Family Visit and Errands in South Carolina

After spending the quietest 4th of July in our lives, we left Lake City, Florida on July 5th and headed north to South Carolina. We just wanted to make some time, so we took I-10 east to I-95 and drove the 375 mile trip up to Lexington, South Carolina.

We made a 3-night reservation at the Barnyard RV Park in Lexington. We had stayed here on a prior visit in 1997 and it is a good park with 50 amp service and very long pull through sites. A reasonable price of around $28.00 per night, also. After we got settled, the first order of business was to check online for a camera. We wanted to replace the camera we carelessly lost while at Walt Disney World. I found the one we wanted at Ritz Camera in nearby Columbia.

The next morning we went to the post office to ship some things to our granddaughters that they could not stuff inside the suitcase when they flew home. Then we found the PetSmart and made the appointment for Annie's grooming. Finally, we got to the Ritz Camera. They had the model we wanted. We bought the Fujifilm Finepix S1500. It is just like the one we lost, but the newer model. It is a great camera for a good price. This time we bought a bright red camera bag! Hopefully, we won't easily forget this one since the color is so bright. The old camera bag was black and we think it just blended into the booth seating at the restaurant and we just got up and left it behind without even noticing it. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!

That evening we went over to visit with my Aunt Ada. My grandmother was Ada's oldest sister....a family of 8 girls! Aunt Ada is 96 years old and we hadn't seen her in 4 years. Ada lives with her daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Arthur. They had all moved south from New Jersey quite a while ago.

We had an enjoyable evening over a great dinner and caught up on family events. Alice and Arthur are wonderful folks with a genuine southern hospitality for guests.
Here is a picture taken with our new Fujifilm camera.... Alice and Artie.
Here is my wonderful Aunt Ada. She suffers now from macular degeneration but it hasn't slowed her down any! She still enjoys life to it's fullest and is always happy.

Here is Bruce getting familiar with the new camera. We'd already taken a few photos....so as usual with a man...now they read the directions!
Today, Tuesday, we took Annie the Schnauzer to PetSmart and she is now a happy camper with her new hair-do. Then we went over to Alice, Artie, and Aunt Ada's for lunch and to say our goodbyes. It's hard to say goodbye to Aunt Ada, heck, she's 96 years old and we can only hope we get an opportunity to see her again one of these days.

Tomorrow morning we leave Lexington and drive up to Salem, Virginia.
Until next time.......so long!

Going to Florida again is like going through childbirth...again!

We left Fort Wilderness at 9:11 this morning. We are now north of WDW in the town of Lake City, Florida. We will stay here for 2 nights getting us through the July 4th weekend. We just want to veg out and do nothing.



As we leave the area, I can think of a few things to report.



* Bruce and I got to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary on June 28th with most of our family present. We had planned on everyone being there, but those plans changed.



* We think that the music in and around all of the 4 theme parks and at the character meals is louder than it used to be. Or are we just getting to be old fuddy-duddy's? The music is so loud sometimes, it just gives me a headache. Right now I'm listening to the quiet hum of the air conditioner up at the Casey Jones RV Park in Lake City. Wonderful.



* We finally saw a real, live Armadillo. We've been here to Florida 11 times, and we've been through Texas several times as well. There are a lot of them in Texas. All we had ever seen were squished little Armadillo's on the highway. We saw 2 of them Wednesday morning on our walk in Fort Wilderness. I wanted to grab my camera and take it's little picture....oh, yeah! We LOST IT. I know Armadillo's are pesty and destructive animals, but their little armor looking bodies make them pretty cute.



* I think that Annie, the Schnauzer, was telling us in her dog-speak that she had just about had enough of being left alone in the RV for 6 hours at a stretch. The past week when we'd come back for some rest, we'd find our 4 bed pillows all scattered around the foot of the bed. I guess she was frustrated and just got up into our pillows to make a mess as a punishment to us. She never chewed on one; she never did that. She was just letting us know how things were going for her. She is now a happy camper as we've been with her all day long.



* I wrote on a posting in June that I would let my readers know if the Disney Dining Plan was a good deal for us. Well.....YES and NO. We did save $686.00 on food by using the dining plan. So, that was the good deal. The only down side is that we ate too much food even with the Basic Plan. I shudder to think of how much more food we'd have eaten if we purchased the Deluxe Plan. So, for the next 2 months it will be a strict Weight Watcher program for us and I'll begin counting our daily points again.



* Visiting Florida, as I said in the title, is like going through childbirth for a second time. When you come to Florida, and especially the Orlando area, it is hot and humid beyond belief in the summer. The crowds are horrendous also. You slog through your days in the heat but you still have tons of fun. Then you go home and after a while you forget how miserable the weather was...not to mention the bugs that crawl on your or bite you! That is why I liken it to the childbirth experience. When you go into labor with your first baby there is pain, sometimes nausea. And there seems to be a crowd of people poking into you and checking everything on you through your labor. For most women...not the most fun. But, the end result is wonderful and you take that precious bundle of joy home with you. As time goes on, you begin to forget the pains of labor. The uncomfortable backache and the delivery itself, with all the pushing and pushing trying to get that kid out of there! It then all comes back to you and you swear you'll never do that again. Of course, many parents do with their 3rd, 4th, and 5th babies. Well, Florida is like that. We hadn't been here since 2005 and we were really looking forward to coming back this year. It was tons of fun, don't get me wrong, but the miserable aspects of this place reared it's ugly head. I'm sure that in a while (a year or 2 minimum) we'll forget about it and want to come back again.

Stay tuned......

We'll be heading toward Lexington, South Carolina soon. We're going to go shopping for a new camera while we are there. Good luck to us!

Final Photos Of Our Time At Walt Disney World

Yesterday we put our kids and grandkids on the Magical Express Disney bus to be taken to the airport. They left the hotel around 3:30 pm and their flight was due to leave Orlando around 6:30. They had a great time living in Fantasyland for 2 weeks, but it was time to go home. Now, Grandpa and I will have 3 days of rest and recuperation until we will leave "the World" as well. Here are the last of my vacation photos that had been downloaded into my computer. I wanted to take some photos of them leaving us....but....that's right we LOST the #*&%! camera last week.

Double click on any photo for a larger view......

We all went out on the lake in the little Sea Racers you can rent at the hotel or campground marinas. Here are the girls with their life jackets on. Everyone is required to wear life jackets no matter what your age.
Mackenzie went in the boat with Grandpa. Zoey went with her Mommy and Darin rode alone in his boat and I also went alone in mine. Well, not totally alone. As I was leaving the dock area and motoring out into the lake, a big black spider began running all over the floor in my boat. I screamed, of course, but nobody could help me at that point. So, I took off my sandal and gave him a mighty whack! Dead...gone....no more spider. Here are Mackenzie and Grandpa buzzing along as fast as the little boat would go.

Over at the Magic Kingdom I decided to go with Zoey on the tea cup ride. Big Mistake! It went spinning so fast that I almost lost my breakfast. Zoey thought it was fun. I think my tea cup days are past me now.
For some reason Dumbo is one of the most popular rides. Same thing at Disneyland in Anaheim -- very long lines every day. It is a slow loading ride, too, and it takes a while to get through the line for your turn. Never the less, the girls got a couple of turns to ride Dumbo while they were at the Magic Kingdom. Here is Mackenzie in her Dumbo.

This is the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot. It looks like a giant golf ball. It is in the Future World part of the park. You ride in a car that goes up and up inside this sphere. It is like time traveling as you go back to prehistoric man and move forward in time. It is also an interactive ride. There is a small computer screen in front of you and when you begin there are 6 or 8 language choices on the screen and you tap the one you want. English for us, naturally. Bruce had an interesting experience on our last trip through Spaceship Earth. He rode with Zoey (2 per seat) and she got in first. Before he could do anything she tapped the screen for the language choice. He didn't really pay too much attention and then as the ride began he realized that the narration for them was being done in French. Toward the end of the ride you can play with the computer screen again, and choose your own future. Everything they had to choose from was in French. When their little movie played back for them, it was narrated in French as well.

Over at the pavilion for Norway we found our little Vikings, Mackenzie and Zoey.

While everyone else took one more ride on Test Track, Zoey and I went into the gift shop. She liked this Mickey Sorcerer hat.

The kids had booked themselves for the Aloha Dinner Show at the nearby Polynesian Resort. That hotel is on the Monorail line from their hotel and it was an easy trip over to it. Bruce and I chose not to participate in this dinner show and it was nice to have the time to rest by ourselves at the motorhome. They enjoyed the luau style meal and the show, too.

At the Contemporary Resort they have the Chef Mickey Restaurant. It is probably the most popular character dining experience in the whole WDW. I'm not sure it is the best...but most likely the most popular. It is a buffet for breakfast or dinner only. We all went there for breakfast last week. While you eat your meal, the characters come around to your table for autographs and photos. They sure don't linger long as it is a big place and there are many tables to get to. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.

Every 15 minutes or so, a special song is played throughout the restaurant. It's a song all about celebrating and they play it loud. The characters stand around while the music plays and everyone is supposed to grab their linen napkin and twirl it over their heads madly. The girls loved that, of course. Once that song is finished being played at high volume, the regular background music of Disney songs is played while you finish your meal. That background music is still too loud as far as I'm concerned.

Outside the hotel going toward the marina, is this Mickey metal sculpture. Everyone always wants to sit inside Mickey's ears and have their picture taken. Our girls were no exception.

Back at the Magic Kingdom, the girls pose in front of Cinderella's castle. It is probably the most famous icon in all of the Disney theme parks around the world. Everyone of them has it's own special castle.

Our little munchkins are home in Tumwater, Washington now. We look forward to taking them down to Disneyland in California one of these days....without those pesky parents along! Now that they are older, we should be able to get them down there again soon.

Until next time.....see ya!

Lost Our Camera !!

Sad to report but it is true. We lost our camera. It was sometime when we had gone to the Downtown Disney shopping area and Epcot on the same day. We didn't even realize it was missing until a day later when we went to get it again. We know we had it when we took the photos at Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, but after that things became a blur. Well, you could probably call it commotion. With this group of 6 trying to get through our day there is lots and lots of commotion going on. So thinking back, we were probably so preoccupied with getting packages and kids and the stroller gathered up, we left it behind by mistake. It was in a black camera bag and it most likely blended into the surroundings too easily.

We went to the WDW Lost and Found (at the dog kennel) to report it missing and to see if anybody had turned it in. No...whoever found it probably decided to keep it for themselves. It was a great camera and I miss having it. We will find a new one after we leave here on July 3rd. I have some photos already downloaded into the computer for another posting but then that's the end until I replace the camera. Sad, very sad. I had some great photos on the disc in the camera.

Interesting tidbit: one of the tram operators told us that on an average day 4,000 pair of sunglasses find their way to the Lost and Found at Epcot park alone! Crikey! Can you imagine how many other things get turned in each and every day from all 4 of the parks and the resort areas?