On our way home from Disneyworld, we decided to spend the night in St Augustine, Florida. We had heard it was a cool little town and we thought a nice afternoon at the beach would be relaxing. The beach was beautiful except for the huge, dead jellyfish littering the beach. We still had a great time though as you can see.
St Augustine was a pretty little town and had a lot of historic stuff to see. We mostly just drove by and also walked around the fort.
We decided to take our family vacation in October this year to take advantage of Disney world being only a 7 hour drive away and the fact that the temperatures would be a lot cooler. We went for 5 days and had so much fun with the kids. Lizzy was pretty much in awe most of the time and James liked it and had his favorite rides and moments. We hit Magic Kingdom Mon/Wed/Fri, Animal Kingdom on Tues and Hollywood Studios on Thur.
Monday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 18)
Magic Kingdom is just what it says it is: Magic. Lizzy was in awe from the moment we saw Cinderella’s castle from the monorail to the Mickey mouse confetti on the ground when they opened the park. Liz and James also got to meet a plethora of Disney princesses and other characters and loved, loved, Loved going on the rides and seeing the parades. (Liz loved peter pan, driving on the speedway, Goofey's roller coaster and buzz light year) (James’ favorites were the flying rockets, carousel, going on the speedway and buzz light year)
Tuesday: Animal Kingdom (Oct 19)
We LOVED Animal Kingdom and could have spent more time there. The kids were beyond thrilled to start our day in a dinosaur park going on dinosaur rides.
They had some of the best shows that I have ever seen. The Finding Nemo puppet show was absolutely amazing as well as the Festival of the Lion King. Needless to say the kids were in a trance throughout the shows. They also loved taking the train ride, visiting the petting zoo and the safari ride is amazing. James can never get enough of seeing the animals.
One of Adam’s Highlights was riding the Mount Everest roller coaster while I was thrilled to be able to go on a more wild ride with Liz—the rapids. It felt so good to get wet!
Wednesday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 20)
We got to the park about a half hour after it opened and saw Snow White as we walked in. Lizzy ran up and grabbed her hand. Snow White was awesome and asked Lizzy to walk with her to her pavilion where there was a line of people waiting to take a picture with her. It was great since Liz got to skip the line and have a great conversation too.
During our trip Lizzy also made us do cheers all the time. She would say, “Peter Pan ride, Who's in?” We would then all have to put our hands in to show we were “in” and she would say “All for one, and one for all” It would be followed up by Liz and James clapping and yelling “Yeah!”. We cheered a lot during our trip. Gotta love the stuff she comes up with!
Wednesday was also our one late night at the park. We took a break in the afternoon and came back in the evening so we could see the electric light parade and the fireworks. The kids loved the electric parade, but were getting pretty tired by the time the fireworks came around at 9pm. It was fun to see Tinkerbelle flying across the sky and the fireworks and music were so coordinated I thought it was an awesome show.
Thursday: Hollywood Studios (Oct 21)
We were kind of on the fence about visiting Hollywood Studios because it is mostly shows and has about 3 rides. In the end we went because they had an Ariel show and a Belle Stage play that we knew Lizzy would Love. They were also playing their big Fantasmic show that evening. The day started out great. Lizzy loved the Ariel show and still to this day believed she was under water during the entire show. Toward the afternoon the kids got more and more bored and just wanted to go on rides and not see anymore shows. We hit the Indiana Jones Stunt show and the highlight for James was seeing a tractor that was there to pull a piece of the set aside for the next stunt. He was disappointed when the tractor disappeared. The Fantasmic show was as it says it was “Fantasmic!” The kids loved it and all its effects, but honestly, if I was going with young children to Disneyworld again, I would skip Hollywood Studios as it felt 5 times more crowded than the other parks and the shows were not enough to keep the kids interests. We didn’t take too many pictures, but one highlight was meeting Sully and Mike!
Friday: Magic Kingdom (Oct 22)
We spent our last day in Magic Kingdom enjoying all the rides the kids wanted to do a second time and meeting a few princesses that we hadn’t seen yet. I was personally glad it was our last day cause my body was so tired! The highlight for Lizzy was meeting Ariel. Right now, if you are a mermaid, Lizzy loves you. The Ariel at the park was awesome. We waiting about 10 minutes to get a picture with her and she told Lizzy she didn’t have to take a picture right away, but they could talk for a few minutes. Lizzy told her she liked to dance and they twirled together. Adam was too close to get a twirling picture, but it made Lizzy’s day. After all, who wouldn’t want to dance with a real princess?
We also saw the “Dream along with Mickey” show on the castle forecourt stage. This production was fabulous. Lizzy and James were entranced the whole time and I especially loved Maleficent.
We loved our trip to Disneyworld and so did the kids. This week Lizzy said, “Mom, I miss Disneyworld” What kid wouldn’t?
For Labor Day we decided to venture outside of Charleston. On the recommendation of a friend we went to Gatlinburg Tennessee home of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park with our friends David and Diana Hall.
It was absolutely beautiful and just what I needed. I have been craving a hike just like I sometimes crave ice cream if you know what I mean. The mountains were not super tall, but good enough they were mountains with trees and trails to explore. We enjoyed hiking to a couple of waterfalls
and also enjoyed driving around a scenic loop. We stopped a few times to view some old cabins and churches.
The coolest thing was that a bear—a black ran across the road right in front of our car. What are the chances? It was AWESOME! Unfortunately this was the best picture we got of the guy cause Adam fell asleep and woke up when I yelled “Bear!”
While there we rented a cabin. There are tons of cabins in the area to rent and I recommend it.
Each day we would relax on the porch and the kids would go for a swim in the hot tub. After they went to bed the adults would enjoy games and a nice soak in the hot tub sharing stories and looking at the stars.
On Labor Day we finished up our trip at Ober Gatlinburg Amusement Park. The park itself was OK and I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. We took a tram up the mountain and at the top it is an amusement park in the summer and a ski resort in the winter. 
The view from the top was beautiful and it is safe to say that everyones favorite thing to do was to ride the alpine slide. Lizzy said “I hope I can go as fast as I did at the Great Wall” It was great to hear that she remembered that experience from over a year ago.
Overall, it was a relaxing weekend and just what we needed.
By the way, who do you think wins for best watermelon face?
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