Heat, humidity and a great Mother/Daughter trip! A May TR **TR Update 12/10**

[PhoenixStrength]

Hello all and welcome to my latest TR! For those that haven't read any of my TRs or PTRs before, welcome! Please feel free to reply, I love hearing from everyone as they read along! To get this started let me introduce the players:

My actual name is Stephanie, and I live in Pasadena, Maryland. I am an Office Receptionist for a non-profit spay and neuter clinic, and I LOVE my job. I am 30 years old and while I'm single I do have an amazing boyfriend named George. Here is a picture of he and I, though he didn't come on this trip:





So who did come with me? My Mom, Jennie, did! This was our first Mother and Daughter trip. Me, her, my Dad and my 2 younger sisters went twice all together when I was a kid, but this was the first trip with just the two of us. Here is a picture of her and I during this trip. Believe it or not we did not coordinate our clothes at all, we just accidentally matched!






I don't have any two-legged children (and don't plan on having any!), but I do have 5 furry children. I have a dog, Phoenix, who is a 10 year old Beagle/Belgian Malinois mix.

And 4 cats:
Jag, a 12 year old Maine Coon/Ragdoll mix. He was a rescue from the local animal control when he was 11 weeks old.







Turk, a 12 year DSH. His momma was found, while pregnant, by a woman working in Baltimore who was very allergic to cats. She didn't want her to give birth in the city, so she caught her, brought her home, put her in the basement, and told her husband that he had to care for her and the kittens once they were born . She gave birth a few days later. I got Turk at 8 weeks, and she had named him that as all the kittens had been named after Disney movies, so I kept it!






Jynx, a 9 year old Torti with white. She was found by my parents with 4 of her siblings at around 6 weeks old. Their mom had been hit be a car and passed away. I kept her, my sister Lisa kept one of her sisters and my parents kept one of her brothers. They found homes for the other 2. She's been having some health issues lately, which I may mention from time to time. Over the course of a year she lost half her body weight and we (me and her vet) couldn't figure out what was wrong as her blood tests all came back that she was in perfect health. At the beginning of May I took her in for an ultrasound and found out she has either small cell lymphoma or Irritable Bowel Disease. I couldn't do a biopsy due to both her health (she had little chance of surviving the surgery) and money (it would have cost $3000+). Thankfully the treatment for both is the same medication, so she was put on Prednisone and B12 injections and has already gained back a few pounds and is doing great!






And finally Sweetie. She is an 8-ish year old DSH tabby. I found her when I was living in the boonies, and she adopted me. She went from injured and feral, to healed and sweet as can be in 3 weeks. She is difficult to get pictures of as she never stops moving, but here she is playing, which is her favorite activity!






So now that you met my Mom and I and know more about me, how about we get this TR started? Any questions or comments please let me know!


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[PhoenixStrength]

Reserved

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay! You've started and what great intro pics!

 

[Pluto0809]

I'm here! Can't wait to read all about it. I love the "matching" shirts that you and your Mom wore. I also love seeing pictures of all your fur babies. So glad that Jynx is doing better.

 

[KatMark]

I'm here; looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

[lovin'fl]

Pretty cool...I am from Pasadena, MD and my mom still lives there. I am taking her to WDW in August with my two DDs (15 yo twins). We are driving, in my mom's car, down for 5 nights and then driving to Hilton Head where my DH, DS and her BF will meet us for a 5 night stay there. Can't wait! So, I am looking forward to your TR. Curious to see what attractions your mom liked doing. I just picked our FP+ and am not sure I chose well for my mom (66 yo)...but my 2 DDs like all the BIG rides. Thanks so much for writing this TR!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

I'm here!

Glad to know that Jynx is doing well and gaining some weight.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yay! You've started and what great intro pics!

Hi Lisa! Thanks, I like them too

I'm here! Can't wait to read all about it. I love the "matching" shirts that you and your Mom wore. I also love seeing pictures of all your fur babies. So glad that Jynx is doing better.

Hi Ariana! It was so funny that we both wound up wearing old time Mickey and Minnie blue shirts that day. And thanks, I'm so glad she is doing better too!

I'm here; looking forward to hearing all about it.

Hi Kathy! Thanks for making it over, especially with everything going on with you!

Pretty cool...I am from Pasadena, MD and my mom still lives there. I am taking her to WDW in August with my two DDs (15 yo twins). We are driving, in my mom's car, down for 5 nights and then driving to Hilton Head where my DH, DS and her BF will meet us for a 5 night stay there. Can't wait! So, I am looking forward to your TR. Curious to see what attractions your mom liked doing. I just picked our FP+ and am not sure I chose well for my mom (66 yo)...but my 2 DDs like all the BIG rides. Thanks so much for writing this TR!!!

Hi, and thanks for joining in! You are the first person I've met on here that is also from Pasadena, MD Your upcoming trip sounds like a fun one, and I'll certainly have all the rides my Mom enjoyed in this TR.

I'm here!

Glad to know that Jynx is doing well and gaining some weight.

Glad you made it! And thank you, I was really worried about her for a while there, but she is definitely feeling and looking much better.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I just realized that I forgot to mention something in my opening post! If you will look down you will see a ticker for another trip George and I will be heading back to CBR in December to spend Christmas in WDW! We are both very excited. He has only been to WDW once, when he was 4 years old. He does remember a lot from that trip, but so much has changed since then and AK didn't exist back then so he will get to experience so many new things. I have been twice during the holiday season and seen the Christmas decorations, but this will be my first trip there over the actual Christmas holiday!

I won't talk about that trip much in this TR, I'll do a separate PTR for that in a few months, but wanted to mention it in case anyone noticed the ticker!

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[mickeystoontown]

How fun that you'll get to spend the Christmas holidays at Walt Disney World with your sweetie! It's the neatest thing to see Disney through a "newbie's" eyes. Yes, I know that you said he had been before but that was waaay back when so he's still a newbie to me.

 

[Pluto0809]

Yay for Christmas at WDW! I want to do that someday. I'm going in December too but towards the beginning of the month so we will miss each other.

 

[afwdwfan]

Christmas trips are always fun! It looks like you'll be getting there about a day after we leave. Yeah... I know, I don't even have a ticker yet. We're heading back home 12/19.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

How fun that you'll get to spend the Christmas holidays at Walt Disney World with your sweetie! It's the neatest thing to see Disney through a "newbie's" eyes. Yes, I know that you said he had been before but that was waaay back when so he's still a newbie to me.

He's still pretty much a newbie to me too! Most of what he remembers no longer exists

Yay for Christmas at WDW! I want to do that someday. I'm going in December too but towards the beginning of the month so we will miss each other.

I'm so excited to be there over the holiday. Sorry we will miss each other again, we seem to keep going close to each other's dates, but no overlapping!

Christmas trips are always fun! It looks like you'll be getting there about a day after we leave. Yeah... I know, I don't even have a ticker yet. We're heading back home 12/19.

We are arriving 12/21, so we will just miss you! Too bad

 

[KatMark]

I'm back.

I loved the intros.

And how exciting that you and George are going at Christmas. I'm sure that will be a very special trip.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So before I start the actual TR I thought I'd give you a little reference for what exactly this trip consisted of, especially for anyone who didn't see my last TR. Without further ado, here are the facts:

WHO: Me, Stephanie, and my mother, Jennie
WHAT: WDW vacation of course!
WHEN: Tuesday May 20, 2014 to Monday May 26, 2014
WHERE: We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort. My second time staying there, and her first.
WHY: Umm, it's Disney so why not? Technically this was my Mother's Day present to her

I know this is a short update, but I'll start on the real TR action in the next few days. I'll probably get the first update up on Sunday evening, since I'm busy today and tomorrow having fun with George!

Have a great weekend everyone!


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[PhoenixStrength]

I'm back.

I loved the intros.

And how exciting that you and George are going at Christmas. I'm sure that will be a very special trip.

Glad you made it back Kathy, I know you have a lot going on so I appreciate it.

I know it will be a special trip for sure. We are already having a fun time planning it.

 

[bellesBFF]

going to be joining along all your cats are so cute!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

going to be joining along all your cats are so cute!

and thank you! I think they are pretty cute too

 

[Ravens girl]

Just joining in. I also am in Maryland (Severn). Your Sweetie looks a lot like my Morgana (she's 13) and we have a Maine Coon cat mix as well, Amadeus who is 8. Both were rescue cats.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

DAY ONE, TUESDAY MAY 20, PART 1

So the first day kind of started the day before, if that makes sense. On Monday the 19th I went to bed early (around 7pm) and slept until 11pm. I got up, got a shower, ate a little something and was out the door with Mom at midnight, officially starting our trip!

I started out with the driving since Mom hates driving in the dark. It was pretty uneventful and we quickly were into Virginia. There was a little bit of roadwork, but since there was almost no traffic there wasn't really a delay at all. My Mom did try to get pictures but as you can see from this one taken when we entered North Carolina, that didn't work well.






The sun started to rise while we drove through North Carolina and we stopped around 6am at McDonalds for breakfast, a bathroom break and to fill up our gas tank. After filling up all around my Mom took over driving and I was able to get more pictures as we headed through the rest of North Carolina.





Anyone who has driven along 95 in the Carolinas know the billboards for South of the Border. For those that don't know, right at the North/South Carolina border is a place called South of the Border that has hotels, restaurants, stores, entertainment, etc. It's Mexican themed (hence South of the Border) and cheesy. The billboards for it start well over 100 miles before it in either directions. I only took a picture of one billboard while heading down.






A couple more pictures I took before we actually reached SotB. In the second one you can kind of see some steam coming up off the field. It looked really cool but I could not get a good picture of it at all.









And then we were there, South of the Border. I have only stopped there once, when I was a teenager. I was not impressed and we quickly left after using their restrooms as they were dirty and filled with bugs!









I'm not sure why, but I only took one other picture in South Carolina. I do know that most of the state is just trees on both sides, so that's probably why. The one picture I did take was just for laughs






By mid morning we were already leaving South Carolina and into Georgia.









I was starting to feel the lack of sleep then. I cannot sleep in the car, but was kind of out of it and did not take another picture until we reached Florida.






Just over the Florida line we stopped for lunch and another gas fill up. We ate at Panera Bread, just before the Jacksonville airport. It hit the spot and we were soon on the road again. I felt more awake thanks to the food, but Mom said she would keep driving so I let her. I did take more pictures as we drove through Jacksonville.









The first Palm Trees, and more Jacksonville!















None of the pictures I took after Jacksonville really turned out, until we reached Daytona Beach where I took a picture I take every drive to Florida:






Not long after that we left 95 and got on route 4 west. And almost immediately after getting on 4 I saw this:






WooHoo, you know you are close when you start seeing the billboards for Walt Disney World! There was some road work but traffic wasn't bad so it didn't slow us down more than 10-15 minutes. Before long we reached Orlando and since it was between lunch and rush hour we were able to get through it without traffic jams.






We passed The Holy Land Experience while driving in Orlando. I've never been there, but my parents know a couple that thinks it's better than WDW! I'm sure it's a lovely place, but I'll take WDW over it for sure.

As we drove on the billboards for WDW increased, as did our anticipation.








We were ready to get there after seeing all of these billboards advertising Walt Disney World and the wonderful things waiting for us there.


UP NEXT: ARRIVING HOME




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