Road Trip

I am calling this blog road trip, not vacation b/c it was not the least bit relaxing!! Jon had interviews in Birmingham on Monday, Gainesville on Thursday, & Charleston on Friday. We decided to keep Jon company on his travels & do some fun things for the kids. On Monday, I took the kids to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham. The kids had fun in the play area & liked the piano you play with your feet (like in the movie "Big"). After a few hours there, we drove to Mount Brook where we ate lunch & killed time at the mall. I wasn't too impressed. The stores were great it’s just that they didn't have a play area for the kids & I didn't like the layout. I love Oxmoor Mall b/c of the boat, I wish every mall had something like that for the kids! We picked up Jon from his interview & drove to Tallahassee where we stayed for the night. We woke up early to drive to Orlando. We checked into our hotel & then went to Downtown Disney to play & eat dinner. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, well kind of. Madelyn got so scared of the realistic sounding & looking elephants next to our table that I had to take her & her dinner outside while Jon & Ansley finished eating at the table! The highlight of our trip was Wednesday: Disney World! We had 1 day to cover Magic Kingdom. We watched a show at Cinderella's castle, which Madelyn loved & rode all the rides we wanted to. The longest wait was 30 minutes. We only waited 5 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean! I strongly recommend going during the off season. Waiting in 30 minute lines was hard enough for a 3 & a 1 year old, let alone 2 hours. The weather was beautiful. It was 80 degrees & sunny with a cool breeze. Disney World was so much fun. I can't wait to go back when we have more time & money!!! We left Disney World around 7:00 to drive 2 hours to Gainesville. While Jon was interviewing on Thursday, the girls & I hung out in the hotel room. We were tired from our long day at Disney. It was nice to watch tv & lay around on a rainy day. After Jon finished interviewing, we drove to Charleston, SC. I took the girls to the SC Aquarium on Friday. They had a 2 story salt water fish tank with a huge sea turtle, sharks, eels, & other humongous fish. Madelyn was scared of the shark & didn't want to look at it very long. We ate lunch at a local pizza place called Andolini's. Then we picked up Jon at MUSC to take him to a transitional year interview across town. I found what I thought was a park on our GPS which ended up being a trailer park!!! Needless to say, we didn't play there & ended up going to CSU campus to play on their soccer field & walk around campus since it was across from the hospital where Jon was interviewing. It was a beautiful, bright sunshiny day. It was refreshing to be outside knowing that we were coming home to winter weather. Then we picked up Jon to drive 9 hours home. We are all so happy to be home & to sleep in our own beds. The road trip was a fun experience but I wouldn't volunteer to go on another one for quite some time!