ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Harrisburg/Hershey, PA

We awoke bright and early today in Petersburg, VA (right outside of Richmond, VA) at a Rodeway Inn. For some reason, all the kids were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6 am. So, we went with it. We got our stuff together and headed to the Breakfast Room. Sounds nice, right?! NOT! It was a chincy continental breakfast of cereal and cinnamon buns, that's all. Nothing else. Only those two food choices. So, we ate. We began our drive at 8:20 am today. We stopped a number of times right away. We found Jon a Starbucks, Joshua had to go to the bathroom really bad (he always has to go REALLY bad, according to him!), and one other time which I cannot remember why (oh, maybe it was for gas). On the ride, we had a few brainstorms. One was to call Yonghee Shaffer who I know from my Women's Weekend. She and her family live outside of Baltimore and we were driving right by there today. The other was to contact Bonnie and Mel for a visit. We had our lunch with us already, so we brought it to Yonghee's house in Ellicott City, MD. It was a fantastic visit with her, her husband Ken, and her daughter Kara (oh, yeah, and her pug dog). Thank God we had bought a Pecan Pie in Georgia a few days earlier that we could give to them! My mommy taught me that you always show up with something in your hands when you go to someone's house. We spent a good hour plus there, then were off again to the Harrisburg, PA area. It would have taken only one and half hour of drive time to get there, but we stopped again at the Pike's home for a visit. The kids just had a ball there today. Of course the house is child-equipped since they have Linda and her daughter Brooke living with them. The boys quickly found the train table in the basement and were happy as can be. Samantha followed them downstairs and bounced around with them. Zachary was the center of attention for Mel and Bonnie and the dogs. Ellie Mae loved him and licked his face all over. Princess Peewee Samantha Pike also liked him, though she was much more reserved. Thank God we had bought a gift box of chocolates earlier too! We stayed there for a long visit. We were even invited back for Shabbat dinner (since Linda and Brooke will be back from their trip to South Carolina then). After the lovely visit, we made our way to the next hotel, the MainStay Suites in Grantville, PA, just outside of Hershey. We checked in at about 4 pm, ate dinner at a quaint barn converted into an Italian restaurant called Fabio's, came back to the room to change into bathing gear, and went for a swim in the indoor pool with waterslide! The kids were soooooo excited about it. Afterwards, we rang in 2009 at our 7:30 pm family New Year's Eve party, filled with sparkling grape juice and festive blowers. The kids thought the juice was delicious and really were into the celebration! Then, it was off to bed for them and laundry for me. We had 2 loads to do. What fun! Until next year, all our love...

ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Richmond, VA

Well, here we are in Petersburg, VA, just outside of Richmond, in a Rodeway Inn that has very few guests. This is the first place we have stayed that was not well populated by other tourists. I am sitting here in our hotel room typing this as the kids are sleeping. We have one big room, not separate ones like we did in some of the other places. Anyhow, today and yesterday were long days of driving, probably a total of 20 hours on the road, 15 hours of which was just driving time alone. Today we started out in Hardeeville, SC, just outside of Savannah, GA at 8:40 am after a nice hot hotel breakfast. This included my homemade cooking of course- yes, those great Belgian waffles we get to make ourselves. I made 3 for the fam today. Our first stop was at South of the Border, which is located, where else but, just south of the North Carolina border in South Carolina (or north of the South Carolina border in South Carolina, depending on which direction you are coming from.) We did this as a special commemoration of Jon's family's driving trips to Florida when he was young. I remember Aiya mentioning that there was not much there, yet there were all these billboards advertising it, from way back, along Rte 95. We saw the signs starting in North Carolina saying, "183 miles away". Jon alerted me to watch the signs and notice that no two signs are alike. Hell, he was right! They all said something different. Many of them referenced Pedro, who we were sure to meet when we finally arrived. Needless to say, we did not find Pedro, just lots of shops with Mexican and Souveneir things in them. It is actually a HUGE area now. It must have grown since Jon's family was there because there is a Supermarket, various hotels/motels, a Post Office, a Bank, and much more... It was cool, though many would call it "honkeytonk". We had packed our PB&J lunches so we found a picnic table and ate there. The weather was gorgeous at noontime, probably 60 degrees and sunny there. The kids LOVED looking at all the cool chatzkahs (sp?) inside and we did end up buying a few things, just for kicks. We left there and continued on to our next stop, J.R. Outlet, which was quite worthwhile. I know it only as the cigar company mail order catalogue that Jon receives. However, as we drove and saw the billboard ads, we realized that it was more than that. It was a HUGE warehouse with all kinds of discounted items. I bought some perfume, a pair of pants for Samantha, a bag of pecans (which are now half-eaten). Jon bought a sampler pack of cigars which he said he had been eyeing in the catalogue, but for which he didn't want to pay shipping costs. Voila, we made those costs go away! We spent about an hour there. Afterwards, we headed up to the area where we are now. We ended up eating dinner tonight at Denny's because there was no other good option at the time. There is alot of nothing around these parts! The universe rewarded us; it was Kids Eat Free Night!!! We only spent $22 for dinner for all 6 of us, the lowest price for dinner yet. Now, THAT made me want to do the happy dance! Ta ta for now... Gotta think about yesterday's adventures so I can write 'em down...

ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Savannah, GA

Well, we left Delray at 10 am, which was later than we had intended to leave. But, you know how it is saying goodbyes to Nana and Papa... It takes a long time to do. So many kisses and hugs! We ate lunch at a Rest Area in Georgia; it was the usual PB&J and chicken salad which we had prepared at Hotel Lorraine and Harold. It was a long day of driving and we didn't get to the hotel until 7:00. We ate dinner at a McDonald's because it was the only choice at the time that we pulled off the exit. We hadn't realized just how lucky we are in MA to find so many restaurant choices at any given time until this trip! It is very rural in many areas that we drove, though they have the stops along Route 95 fairly well set up for travelers. This night we were left with not much choice. So, we ate. And, then everyone felt better. But, before we found our Dining spot, we had driven by "the Smallest Church in America", so we checked it out. The boys just loved it, especially ringing the church bell outside. There are 12 chairs inside, beautiful stained glass windows and a small pulpit. I signed the Guest Book and the Prayer Book as well. I wrote a prayer for our family in 2009, that we are all healthy and prosperous and at peace. So, after dinner we checked in to the Hardeeville, SC (just over the GA border) hotel and pretty much crashed. I am sure there are things I am forgetting from this day because I am two days late blogging about it. Ah, well... such is the life of a traveler!

ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Delray Beach happenings...

Saturday was a full day for all of us. Nana and I took the older boys and Samantha to the King's Point Monaco pool for 2+ hours. Samantha LOVED it so much, and wouldn't come out for a LONG time. I had asked my mom if there was a lifeguard there since I didn't see one. The boys heard me and took that as an opportunity to fill the void, rotating being "lifeguard" to Samantha. It was THE SWEETEST THING EVER! She was lovin' every minute of it! She held very tight to her orange noodle though. After the pool escapades, we came back for lunch to the condo, then Jon did some shopping while Nana and Papa took the boys to an Arcade-type place called Boomer's (they said it's basically a larger version of the Charlie Horse). The boys amassed 150 tickets that they were excited to turn in for "prizes" (you know the ones, those little parachute guys and mini-rocket launchers, that we end up paying $25 for!!!) I am told that Benjamin was VERY good at spraying people on the Bumper boats... That night Jonathan and I actually got a chance to escape from the madness... We went on a "date" to a nice little Thai restaurant called Bangkok Express, then to Staples and Books A Million to shop, then to the King's Arcade (one of many slot machine gambling places around here where they still obey the law by awarding Gift cards instead of cash). I ended up playing for 3 hours there! Time sure flew when I was entranced by the clang of the Dancing Dino on my machine. Jon actually went to the condo to ask Nana if she wanted to come play with me, which of course she did. So, it was way too late to bed last night...
Sunday was another full day for all. All 8 of us went to the Clubhouse for some water play in the pool. The temperature has been balmy, at +/-78 degrees. The kids don't actually care how cold it is; they will stop at nothing to go swimming. The baby LOVED swimming in the pool with Nana, despite getting some mouthfuls of chlorinated water. He giggled and smiled a great deal. The boys and Samantha were in there with Jonathan for more than 2 hours; they came out prune-fingered! After the pool, we ate lunch and pretty much did the same routine, with Nana taking the boys herself to Boomer's. We had a dinner date at 5 o'clock with Jon's 92 year old Great Zaide in Lauderdale Lakes. He brought us to a lovely restaurant called Cheddar's where we each ordered what we liked, the variety was so great. Benjamin said, "Great service, great food...", so it passed muster with our 9 year old, in case you are in the area looking for a good restaurant. Now, we are getting ready to pack up and move on from Delray to our next destination, Savannah, GA. Until then... Adios!

ROAD TRIP 2009-2009 - From Orlando to Delray...

Well, today at 4:00, we arrived in Delray Beach to spend some time visiting with Nana and Papa. The kids were so excited about coming here. At 9:30 in the morning, we checked out of the Orlando Resort and started our drive to Delray. It was about 11:30 and the troops were getting restless and hungry for lunch. So, we did the next logical thing. We looked in the AAA Guidebook that we had for Florida and found that we could stop in Fort Pierce, where there was this restaurant called Sonny's BBQ Pit which we had noticed multiple times. It was a cute little place with delicious fare, just right to satisfy our monstrous appetites. After that, we visited the Manatee Visitors Center, which was also called out in our handy dandy AAA Guidebook. It was a bargain at $1 admission per person! The kids loved it and we spent about 1 hour there. Benjamin found the computer game, Joshua found the microscopes you could use to view seashells, Samantha checked it all out, moving from one exhibit to the next at lightspeed, and Zachary explored once he was let free from the stroller. Personally, I thought that the Seahorse exhibit was the coolest! The biggest reason for this is that the males of the species carry the babies, up to 2000 at a time...Can you imagine human males doing this job?! Jonathan thought the whole thing was well done and enjoyed watching it through the children's eyes. After we were finished, we continued our drive to Delray. Three of the four kids conked out on this part of the car ride. They awoke to the loud cheer of Benjamin yelling,"I'm eating crackers in Delray. We're here. I recognize this place!" Joshua was groggy and didn't exactly appreciate this wake up, until he realized that he would probably get lotsa treats here! We had a nice dinner provided by Nana and Papa, lit the Chanukah menorah, and exchanged gifts. Bedtime came all too quickly. And, now we have a little peace and quiet... Until tomorrow morning at 6:30 am sharp!...

ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Orlando happenings...

We decided to visit a place called Gatorland in Kissimmee, right next to Orlando. Although it has been around since 1949, we had never heard of it. It is a large complex dedicated to teaching people about alligators, snakes, and other wildlife in the Florida wetlands. We spent just 2 hours there because everyone was hungry for lunch after the Train Ride. Jon and the boys had planned to go back afterwards with their admission bracelets, but the boys decided that they would rather go back to the hotel and play at the water park/pool. Anyhow, at Gatorland we saw a show called the "Gator Jumparoo". It was feeding time for the alligators and two workers named Bubba and Cooter were charged with hanging chicken parts from a wire and enticing the gators to jump up as high as possible in order to procure their lunches. The emcee made the show very funny with his jokes and making this a contest of who would entice the gators first. The kids then got to pet a baby alligator (just 5 months old) being held by one of the Gatorland workers. We have photos of this, which we will post once we arrive home.

ROAD TRIP 2008-2009 - Going further South...

We are currently in Orlando, Florida at the Fountains Resort... It is a spectacular place to vacation. The kids are having a blast here, especially at the on-site Water Park! We were bribed with low room rates and Bass Pro Shops gift cards to come here by the Timeshare people, so earlier today we had to attend a 2-hour Sales Presentation. They actually have the whole thing down to a science. They provided a light breakfast, had a Kids Play Area (for 3-9 year olds) {Benjamin played video games the whole time, surprise!}, gave out hats and these little light sticks (which the boys are calling their "lightsabers"; a welcome and fab gift for them, since they have been talking "Star Wars" for the WHOLE trip and made lightsabers out of straws before today!) We had a nice man named Christopher Yawn do our sales pitch. He loved the kids. He presented the whole thing and pretty much knew that we weren't going to buy from the start, but still did his best to sell. He was not hard sell though, which we appreciated. After the Sales thingie, we came back to the room for lunch. Then, Jonathan took the boys to the Wakoola Springs Water Park for more than 2 hours, while I stayed at the room with the little ones napping. The boys came home at 5:20 with ready-to-make pizza, salad, and ice cream sundaes for dessert. What a nice treat! We had a great day today, which we can't say for yesterday. We were in the car for 11 hours driving from Charlotte, NC to Orlando. We left at 8:30 am and arrived at 7:30 pm. We made many stops along the way, mainly to clean up vomit that Benjamin and Samantha spewed. It was NOT fun. But, together Jonathan and I handled it quite gracefully. We visited Publix to buy antibacterial wipes in order to clean up the car thoroughly. When the kids went to sleep last night, Benjamin was heard saying, "Wow, I LOVE this place." And, on that note, I will sign off... Until next time...