Sunday, May 31, 2015

Epic Vacation, Day 1

Off we go, into the Wild Blue Yonder! 
Our Epic Trip to Florida and Back Begins! 


We tried to get going soon on Saturday, but it was silly to even try to do so, we couldn't check in to our hotel until 3.  Everything took us a lot longer than I thought it was going to... mostly because we were exhausted.  Eric spent Friday evening rigging the car with DVD playing screens, each boy with his own, so that they could watch tv while we drove.   Having school end the day before we left was probably a bit much too.  When was the last time I slept?  By the time we got the car ready, I was ready for a nap!  I thought I was doing well to get all the laundry done and put away, so that when we came home, we'd have clothes, and so that there wouldn't be a mess.  So, we got that done, but we didn't get on the road until after noon.  And by then, the kids were starving.  We had to take Eric's car in.. well, we didn't Have To, but his car had been yelling at us for a couple months, something odd with the starter we thought, and we thought, sending it to Malless to get checked out, while we didn't need it.  Rather brilliant in theory, but it meant having to load up the minivan, then following each other to the car place to leave E's car, going east to go south.  Once that was done, we drove through for some burgers at Burger King to eat in the car, the first of many on the road meals.  It was 1 by the time we turned south.  

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We hit Martinsville, and Mommy was a little tired, that need for a nap was winning, so we stopped at Starbucks.  Who knew?  We may not get a ton.  So I took a picture of my Frappuccino with Olaf. I had lofty goals of taking our Hula Olaf that we picked up on Jake's birthday with us everywhere, and taking his picture all throughout our journeys, but that wasn't going to work the whole time.  
Still, turns out Olaf likes warm hugs and cold Starbucks beverages. ;) 



We got a little turned around, and had to make a stop or two on the way south.  The first major problem was the DVD player.  I didn't realize until I asked Eric to pop in a movie, that while he'd put the screens up, and I'd grabbed movies, we actually left the player in the drawer at home.  Yipes!  So we stopped at the Walmart in Martinsville, and bought a new one.  Only after a few miles, we realized it wasn't working with video output thingy for the screens.  Luckily, it had its own, so while Jake watched Octonauts and Gabbas on the blue ipad, and Sam found the new Yoda Chronicles game  on my pink ipad, Chris watched Harry Potter on the DVD player in his lap.  That was more than enough dueling noises for me.  I had a headache, that got me a little turned around as we drove.  Eventually, though, we made it to the Hampton Inn in Jasper.  Our first stop!  We got there at 5. It was very nice.   We got there just in time for dinner!   
Right next door to our hotel was The Schnitzelbank, a Great German restaurant in Jasper, IN.  I loved this place!  It felt like Europe, dark, ambience, older, lots of nifty tchotchkes everywhere.  I could've stayed there and shopped for a long time.  Unfortunately, having 3 boys, going in all different directions, doesn't leave me much time to shop.


Ah, the Schnitzelbank!  So yummy, so filling, so awesome.  But we came out and it was pouring rain.
We went back to the hotel, for a brief after dinner swim, with 40 of our closest tween baseball players who got rained out from our game.  We ended up having a very brief swim followed by a Disney movie session in the Julius's room with the kids watching movies, Kronk's New Groove.  Why didn't I bring my camera?  The kids were so adorable, and the grownups got to chat a bit, what a great start to our Summer Vacation!  

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