We left for Spring Break on March 31st in the early morning. We drove to Virginia and stayed at Sarah's house with her and her kids. If you're driving to Virginia or DC know that radar detectors are illegal there, I got pulled over and was given a ticket for having one. My friend Joann moved to Virginia a while back so she came over to Sarah's with her kids and we all had dinner, it's always so nice to meet up with military friends later down the road. We headed out early in the morning on April 1st now with two cars (Sarah came with) and 6 kids.
We drove to Kingsland GA (Kings Bay) and stayed at our friend Kelsey’s house with her kids. We had 10 kids between the three of us!! The kids enjoyed getting to see each other and we enjoyed catching up again. Kelsey wasn't able to join us in our road trip to Florida because her husband was coming back from deployment. We headed out early April 2nd for our 2 hr 50 minute drive to Orlando.
We purchased our tickets at Shades of Green, I love that place! It's a military only resort and so nice! It does ticket discounts. After we had our tickets we headed straight for Magic Kingdom. The next day we did Animal Kingdom, the next day we did Epcot, the next day we split up, Sarah and her kids did Magic kingdom again (Since her little girl slept through most of it the first day) and my kids and I headed to Hollywood Studios for the day. Jennifer and Michael both road the Tower of Terror for the first time, and joined Aurora in having a T-Shirt to prove it. They all loved it!! We met back with Sarah and her kids at the Hotel.
Next day Sarah headed out Virginia bound, she was supposed to stay longer with her sister in Tampa but unfortunately her sisters new house flooded so they decided to head home. My kids and I decided a board day in a hotel room was not an option so we headed out to Universal Studios for the day. It was insanely hot that day but we had a great day despite the heat. We did Universal as Michaels birthday present and spoiled him with photos and gifts from the ET store and Nickelodeon store. The kids saw lots of characters despite the long lines and had a good time. Every park had some sort of Firework event at the end and the kids were just in awe of everything they saw. It made me feel good to see them so happy.
Next morning after some much needed krispe kremes (haven't had those in 3 years) we headed to Tampa to stay at my cousin Tricia’s house. Tricia has 6 kids and I have my 3 so the house was always lively. The kids jumped on the trampoline and swam in their pool ( I wish we could have either of those in base housing!! but we can't) It was a good relaxing day after so many busy days.
The next day we went to Busch Gardens (love the hero salute passes) The kids had fun riding rides, and seeing the Sesame Street Characters there. It was insanely hot!!! Thank goodness for the splash area for the kids they stayed nice and cool. After Busch Gardens we went back to Tricia’s to watch Princess and the Frog with popcorn. The old adults watched double jeopardy.
The next morning bright and early we headed out for our long trip back to New York. We drove to Myrtle Beach South Carolina and hung out on the beach. We played in the water, sand, and gathered up sea shells then we continued our drive North to Wilmington North Carolina and saw places that the show One Tree Hill (one of my favorite shows) is filmed http://www.wilmingtondowntown.com/go/one-tree-hill-river-court2 . We also saw the Battleship USS North Carolina http://www.battleshipnc.com/ . Wilmington was very nice, I loved the historic district reminded me of Broadway Saratoga Springs. It was very packed because of its Azalea Festival that was going on http://www.ncazaleafestival.org/ We spent the night in the hotel.
Next day we headed out on our journey home. We checked out http://www.visitwrightsville.com/ Wrightsville Beach NC which was gorgeous! We stopped off in Woodbridge Va, but had no luck on scoping our next housing (I forgot the address at home). We continued on to Washington DC. Of course my luck it was packed full of people (more than usual) because of the cherry blossom festival http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/cms/index.php?id=390 . We walked to the White house and took pictures, we also saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the Mall, World War II Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. We saw the capital building from a distance lets hope my disposable camera worked out okay because my digital had a dead battery for the entire day.
After that we drove back to New York, we arrived home at about 1am with some Michael Jackson on the radio, good ending to a good trip! Now to unpack the car, catch up on laundry, clean the house, and wait for Scott to fly home on Tuesday. We miss him!!!!!!!!!
