Orlando or bust!

The first of our many travels this spring is here! We decided over Christmas break that we needed a small vacation and would go back to Universal Studios for a few days in early February. This was before I remembered the two conferences I have coming up, plus our cruise with my parents in a few weeks. So we have quite a bit going in with travel!

This week started off with a bit of a snag. On Tuesday I picked B up from daycare and he wasn’t himself. Fell asleep in my arms, not eating, and a 102 fever. He was a lot better Wednesday morning, but we still went to the Dr so he could go to daycare (make sure it wasn’t flu). Well, she did rule out the flu but said he sounded like he had a touch of pneumonia! Antibiotics were prescribed and he’s slowly getting better, phew!

Yesterday (Friday, Feb 2) I got up bright and early and took B to the in laws so I could run some errands. 4 hours later after a workout, stop at the dump, post office, and dog boarder I was back and we were ready to go. We were meeting G in Virginia Beach as he was finishing up a conference at 3 and then we were going to hit the road. Around 1:15 I got a call from him that they were done early! Luckily I was only about 15 minutes away at that point, so we met, let B run around a bit, and were on our way by 2.

My original plan (hope?) was to leave VB at 3, drive for about 3 hours and stop at a chick fil a for dinner. Eat, let B play a bit, put on his pjs, when continue to a hotel in the Savannah area, arriving about midnight. We generally followed that plan still with a few minor changes. Since we left earlier, we went a bit past savannah to make for a shorter drive today (Saturday). B also had a couple times where he got upset and had a coughing fit so we stopped and wandered around a bit. I was impressed with how well he did overall though. Even with extra stops, we still ended up at a nice Hampton Inn in Darien, Ga around 11:30 pm. After unpacking and organizing, we were all in bed by midnight.

Despite the fact that I’m a 35 year old adult, I still get super excited about things and thus it keeps me from sleeping. I felt wide awake when we first got to the hotel, but did manage to fall asleep after a bit. Around 430 I woke up and mainly tossed and turned after than until B woke up close to 6. I thought we would get up then, grab breakfast, and get on our way. But G was wanting to sleep more. I don’t know how he could with B being grumpy! Finally B started to cry so that was our cue to head downstairs for breakfast.

I do really like that Hampton Inn always includes a hot breakfast with your stay. This one was fairly typical for them, which is still a big step up from most hotel breakfasts. Fruit, eggs, waffles, yogurt, cereal, and potatoes were all available. We filled up, grabbed some coffee and cereal for the road and were on our way by 8. Later than I wanted, but that’s ok!

We stopped after we crossed the Florida line at the welcome center. They give out free orange juice and used to have alligators to see, which I thought B might like. But they are doing some landscaping refurbishments, so I think the gators are gone (at least temporarily). He got to pet a cute dog named Charlie though so all was not lost. Charlie’s Mom also took a nice photo of us (G and I at least) by the welcome sign. It’s cold out for Florida!

A short while later we made it to the hotel, Cabana Bay Beach resort. We’ve stayed here twice before and really like it. They have a family suite that consists of a kitchenette, living area, and then a separate bedroom with two queen beds. It’s nice to be able to put B in a room by himself and the fridge and microwave are very convenient. Check in was quick and our room was ready, despite it only being 11 am. We went to the room, settled in a bit, changed, then hopped on the hotel bus and were on our way to Islands of Adventure!

I should mention now that we have seasonal passes to universal/islands of adventure. We came here in the fall and I did some research and found out that it only cost $5 to upgrade the tickets we had at the time to the season pass option. We figured it was worth it to do, even if we ended up not using it. But here we are! The season pass is the cheapest of the annual passes and does have some limitations, specifically blackout dates. As it happens universal does a weekly concert series during Mardi Gras that season pass holders are blocked out of. Today was the first day of that, which meant no Universal side for us. But that’s ok, there’s plenty to keep us entertained in the Islands of Adventure side.

Lots of magic to be done, and more on this trip later!