Oct 8, 2010 | Travel, United States
My kids go to a year-round school, so we are lucky to have a wonderful thing called “Fall Break!” The last week in September to- first week in October we have the entire week off to enjoy life and each other’s company. This year Scott couldn’t get time off from work and so I took the kids and my mom to the beach with a friend (who’s hubby couldn’t take off either.)
I’ll admit I was nervous.
- She has four girls all around my kids’ ages, but they didn’t really know each other so I wasn’t sure how they would get along.
- Being in a condo with 7 kids and 3 adults was a little scary by itself.
- I had never been on a vacation without Scott (well, one that was just for fun anyway and not to help mom move or to work.)
But…
We had so much fun!
That time is perfect for getting good deals and great weather,
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| One view from the condo |
The kids loved each other,
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| In the Mouth |
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| Friends |
We saw dolphins every day,
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| So Cute! |
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| Showing off for the tourists |
We only had one trip to the emergency room (due to a friend as big as Flipper-but with sharper teeth,)
& we had to learn to be still
and relax a little.
I don’t know about them, but I’m planning our next trip together already!
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| “Resting” in Vicksburg |
Jul 14, 2010 | Illinois, Travel, Uncategorized, United States
Navy Pier
Last week was spent in the windy city, Chicago! It ended up being a fantastic summer vacation.
The natives were complaining about the 87 degree weather and we were in heaven
coming from over 100’s in Arkansas.
We watched fireworks from Navy Pier (quite on accident.) We’d walked down to check out the pier about 3 or 4, and found out when we thought about going back for a nap that the pier was closed to anyone else due to crowd control. Anyway, we stayed and had a great time people-watching and the fireworks show was nice. This year the city cut the show to 15 minutes due to budget cuts, I guess in the past it’s been an hour long.
Tips if you go:
- Buy rail passes for the week at the airport (adults price was around $28, kids over 6 were $20 or so and the youngest was free.) The O’Hare airport has a train that runs right into it, so you can ride into the city without having to get a cab. It worked well, we were staying close to Navy Pier, so we had one transfer, but it was fine even with kids and luggage.
- Wear good shoes! (You’ll be doing A LOT of walking!)
- Rent bikes (almost anywhere) and you’ll have a blast. (There are many bike trails and Chicago has so many beautiful things to see that are easy to get to by bike. They even have segway and bike tours!)
Can you believe this is in the middle of the city?
- Get a membership to your local museum before you go. (We do this every year and just on this trip we saved over $200 in entrance fees, I think it was only $75 to join our museum as a family. We also belong to our local Art Museum and Zoo as a family, and many of those are reciprocal.)
Museum of Science & Technology
- Take lots of pictures! (I have too many, why I haven’t posted sooner.)
- Make sure you have bathing suits or change of clothes for kids in your bag. (I didn’t on a few occasions and from the number of fountains in Chicago you can imagine…)
- Scavenger Hunts! (Chicago has a great website for the city with scavenger hunts for various areas. Lots of fun! Also has calendars with events.
- Be prepared to wait for pizza. (Chicago deep dish takes an hour to bake so you’ll wait two hours for pizza. You can call ahead to some famous places and they will put your name and what you want down on the list. )
Jun 11, 2010 | Travel, Uncategorized
My family LOVES traveling.
We could be gone 7 out of 7 days and be happy. The past four years we haven’t done any international travel for some reason (oh yeah, because we have to get 2 rooms and buy 5 airline tickets) but have been taking lots of awesome road trips.
My youngest is obsessed with those strange roadside attractions. He watches movies about them, his favorite book is a coffee-table book on them. He’s convincing me to plan our summer trip based on some of the buildings we haven’t seen yet.
Some fun trips we’ve taken in the past few years:
When we drove to California we saw some crazy buildings & stuff. We tried to go on as much of old Route 66 as we could. This summer we’re thinking about taking a similar trip east. Just a “wing-it -have- fun -stopping -whenever” kind of road trip. Always fun!
The Big Bull in Amarillo
Supposedly the Largest Ball of Twine
*Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. lately. I’ve had sick kids and end of school things to keep me very busy so the bloggy world had to wait.
Mar 30, 2010 | Florida, Travel, United States
We are back to reality.
Durn it.
It was a great week!
The next morning we got up to this…
View from our bedroom
Walkway over the dunes to the beach
We saw a lot of this
And this
Ate some great gulf shrimp
Creole Shrimp over grits at “The Hut” in Eastpoint
Went fishing- didn’t catch anything but saw lots of dolphins!
There was virtually no cell phone service which was great because hubby couldn’t work (well, he snuck in some computer time but it was not much so I won’t complain.)
On the way home we stopped at the U.S.S. Alabama in Mobile to let the kids run a bit. They had a great time looking at the ship and lots of cool airplanes. Ate lunch at
Felix’s Fish Camp, and it was great.
Now to lose the five pounds I gained…
Feb 28, 2010 | Tennessee, Travel, United States
Friday I went with my daughter’s school to Memphis .
(What used to be STAX recording studios where so many recording stars got their starts.)
It was well worth the trip just to see this. Fantastic museum with something for everyone.
The kids ate lunch there while we took off for the
Pink Palace museum. The boys really wanted to do the Children’s Museum (which is awesome too) but they are no longer in the
ASTC and I couldn’t justify paying $50 for the less than an hour we had to play.
(If you don’t know about the benefits I highly recommend it. If you join one museum in the system you get into museums all around the world FREE! For a family it really adds up. We manage to work in at least one every trip we take and it saves us from $50-$100 a visit.)
They had a great exhibit on the history of chocolate which made us all very hungry!
The Parke’s Circus model
This was a powerful museum. Very emotional.
It’s amazing that so much happened in our nation, not so long ago.
The teacher that organized the trip played Dr. King’s last speech at the end of the tour and had the kids sit outside (where MLK was shot) to listen.
I can’t get over how intuitive this speech was.
Dr. King
“And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
