So we are off to Florida again, this time it’s just Grandma myself and the grandson I thought. Seems Tanner and Sandy and uncle Nick and Joyce would be meeting up there. The flight was not as bad as I thought even with American changing my wife’s flight, that meant I had to herd a 10-year-old across the country.
Got to meet Mickey
The grandson was so excited to meet Mickey and on I think the first night we had dinner with all the characters at 9pm, grandpa was so tired.
As for the park itself, the scam that everyone knows about it being expensive is so true. I could have taken 2 European vacations for the price of one trip to Disney World. One of the good things if now you can get adult drinks in all of the parks.
British Pub
We also got a chance to take him ( and me ) to the Kenady Space Center, it was another hot and humid day so not to much time was spent there. I think Donta liked it after he saw The Atlantis shuttle.
Rocket Man
All in all, it was a good week I would suggest a break in between the days of any visit. Donta did not mind hanging out at the pool and they show movies there also. Our room was at the almost end of the “resort” and I use that word loosely so after a few days Donta wanted to go to the room by himself. After a wrong turn and a point in the right direction, he found it.
How did he get so big is what they always say,but its true he has grown so fast .
Opening gifts
We have been teasing him all week about getting socks and underwear so that’s what we got him. With a new $100 bill at the bottom. With that, he wanted to go to Gamestop.
At Wild Island
So we surprised him a pit stop at Wild Island and some go cart racing and games. I think he LOVED IT as he said.
DrivingGrandma
I must say I had a good time also driving I got to pass him once and then he caught me and passed me up.
Happy 10th Birthday to Donta hope you had a fun weekend. Love you
Well, the end of the year has come and gone and the next 2 vacations are already set up. This year is about the kids the first part of the year, Disney World is the first trip ( have I told you how I feel about Florida ). The grandson was impressed with air flight on his first flight until he found the in-flight entertainment.
The next trip will be back to Rome with my son Damein Berry, this will be his first time to Rome and he is bringing the girlfriend Emma Christmas. Her first time to Europe and Italy. She has been hinting that a ring would be so romantic in Italy. It’s a trap.
My hope for this trip is after showing them around a bit taking some time in a cafe to sit and relax. Damein picked up the tube in London so fast the subway in Rome will be no problem.
This month was a trip to Italy and the Milan area and a 3 and a half hour drive south to visit some other small towns. The first part of the trip was to drive from Milan to a small city called Monticelli. Now, this is not a place most people would stay in Italy. But it had a train station and was not far from places you do want to visit. Being one of the drivers on this tour it was important to me to find something where I didn’t have to drive all the time.
Well you think driving in Italy was hard, it’s no different than any other city you have driven in. Now the signs are in another language but that’s to be expected. The drive took some time after 20 hours of flying so we stopped in some town to eat, the owner and her kids were so glad to see us ( it seemed to me) a party of 5 in a small local pizza place. The food was wonderful.
In Tortona,Italy
The next stop was to be Rapallo, Italy but the driving got to us and after a coffee break, it was time to hit the hotel for some sleep. The town we were staying in was Montecatini Italy, this was a point we could get to other locations from using the train or the cars. Worked out great for me as I was one of the drivers, and when in Italy wine and driving don’t mix ( there is my PSA for this blog).
Montecatini Italy
The town was not a tourist site but was very small and cute, the people were friendly as always. I think the hotel was used for conventions because it was close to where the tour buses parked. After a good nights sleep it was off to Lucca via the train.
Have I told you it rains in Italy and every day it seems I found a puddle first thing in the morning. We get to Lucca later in the day then we wanted and it had been raining most of the day, getting out of the train it was a downpour. We needed a cafe and some coffee to try and wait it out. Now one of the reasons I wanted to go to Lucca was because there is a square that the boys from Top Gear visited. Now, this is a walled city with a lot of footpaths into the city but not many built for cars, as we walked around not knowing what way to go we found all the footpaths flooded. After walking the wrong way for a while we got directions on how to get into the city. We got in and took some photos without finding the plaza I was looking for. Back to the hotel for wine.
The next day was Piza, now from what I heard there was not much to see except for the tower. And this was a car trip so we got an early start( so I could have some wine later in the day) I was correct about it being small.
And then there was wine, starting to see a trend here.I do have to say if you never read any of my post’s before the food is wonderful and I have not found a “bad” place to eat in Italy and there are so many food blogs about the food there I would be wasting time.
Time to move to the next stop La Spezia, this was a apartment we rented on our way back up the coast. It’s a port with a lot very large and expensive boats in the ports, but that god for Google maps I never would have my found my way in and out. One of the reasons for this stop was the coastal city’s. Now we did bring a photo enthused with us, but that’s a long story you don’t want to read.
Manarola, Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy; Shutterstock ID 66791440; Project/Title: Best of Europe; Downloader: Melanie Marin
La Spezia was a cool little city to visit and I would like to go back for a long visit.Lets see what work thinks about the time off.
Now I’m a bad blogger and its taken me 3 weeks to get this posted, if you would like more info about the places we visited feel free to contact me. Now back to the wine.
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