Archive for 'Travel Bug'
August 26th, 2010 by Jen Hen under The Busy Life, Travel Bug, Travels. No Comments.
I’m getting excited. I’m getting super duper excited! Why? Because I’m currently in the preliminary planning stages for one last “big” trip before Baby M arrives. It’s not just any trip, but a trip to my “second home” that I haven’t gotten to make in three years. Michigan! I lived in Michigan for 7 years and the only negative thing I had on that state were simply personal circumstances at various stages in my time there. Otherwise, I love all the cities I lived in and near, all the friends that I made, and the weather. Yes, even the winter. It has been 3 years since I’ve ventured to my “old stomping grounds”.
X-man’s Fall Break coincides with Michigan State University’s homecoming and as an Alumni that sends an extra rush of adrenaline. Sparty On! So long as everything pans out as I am hoping we will be at the Homecoming parade.
More importantly and much more exciting is the fact that I get to see so many dear friends. Some I’ve seen since my last trip because they have traveled the 10+ hours to KY to visit, while others I haven’t seen in quite a few years. X-man is excited because we’re working on touching base with his best friend in Michigan so that they can possibly hang out while we are in X’s birthplace of Hastings.
I was planning to take the trip with just X-man but DH mentioned that he is going to see what he can do to get some days off work so that he can go too. WOOT!
The trip to Michigan in October of 2007 was the first trip DH, X and I took together. At that time X’s dad was finishing his doctoral program at a college outside of Grand Rapids and we were taking X up to spend some time with him during his Fall Break that year. DH and I stayed with one of my best friends, K, in Hastings which is only about 45 minutes from Lansing and Kalamazoo and 30 minutes from Grand Rapids and Battle Creek. For all practical purposes this was the first vacation DH had ever taken. I’m pretty sure that week was just as enjoyable to him as it was for me. He got to meet several of the MI people I was always rambling about and we all took him around to some of our favorite places. He might not have been real thrilled with the snow flurries that decided to strike while we were standing outside on Grand River watching the Michigan State Homecoming parade… but he didn’t complain TOO much (he had a coffee in his hand). So… it makes sense that DH is itching to go up with us because this trip guarantees to bring more great memory building with those same great Michigander friends, plus some we didn’t get to see three years ago. HOPEFULLY we’ll be going up for long enough that we can make a jump over to the Detroit area so we can visit my cousin and her family. MAYBE if we get really ambitious we’ll take a drive across the bridge to Windsor, Canada.
Can you tell I’m excited? I just keep rambling.
I think that while I’ve been bouncing around with all these memories of Michigan in my head I’ve realized where we should take our family vacations while Baby M is little… I’m beyond comfortable with the surroundings in Michigan and there are so many things and people to see up there while still taking it easy. Yes indeedy… I don’t think DH would disagree with that idea either. I know that those special friends up there wouldn’t mind us visiting annually for a while.
I’m off to do some planning/browsing. Go Green! Go White!
Tags:Michigan State University, travel.
July 31st, 2010 by Jen Hen under Places to Go, Travel Bug, Travels. No Comments.
I guess I left off somewhere around Epcot. Here’s the problem with procrastination, especially in conjunction with pregnancy: my memory is awfully foggy now. I’m back to pulling a “Winnie-the-Pooh”… *hand tap to forehead* Think, think, think.
Ah, yes. The day after Epcot was an adventure to the Atlantic Ocean. This was not only a first time experience for X-man, but also for me. We headed off to Cocoa Beach, FL to see part of the “Florida Space Coast” and the great wide open blue. Aaaaa-Mazing. Mine and DH’s friend M. met up with us in the parking garage of the Cocoa Beach Surf Shop. Hubs and I had to have some Starbucks before setting on our way but once we retrieved our Cafe Mocha’s we were good to go. The four of us browsed through Cocoa Beach Surf Shop, then walked across the street to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop and did a brief once-over of the merchandise there. After that? Time for a beach chair and beach umbrella rental from Cocoa Beach Surf Company, grab the stuff out of the car, then walk the three blocks down to the surf and sand. I was practically speechless. Unusual for me, I know.
The guys helped get everything set up for me to camp out in my chair for most of the afternoon. X-man went straight to the shore with his buckets, shovels, and castle building materials. And once the guys knew I was settled they headed for the water with their boogie boards.
X-man boogie boarding in the Atlantic. June 2010
I waddled my way to the ocean, waded into the water, and experienced the feeling of the push and pull of the water. Stand far enough out in the water for a while, and leg lifts have nothing on the workout your legs get trying to keep balance. I also learned that salt water… it really does taste salty. (No, I didn’t intentionally take a drink.)
DH and M taught X how to boogie board. After that, there was no stopping him. I believe he smiled more that afternoon than any other day of the trip.
I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in my beach chair, alternating between sitting in the sun and sitting in the shade, reading my book, and hearing the peaceful noise of the ocean. I even managed to doze off for a half hour and I believe it was the most refreshing nap I’d ever taken.
DH and M decided to walk to the McD’s and grab us some Dollar Menu burgers and fries, a stop at the Wal-Green’s for some bottled water, and a surprise stop to bring a brand new boogie board back to X-man so that all three could enjoy the water.
I believe that day was the most relaxing and completely content day of the entire trip for all of us. I don’t think that DH or X-man would be opposed to our next trip being scheduled in a condo at the beach. I’m completely in love with the idea of waking up early in the morning and sitting on a deck with my coffee and book with the ocean directly in view. When we retire, perhaps I can convince DH that we should just spend half our year on the shore.
Tags:Atlantic Ocean, Boogie boarding, Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach Surf Company, family vacations, ocean, Ron Jons Surf Shop, vacations.
June 30th, 2010 by Jen Hen under Places to Go, Travel Bug, Travels. No Comments.
Where did I leave off yesterday? I knew I should have checked before I started writing… Oh! I left off at shopping… and I almost forgot to include that we decided to go to that near mandatory tourist stop, Joe’s Crab Shack. This was a first time experience for all of us, and I dare say that if you ask my husband you’ll find that he fell in love. DH is a seafood fan. When he opened the menu I was pretty sure I started seeing drool run down his chin. He ordered some huge basket of food that had everything from corn on the cob to crab legs in it, and he got to wear one of those bibs. (X and I might have giggled a little when the waiter tied a bib on Cam.) Yes, I got the souvenir tie-dye shirt before we left (with $5 off because X and I solved the word puzzle on the wall).
Time to pick up on Tuesday of our trip to Florida. Tuesday was a full day at Sea World’s new water park, Aquatica (I think it opened in 2008… but check out their website by clicking HERE and it will give you the details). This was a huge splurging day for us as the waterpark was the main thing that X-man kept talking about wanting to do while we were coming up with our list of things to do in the months leading up to the vacation. We rented a Cabana for the day and I assure you I was glad that we did. The Cabana had curtains you could close on all sides, 2 loungers, 4 beach chairs, a table, private locker, private fridge stocked with 16 drinks in a combination of water, soda, and tropical punch (any of which you could trade out for other options), a ceiling fan to bring in some air circulation, and shade (courtesy of those curtains). We also got arm bands that gave us the “VIP” treatment which boiled down to 20% discounts on food and merchandise at the park. We dined at Banana Beach Cookout with the all-you-care-to-eat ALL day plan which meant unlimited trips back to the buffet during the day… fantastic deal when you have a husband that eats like mine does. The buffet had hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit, dessert, bar-b-que, chicken, veggies, and salad. You couldn’t leave the dining area with your food but you could go back as many times as you wanted for refills on your drink and take the drink with you around the park. I’m fairly certain DH Cam got our money’s worth out of the buffet. haha. We ate lunch mid-afternoon at the cookout, then went back and got our dinner a little while before dining closing time so that we got a full two meals out of our purchase.
X-man and DH had a BLAST together as they ventured around to all the big slides that I decided to opt out of with Baby 3 in tow. I enjoyed floating on their version of the lazy river, Loggerhead Lane. My only complaint on this river was that there was nowhere for the unused floats to be placed so they stayed on a constant course which brought some congestion at times. However, it was so neat overall. In two different sections you floated under aquariums and got to see tropical fish and dolphins! The three of us hung out at the wave pool for quite a while and on occasion Cam and I, or just I, would go back to the Cabana and let X-man have his fun while we took a break from the sun. I even managed to steal a 30 minute cat nap at the Cabana while DH and X went to go on some of the water slides.
When we left the park we were exhausted from the walking, the sun, and the play so we went straight back to our condo at Silver Lake Resortto relax the rest of the evening. X-man is a fish out of water so we ended up at the pool again that night, but most of the evening consisted of resting, reading, and watching television. Wednesday was promising to be another big adventure and I had to recoop.
X-man at 8:30am: “What are we doing today mom?”
Me: “Oh… nothing really. I think we’ll just stay here at the condo all day.”
X-man: “Oh.”
Me: “Just kidding! How about…. hmmm… Disney World? Epcot?”
X-man: “YESsssssssss! When do we leave?!?”
I made him wait a full 4 hours before leaving (hey, the park doesn’t even open until 11am and I wasn’t about to wait in line for an hour just to get in!).
I believe he thinks I'm crazy
And so we arrived… at Epcot. DH Cam and I went to Epcot when we traveled to Florida by ourselves in June of 2009 and absolutely loved the park but there was a lot we didn’t get to while we were there (mostly for lack of interest without any kids with us because they were kiddie rides). X-man being with us meant a better excuse to go through those areas and X-man loved it. We did everything from going into our “future” to taking a boat ride through Disney’s greenhouse (they have some seriously neat techniques for optimizing space and produce growth… think… tomato “trees”). Then we ventured into the countries in the World Center.
DH Cam and me (and Baby 3 bumping out my belly)
X-man playing the drums in "Mawahli" at Disney's Epcot
X-man decided he wanted American food for dinner, so we ate in “America” at Epcot (DH Cam and I don’t really recommend their roast beef sandwiches) then ventured around to the rest of the countries. X and I decided we wanted to get some chocolate from “France” and can I just say… de-li-cious! We both LOVED it. Seriously, far superior to any I’ve ever eaten.
Venturing through “Morocco”, “China”, “Japan”, “Mexico”, “Germany”, “Switzerland”, and the “Netherlands” gave us the opportunity to see authentic foods, toys, and various items from each country. I, of course, had to keep some educational factor into the experience so X and I talked about the different things we were seeing, the different foods available in each of the countries, and the different Disney stories that came from each of the countries (ie. Snow White from Germany, Aladdin from Morocco, The Three Caballeros from Mexico, etc.). X was surprised to learn that The Smurfs also came from German stories.
As nightfall approached we decided to “set-up camp” in “Japan” to wait for “Disney Illuminations”, the firework, music, and light show. AMAZING! It was by far the most breathtaking firework display I have seen in my life. I was crying by half way through and X-man never took his eyes off. I could go into great detail describing what we saw, but it’s really just not the same as seeing it for yourself. Just know that I HIGHLY recommend the experience if the opportunity ever presents itself.
We apparently went on a really good day because the crowd wasn’t overpowering, we hardly had to wait in lines, and when the fireworks were over it took us a mere 10 minutes to walk from “Japan” on the opposite side of the park to the entrance, and make it back to our car. Within 20 minutes of “Illuminations” ending we were back at our condo and recouping from the day’s adventure.
Of course I have about a hundred more photos I could share, but I’ll spare the bogging of your browser. Nice, right? Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Summer Adventure series.
Tags:America, Aquatica, China, Disney Illuminations, Disney World, Epcot, family trips, Florida, France, French chocolate, German, Japan, Joe's Crab Shack, Mawahli, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Orlando, Sea World, Silver Lake Resort, Switzerland, vacation.
June 29th, 2010 by Jen Hen under Places to Go, Travel Bug, Travels. No Comments.
This summer has been full of activity, surprises, and life changes. Most everything has been nothing but positive and exciting. I could probably write one incredibly long entry about those adventures but I’m probably going to split things up a little. First, since I don’t really remember if I’ve updated with all the information and since I know I have been slacking with my updates, DH got a position with a local company as a supervisor. That has been one HUGE change for us. Fortunately when he was hired the company was willing to work with him on the vacation we had already scheduled and paid for a year in advance so we were still able to take X-man on his “big boy only” trip. I was able to get an extra 8 days with DH without him having work to do… I assure you that is something I was looking forward to because even on his days off from his full time job, it seems there’s always something else he needs to do whether it’s a side service job for someone or a self imposed project he has going on.
On June 4th we hit the road at 9pm for an overnight drive to our final destination: Orlando, Florida.
Our first day we napped, hung out in the hotel pool, went to eat at Carraba’s Italian Grill (can we say calimari?), and headed over to Wonder Works. Wonder Works was basically a children’s science museum with exhibits on most any scientifically related topic. X-man and I both experienced laying on a bed of nails; DH, X-man and I took turns putting our hands in water that was kept at the temperature equivalent of the ocean the night the Titanic sank to see how long we could endure the cold on just one small portion of our body; the three of us experienced a 5.3 earthquake; and we played music on a floor piano (think 80′s movie starring Tom Hanks, “Big”). X-man really enjoyed himself and I’m pretty sure DH had a good time experimenting with the helicopter flight simulator. As for my experience? I was glad that X had a good time, but honestly I was disappointed with what we got for the expense. When you have some reference points for comparison Wonder Works really fell short of the mark for the price they charge.
Some of our favorite Children’s Science Museums (kid tested, mother approved):
Chattanooga, TN: Creative Discovery Museum
St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis Science Center
Nashville, TN: Adventure Science Center (formerly known as Cumberland Science Museum)
At any rate, our Sunday in Orlando consisted of a previously arranged meeting which brought about a new change for us. In the end we moved from Comfort Suites Maingate to Silver Lake Resort. What. A. CHANGE! We’re talking, we went from a damp, musty smelling room with little printed cards about the bugs that are present, but harmless to…. a condo with a kitchen, whirlpool jet tub and stand up shower in the bathroom, washer, dryer, living and dining area, etc. Needless to say, we were happy with the upgrade. We spent that afternoon relaxing in the pool, playing in the game room, and chilling in the condo.
Monday… rain, rain…. and more, you guessed it, rain. So… shopping, walking, shopping and more… shopping. Can I just tell you I LOVE outlet store steals! DH Cam and I found Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores last year and got some seriously fantastic deals on clothes for the kids, so we hit the shopping center again this year. We decided to go check out Orlando Premium Outlets while we were shopping. I managed to find some major deals at the Motherhood Maternity store there including a great pair of cool weather pajamas I’ll be taking to the hospital with me when I go to have Baby 3.
Tags:Adventure Science Center, Carraba's Italian Grill, Comfort Suites Maingate, Creative Discovery Museum, family trips, Kissimee, Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores, Motherhood Maternity, Orlando, Orlando Premium Outlets, RCI, shopping, Silver Lake Resort, St. Louis Science Center, summer, vacation, WonderWorks Orlando.
September 1st, 2009 by Jen Hen under Travel Bug. 2 Comments.
I have a bad tendancy to get restless with things. I’m a quiet sort of impatient person who is secretly biting her invisible nails on her invisible hand at her invisible mouth (you know, to make the distinction I’m not really biting my nails). I love to travel and to have adventure. In the ideal world my youngest son would be as great of a traveling kid as my oldest son always has been and we’d be able to go on adventures every weekend and extended break from school. Alas, he is not.
Every year I will go through a period of time where my mind seems to be in “fight or flight mode” and I believe I’ve entered that time. Fall is probably my favorite season of all, and it’s so beautiful in so many parts of this country. One day, when my DH and I are retired, I’m totally going to convince him to live in an RV for weeks at a time and travel all over. “Sorry kids. Don’t try to call us. We’ll call you.” Okay, so I won’t do that last thing (besides, with advancements in technology they’ll probably just be able to look at their window and will it to act as a satellite with screen so they can see where we are and what we are doing). At any rate, the point being…
I want to hit the road. A few places that are really eating at my thought processes:
Cumberland Falls State Park, Cumberland Falls, KY BEAUTIFUL! One of my favorite family trips as a kid was when my parents took the three of us kids to Cumberland Falls. We lucked out and got an Executive Cottage because the hotel itself was full. The cottage was cozy, quaint, but still large enough to give us some room. Fire place, back deck. *sigh* And close enough we could hear the falls. All that spells a lot of relaxation to me.
Chattanooga, TN which would equate to visits to the Tennessee Aquarium (I STILL haven’t gotten to go back since they opened the addition in May of 2005), the Creative Discovery Museum, the Incline Railroad, The Battle of Chicamuagua (wow, I think I just butchered the spelling of that), and of course Rock City (Shoosh! I know it’s a tourist trap for their money… but it’s still fun and the view of 7 States still amazes me). I’ve been planning to take our little family on this trip since… oh… last year. Unfortunately this is one of those trips that has gotten the back burner for various reasons.
Last one really biting my antsy bum? Michigan. Oh how I miss Michigan. Lansing, Hastings, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Holland, Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills, Detroit, Mt. Pleasant…. there’s all this beautiful country side with these cities plopped in. It’s never more than 30 minutes to the country (I mean, besides the fact there COULD be traffic jams). The Indian Reservation, the Apple Farm where they have their Apple Cider Festivals, the state parks… and of course, the lakes.
May I please have a profession that allows me and my family to just travel anytime we please? Which, I suppose, should either pay enough to support all four of us… or my DH might go crazy and just prefer to request that he also have such a flexible profession. Maybe we really need to consider some options for work from home, ie. where ever you are at, ventures. Hmm.
Tags:Chattanooga, Creative Discovery Museum, Cumberland Falls, Kentucky, Rock City, Tennessee Aquarium, The Incline Railroad.
