained on but it never happened. Zoe got to play and Adrianne got to chat on her phone (she did a lot of this during our vacation). Mom, Zoe and Adrianne hit the spinning Dino ride which was fun while i waited. We then headed over to find the dinosaur ride. This one was interesting. I found it odd that they took a Jurassic park ride and made it their own. Again, I closed my eyes. sorry I wimp out at these things. Still it was fun. Scarey and fun. After this we hit the Dino restaurant. One thing I will note is this was the only place to get free refills. Something to note for next time. After this we cut around to Himalayas and Asia. Zoe and I rode the Yeti which I think for took some convincing but I really wasnt going to miss it. When the ride was done, we picked up our pins. It was interesting that after riding it, I noticed it was one of the less scarey rides I had been on. Space Mountain and Tower of Terror were far worse. Ill ride it again next time with my eyes open. LOL! From here we caught the Nemo show. I was really impressed at the quality of the show. It was just long enough to make it enjoyable. The quality was very very good and the girls liked it. After this we all agreed to wrap it up and head on to the rest of the downtown disney we missed and also pleasure island to wrap up our stay.

That night at downtown disney mom turned in some stuff she had purchased at planet hollywood at the hollywood park. The girl was nice and very accomidating. After this we walked the park over to The House of Blues for dinner. I have to admit the food was really good. I got the meatloaf which was quite delicious. We picked up a few things at their gift shop. After which we walked the shops and I found a cuban resturaunt. I was determined to get some cuban food. I shared the papas rellenos, guava and cream cheese pastries and a few bits of the pan con lechon. ALL VERY TASTY. Adrianne got some candy and we hit a few more shops where Adrianne got a small purse. We all crashed and slept in the next day.