This last vacation post will be quick one. The last full day we were there was a quiet one. We took it slow in the morning… maybe did something else that I’m forgetting at the moment… then went to Amy’s house for the afternoon. We swam and ate and had fun. Alan and Ian bonded over World Cup soccer while Amy and I discussed daycares and family planning. You know, the usual stuff. Lex discovered their X-Box Knect and played some fun racing games. We had pizza for dinner. It was a great final day in Arizona!
We had fun with this little guy. Where’s the toy?
Eve regressed to her baby self. :)
Andrew loved Eve’s glasses. She thought it was hysterical that he kept pulling them off. :)
There’s the noodle pony picture I was looking for!
This was a total snapshot that ended up looking really cool!
Lex was feeling a little grumpy (not enough sleeping, perhaps?!) but cheered right up when he discovered they have an X-Box.
Monday finally arrived and with it came goodbyes and long flights.
All the animals say good bye.
Eve said the animals (Dolphy, Bamboo, and Jeesis) were all very sad to be leaving Arizona.
Long flights on a plane that had seat back screens! Movies, TV, music, games, and more! Alan watched TV, the kids played games, and I did enrichment activities! Ha! I played Bejeweled and read magazines while my kids were glued to the screen! It was a great flight! :)
Ooohhh… screens on the seat back = happy children!
He sat upright in his seat for three hours playing games on the screen, and he was one happy flier!
This is my favorite part. Years ago when I flew to Europe they had one of these and I loved watching our path. This is the first plane I’ve been on since that had one. I wish all planes did!
What’s with the crazy circle fields below?!
We made it safely home. Our flight arrived around 111:30pm. The kids and I waited for baggage (which went awesome and smooth this entire trip!) while Alan hiked to long-term parking to get our car. He’s a good man. Then we made a stop at McD’s for a late-night snack that we all regretted and headed home! It was very late when we finally rolled into our garage, but everyone was safe and happy. We are an awesome traveling family! We’d be a globe-trotting family if only it weren’t so darn expensive!
Up next… a vacation in Franklin! Blog post coming soon! :)
We decided to extend our vacation through the weekend so we could go to the Grand Canyon together as a family, once Alan’s training was complete. Every time we mentioned the trip to an Arizona local they said, “Oh, you have to go to Sedona too!” Well, ok. We left bright and early Saturday morning with the intent to drive the four hour drive to the Grand Canyon via Sedona (making it more like a five hour drive), stopping for lunch somewhere along the way.
Cacti!
More cacti. It was everywhere and we took a lot of pictures, but I won’t bore you with them all. :)
Approaching Sedona. Sorry for all the car pictures. The AZ DOT said the road north of Sedona, leading to the Grand Canyon, was impassible, so we had planned to have lunch in Sedona then go back the way we came to the highway, then on to the Grand Canyon. My plan was to stop on the way back at a viewing area and take pictures, and let Eve out of the car to find the red rock she so desperately wanted. However, when we got to Sedona a chipper young girl at the information booth swore the road was open and the view was amazing, so after lunch we proceeded north. Sadly there were no more Sedona viewing areas from there and no more opportunities for red rock collection. I owe Eve another trip to Sedona!
Nearing Sedona. The rocks became redder and much more impressive.
These kids are AWESOME travelers!
There were about five hundred (or so) rotaries on the road to Sedona. I thought at first my navigation was broken and repeating itself, then I realized there were just that many traffic circles! They really DO NOT want you driving fast on that road!
Sedona rocks
More rocks.
Can you imagine this in your back yard?
Coming into Sedona. Sorry for all the car pictures.
We had lunch at a place called Wildflower. Basically a Panera-type restaurant. It was yummy. We ate on the deck and the view was fantastic! I think maybe we were looking at Castle Rock on the left and Cathedral Rock on the right. Maybe.
They had bagels, of course, but they were happy.
After lunch we followed the information girl’s advice and headed north through Oak Creek Canyon. The roads were narrow and twisty, and the views were amazing!
Heading out of Sedona, towards Oak Creek Canyon.
The rocks and vegetation out here are just so different and so interesting. I wonder if AZ natives feel the same when they drive through VT?
Oak Creek Canyon
Alan held down the button and took about 20 pictures in a row, trying to get a nice family shot. It didn’t work, but looking through them all is hysterical. I won’t bother posting all of them, but this is probably the best one.
After watching us laughing hysterically trying to take a selfie, a nice couple passing by offered to take a picture for us. :)
The kids enjoyed the view. Lex said that Oak Creek Canyon make Quechee Gorge look small by comparison.
Yep, I think I’d agree with him!
Jeesis enjoyed the view. Bamboo is next to her on the left. I was terrified Jeesis would go over the edge and that would be the end of our family vacation. Thankfully everyone survived the canyon!
See all those road switchbacks? Yep, we drove that road!
Now, finally, off to the Grand Canyon!
As we approached the Grand Canyon the terrain leveled out and became more scrubby.
The goal was to get to the Grand Canyon in the early afternoon, stay a few hours, have dinner there, then head home in the dark. We got there a little late, but otherwise did ok. I took a million pictures and it’s hard to pick the best ones….
So pretty.
Sometimes there were fences, sometimes there were no fences.
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
A family selfie at the Grand Canyon. We got a better one taken by a stranger, but it’s on my phone and may or may not make it to the blog.
The rock formations are just amazing.
We waited awhile to take a picture at this spot. We waited for a group of pretty young Italian (?) ladies to take 1001 Facebook photos. I think my kids are better than any of their photos! :)
Eve was apparently watching closely because she very much wanted a picture here without Lex. When he walked away, she whipped out this pose… just like the young ladies before us. Sigh.
See the people down on that ledge?! Thanks, but no thanks!
Another one, no fences, no fears! (and probably no kids!)
Grand Canyon
Alan and the kids. Hold on tight to those kiddos!
Here is Lex’s Facebook profile picture!! :) (He wasn’t really THAT close the edge, FYI.)
And Alan’s FB picture! :)
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Last summer Lex had a pretty bad reaction to a bee sting and this year he is really jumpy around any flying, buzzy thing. At one point we are standing on a ledge, overlooking the Grand Canyon, and a big bug buzzes right by. Lex immediately starts spazzing out and trying to run away. Alan and I of course freak out a bit, because he is jumping around and running on a ledge of the GRAND CANYON! I got him calmed down, away from the ledge and the flying thing, and tried with all my terrified momma-heart to explain to him taht a) it was NOT a bee and b) a bee sting is better than falling off of the ledge into the GRAND CANYON! He was not convinced and decided to play it a little safer and stay away from ledges and bugs, to the best of his ability. Poor kiddo… but also a very smart kiddo!
Poor Lex. Do you see him up there?
It amazes me that such a wide variety of vegetation can grow along the side of a cliff.
Who holds the key to the future of the Grand Canyon?
Apparently Eve does!
Lex likes the science.
They brought their own money for gift shops on this trip. Eve bought a stuffed animal everywhere we went, including a humming bird from the Grand Canyon?! Lex was a little more thrifty with his money, but he bought a multi-purpose safari tool (compass, light, etc.) at the Grand Canyon.
We lasted about two hours before everyone was tired and ready to go. Truthfully they were tired by the time we got there and Eve was in tears within the first 30 minutes. Family vacations, ya know. But we powered through and had a great time! We stopped for pizza on the way out, then hit the road for a short, 4hr trip back to the hotel! Eve conked right out, but Lex stayed awake for the whole trip and we all went to bed around midnight.
The second full day we were in Arizona started a touch later than the first day, but still pretty early. The kids and I did some exploring around our hotel while we waited for the pool to open. I had a phone interview that morning, so I wanted to stay close by until that was done. Our hotel was neat because all of the doors opened to the outside (motel-like) and it had a very irregular layout. It made for great exploring.
Here’s a view of the pool area from a few floors up. Our room was on the ground floor, right near the pool gate. It was perfect.
There were lime trees all around! I didn’t even notice they had limes on them until we got to an upper level and had a close-up view.
After our walk I let the kids swim while I had my interview. It seemed pretty perfect to me, but I didn’t get the job and therefore maybe not the best interview location. At one point I lost my train of thought completely when Eve went under and didn’t come back. Fortunately she did come back moments later and fortunately I was interviewing with people I knew, so it was easy to explain the temporary lose of attention.
Silly kids. They played all sorts of games, including karate ninja mermaids.
When the interview was over and the kids were thoroughly soggy (ha! like that ever happens!) we went back to the hotel room for a lunch of peanut butter crackers, yogurt, and fruit, then packed up for a trip to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. This place is AMAZING! If we lived nearby I would totally have a membership! One of the many, many, many things I loved about it was that each area had a theme, and each area had a baby sub-area that fit with the same theme. Not that I needed it, but it was cool that you could bring big kids and little ones and everyone could have fun and still stick together. Anyway, so many cool things about this place!
When you first walk in there is a giant, two-story climbing structure.
I love all the crazy details, so many are recycled craft projects too.
A bathtub with wings? Why not?! The ramp leads right into it as well, so the kids can play in there. Fun!!
I wish I had the panoramic feature that the iPhones have. This would have made a good panorama picture instead of taking it in three shots.
A shoe rack, outside of a “socks only” area.
Noodle forest. Seriously cool.
A wrench xylophone. One of many hardware related musical instruments.
I love how they use so many common, every day items to make cool activities for the kids.
Balls roll down the ramps, bumping into the pots and pans and making different sounds. Each area also had “what are your kids learning” signs around for the parents to read.
Eve doing a little flower gardening.
A fort room with umbrellas and sleds on the ceiling. Of course.
Tons of common household items available to build forts.
A “car wash” with lots of different tricycles and scooters to ride through. Targeted a little more towards the younger kids, but everyone was having fun.
“Paint the Castle!” A big wooden (or cardboard?) castle that the kids can paint. Apparently a different color each day. When we were there it was pink. Kids were given smocks, a big paintbrush (like you’d use for a house, not for water colors on paper) and a big bucket of pink paint. The castle had lots of things stuck to it as well, giving it some texture and detail. Lex and Eve didn’t want to paint (they were wearing down by this point!) but I thought the idea was really cool.
We stopped for some arts and crafts. The theme that day was desert so we made snakes.
They have a little café with healthy snacks available. We sat by the window overlooking an outdoor play area that was way to hot to play on! We enjoyed the view though, and the snacks, and the break.
This is a full-wall activity with tubes that have air blowing through them. You put colored scarves in holes at the bottom and the air pushes the scarves through the tubes and shoots them out holes at the top. Then the kids jump and scramble to catch the scarves as they float down. This lady in stripes was grabbing them all first and handing them out to her group of kids. Not cool!
Legs hanging out of a boat. We ended up back at the climbing structure at the end of the day and this caught my eye. Kids peek their head out the top and legs hanging below (not real legs!). Pure fun.
The museum even had some covered parking (completely full by the time we got there) which I think every thing in Arizona should have! They had solor panels on top and even had a few electric car charging stations. I almost parked there, but then remembered I was driving a rental not our Nissan Leaf. It was the last available spot under the awning and when we came out we found a huge pick-up truck parked there. The thing didn’t even fit in the space!
That evening we had dinner again with Amy and Ian at the Mexican restaurant in the hotel. Everyone was pretty tired so we turned in early… or at least vacation early, which of course is still later than regular non-vacation bedtime! We had to rest up for our long trip to the Grand Canyon the next day!
I am very late with blog posts about two great trips we took recently. Grab a cup of coffee and get comfy, this is going to be a long one…
In June, Alan’s company sent him to a training in Phoenix, AZ. He doesn’t love to travel, but I do, and with a stroke of genius (my mom might have inspired it) we decided that the kids and I would join him in Phoenix and we’d turn work into a vacation. He flew out ahead of us because we still had one day of school left, but we joined him on Wednesday. That gave him time to get settled and us time to finish school properly!
Eager kiddos on the shuttle bus from long term parking to the terminal.
Never a dull moment with this two!
We got there pretty early (because I hate to be late!) so we had plenty of time to watch all the goings-on at the airport.
Eve was super excited to be flying again!!
Lex and I were pretty exited too! :)
Our flight out of Manchester was delayed an hour, but Delta sent me a text that morning and everything went well. I was worried about our layover, but that was fine too. Plenty of time. In fact, we even had enough time to ride the train thing in the airport, just for fun. A train in an airport. Craziness! :)
Waiting for the airport train in Detroit.
We got off the train when we saw this cool fountain, conveniently located right next to a Starbucks. :) The kids played, I caffeinated, life is good.
Pretty
On the train, heading back to our gate.
We got back to our gate just as the skies turned greenish black and the thunder rolled in! Needless to say, there was a delay as we waited for the storm to pass. I was very grateful we hadn’t boarded yet! The storm rumbled and lightning flashed, we played Uno and got a snack, then the storm passed and we boarded. The delay was just long enough to be exciting, but not so long that it was annoying.
Playing Uno
Glad we brought the cards!
Once we took to the skies it was beautiful, as usual!
Blue skies! I love the horizontal striped look.
I love airplane pictures!
Looking out the window made me realize that I don’t know my geography very well. We should have looked at a map before we left.
I was telling the kids that AZ is desert and very flat, but then these appeared!
Urban sprawl, as seen from the air.
On the flight into Phoenix Lex had to sit one seat ahead of me and Eve. I was a little nervous at first (always am), but he ended up between a nice young guy and a 8yr old girl traveling on her own. Lex and the girl shared crayons and books, the guy was patient with Lex’s many trips to the bathroom, and all went well.
Looks kids, a cactus! Eve touched it, of course, and ended up with tiny spikes in her finger. She was sad. This was also about 8pm in Phoenix (11pm our time) after a long day of travel!
It was very late when we finally got to the hotel in Phoenix. Very late. But everyone did a great job of keeping it together. Thanks to the 3hr time difference the next morning started very early! The kids were awake shortly after 3am! Ugh. We snuggled in bed for a bit, but we were all up well before we should have been.
I love these two! Cuddling before breakfast.
Apparently this is how it’s done in the warm states.
They were ready for the pool when it opened at 7am!
When Alan was ready for work we all walked to his office together. It was a short walk down the street. His training was in the tallest building in the area so it had a great view. The place was swanky, with comfy furniture, free food, TV and video games, and an upside down Christmas tree decorated for the 4th of July.
A view from the office Alan spent the week at.
We got free food from Alan’s office then settled by the fountain out front for morning snack. Not to be confused with the fountain out back. They are fountain happy in AZ!
After we left Alan to work, the kids and I headed to a local mall that had an indoor aquarium. We met Amy and Andrew there. It was cool, but we went through quickly. The kids were given a scavenger hunt activity at the beginning so they powered through the whole museum trying to find the answers, leaving little time for me to read signs.
Sea stars. We got to touch them too. They are hardish, but kind of rubbery.
The aquarium had several of these pop-up bubbles. They are cool to stand in, but hard to take pictures of. I love Eve’s face in this one. :)
I think this is a white lobster, with red claws.
After the aquarium we were all feeling hungry so we went down the hall to the Rainforest Cafe. We sat near the monkeys. The kids loved it.
Lunch with the monkeys
After lunch we had frozen yogurt, because why not, then headed back to the hotel for rest. Only one of us took a nap, the other two jumped on the bed like wild hooligans.
When Alan got back from work we headed to Amy and Ian’s house for dinner and more swimming. It’s good to start and end each day in the pool. That’s how you know you’re really on vacation! :)
Eve, chillin’ in Amy’s pool.
I tried to get a picture of both of them on their “ponies” but it didn’t happen. I got lots of this instead. :)
Happy boy in the water.
Andrew was pretty happy about that ice cream for dessert!
This is a terrible picture, but I’m going to post it anyway. Going around the table is Eve, Amy, baby Andrew, daddy Ian, Jarrett (also a friend from SU), and Alan. Lex was there somewhere too. We had a great evening.
Someone was very tired from this long day! She feel asleep pretty quickly after we got in the car.
Well, I made it through two days and this post is already long. I take a lot of pictures. Have you noticed? I have to go get the kiddos from camp now, so I’m going to write more in another post. Stay tuned.
It took me awhile, but I finally got this movie working properly and up to YouTube. This is a bunch of pictures I took in Franklin in June, overlaid on Lex’s first Garage Band song, called “Summer Vacation.” Enjoy!
It moves fast, not exactly a laid back summer vacation feel, and it’s not perfect, but we’re learning. :)
This weekend I went on a much-needed vacation with Rosy. We rented a place on Lake George and enjoyed a weekend of wine and water. She had the brilliant idea of a hike (seriously, not sarcastically) that ended up being quite a climb!
It started like this…
… then like this …
… and like this …
… but it ended like this!
Happy hikers!
It was a beautiful view and a beautiful day!
I love all the islands in Lake George.
It was a 3.3 mile hike UP with 2000′ ascension. Then, of course, 3.3 miles back down, but that was the easy part.
After our hike and some rest time back at the motel, we gussied up (kidding, of course!) and headed out for a dinner cruise on the great Adirondac.
The Adirondac
The Adirondac up close. We were joking because the life jackets are all up high on the ceiling on the lower deck. First things first, make friends with a tall person!
We had a great buffet dinner with summer veggies, eggplant parm, potatoes, salad, etc. Delicious. Then we headed to the top deck to enjoy the view.
There’s our motel!
We are pretty sure that high peak in the middle is where we climbed.
Tents on the island. The islands are all public parks, so people leave their cars somewhere and boat over to their campsites.
It was a beautiful sunset for a beautiful day.
The cruise lasted two hours. It was fun to leave in the daylight and return after dark. Someone turned on the party while we were away and we returned to bright lights, loud music, and a real party atmosphere. Rosy and I are such wild ones that we got some ice cream then headed back to the hotel for a movie and frosty bevs. :)
Sunday was an overcast day, which fit well with our plans for shopping. We checked out of our hotel and spent the day at the Outlet stores, looking for back-to-work clothes for me! I haven’t needed that sort of thing in awhile.
Both mornings I had breakfast in the sunshine, sitting in a (fake) Adirondack chair, facing the lake. Gentle sounds of lapping water. Cool breeze. Just what I needed!
Of course, like any job, when you go away for a few days the “work” just piles up behind. The family was happy to see me last night, but today I got the full force of my absence with not one, but four giant fights! Two from each of them. Sigh. I’m about ready for another vacation!
Exactly one month ago we left Florida and headed back to the chilly north. I figured I should get this vacation series done before another month flies by!
We woke up very early on Thursday, day eight, so we could check out, grab some quick breakfast from the lobby buffet, and head to the airport, just 10 minutes away. Alan dropped the kids and I off and went to return the car. We headed for the luggage check/print tickets line. It was longer than I was expecting at 6:15am. We waited, mostly patiently, and eventually got our tickets and checked some luggage. Then we headed for the security long, which was LONG!! So long. I guess Orlando airport gets a little more business than our local MHT. So we waited, and waited, and waited! We eventually we got through and started running. They have a little train thing that takes you to the gates, so we had to ride that. When we got off we heard a last boarding call over the loud speaker. We RAN! We made it to the gate, just before they closed it. Then we were faced with finding seats on a packed airplane where the only available seats were single middle seats. Alan took Eve and I took Lex and we tried to find seats together. I was able to get a woman to (grumpily) move to a different seat so Lex and I could sit together, and as I turned around I saw Eve settling in between two men and Alan heading for a row or two up. I almost cried! I grabbed the closest flight attendant and begged her to help. Eve is too young to sit alone! I couldn’t believe how many excuses people had for not moving. In hindsight I should have given her a lollipop and told the people next to her to have a nice flight! I bet they would have been begging to switch seats real soon. However, at 7am, after running through the airport, I was not amused. Finally a guy agreed to move over and Eve ended up sitting across the aisle from me. Thankfully! I know it was our fault for being late, but we were at the airport an hour before our flight. Sigh.
After all the excitement, and the complete disappointment that my efforts for the A group boarding were in vain, we settled in and the flight was fine. I was exhausted and resorted quickly to the digital aides.
They had no complaints.
Since we were shuffling people around on the flight anyway, I had made the wise decision to do so as close to the front of the plane as possible. When we landed in Chicago we were able to get off the plane fairly quickly and make it to our next gate. We even had time to grab a quick snack and watch them load the luggage onto the plane. I was happy to see our suitcases go on!
I have to take a moment here to bid a fond farewell to my lovely backpack. It saw me through many years of college, kids, travel, and much much more. The rip in the front seam has been there for awhile, but when a large hole appeared at the shoulder strap I figured it was time for retirement, before disaster occurred! It was a wonderful backpack and will be missed.
As we boarded our final flight home the attendant made a dramatic announcement that the flight was… practically empty. She suggested we all spread out. Once again my A group boarding efforts were in vain. Oh well. This time Alan sat with Eve and I sat with Lex.
Eve was happy to show Alan all the drawings she did in her Doodle book. A great impulse buy at CVS before the trip! It kept her busy for hours!
He quickly resorted to the digital aides as well. We were all pretty tired at this point.
Lex, however, had been inspired throughout the trip and decided to take this final flight time to draw plans for a new train track. It included slides and flying trains and much more. He was on a roll! He even built it as soon as we got home!
We arrived safely in Manchester where everything was dirty and gray. Florida was so shiny and clean and not covered in salt and sand! It was nice. We got back to our dirty car and headed home.
A wonderful vacation was had by all! Alan liked it so much he even suggested we do it again! Music to my ears! We just need to recover from this trip first. :)
Wednesday, day seven, started early for me. I was determined to get a good boarding group for the flight home, so I was up, huddled in the bathroom with the tablet ready on the Southwest page at 6:45am. When I tried to check in at 7am, 24hrs before our flight, it didn’t work and I realized our flight was at 7:15am. Sigh. Most days Lex is up by then so my original plan had been to check in from the lobby while having breakfast with Lex, but he chose to sleep in and so I was perched in the bathroom. Anyway, I checked in right at 7:15 and go the A group for boarding! Yay!
Our original plan had been to hang out with Alan’s family on Wednesday morning and then slowly make our way back to Orlando for the night. However, things didn’t work out with his family so we just checked out of the hotel, stopped at Target for snacks and water, and headed south again. We decided to take the coastal route instead of the highway so we could see the water and maybe stop for lunch in a nice little town. I was thinking St. Augustine’s would be a nice place to stop, but we didn’t have much of a plan and when we got there it was crowded and we just kept rolling through.
I let the kids play with the camera in the car and they took tons of pictures like these.
Trees
Eve’s Disney pen and tiger in her lap.
Big brother
Self portrait
Blue skies
Eve’s feet
Lex’s feet
We ended up stopping a little south of St. Augustines at a beach front restaurant. The restaurant was nice (except for the smokers!?! I don’t miss that in VT!!), the food was good, and the view was beautiful. After lunch we took off our shoes and hung out on the beach for awhile. It was cold and windy, but otherwise fun. :)
Lunch!
To the beach!
I love their love.
Happy kids on the beach!
This was Alan’s grumpy day. We each get one day, right? :)
The water was calling our names!
It was warmer than we expected. Or maybe the air was just colder. Nothing stopped Lex from getting soaked though!
Happy family in the sunshine.
Wet and chilly and having a blast.
You could drive on this beach. I’ve never seen that before. There was even a “lane” set up at the back of the beach with cones marking the lane.
We collected a bunch of sea shells.
Lex running back to me when it was time to go.
Back in the parking lot we had to dig out the suitcases and get the kids de-sanded and into dry clothes. Then we hit the road again. By this point we were tired so we headed for the highway, direct to Orlando.
Did I mention on our Disney day (Day 3: Disney Fun) that at the very end Mike pointed out “the best Disney gift shop” and I quietly told him to shush as I was tired and not in the mood for a gift shop at that time? Later that night Eve asked me why we didn’t go to the gift shop. “Mommy, I was saving all my money to buy something at Disney,” she tells me. Later in the week Lex also asked why we didn’t go to the Disney gift shop. They do have good ears and good memories!
Since we had one more night in Orlando we decided to go back to Downtown Disney for the gift shop and maybe dinner. We got there and the place was packed. And we were tired. We hung out for awhile, took lots of pictures, had our brains saturated with piped in Disney music, braved the gift shops, and then took off! Exhausted!
They had several windows of “dresses” made of Barbies. Look closely. It’s cool. One was all pink, one yellow, one blue, and this white one.
A Lego dragon creation.
They even had this guy built of Lego, in the water!
A Tinker Toy windmill, because why not?!
One of the stores had an RC car demo setup outside. The kids had fun driving and crashing them around.
They decided to pay a dollar each (of their money) to ride the little carousel. There’s something about carousels that’s so enticing to children. You can see here they’re getting a little loopy. Lex is standing on his and check out the look that other little girl is giving Eve. Clearly mine were not the tame, well behaved children on that ride!
I loved this Mr. Potato head display! You could pick and chose your pieces and fill a bucket. They had some pretty creative pieces!
In the gift shop they had a pretty cool Tinker Toy set up on the ceiling, support a functioning train track.
Disney has some pretty cool ideas.
We were thinking about meeting up with Mike and family for a final dinner, but they were still sick and busy, and we were exhausted and cranky, so instead we just headed to the hotel. Alan took the kids to the pool while I repacked from “hotel packing” to “airplane packing.” Then we had left-overs, granola bars, and fruit and cookies from the lobby for dinner. Early to bed in preparation for an early trip home!
On day six, Tuesday, we took the kids to the Jacksonville Zoo. Alan and I have been here before, many years ago, and I remembered bright pink flamingos, giant gorillas, and gators that were uncomfortably uncontained. There is a lot more fencing around the gators now than what I remembered from the past. :) The kids had a great time, as we expected.
We have 268 pictures from the zoo, but I’m guessing you don’t want to see them all. I’ll post a few favorites here. If you want more, let me know and I’ll put them up on Picasa. Zoos are mostly fun in person, not in pictures.
Welcome to the Jacksonville Zoo!
The first thing we did was take a train ride around the outer perimeter of the zoo. The ride gives you a good overview of the zoo and some behind the scenes views as well.
Lex was excited to take pictures on the train. Unfortunately most of them came out blurry or completely missed the subject! I’m such a dork that I pulled out my cell phone to take pictures of him taking pictures. :)
This is the back of the animal hospital. I thought the giant bath tubs were funny.
Here is a garden where they grow food for the animals.
After the train we just followed the path around the zoo. First up, Africa!
These birds have a wild ‘do!
Look at the way this bird is sitting. Strange.
Lex took a pretty picture of the palm trees.
This is a crazy animal! It has the head of a giraffe and the body of a zebra. It was my favorite.
Snakes! We saw far too many snakes in the zoo. I’m grateful we didn’t see any outside of the zoo though!
Several times I found myself recalling the scene in Harry Potter where he disappears the glass on the snake exhibit. Shudder!
Elephants!
The kids like the elephants.
Lex was taking pictures of the elephants and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of us too. As I type this a lot of elephant jokes come to mind, but we won’t go there!
Lions!
They were resting at first, but then they got up and started roaming about.
We watched the lions for awhile as they paced back and forth by this door. I thought I heard noises on the other side and we were hoping it was feeding time. After awhile we got bored of waiting and moved on.
We stopped to pet and feed the giraffes. That was fun! They have very long tongues! Did you know they clean their ears with their tongues? Yummy!
Bamboo. You don’t see much of that growing in Vermont!
We all had to touch and feel it. It’s very reedy.
Just as the kids were getting antsy we came across a climbable elephant statute. Good times!
Eve trying to pull the elephant!
Lex swinging from the tail.
Then on to South America. The problem with doing blog posts like this, long and three weeks behind is that I tend to forget a lot of the details. We read all the signs along the way, but I can’t remember what any of these animals were called now. Except the obvious ones, of course, like the elephants!
Look at this guy sunbathing. His arms are stretched above his head and his belly is all exposed. He was quite content.
After awhile he turned over and looked right at us with a sour puss face. :)
Eve took the camera for awhile and took lots of pictures of flowers.
The Aviary and the Carousel.
The flamingos were really orange! I was surprised. I guess they’re eating a different kind of shrimp at the zoo.
Kids can’t pass up a carousel. Especially a free one!
Me riding my favorite zoo animal, the okapi!
At the far end of the zoo we found water. Trout River. There’s water everywhere in Florida. It was beautiful.
Pretty family.
The kids read on the map that there was a Play Park at the zoo and about a third of the way along the path they started whining and begging to go to the play park. We kept telling them that we’re following the path and we’ll get there eventually, but they got crabbier and crabbier. At one point I was remembering trips to the Ross Park Zoo and other places that we went as kids and how much we fussed and complained. Sorry Mom and Dad! It’s so frustrating to pay that much money and hear nothing but complaining! In hindsight they complained a lot along the pathways, but thoroughly enjoyed almost every exhibit.
Eventually we found the playground and they had a pretty cool cement slide.
Alan and Lex took a pretend nap on the “spider web” at the playground.
While the kids played I told Alan about my childhood zoo memories. He laughed at me. Shortly after leaving the playground Eve started complaining again and I lost my temper and got short with her, telling her we paid so much money and she’d better stop fussing and blah, blah, blah. I felt dumb even as the words were coming out of my mouth. Alan laughed at me and said, “Channeling your mother, eh?” Sigh.
Just past the playground they had more monkeys, climbing on vines.
Outside the monkey enclosure they had “vines” for the kids to climb on too!
The Great Apes!
We did catch feeding time for the gorillas!
They each got a whole head of lettuce and they were happy! That’s what I should eat for lunch. We were laughing because all four of them settled down well within sight of the viewing window, but with their backs to us. Like they wanted to be seen, but also have a little privacy. :)
Friendly strangers offered to take a family photo for us. Why not?! Eve decided to be a monkey in the picture.
Pretty cardinal
Lex made us and several strangers laugh when we came around the corner to this view and he said, quite loudly, “Wow! Even the monkeys get a cool play structure!”
We hung out here for a long time, watching this family of Bonobos. Mom, dad, and baby, just hanging out.
They all climbed to the top of the structure for a nap in the sun. True to human life, mom and dad laid down and baby bopped around. After a bit dad got frustrated and left, then mom tried for awhile longer to get baby to lie down, but to no avail. Eventually they all gave up and came down.
All smiles
My little monkeys, watching the monkeys.
The kids can’t resist climbing on every statue they come across. Lex has an awesome smile in this picture!
Wild Florida.
Last, but not least, the gators!! Once again they were not moving at all. Doesn’t the water look totally disgusting?! That’s how it was years ago when we were last here.
I guess gators don’t eat turtles. This guy was hanging out in the same enclosure. It looks like he really needs a bath!
The end. We left just as the rain started. Not heavy, but enough that it would have been no fun to be caught in.
I said I’d post “a few favorites” and ended up with 45! Oops! It’s hard to choose just one. :) The kids did a lot of picture taking at the zoo so of the 268 I have, many are blurry, out of focus, or contain no actual animals. Oh well.
On the way home from the zoo we passed a SWAT team on the bridge. Police and news everywhere. One SWAT guy was even on his belly, finger on the trigger of a mean looking gun. I did some serious rubber necking as Alan drove by! Then I pulled up the news website (thanks to their van sitting on the side of the road) to see what was going on. They updated the page several times throughout the evening. Shots were fired under the bridge. Turns out a person living under the bridge (seriously?!) was shooting a pellet gun at people going by in fishing boats. Then she shot herself in the foot. Local yokel stuff. I guess due to the unknown nature of the shots and the difficult access (under the bridge!) they brought out the whole battalion immediately.
The rest of the night was spent eating ice cream and watching TV at the hotel. Aahh, vacation.
On Monday, day five, we said a sad goodbye to our friends and headed north to Jacksonville. The original plan was to spend a few days with Alan’s cousin and family, but she wasn’t feeling well so we ended up hoteling it instead.
An early morning sword fight. How else do little boys say goodbye? :)
Along the way to Jacksonville we stopped at the Kennedy Space Center. Alan and I visited the space center many years ago and thought it would be fun to bring the kids! For the most part it was. I got a little cranky with the lines, but everyone else held it together quite well. :)
Welcome to the Kennedy Space Center. I think Alan was more excited than the kids were for this stop. :)
We’re sending them to the moon!
This was the kids’ favorite place – the plagyround! They loved it and kept asking to go back. The day would have been nicer (for me) if it wasn’t so cold and windy.
After checking out the visitor complex for awhile we got on a tour bus to go see the launch pad and the Apollo/Saturn V center.
This is my trying to be happy face, after waiting in line for the tour bus for 30m and then waiting ON the bus for another 15m. Finally we started rolling!
Vehicle Assembly Building. There are so many cool facts about this building, but I don’t remember many. It’s the tallest single story building in the world, with the largest door in the world. The roof is so large you can put four football fields on it… I should let Alan do this post as I’m sure he remembers many more details than I do!
This is the launch pad. If I recall correctly it’s an active launch pad for Atlas V… launching soon, I think.
This is amazing! They put the shuttle on this “crawler” and transport it to the launch pad. This thing moves! It’s HUGE! Before the rocket launches this cralwer is filled with water (some insane amount) to help absorb some of the energy from the rockets. Right now people have to be 3 miles away from the launch pad, but without the water they’d have to be 6 (I think?) miles or more!
This is the road the crawler takes to the launch pad. This looks like two roads, but really it’s one road – the crawler is just that wide! It’s also a very special road designed to handled the weight of the crawler, which moves, I believe at about 2mph.
We got off the bus at the Apollo/Saturn V Center and got a cool tour of the “command center” including a demonstration of an actual launch. Like a fly on the wall you heard the whole pre-launch process. An abbreviated version, I’m sure.
The stations below light up with each voice that you hear and the “windows” light up on launch!
I thought it was cool to see the huge check-list on the wall. Each step lit up as it was checked so you could see what was done and was to come.
The rockets from the Saturn V shuttle.
They had the whole things hanging from the ceiling, split into the stages of separation. It was pretty amazing. This is Stage 2.
Stage 3
The command module. This is where the astronauts sit.
They had an awesome re-enactment of landing on the moon. At the end the kids wanted to touch the moon too. :)
Afterwards they touched a REAL piece of the REAL moon! They were less impressed.
This is where the important people get to watch the launches. Kathy, have you been here?
Thumbs up for NASA!
Eve’s new friend.
We spent the entire day at the space center, then back in the car for a 2hr drive to Jacksonville. Along the way we stopped at the Olive Garden for dinner! YUMMY! We got to our hotel and crashed. That was the end of day five.
