The BIG trip - the plan

So seeing as we are about a month away from our trip, I thought I would share our itinery as we have had requests from family.  So here goes....

These are all the journeys we will be doing.  It is about 2500+ miles in total! and that's just from accommodation to accommodation.  There are hotels and vacation rentals spread out across the trip, 9 different accommodations over 16 nights.  The longest we stay on one place is 3 nights.....

Leg 1- Simpsonville to Norfolk, 431 miles, 6 hours 50 minutes

We initially wanted to head straight to Washington, D.C., but it is just too far.  I decided on Norfolk, as it seemed a good place.  We have a hotel right on the beach, and intend to leave early, so when we finally get there we can check in and chuck the boys straight on to the beach, then into the pool.  We are only staying one night here.  

Leg 2 - Norfolk to Washington, D.C., 188 miles, 3 hours

On our journey to Washington, we are hoping to stop at Norfolk Naval Base and do a bus tour.  This is one of the biggest naval bases on the east coast with a very interesting history (find it here).

Our hotel in Washington is pretty central, with underground parking (at an additional cost of course). We are staying 2 nights, which gives us 1 full day and 1 maybe 2 half days.  We will see how we go! We want to see the monuments, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.  And of course the White House!

Leg 3 - Washington, D.C. to New York, 231 miles, 4 hours 5 minutes 

We are actually staying in Queens.  We are renting a top floor apartment, for a very reasonable rate.  The hotels were soooooooo expensive, especially in Manhattan.  The area we are staying looks interesting but there is an Indian restaurant within walking distance, and the subway is 15 minutes walk.  We are staying 2 nights again, so the one full day we have we intend to jump on a subway and go in to Manhattan.  The subway will take us to a boat trip in lower Manhatten, plus the World Trade Centre site.  Then up to Central Park, where we want to go to the zoo, then to the Empire State Building and Times Square, then back over the Brooklyn Bridge, change trains at the Barclays Arena (Brooklyn nets basketball team play here) and head back to the apartment absolutely exhausted!

Leg 4 - New York to Douglas, MA, 185 miles, 3 hours 15 minutes

This looks like quite a scenic drive along the coast of the Long Island Sound.  We are staying in a cottage in Douglas for 2 nights.  The cottage has a lake at the back of the garden, supplied by a small spring, and the owner maintains a beach there, so hopefully the boys will enjoy it.  

I initially wanted to stay in Boston, but it was sooooo expensive.  Douglas is about an hour away from Boston, so we will take a day trip.  This is for me really.  I want to do some of the Freedom trail, the USS Constitution boat, and take in the culture (as much as you can in one day!).  It looks like such an amazing old city, depending on our first impressions, we may go back again at some point in the future.

Leg 5 - Douglas to Cortland, NY, 285 miles, 4 hours 40 minutes

This was actually the first thing I booked through Groupon.  2 nights in a resort with day passes to a water park on site.  I have looked at the water park, and it seems good for the boys.  It is in the Finger Lakes area of New York State, so will hopefully be very beautiful.  This is a good stop over point, with hopefully enough for the boys to do.  It is actually a pretty good deal when you throw in the water park tickets (they would be $150 for all of us if we weren't staying at the resort)

Leg 6 - Cortland, NY to Buffallo, NY via Niagra Falls, 187 miles, 3 hours

As we are up there, we may as well do Niagra Falls.  Due to complications with the car insurance, we cannot go into Canada, so will be seeing the falls from the American side.  We plan to do the Maid of the Mist boat trip, and take lots of photos.  Other than that there doesn't seem much to do.  We are staying in Buffalo for one night as it is cheaper.

Leg 7 - Buffalo, NY to Port Clinton, OH, 280 miles, 4 hours 30 minutes

We have booked a ground floor condo in Port Clinton on the shore of Lake Erie for 3 nights  It has a pool, a beach and a playground, and appears to be a walk into town.  From what I have seen, the Great Lakes are quite touristy.  There are a few islands in the lake which we may take a trip to, or there is a big amusement park about 30 minutes drive away. We will probably do a bit of exploring, and a lot of relaxing here

Leg 8 - Port Clinton, OH, to Indianapolis, IN, 256 miles, 4 hours 3 minutes

My boys want to see the race track.  If you know my boys, you will understand this.  We have a hotel booked right in the centre of the city, which is about a 20 minute drive from the track.  We are already booked on to a tour.  The boys are excited about this, as am I.  We will be in Indianapolis for 2 nights, so intend to have a little explore.  I can't imagine it is that different from any other medium size city in America, but we shall see.  We are planning on doing the zoo also, and possibly the children's museum, it gets very good reviews.  I have also just found out that the terra-cotta warriors are on a special exhibit there while we are in town.  Super exciting!!!! From here on in we are heading home....

Leg 9 - Indianapolis, IN, to Knoxville, TN, 340 miles, 5 hours

This is a one night stop to break up the journey.  You can even see Greenville on the map above.  This is a hotel with a cool pool, so hopefully it will be ok.  

So there you have it!  It is a lot to take in, many places will be seen, albeit briefly.  But we are not the kind of people who go and crazily explore one place, we like to just scratch the surface and get a feel for places.  It is going to be hard with the kids, but they are excited about seeing loads of different places, and watching lots of films, so hopefully it will all work out ok.  I have lots of stuff planned in my head to make it go as smoothly as possible....

I am going to try and blog as I go too.....wifi dependent of course! 

Legoland - Part 2

We decided not to rush to Legoland on the tuesday, and arrived about 11pm.  Again, it was not too busy, but probably a bit busier than monday.  There was also quite a few school buses parked in the car park.

We headed into the park.  The boys had a few things they wanted to do that they had spotted the day before. The first stop was the Lego Factory tour.  This is supposed to be a miniature version of a Lego production line.  It starts with a video, then takes you through the production line.  It was not very good.  From here we headed to Duplo play town, a park area.  This was in full sun, and seeing as it was very hot again, we did not stay long.  There were some dubious looking spiders webs in some of the play equipment.

We then went to Lego Kingdoms to The Forestmens Hideout.  This was another play park which was more suited to Oliver and Isaac.  The big slide was closed off, which it had not been the day before.  Luckily this park was in the shade, so we were able to stay a bit longer.  Seb was not interested though, and just wanted to sit in the buggy.

Food was calling, so we headed to The Market Restaurant to see what they had.  This had lots of different counters selling different types of things, none of which I thought the boys would eat.  So we went back to the Pizza and pasta places we went to the day before.  Again, Isaac barely ate anything, while the rest of us pigged out.

It was very hot by now, so we took a slow walk to the back of the park to the waterpark.  It was even quieter this time.  We all got changed, and decided to base ourselves near the wave pool.  We got some loungers, just under the shade.  We all had lots of fun in the waves, the boys were able to have a bit more freedom, as we were able to keep a good eye on them.  We went to the Duplo splash zone again, which the boys enjoyed (damn them slides), and another go round the lazy river.  The staff were not as helpful, and there were loads of empty rings around the river.  I was able to take Isaac like I had the day before, but Paul decided not to take Seb, as he had not enjoyed it.  We went back to the loungers, and got some ice cream and beer.  Seb was getting tired, so he got in the buggy, and sat there relaxing for a good chunk of time.  Isaac was also getting tired, so he had a little relax.  This enabled Paul to take Oliver on the lazy river again.  On the way back they noticed the Duplo pool had been closed.  Within 5 minutes, the wave pool was closed, and the lifeguards were fishing something disgusting out....

We thought this would be a good time to leave.  Unfortunately, so did everyone else, so the changing rooms were packed.  We left the waterpark and headed towards the gate.  We stopped at the Build and Test area on the way through the park.  The boys were all given some wheels as they headed in.  The idea is to make a car and then test it on ramps.  If we had done this earlier in the day it would have been awesome.  By this time though, our children were shattered, and getting all silly when the pieces  would not stay on.  It did not help that a lot of the pieces were too worn or broken to stay on.

So we trundled off back to the car, for the delightful drive home.  The boys loved Legoland.  The concept is amazing, but although the park has only been open a few years, many things felt a bit worn and neglectful.  The staff here were also a bit hit and miss.  Some were amazingly helpful, but most looked like they were there to gossip with their friends.  There is no way enough shade in parts of the park, which could easily be rectified.  Paul and I were a bit underwhelmed by the whole place.  We were glad we got a 2 day ticket though.  To do the whole thing in one day is possible, but you would be shattered for a few days after.  It was nice to spread it over the two days, slightly more relaxing, and we were able to take things in a lot better.  Its just a shame it cost us a small fortune in fuel.

Legoland- part 1

We did Legoland over two days.  It was only $15 each to upgrade to a 2 day pass.  We also took advantage of a special offer, where if you name the date you are going to Legoland, you get $15 off admission.  So the second day was almost free.  We also added the water park to the admission, to be able to cool off in the hot sun.

The first day we arrived about 9.30.  Legoland is a good 45 minute drive from Orlando.  We arrived, paid the parking (only $14 this time, woohoo), and trundled in.  The first thing that struck us was how quiet it was.  After the chaos of Disney and Seaworld, this was most welcome.

We headed straight through mini-land, up to Lego City.  Here Isaac got to go on the mini driving school, followed by Oliver having a go on the Lego Driving school.  The mini driving school was not at all busy, yet despite there being no queue, they still timed Isaac's go, and kicked him off as soon as his time was done.  He was very pleased with his driving license.  Oliver's was a bit better.  He had to sit through a video which told him the rules of the road etc.  He then went out with about 8 other drivers, and got a good time on the road.  It was very cute to see them all abiding by the rules.  I think Oliver would have preferred it if the cars had gone faster, and it was a race track, rather than a street circuit.

From here we headed to Boating School.  The queue for this was a bit longer.  I rode with Oliver and Seb while Paul went behind us with Isaac. Our boot had rubbish steering.  we ended up getting stuck under a pelican that squirted water, and could not get the boat out.  Needless to say, we got soaked.  Which was actually quite nice.  It managed to keep Seb really cool.  The days we did Legoland it was hot, too hot.

After a quick drink and snack our next stop was Lego Technic.  Oliver and i rode the Aquazone Wave Racers, then Paul and Oliver rode the Lego Technic Coaster, both were pretty good.

From here we headed through Land of Adventure where we all joined the queue for Coastasaurus.  Seb had measured perfectly for it at the bottom, but when we got to the top, he was too small.  Isaac was also kicking off about going on, he really didn't want too, so Paul took the pair of them back again, and Oliver and I rode.  This was one rickety roller coaster.  We then joined the line for the Safari Trek.  This was about  a 15 minute wait, but the boys amused themselves by playing Lego.  Oliver rode on his own, I rode with Seb, and Paul took Isaac.  We drove through a safari of Lego animals, which all the boys enjoyed.

By now we were starting to get hungry,  We had spotted a pizza and pasta buffet place when we came in.  Luckily we were early enough to get seats.  The price was reasonable, think it was under $50 for us all to eat and drink an unlimited amount.  Isaac was being a pickle, and refused to eat anything.  We eventually coaxed him into having 3 pieces of garlic bread.  The rest of us had 2 plates worth, Oliver and Seb having double portions of both pizza and pasta, Paul and I going for pizza then salad.  We were able to refill our drinks as much as we wanted, so did this just before leaving and heading to World of Chima

This was one for Isaac, he loves Chima, but there did not seem to me a lot there.  The boys got a nice soaking in Craggers swamp, before we went and looked at Legend of Chima, the ride.  This is a boat ride, through the story of Chima where you get to shoot water from cannons in front of you.  There are also cannons on the side that people watching can shoot.  You can also shoot the people in the boats in front and behind you.  We all had a great time on this, and got soaked.

Seb in Craggers Swamp

Seeing as we were already wet, we took a slow meander through Miniland to the Lego Water Park, right at the back of the park.

This made Legoland for us.  It was not too busy.  After getting changed we parked ourselves on the sand by the Duplo Splash Surf.  Then it started raining.  Seeing as we were already wet, we kept playing in the water.  The boys loved the little slides, but Seb and Isaac would not ride with out me or Paul.  They quickly became a bit tedious to Paul and I, so we went and gave the Built a Raft River a go.  This is basically a lazy river, with rubber rings with lego bits attached so you can build as you float round.  This was ok, the boys liked it.  I managed to get a double ring which had a seat bit in one of the holes, so Isaac had a good ride.  Paul did not manage to get one for Seb though, which made his journey a little cumbersome.  We then went to the wave pool, which was awesome.  A good size, not too busy, and the boys were pretty safe.  They all enjoyed jumping in and out of the waves, and off the island that was positioned in the middle.  They also enjoyed playing with the bigger bricks.  We had a quick go in the joker soaker area.  This was perfect for Oliver.  On a couple of occasions we did not see him till he got to the bottom of a slide. The water here was freezing, and it came at you from all directions, even when you are just standing in the pool.

After the water park, we headed for the gate.  It was already after 5pm! We had to stop and try the Granny Apple Fries.  These are apples, cut into fries, fried then dusted with sugar and cinnamon, served with vanilla cream dipping sauce.  A bit pricey, but very very yummy.  Of course, we had to stop in the Big Shop on the way out.  We has a good look round, before we decided what we wanted to purchase.  Ouch........

The boys were shattered

USS Yorktown, Charleston, waterpark

So we awoke early (thanks boys...) and eager for our next days adventures.  We left our friends at the house and headed towards Charleston.

Top Gun plane

We had already decided to visit Patriots Point.  This is an area of Charleston harbor which is home to various American Navy ships and aircraft. You can also get a boat to Fort Sumter from here.  We parked up, suncreamed the boys and headed in. We decided to let Seb walk, using his bat reins, as getting the buggy around could have been difficult.  It was reasonably priced, and as we had 3 small ones we even managed to hitch a ride on a golf cart from the entrance to the ship itself.  USS Yorktown was big.  Everything was really well laid out as a museum.  It is only when you start learning about these things, as a foreigner, that you come to realize just how much military action the US has seen.  We spent a good couple of hours exploring this huge aircraft carrier, and barely scratched the surface.  By lunch time the boys and I were beginning to wilt, in need of food we headed back to dry land.  On our way out, we stopped in the Vietnam Support Base.  Again, this is a war I know very little about, it is before my time, and not really relevant to British history, so it is not studied in depth at school (I did WWI, WWII and the bit in between for my GCSE history).  I would love to learn more about it.  I am finding that the longer I am here, the more I want to know about world affairs, not just an islands past present and future.

Lunchtime

From there we headed into Charleston.  We traveled down to the very base of the city, and had a drive round.  Having driven through the historic area of Georgetown on out way to Myrtle Beach, we knew what to expect.  Only this was on a larger, grander scale.  People have told us that one of the reasons Charleston has so many old historic houses is due to the poverty that was abundant after the Civil War.  This prevented people from knocking down houses and building afresh.  Instead they had to 'make do and mend'.  The South Carolina Historical Society have played a big part in this.  They hold open days at various times of the year to different houses and gardens.  Not something my boys would put up with....  We found somewhere to park (yes, even in historic Charleston we found a multistory), and walked till we found a place we deemed suitable for the kids.  So we ended up in an Irish pub, Molly Darcy's.  It was quiet, we were given a seat by the table football, which the boys loved, and we were all starving (If I remember, I will blog about this on Feeding Goslings).  We left via the back door, and stumbled across the area where they keep all the horse and carriages.  The boys loved seeing the animals, but we deemed the rides themselves a little expensive (and boring for boys).

Customs House

So we kept walking and stumbled upon the City Market.  We must have entered it from about half way back down towards main street.  It was heaving, so busy.  It was hard to stop and look at anything.  In between the buildings were roads, which the horse and carriages were using. As we headed towards main street, the items for sale became more touristy.  We exited opposite Customs House.

One big boat

In the water behind, we could see a huge cruise liner.  We headed towards the water, passing a freight train, full of BMW X5's. We walked towards the Waterfront Park, which like most city parks here, had a water feature the boys could run around in.  We got them down to their pants, but they are a pair of chickens, and after 5 minutes standing on the edge, it was time to redress them and move on.  By now it was really hot.  We had seen a couple of water parks advertised locally so headed to try one out.

On the way to Splash Island, Sebastian finally fell asleep.  We paid our state park entrance fee, and headed to the water park.  Parked up, put Seb in the buggy, where he went back to sleep.  The boys got changed, I sat on a lounger while Seb slept and the others played in the water.  It had clouded over, but it was still really hot.  Seb must have slept for an hour before waking up and realizing where he was.  All the boys loved this place, and really didn't want to leave.  So much so, that we were the last paying customers out of the park.  We headed back to the house for a final evening with our friends, before going our separate ways the next morning.

We had to leave very early the next morning, as Oliver had his end of year pool party at a friends house.  After driving part of the way home, I was very tired, and the weather was looking pants.  We managed to persuade him to stay at home, and go to the pool instead.  Bad mummy alert, but I was very relieved.  We spent the afternoon vegging around the house, relaxing and watching 'Wreck it Ralph' for the umpteenth time.....