Day 7- DISNEY!

We had a blast at Disney, both the kids and adults! The pictures speak for themselves. Hot day, but definitely worth it!

Day 6- Venice Is In Florida?

On Tuesday morning, we hung around the pool. The resort has different activities planned throughout the week for adults and kids. This morning, they had a game where the kids had to make words out of the letters on balls. They really like she treat afterward, mini Reese’s cups. 🙂 In the afternoon we grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, and corn on the cob. We were then off to visit Naples. People that live in Naples have ALOT of money. The average income is in the millions! We also saw a golf cart that they customized to look like a Bentley!It is also a very beautiful town. We stopped at the beach in the historical district so the kids could swim. Unfortunately, a storm came up in about twenty minutes. We hopped back in the car and picked up some coffee from a local coffee shop called The Brick. I asked the barista if we had missed anything, and she said to make sure to see Venice Bay. I am so glad I asked. It is this beautiful little canal area where the houses/shops. It looked like we were in Venice, Italy. In addition, the beach was gorgeous. The kids went swimming again. 🙂 They also spent about twenty minutes playing with the shower to get the sand off of them. They had a blast.

Day 5- A Little History!

On Monday, we were able to visit Downtown Fort Meyers. Fort Meyers was the summer home for Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. It was really cool to see what their life would have been like.After that we ate at Ford Garage downtown. Although we had to wait forever, it was a fun little restaurant with a Model T, gas nozzle faucets and many other fun things. After that, it was off to Sanbel and Captiva Islands. They are known for their pretty beaches and seashells. We had a great time swimming in the water and looking for shells. On the way home, we were able to stop at Sun Harvest to get some oranges and orange ice cream.

Day 4- Relaxation

On Sunday, we had a very relaxing day. We decide to check out the timeshare. we went swimming almost the entire morning. The recreation crew had a pool golf tournament. The kids had a great time and did a good job for their first time playing golf. We also played the first nine holes of our Putt Putt course. It was quite hot! We then hopped in the car to go exploring. We stopped for dinner at a local restaurant called Woody’s in Cape Coral . We also were able to visit a small island called Pine Island. Although there was not a lot to see, we were able to catch a beautiful sunset and see live conchs.

Day 3- Finally

Today we toured St. Augustine and then traveled to where we will spend our week. Before leaving St. Augustine, we toured a Spanish fort, walked around downtown, ate at a chocolate store, and drove by the “fountain of youth.” We accidentally stopped in Disney Downtown. We had no idea how busy it would be. We finally found a smaller line at Pollo Campero.
After our long stop, we kept driving south. There were miles and miles of orange groves with baby oranges on them. We finally made it to the time share. There is a pool, ping pong, putt putt, and other fun games.

Kid Questionnaire:

What was the first thing you did today?
Chris- We went to the fort (Castillo de San Marcos).
Denise-the first thing I did today at the new place was to swim in the pool.

What was the best meal you had?
Chris- I liked the bagel and banana at breakfast at the hotel.
Denise- I liked the chocolate from the store in St. Augustine.

Did you do anything today that you wished we would have not done?
Chris- I did not want to go to Walmart when we got to the new hotel.
Denise- Nothing.

What was the one thing you had the most fun doing?
Chris- The pool was fun.
Denise- Swimming.

Day 2- Move Around Day

Sorry this is late. The wifi was not very good In St. Augustine.

Yesterday we accidentally got up at 6. We thought it was 7. The kids were not amused, but quickly got excited when they saw the awesome continental breakfast.

We hit the road and headed for Downtown Charleston. We saw a Civil War era submarine, walked along the Riverwalk, saw a cruise ship in the harbor, played in the fountains, and walked around picking out what houses we wanted (they start in the several millions).

After that, we headed to Middleton Place Plantation. This was a 110 acre rice plantation. They have the oldest formal gardens in America,
and part of the house was not burned in the Civil War. We were able to tour the gardens, see the animals (sheep, goats, horses, chickens, and cows), see a rice field, and hug a ton of HUGE live oaks. Jennifer could have stayed all day, but the kids (meaning Russell and Dad) were getting hungry.

Russell found an awesome low country buffet. It had barbecue, fried pig ears, corn, rice, mac and cheese, and so much more that I can’t even list it all.

After that, we headed to St. Augustine. On the way we stopped at the Florida visitor center. The kids tried orange juice, went fishing, took pictures with Juan Ponce Deleon, and got a ton of free brochures and maps.

We finally made it to St. Augustine around 7. Before heading to bed, we saw the lighthouse, put our toes in the Atlantic, ate ice cream for dinner at Cone Heads, and drove through Downtown.

A Kid’s Perspective:
What was your least favorite thing?
Denise did not like sitting in the middle of the backseat.
Chris did not like having to share the iPod

What was your favorite thing about Charleston, South Carolina?
Denise and Chris liked playing in the fountain.

What was your favorite thing to see at the plantation?
Denise liked the rice fields.
Chris liked the goats. (The one was ready to have babies!)

What was your favorite thing that we ate at the buffet?
Chris liked the macaroni and cheese and the barbecue.
Denise liked the homemade potato chips.

Where was your favorite place that we visited?
Chris and Denise liked the visitor center where they had free orange juice and fishing (they won free sodas at McDonalds).

We had a blast and took a ton of pictures.

Day 1- Where Are We?

We left today around 2:30. We made pretty good time, because there was absolutely no traffic. We only stopped to take a few few pics at the NC border and also at South of the Border. The weather was HOT! 100 DEGREES! We stopped in a small town (Dillon, SC) for dinner. We finally made it to Charleston around 10:30. Chris wanted to go swimming, but the rest of us were party poopers.

I am trying to ask the kids different questions each day to see what their favorite parts are.

Question 1- What was the most exciting thing you did today?
Chris- I liked buying souvenirs at South of the Border. And playing arcade games at the restaurant. And swimming.
Denise- I had a lot of fun making funny faces at the camera for our pictures.

Question 2- What was the funniest thing you did today?
Chris- Denise and I had to take pictures with the animals at South of the Border. It was so funny when Mr. Shehane said he wanted to pick one too. He liked the giraffe.
Denise- Playing Mad Libs in the car. We got to pick nouns, adjectives, and other words and the IPad made stories. The best was when we made stories about the man of Coach Shehane’s dreams and the girl of Russell’s dreams.

Hope you enjoy our pictures!

ITINERARY

We are so excited to head out to South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. We have included a brief schedule of where we will be each night for the next week and a half.

Thursday, June 13th- We will be hitting the road sometime around lunch…hopefully. 🙂 We are staying in Charleston, SC.

Friday, June 14th-St. Augustine Florida

Saturday, June 15th- Friday, June 21st- We will be staying in Lehigh Acres, near Fort Meyers.

Saturday, June 22nd-Sunday June 23rd-Savannah, GA.

We will be home June 24th.

Hope you enjoy our updates. Chris and Denise will be contributing to most of the posts, so it should be fun!

Love,
Chris, Denise, Russell, Jennifer, and Paul