Disney Trip

In November, on the weekend before Thanksgiving we met Elissa, Jon and Sydney in Orlando to spend a few days at Disney World.  We had not seen them since the end of October, so the first order of business for Sydney was getting reacquainted with the fuzzy caterpillar that is on Papa's face.  

 

Our first day at Disney, we spent at the Magic Kingdom.  Sydney rode the Dumbo ride and enjoyed it.  

Sydney got to meet lots of Disney characters.

We stayed into the evening when they lit up Cinderella's castle.  It was pretty spectacular. 

Our second day in Orlando, we went to brunch in Celebration - Disney's planned community.  They even had fake snow on some of the community buildings.

 

Our third day in Orlando, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios park.  We watched the Beauty and the Beast show and a stunt show and rode a couple of rides.   Jonathan braved the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride. 

We stayed late into the evening to watch Mickey's Fantasia show and then the Specticle of Dancing Lights.  It Disney "snowed" on us as we walked through the lights.

On our fourth day in Orlando, we visited Disney's Animal Kingdom - my favorite park.  

 

The Tree of Life

We watched the bird show, the Finding Nemo puppet show, and went on a safari tram to see the big animals.  Disney does a good job of getting you close to the animals.

We had a tiring, but enjoyable visit.  It sure was nice  to spend time with Elissa, Jon and Sydney.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

After spending two days at the Sugar Mill Ruins RV park in New Smyrna Beach, Florida we booked our stay through March, 2014.  We love the town of New Smyrna and the RV park.  We've had some requests for photos of our trailer so folks can visualize where we are living.  Here we are getting set up in our camping spot.  We will be moving to a bigger spot in January.  

Here is a view from under our awning - we just purchased the pretty awning lights. 

We have plenty of room inside the trailer. 

We were thrilled to have two recliners

You can see a bit of the bedroom in the background.  We have a queen-size bed in a slide-out and a nice sized closet and dresser. 

The trailer park is filled with mostly retirees from the northeast US and Canada.  They have a nice pool, store and tiki bar.  

There are activities for residents every day and pot-luck dinners about once a week.  Everyone we have met so far is very nice and friendly. 

We love the town of New Smyrna Beach.  It is small town right on the beach.  We can ride our bikes everywhere.  About four days a week we take about a six mile round trip ride to the coffee shop and back.  A couple of days every week we ride about twelve miles roundtrip to the beach and back.  It is a beautiful ride over the causeway to the beach.  Here is the view of town from the causeway that goes over the intercoastal waterway.   

New Smyrna Beach seems to have some kind of festival or activity every weekend.  Last weekend we watched the Christmas Boat Parade.  It was a lot of fun.

We are about 45 minutes from NASA and have now seen two rocket launches. We watched our first rocket launch from a park with a nice pier out over the water.  We got to watch manatees swimming under the pier while waiting for the launch.

Apopka, Winter Garden and Mt. Dora, Florida

On October 31, we took the travel trailer out of storage and headed south for Florida.  We booked a week at the Lost Lake RV park just outside of Apopka, Florida about 30 outside of Orlando.  The park had mixed reviews so we only booked it for a week.  We found it to be a bit dated but very quiet.  We had interesting neighbors that would peak in our kitchen window while we ate.

two sandhill cranes

The sandhill cranes were fun to watch.  They were about three to four feet tall and looked so exotic walking around the park.  One day they chased a cat trying to hide from them under a trailer.

We really enjoyed the easy access to the West Orange bike trail right by the RV park.  The trail was 26 miles long and was a combination of paved trails converted from old railroad tracks and new trails linking them together.  There were nice water and bathroom stations along the trail.  

We liked riding 11 miles to the next town of Winter Garden.  We could stop there for lunch and then ride 11 miles back. 

Downtown Winter Garden

 

The first Saturday that we were in the area, we drove over to Mt. Dora, Florida for a flower show.  Mt. Dora is a pretty town built around a lake with no mountain in site.  

Lake Dora

We fell in love with the pretty orchids at the show and came home with one. 

We liked Winter Garden and Mt. Dora but we weren't crazy about Apopka so we got on the computers to look for another park.  We found one with good reviews in New Smyrna Beach, Florida on the east coast of Florida just south of Daytona so we booked a week to try it out.  We thought we might enjoy being closer to the ocean. 

North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway

North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway

At the end of October, we went to visit Tony and Shari in North Carolina.  Elissa and Jonathan went with us for the first two days since they had never been to Tony and Shari's house.  As always, we really enjoyed sitting behind their house and enjoying the lake views.  Elissa and Sydney got to enjoy the early morning mist coming off the lake.

We all went for a boat ride around the lake, even  Boo the dog came along. 

Tony, Shari, Eric and I took a drive up to Boone, NC to see where Tony skis with the ski patrol.  Appalachian Mountain was a nice, family-run resort on a small mountain.  

 

We took a beautiful scenic drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the fall foliage. 

Tony and Shari in front of Grandfather Mountain. 

Mom was afraid that we would miss fall time and seeing the seasons change, so we spent a day enjoying fall in North Carolina.  Now we are ready to winter in Florida. 

 

Betty and Karen come for a visit

Betty and Karen come for a visit

In Mid-October, Betty and Karen flew in from Oklahoma for a one-week visit.  First on the agenda - Nana got to hold her first great-grandchild.  

 

On Monday we toured Charleston along with Eric, Elissa, Jonathan, Sydney and neighbors Melissa and David.

We shopped in the Charleston City Market where I found a gorgeous purse - unfortunately it was a bit out of my price range.

We also visited Battery Park and admired the view of Charleston Harbor.

Eric by one of the mortars used in the Federal bombardment of Fort Sumter.  

 On Tuesday, we returned to Charleston for a carriage tour of the city. 

We went down Rainbow Row and Karen found the dogwood gate that inspired the design for the necklace she purchased at the City Market.  

We all loved the beautiful metal work on all the old houses.

Karen and I in Battery Park

After a picnic in battery park with Elissa and Sydney, we left Charleston to spend a couple of days in Savannah.  On the way to Savannah, we stopped at Carolina Cherry Co. and picked up a couple of mini pies and ate them at the Sheldon Church ruins - one of my favorite stops.  

Karen is a huge fan of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" which took place in Savannah so on Wednesday we spent the day touring all the locations mentioned in the book and movie.  Our first stop was Forsythe park.  As we walked down by the river front, Karen found the Lady Chablis still performing in Savannah.  

We had lunch at the haunted Moon River Grill.  We didn't see any ghosts.  I decided that I would hate to work in the "Tax Determination Room".  

We toured the Mercer Williams house. 

 We walked around Bonaventure Cemetery and looked at all the pretty angels.

After a long day of touring, we found a cute coffee shop.  Each room had a different decor.  Eric and I sat in the throne chairs in one room.  

On Friday back in Summerville, Betty, Karen, Sydney and I toured the Drayton Hall Plantation along the Ashley River.  Drayton Hall is the oldest preserved plantation house in America that is open to the public.  It was built between 1738 and 1742.  

The African American cemetery on the property was so sad and lonely.  The sign over the entrance says "Leave 'em Rest". 

 

In the afternoon, Betty, Karen and I visited the ruins of Fort Dorchester.  Fort Dorchester was founded as a market village 20 miles up the Ashley River from Charleston.  It was a market town for area farmers and craftsmen.  The town prospered for nearly 100 years from 1697 through the Revolutionary War.  The Anglican church's bell tower that was built in 1751 still stands.  I found it interesting that the Puritans (Congregationalists) that founded the settlement were taxed to build this church and tower since Anglicanism was the official religion of the South Carolina Colony.  

Friday evening we got our four generations together for one last photo before Karen and Betty headed back to Oklahoma.