St. Augustine, FL

After a pretty full day at Epcot/World Showcase, we left the park at 8pm to head to the airport. We needed to trade in our MAW rental car and pick up our own, as well as pick up our traveling companion for the next week, my best friend of 17 years, Heather. We got to the airport around 8:30 but forgot to fill up the rental, so we drove through the airport back out to the city to get gas, then back into the airport again. Then the trick was finding where to pick up our rental car. It made sense to us to pick up the new one first, so that we would have somewhere to put all the luggage before we returned the old rental. Problem is, rental car companies don't expect people to DRIVE to the airport to pick up their rental. All the signs indicated where to RETURN a rental but not pick up. Our first thought was, they must be right next to each other so we'll just go in the return area and then figure out where to go, but there really was no way to get to pickups from there. We asked for help from an employee, who was no help at all, I tried calling the rental company but being after office hours I got a recording and an option to go to the 800 number. We were on time to pick up Heather, but now as we've driven around and around the airport she's been waiting a while. I'm telling her the problem via text and she's looking for help inside the airport. She says she can see the sign for our rental company. In exasperation, Tim jumps out of the car at the curb for arrivals and attempts to find the place from inside the airport. As we are having a few final words as he's walking away, an airport police makes her presence known and yells at me to move the truck. I told her we can't find the pick up spot for our rental and she looks at me (for about 2 milliseconds) as if I just told her the sky is blue. Yeah, and??? I married into a law enforcement family. I love and support police of every kind, but why is it that most airport police are the rudest, least sympathetic people on earth? Do they put them there as punishment for something? Anyway, Tim calls me as I'm circling the airport that he found it right away and to go ahead and return the MAW rental and he'll meet me. We wait for a few minutes and soon he arrives with our minivan and "auntie" Heather. We make the transition and are finally ready to leave the airport around 10. It took us an hour and a half to trade cars and pick up a passenger, who arrived on time. Good grief. So we hit the road, the kids finally fall asleep, and we head north to St. Augustine, about an hour north. We laughed along the way because we were slowly running out of coins for the toll roads, and we kept seeing signs that said "Orlando". Aren't we out of Orlando yet? We arrived at our hotel, the Comfort Suites, around 11 and set up camp. The hotel kindly had set up the roll away we requested and we put Tessa there. Phoebe and Tim took one double and Heather and I took the other. It wasn't a very big room but we were only staying one night. We all fell asleep quickly.

The next thing we know, the hotel phone rang. The clock said 7:30am and I heard Tim say, "Yeah, that's ours. We'll be right there." Heather and I sat up and wondered what's going on when we noticed the roll away bed was empty. Tessa left our room and had been wandering around the hotel. Someone sat her down in the breakfast room and gave her a bowl of Froot Loops while they tried to find her family. The maid remembered setting up the roll away in our room and suggested us. I think they may have tried at least one other room because another couple made a comment to us at breakfast about, oh, they found you or something like that. We were mortified that she had left without us hearing her and embarrassed that they had to search us out, but what could we do? We got up, dressed, had a very basic breakfast in the lobby, packed the car and by 10am headed out to explore "the oldest neighborhood in America", St Augustine Florida. Heather and Tessa watching cartoons, waiting for me to get myself and Phoebe ready while Tim packed the van.

We were able to leave the car in the hotel parking lot and walk a couple of blocks to the historic district.

Along the way, everyone but me spotted a family of raccoons running up and down a tree.

I had gone back to the car to get Phoebe's Golden Access Pass, which allows her and her party to enter National parks and other sites for free. We continued toward the Spanish Quarter, and meandered down St. George St., a pedestrian only passageway.

It was a pretty little town that really just caters to tourists. We window shopped and took some pictures. Tim collected yet another Harley t-shirt. We asked the girl there about good food and she suggested the pizza place next door. Heather wasn't hungry so she wandered around the stores while we crammed into this tiny little restaurant and got some slices to share with the girls. They only had booth seating so Phoebe's wheelchair stuck way out into the tiny walkway by the register. Tessa started getting bored and trying to go under the table to get out. She spilled a drink and we were making our usual scene. We couldn't get out of there fast enough (but it was good pizza). As we wandered outside we saw that even the historic buildings charged admission to see inside, and we felt we had seen enough when we got to a major cross street, Cathedral Place. There was a square at this intersection and we hung out there for a few minutes, taking in the two old churches and "Government House" across the street.

It was here that the "Coconut Butt" joke began.

Tessa was using the canon as a jungle gym to climb on and clearly did not appreciate the history of the place. There was a pyramid of canon balls next to it and we asked her if she knew what those were. She replied in her best 4 yr old logic, "coconuts". Heather corrected her and explained that they were in fact canon balls. Tessa thought this was a hilarious joke and retorted back, coconuts! To which Heather could only reply, in full childlike gusto, canon balls! They went back and forth for a while and we all found this to be quite hilarious. The battle over canon balls vs. coconuts continued the entire trip, but at one point Tim threw in the "butt" just to change things up a bit. There was no going back, and for months Tessa still thinks it hilarious to spontaneously yell out "coconut butt!". I'm not the biggest fan of "potty" humor but she's not calling anyone a name, just repeating something her DAD said (ahem) that sounds funny, so I'm over it. She's been reprimanded by a couple of her aunties already, and I'm hoping that she lets the phrase become a memory before she starts school. I'd hate to have to explain the whole story to the principal. :lmao: And just FYI, the adults on the trip have discovered that there is a strange satisfaction that comes with using the phrase "aw, canon balls" to express frustration or disappointment. Weird.

We walked down Cathedral street toward the waterfront and debated going out on the bridge to look for dolphins. (I had read that it was a great viewing spot) They were doing construction and it was super loud and the sidewalks were horrible with the wheelchair so we skipped it. We headed back north and made a stop at Castillo de San Marcos Nat'l Monument. We found out that her passport wasn't needed because they were allowing free entry for everyone! The fort was constructed started in 1672 and was under siege many times during the colonial period when the American continent, or "new world", was being fought over by the various European monarchies. It was interesting, except for the canon firing, where Phoebe and I hid in the gift shop with the doors closed.

They weren't real worried about wheelchair access in 1672, so Tim carried Phoebe up to the top wall for the view.

Heather did a good job of keeping track of Tessa down below.

After the fort we walked back to the hotel to get our car, but were tempted by a storefront we saw on the way for [URL="http://www.luliscupcakes.com/Home_Page.php"]LuLi's Cupcakes[/URL].

Everyone got one but me. I decided that the smoothie shop next door looked better, as the day was warming up. Everyone liked their treats and after some potty breaks and choosing seats in the van, we drove up and down a few of the old streets in the city before we got on the interstate and headed north.

After leaving St. Augustine our plan was to make a couple more stops in the area before heading north to Charleston, where we were sleeping that night. First stop was to be the Kingsley Plantation just outside of Jacksonville. (If you like history you will love the links you can browse through here - [url]http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp.htm[/url]) The family who owned this plantation lived here starting in 1814 (their house is the oldest plantation house still standing in FL). There were several reasons I wanted to see this. It is a National Historic Site, not a tourist spot with recreated actors and a petting zoo. It has 23 of the original 32 "tabby" slave cabins that have been, and still are being, excavated. I thought this would be such an educational spot to visit and get to see one little aspect of these people's lives. Not far from there is Amelia Island and American Beach. ([url]http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/ambch_history.htm[/url])

AB is the "First African American beach" est. in 1935 as the land was purchased by a black-owned business and open to black visitors, and eventually sold in lots to the black population. (Even though blacks were "free" they were prohibited from entering public places - including beaches - until this one was purchased by them). I was so excited to let the kids out to play in the sand, and feel a little part of history at the same time! After the plantation and the beach we were going to stop for dinner somewhere in Savannah and then get to Charleston at bedtime. Here is how the rest of our day ended up playing out...

When we left St. Augustine, Heather volunteered to sit in the back with the kids since I was the one who knew where we were going and Tim was driving. In an attempt to help her feel a little more adult, we moved Tessa's carseat to the third row so Heather could sit in the middle with Phoebe. We were cruising along I-95 and after crossing the St. Johns River via the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge, I saw a sign for the Kingsley Plantation.

Bridges in the southeast are so cool...

The GPS either didn't tell us or we weren't paying attention. I don't remember. As we moved further north and away from the sign I saw, we tried to see if there was an alternate route to get there without turning back. Two exits later I saw the "Timucuan Reserve" on the map listed near "Cedar Point" and recognized those as part of the whole National Historic area.

As soon as we exited the freeway I looked back at Tessa, who had gotten very quiet all of a sudden. I saw her blowing spit bubbles and from the look on her face I knew - she was about to throw up. I yelled at Tim to stop the car, I reached down and grabbed a plastic bag, turned around to hand it Heather and right then she blew. On the side of the road we cleaned up what we could and then we tried to decide on the best plan to finish the job. Tim suggested the CVS he saw on the corner but I couldn't imagine carrying her and her car seat through the store like that. I looked at the map and it showed us only a few miles from our destination, so I suggested we deal with it until we got there, hoping that they would have some camping type facilities, maybe outdoor showers or a spigot at least? I traded seats with Heather who was already nauseous. We drove on, windows down, until we reached the end of the road. We had arrived at Cedar Point which was nothing more than a boat launch. If you want to laugh look at this map ([url]http://www.nps.gov/timu/planyourvisit/upload/timu_preserve_map_2005_sm.pdf[/url]). We were at Cedar Point and wanted to be at the plantation....

Zooming out on the GPS I saw that there were a bunch of islands/marshland between us and the plantation and absolutely no roads, bridges, etc to connect the two. Now our priority is just to find some water somewhere to clean up Tessa, and the van. We went back down the road to where I had seen a City Park sign. There were driveways to get into a nature area that had some trails, but no facilities of any kind. There was a park ranger type house, but it was all gated off and looked empty. We drove up and down some side roads trying to find anything that could improve our current situation. At one point we passed a man who was out in front of his house washing his truck, with is horses and dogs chilling out in the front pasture. We joked about stopping to ask him for his hose. We continued on and kept striking out. It was getting very stinky in the van and poor Tessa is just sitting in it. We turned back down the road and saw the man still outside in his yard. I told Tim to stop and for about 10 seconds he and Heather argued with me about how humiliating it would be until finally reason (or the smell?) convinced them to stop and ask. The man was incredibly friendly and joked about his own kids and having been through the same kind of thing before. We sprayed Tessa down, naked, in his front yard, with COLD water from the hose. Poor girl. We sprayed the car seat as well, and after getting her dried off and into some fresh clothes, stowing the car seat in the back with all the luggage (like trying to make a jigsaw puzzle fit) we got back on the road to head to the freeway. No history lessons today.

Literally a couple of minutes later I smelled something bad and realized Phoebe had made a stink in her diaper. Still in the middle of nowhere, we stopped on the side of the road to change her, because we did not intend on stopping anywhere else until we got to the hotel. Tim and I did our team effort routine, but as soon as he lifted her out of the seat I saw that she had leaked out all over her shorts and the seat. At this point we all broke out in hysterical laughter. Still laughing, we changed her as best we could, standing on the side of some road in very northern Florida. Phoebe and Tim got some chigger bites from standing there and we had to put Tim's t-shirt on the (semi) cleaned seat to shield it from Phoebe's skin. We laughed so hard we cried.

Knowing we had about 4 hrs of driving in front of us, we stopped when we saw an Arby's in Jacksonville. While Tim waited for the food, I took Tessa in to the restroom to use some soap to get a little bit cleaner for our long drive. Back in the van, we settled in for the drive. The kids slept a little bit, watched movies and in a final desperate attempt to entertain her, I dug out some of the glow bracelets we had received from our Big Give friends.

We arrived in North Charleston around 10pm at the Wingate by Wyndham hotel. This one was reserved in Heather's name so she went to check in and when she asked about a roll away, they offered to move us to the suite (we had reserved two doubles) which had a king and a fold out couch. She didn't mind sleeping on the sofa bed so she accepted their offer and changed it. It turned out to be a fabulous room for our big group. Very similar to this one, except the bathroom door was by the front door:

We were so relieved to be there. Since Tessa had napped and was wide awake we decided to let her swim but the pool was cold and had dead bugs in it. She swam in the bathtub instead. Tim threw the car seat cover in the laundry (which happened to be next door to our room, so convenient!) and then went and bought some Lysol wipes to detail the van a little better. I rearranged the room a bit, to accommodate our group better, by moving the arm chair next to the sofa bed, as a "guard" for Phoebe in case she rolled over. She and Heather slept in the sofa, while Tim and I put Tessa in between us, hoping for a little added security in the morning. We also parked Phoebe's wheelchair and locked the brakes directly in front of the door. Did it work?

Our Final Wish Trip day - Around the World

Our final day of the Wish Trip! Tim and Tessa took off early as usual and got to meet Scooby and Shaggy in the castle.

Phoebe slept in late as usual, and I started packing. It was sad to pack up all the Big Give outfits we'd received because we didn't get to wear them all once our schedule was so unexpectedly overturned! I figured we could keep those clothes in one bag that wouldn't have to be taken in to the hotels we were staying at the next week. We also had a big duffle of GKTW gifts to take home, which also was going to stay in the rental overnights. Thankfully, we had used half (or more) of the case of pull ups so we had a little more room from those.

Phoebe and I had snacks for breakfast in the villa and then Tim took the girls to the playground one last time. He took video instead of pics so I don't know how to share those, but they certainly enjoyed it. Once I had everything packed and the place was cleaned out we stopped at the office for one last thing. I went in to check out and they gave me info on who to send thank you notes to (haven't done them yet, but going to!!!) and a passport to get into almost every amusement park on the planet for free during the next year.

They also gave me the "coordinates" of Phoebe's star, so I headed over to the castle next to snap a pic of it on the wall.

It ended up being placed right over the window that looks out to the carousel!

We also learned later that our new friend Elke was just above and to the left of Phoebe.

As I walked back toward the office I took a pic of the beautiful fountain.

I was told that it was a gift to the angels who volunteer here. How appropriate!

I ran into Ann and family on my way out of the office and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Her husband told me about the time he lived in Charleston and it got me very excited for the next leg of our trip! We all walked to the parking lot and the kids stuck their heads in the truck to say goodbye to Tessa and Phoebe. They were extending their trip also, but heading over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I wish we had snapped a photo of all of us, but my group was all buckled up. Oh well. It was so fun getting to know them, and conveniently crossing paths with them so many times.

We arrived at Epcot around 12:30. We wandered around the front part of the park for a little while. We were greeted by topiaries for the Flower and Garden Festival.

There was also a Photopass photographer ready and waiting to capture a few more shots of us in front of the famous Epcot icon...

Tessa was a good sport in posing for the Tinkerbell shots and helping us get Phoebe's hands up. We told her that if she held her hands that way, Tink just might land on her. Once the photographer took the shot we exclaimed how Tink had just fluttered by! Tessa looked at us like she couldn't decide if we were crazy or if a magic moment had just happened and she missed it. When I finished editing the Photopass and Tink was added in, I showed her the shots and she was very excited!

We went inside and wandered around Innoventions (east or west?) and played with some of the science experiments. Phoebe quickly decided that this was not for her, with the loud banging and the strange equipment looming around, so I took her out and we visited Mousegears. Amazingly I didn't buy a single thing there, but it WAS a pretty cool store. Tim and Tessa met us a little while later and we wandered around some more. We went to Club Cool, which has a free soda fountain with popular sodas from around the world. There is one very bad tasting one, in many people's opinions, called Beverly. I knew in advance that this was going to be funny so we lured Tessa into trying it, of course. Want to know what it tastes like? It tastes like this:

We didn't think the girls would go for the rides in that part so we were basically headed straight for World Showcase. Along the way we saw a Butterfly Garden.

And a fairy garden.

It was really pretty.

Next to that was a little area devoted to Tiana and supposed to look like the Bayou. I thought it looked a little thrown together, compared to the fairy garden, but it did have some neat details.

We continued over to World Showcase where we were greeted by this topiary.

As we entered into the World Showcase Tessa saw some ducks around the lake and ran off in pursuit of some interaction with them.

I was really starting to wonder if she would have enjoyed a week at a city park as much as the amusement parks. She was thrilled at every duck and squirrel sighting. We had to pry her away from the lake in order to start our trek around the world.

We turned right and headed counter clockwise, entering Canada first.

We didn't stop for anything in Canada and continued straight to the UK. We were hungry for lunch but wanted to eat light and save room for sampling lots of different countries. We decided on one tray of fish and chips to share. It was very hot and very greasy, so it was difficult to get bites off for Phoebe but it was good.

Ever since the first sighting at GKTW, Tessa has been on the lookout to see Mary Poppins again. Luckily, she was greeting guests as we wandered through her homeland. Tessa was a little shy at first, but she definitely wanted to talk to her. This Mary Poppins seemed a little too stuffy to me. I know MP is very proper, but she is also warm and kind, which this person just didn't quite master it. The girls didn't seem to notice.

I think it was Mary who made the comment to Phoebe (someone did that day) that they liked her pretty dress. I was surprised that they thought it was a dress, because it's very short but I guess they couldn't see her shorts underneath. I made a note to myself to pair the long shirts with long shorts in the future.

We stopped to get a Kim Possible Kimunciator for Tessa to do a mission. She had no idea what we were doing with it until after a few of the tasks were complete.

Continuing on to France, we stopped for a Photopass pic.

Tessa and Tim were searching for something that Kim had asked them to find while Phoebe and I waited in the line for a slushie. The acrobats came out while we were waiting and did their act with the chairs. (Sorry, didn't get pics of that, my hands were full!)

Continuing into Morocco we were looking for the spot to meet Jasmine. We went into a store and asked about it and they said "any minute". Tim noticed a henna artist in the store and asked Tessa if she wanted a tattoo. I think it was $20 for a few inches on her arm. They told her not to touch it for something like half an hour while it dried. Yeah right! It didn't last that long, but it was long enough for the color to stain for about a week or so.

We hung out in the alcove where Jasmine was supposed to be coming out at any minute. I was kind of excited for the girls to meet her, as I have always been one to root for the underdog and I feel like Jasmine is one of the "less popular" princesses. We waited for about 15-20 minutes when a photographer walked up to us and said it would be 20 minutes before she came out because she had just started her break. I don't know how long their breaks are, of if she visits any other sites, but I thought it was weird since we had already been in that spot for over 15. We decided it was not worth waiting around any longer for and headed off to see more of the world. Phoebe had fallen asleep while we were waiting.

As we approached Japan Tessa saw the Koi pond and got excited. She quickly picked up this rock, intending to throw it in and watch the splash!

Of course we stopped her. She watched the fish for a minute but decided they weren't nearly as interesting if they couldn't be put in mortal danger.

I walked up to the hostess outside the restaurant and asked "Where can we find MULAN????". Thankfully the very sweet hostess didn't seem to be offended at all and kindly pointed in the direction of CHINA. I totally spaced it. Tessa has made me watch that movie so many times, I knew it was set in China. Duh.

So, we continue on around the world and as we approach the U.S.A. they have a very big, very loud band playing out in front. Phoebe was still sleeping at this point so I run off around the crowd to get past the band while Tessa and Tim linger behind to enjoy it.

Next stop was Italy. Boring to Tim and torture for me. He lived in Rome and Naples for a couple of years before we met. We were hoping to honeymoon there but it didn't work out. I fully intend to go there for some extensive travel someday....

We decided to make masks here at the Kidcot Fun Stop.

While they were coloring we talked with the parents of another girl there, who were very interested in Phoebe, and shared that they had a son with severe disabilities who had passed. They were thrilled that we were there on her wish trip and they were very sweet with her.

We debated eating Italian for dinner but the restaurant there looked pretty nice and we knew the kids were getting tired and not likely to still and quiet. We did poke our heads in a store until Tessa picked up something glass and we decided to move on. We saw a stand selling gelato and such and decided to get a snack here. We shared a smoothie type drink they called a Primavera (means springtime in Italian).

Continuing into Germany Tessa saw the miniature village and was quite enthralled with it.

We saw a family restroom nearby and decided to take advantage of the convenience. You have heard some of our potty war stories, so you understand this was no small task, but we were back on the road soon enough. We were hungry again and decided to give some German food a try. Tim and I both have German ancestry and I had made reservations at the Biergarten originally, which were for several days ago and obviously cancelled. Instead of sitting down in Germany we decided to make it faster and share a bratwurst and sausage, pretzels and drinks and eat out in the courtyard by the cookoo clock.

After our snack we came upon a small group waiting to see Snow White and the Photopass person invited us to cut the line. Snow was very nice with the girls and once Tessa got talking she didn't want to stop.

We continued on our way and wandered in to China. Perfect timing, as we saw Mulan coming out to greet people and we were first in line. No Photopass photographer with her though, but I was able to get some good smiles. Phoebe really liked Mulan's robe and she was a good sport about letting her pay with it.

This was the final destination of Tessa's Kim Possible Mission so she and Tim went from location to location on their quest while Phoebe and I meandered around and enjoyed the beauty.

When we got to Norway we decided the kids needed a little adrenaline rush and we found the ride Maelstrom. I thought it was funny that Tim got pretty nervous when the boat went backwards. I guess since I knew it did that it didn't phase me. We met another Wish family on the ride. Tessa wanted to go again so Tim took her one more time while I found a restroom for Phoebe. We were pretty hungry for dinner at this point and we saw on the map that the only country left after Norway was Mexico. We live in Mexico, pretty much. We both grew up in So CA, lived in Texas and Arizona. We can have good Mexican, authentic Mexican, any time we want. We did not want to eat in Mexico. So unless we backtracked, we needed to eat in Norway. We found the bakery and looked at the display to see what was appetizing. We weren't starving but needed to eat before we left the park, so I ordered one of these huge club sandwiches for us to share. It didn't feel terribly Norwegian but we all liked it.

We also tried some desserts, which were decidedly more authentic. School bread for Tim, a strawberry cream dessert for Phoebe and "worms and dirt" for Tessa.

There was a squirrel running around the patio gathering food from under the tables. Tessa was enthralled with the little guy and we figured we were in a casual enough environment we could let her run around a little bit and chase him. She actually touched him one time!

We still had to fight with her to get her to eat, and bargain with her to earn her dessert, but it wasn't her worst mealtime ever. A man approached Tim and told him that he is a child psychologist and he was very impressed with how we handled her. We had a good laugh after the man left. It seems we are approached by people who make comments like this on a somewhat regular basis. Which makes me wonder, if we are such great parents, how come we are attracting all this attention every where we go?

After dinner we headed back out toward the exit and Tessa found some more Disney celebrities to interact with.

Phoebe even got a kick out of these guys.

It was nearing 8pm and we needed to get to the airport to pick up "auntie" Heather for the next portion of our trip. A couple shots of the iconic symbols as we head out.