Trip of New Phases, Friends & 40! Updated 8/31 - As If Goodbye Wasn't Enough! The End

[pipermae]

Just jumping on!

[Flossbolna]

Great start!! But what a long long drive!! I think all in all if your drive is longer than our flight...

What a nuicance about the Sonic. When we were on holiday in New England last fall we used the GPS a lot to find restaurants. I used it to locate my first ever Cracker Barrell. Had read about this chain so often here on the DIS that I really had to eat there for!

[tinkerbells mum]

I'm joining in too sounds like you had a wonderful trip can't wait to hear more xx

[PracPerfPatricia]

I'm glad you're on your way...(I love that you looked for bed bugs...I would have so done that...)

I'm hoping you make your ADR...

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by heaven2dc

Yay!! Your trip has started! Never have eaten at Sonic - kept waiting for one to come to our area but closest one is 18 miles away and not on the way to anywhere (unless I head south on the interstate which I never do except to drive to work and it's still 5 miles away from work so I never think of driving further south when all I want to do is drive home!)

Hope you make your ADR!!

The chicken strip basket is really yummy and DH LOVES the different drinks you can get. We do now have one in the area, but it's still 20 miles or so from us.

Originally Posted by pipermae

Just jumping on!

Hi pipermar - Thanks for jumping in.

Originally Posted by Flossbolna

Great start!! But what a long long drive!! I think all in all if your drive is longer than our flight...

How long is your flight? Our drive was probably longer...I know for sure it had to be longer on the way back

Originally Posted by Flossbolna

What a nuicance about the Sonic. When we were on holiday in New England last fall we used the GPS a lot to find restaurants. I used it to locate my first ever Cracker Barrell. Had read about this chain so often here on the DIS that I really had to eat there for!

I LOVE Cracker Barrell and thanks to a miscommunication between DH and I, we never stopped at one on this trip.

Originally Posted by tinkerbells mum

I'm joining in too sounds like you had a wonderful trip can't wait to hear more xx

to the craziness tinkerbells mum. It was overall a very nice trip...busy but nice.

Originally Posted by PracPerfPatricia

I'm glad you're on your way...(I love that you looked for bed bugs...I would have so done that...)

I'm hoping you make your ADR...

DH had no clue what I was doing...he thought we'd just Lysol everything down so I wouldn't get any nasty germs (glad that worked! ).

[TyRy]

Hi all - thought you might like to see the detour that has had me going crazy the past couple of weeks, but even more so last week. My little sister got married last Friday and I was her Matron of Honor. It should have been easy as she basically did everything I did...including using the same church and reception place. Somehow it just wasn't as easy as mine!

So once we got back from Disney, things really ramped up from this. Here's just a few pics of the day:

Rehearsal at the church - blurry picture. It's the church we grew up in and my dad still attends


Rehearsal Dinner - the whole TyRy clan: Parents, sisters and niece & nephew


My niece and nephew - they live in Las Vegas and we always try to get a picture of the three of us. It's a nice thing to have from all the years.


At the bar after dinner for "just one" before going home, it's DH and my sis:


Part of the grooms party...he had seven on his side and my DSis had 8


TyRy family photo after wedding at the church


Limo Bus on way to reception


The ONLY picture of DH and I so far...hoping the photographer she hired got a few. We completely forgot to take a picture with each other we were so busy taking pictures of other people!


Picture of me and my DDad...hopefully he'll be going down to WDW next October.


A shot of the head table and cake


Since we are Disser's here's a picture of dinner and dessert




DFIL did come to the wedding with my DSIL and her hubby. DMIL had so been looking forward to this wedding. But my sister added a nice touch and made a donation to the ACS in DMIL's name instead of little gifts for the guests. She then had cards on the table that stated that information. I think DFIL was really touched. Here he's chatting with a friend....


My DMom and DSis on the dance floor


Back in her room after the wedding for "just one more"


And finally the day after


We laughed as she walked around with her veil the day after, and thought if people thought she was getting married that day, that someone did a horrible job on her makeup and hair.

Thanks for indulging me...now I can get back to the business of our Disney adventure!

[PracPerfPatricia]

Loved your photos of the wedding...(feel free to write up as much of that kind of stuff as you want-I love seeing people celebrating happy events...it's like reality tv-but much kinder and more joyous...

that photo is fabulous of you and dh-you both look great...

I love that you were in your Dis photo mode and took the food pictures.....btw looks yummy...

carry on...

[tinkerbells mum]

aww lovely wedding photos xx

[Leitadala]

You and your husband look so gorgeous at the wedding! I can't wait to read your trip report, I'm finishing unpacking and putting away laundry now that my trip is done and I'm starting to fall into the post-Disney lull... the kind that makes me really want a DVC for some guaranteed Disney future vacations (so your TR should be just what I need for more convincing, I figure, lol)!

[brookelizabeth]

Beautiful wedding pictures!!! Looks like it was a great time!! Weddings are so busy, but always hold such wonderful memories.

The hotel you stayed at looks like the one that we did for my cousin's wedding last November in Illinois. I want to say the hotel was in Schaumburg...couldn't be the same one, could it???

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by PracPerfPatricia

Loved your photos of the wedding...(feel free to write up as much of that kind of stuff as you want-I love seeing people celebrating happy events...it's like reality tv-but much kinder and more joyous...

that photo is fabulous of you and dh-you both look great...

I love that you were in your Dis photo mode and took the food pictures.....btw looks yummy...

carry on...

I may distract you later in the tripppie if we get the "professional" pictures back. Still hoping for one or two of me and DH!

The food was really good, and HUGE portions.

Originally Posted by tinkerbells mum

aww lovely wedding photos xx

Thank you! It was a very nice day overall.

Originally Posted by Leitadala

You and your husband look so gorgeous at the wedding! I can't wait to read your trip report, I'm finishing unpacking and putting away laundry now that my trip is done and I'm starting to fall into the post-Disney lull... the kind that makes me really want a DVC for some guaranteed Disney future vacations (so your TR should be just what I need for more convincing, I figure, lol)!

That's exactly how I used to feel, then DH gave in and let us buy DVC. While we may not be getting all the deals that are out there right now, it's always nice not to have a large hotel bill at the end of a week!

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

Beautiful wedding pictures!!! Looks like it was a great time!! Weddings are so busy, but always hold such wonderful memories.

The hotel you stayed at looks like the one that we did for my cousin's wedding last November in Illinois. I want to say the hotel was in Schaumburg...couldn't be the same one, could it???

Thanks Brook. It was a crazy time since I somehow ended up as the planner for her whole wedding. The hotel is actually in Schiller Park, just across the street from O'Hare. DH and I chose it for ours because our family and friends were spread all over Chicagoland. It was a great central location.

More trippie coming soon.....

[TyRy]

Alarm went off about 5:45 (see I did let DH sleep in!) and it was time to get going again. We got downstairs and DH spotted breakfast.


I’m glad he could eat – was way too early for me.


They even had make your own waffles, but I wasn’t really hungry and I really wanted to get back on the road. We then managed to forget something in the room, and had, of course, left the keys in the room (dummies!) So while I got a new key and ran back up, DH took a couple more pictures around the lobby.


Pool looked small but decent and overall the Super 8 was an ok place to stay.


The boat’s trunk was large enough for all our stuff and then some.


And I had to get all my toys ready for the trip as well


Since we had decided to take Nebo’s way (75) down instead of through Alabama, we were headed through the mountains. I had read about how a lot of people hated driving through them, but I did anyway.
















The mountain part was so short and so not bad I thought maybe we had taken a wrong turn. Maybe it’s because I’m used to driving in Chicago, but I was expecting a whole lot worse. Not too far into the drive I started getting really tired, and DH was tired as well. Uh-oh, that does not bode well for getting to my Chef Mickey’s reservation. DH had an energy drink with him though. And anyone who read my first trippie may remember that I am allergic to caffeine and had my first energy drink on that trip. Well, I was thirsty and said I’d just take a teeny sip. WOW – this one actually tasted good. Which meant I drank way more that a sip, and also meant I was instantly wide awake for the next SEVEN hours.


I had said I was NOT driving through Atlanta as it was supposed to be bad. And this coming from the person that drives into downtown Chicago each day. Somehow I think the need to get to my ADR (and yes, probably the energy drink!) kept me going and we went straight through downtown Atlanta.












It helped that it was around 11:30am and there was no traffic on the road.
DH had his Sonic, so this was his next thing that he really wanted:


I really wanted to try a Chick-Fil-A, so we found one of those first. I have to say I thought they had those mini-chicken sandwiches. Nope, only at lunch. So I ended up with a regular sized one and it was not that great. So now I’ve been there and done that. We then pulled into a Krystal’s for DH and I found my mini-chicken sandwiches there. Tossed out the Chick-Fil-A and ate the Krystal’s instead which was actually yummy.

We filled up at a scary gas station in Georgia right before hitting Florida as people had said




That was something we kept running into, scary gas stations! And I finally got to see all the lovely billboards that advertise adult places all the way into Florida…holy moly I’d never seen so many before! We finally switched drivers about two hours outside Disney as I wanted to be able to video us pulling in. I was still praying we would hit no traffic so I could make that ADR and get a surprise I had planned for DH!

[PracPerfPatricia]

Ooo...I think those make your own waffle machines are so fun...(was it the kind that had the batter in the cup...and you pour it in and it bakes...and then you flip it out......I'm a bit naughty with stuff like that...I'd have made one just for the fun of it...

Runaway Trucks.......now those are signs we don't see around here...

look at you going right through Atlanta...does a sip of caffeine really do that to you......

I need many, many sips to get me going...

[heaven2dc]

You are definitely brave to drive over the mountains - they always scare me But it didn't seem so bad after all. Can't wait to see what the surprise for your DH is

[brookelizabeth]

Originally Posted by TyRy

Thanks Brook. It was a crazy time since I somehow ended up as the planner for her whole wedding. The hotel is actually in Schiller Park, just across the street from O'Hare. DH and I chose it for ours because our family and friends were spread all over Chicagoland. It was a great central location.

More trippie coming soon.....

Okay-I just realized Schaumburg is not where we were---we were near O'Hare as well, since of the central location, just like you said. I wish I could remember the town name, the hotel looks identical!! It was a Radission I believe, so perhaps it's just the chain look though. It was a nice hotel with a great breakfast the next morning for everyone that booked with the wedding block! Their wedding and reception was in DesPlaines, at a beautiful wedding hall there, I know the hotel wasn't too far away, as they provided a shuttle.

Okay, enough about me wondering if we stayed at the same hotel. LOL!

Glad the energy drink kept you awake to keep trucking through all the driving! But you are allergic?? I hope it doesn't have any negative repercussions.... Love the driving pics, almost makes me want to drive sometime....I think if Joe could drive, we would do it once just to do it and see the various states on the way down!