Williamsburg Day Eight (Travel Home)

Hey Scrap fans! Our Williamsburg Vacation has come to an end and today we travel home to Pennsylvania. Of course, since it's the last day I had to take a last day photo. 

Just kidding. (Although I almost wasn't)

Here's the real pic

Of course, we then had to get silly, but Andy yelled at Libby right before the second attempt, so she was crying in all the rest of the pics and my parents thought it would be hilarious to pretend like they were making out....ANYWAY...

We packed up the car, said good-bye to Williamsburg and headed down the road.  We had planned to stop in Fredericksburg for lunch so I could stop at Scrapdoodles, a really cool Scrapbook store I went to last year, but when I looked up the website for the address, I discovered they closed in May of this year. Another victim of the decline of the industry, I guess. So sad. 

So we drove a little further and ended up stopping at Chick-fil-a for lunch. The restaurant was freezing, so we ate pretty quickly and got back on the road. We stopped a few more times for potty breaks, and made our final stop at The Cow in Bedford for ice cream- our final vacation horah. 

(I forgot to take a pic so I pulled this from their website) 

We ate our ice cream then said our farewells and headed home, and our vacation came to an end. It was a good week and I enjoyed sharing it. Now I look forward to getting all these memories in my album. Until then, Happy Scrappin'!! 

Williamsburg Day Six

Hey Scrap Fans! We survived a day at Busch Gardens, (no, I didn't die in my sleep from scrambled internal organs from my ride on the Verbolten) and we were ready for another fun-filled day. Since Andy loves pancakes, we hit up the Astronomical Pancake House for breakfast. 

The pancakes here are literally bigger than your head. Libby wanted this ridiculous chocolate concoction that was served with chocolate syrup and two scoops of cookie dough ice cream on top. I let her have them, since we were on vacation, but told her not too get too used to it. 

Out of curiosity, I ordered the bacon pancakes, which had bacon in the batter and two strips of bacon on top. They were ok, but honestly I don't see the attraction in that much pancake. I ate about half. 

After breakfast, the guys went off to Jamestown to do some historical site seeing and the girls stayed behind to do some shopping. We went to Tuesday a Morning, Michaels (where I got two Heidi Swapp Project Life Albums, buy one get one free) and World Market. 

Andy took some pics of the sites in Jamestown.  

Everyone met back in the room and we ate dinner in. Since we only had one more day, we tried to eat up some of the leftovers we had. After dinner, my dad took the girls to the pool and Andy and I finished the puzzle. 

It was probably the hottest day all week, in the nineties most of the day. By the end of the day, we were grateful for the air conditioned room. Tomorrow is our last full day in Williamsburg. Until then, Happy Scrappin'!!

Williamsburg Day Seven

Hey Scrap Fans! Today was our last full day in Williamsburg.  I made breakfast in the room with all of the leftovers we had in the fridge while Andy and Libby played Skylanders. 

After breakfast, Andy and I took Libby to the pool. It was the first and only time I actually swam. 

We swam for a little over an hour and then got cleaned up and went to Chipotle for lunch. Libby and Andy didn't even complain about it. My parents went off on their own with Abby and went back to World Market and then to Hooters. Apparently Abby has always wanted to go there. 

We finished our lunch and then went to the souvenir store so I could get a tye-dyed t-shirt. We stopped back at Alewerks so Andy could get a t-shirt and a growler of IPA. We went back to the room so we could rest before we went out for the night and Libby worked on practicing her writing and math to brush up before school starts. 

My parents made reservations to go to a comedy club for dinner and some stand-up. Abby chose to stay at the resort and went to the pool for some pizza. Andy, Libby and I went to the Movie Tavern to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The theater was awesome and not only served food, but beer as well. There were huge, comfortable chairs and tables to eat on. And beer.  Andy was happy. 

It was a fun evening, and a great way to end our week in Williamsburg. And surprisingly enough, the movie wasn't that bad. I can't wait now to get home to scrap my adventures. Until then, Happy Scrappin'!!

Williamsburg Day Four

Hey Scrap Fans! Today was day four here in Williamsburg, VA. It was a day we seem to always have on vacations lately- Time Share Speil Day. We started the tradition of Time Share Speil Day many years ago, when we discovered if you were willing to give up time in your life that you'll never get back, you can get "free" stuff.

My parents have been working the time share system for years, and they are actually owners now. They bought their own time share in 2010 when we were on a family vacation in Myrtle Beach and they wanted to plan a trip to Disney (which we have yet to take.) Last year when we came to Williamsburg, they were offered a free lunch for the six of us and a $100 gift certificate to Lone Star. And they ended up buying another time share. 

Andy and I entered the wonderful world of time shares when I won a trip to Punta Cana through direct sales in 2008.  They offered us $100 spa credit and $100 casino credit. It took about 3 hours and some stern resolve, but not a bad take for touring beautiful rooms on an island paradise.  Our second experience was in Las Vegas where we sold four hours of our soul for two tickets to Cirque du Soeil and a free breakfast. We had to eat the breakfast with the salesperson, but she was pretty cool.  Not quite as big of a take as Punta Cana, but probably the only way I was gonna get to see Cirque.

So we all hung around the room until lunch time and then headed to the reservation office for our lunch voucher. They sent us to a cute little 50's-style restaurant called Tony's American Grill, where we had burgers and cheesesteaks. 

After we finished lunch, we went back to the room and got separate cars so my parents could go "answer a quick survey" (ie endure high pressure sales tactics to obtain free gift.) it started to rain and Abby stayed back to do teenager stuff. Andy, Libby and I drove to Ft. Eustis to get Busch Garden tickets for my parents for the following day. While we were there, we visited the PX and clothing sales. 

After Ft. Eustis, we visited a local micro brewery called Alewerks. They offered a tour of the brewery, but Andy didn't want to take it, so we just hung out in the tap room and sampled some flights. 

Even on leave, he can't seem to leave work behind...

But it doesn't stop him from drinking beer....

We left the Alewerks and (I) drove back to the room to meet back up. My parents recalled their horrible experience with the time share sales person who was absolutely rude to them. They did, however, still get their gift, and we decided to use the $100 Lone Star gift card the next day to have dinner after Busch Gardens, so we made something in the room. We bought some refrigerated pizzas from Harris Teeter when we grocery shopped. They were quite literally the worst pizzas I have ever eaten in my entire life. We decided to get ice cream a little later since our dinner was so terrible. 

Andy and the girls wanted to go play mini golf (or putt putt, as Andy insists on calling it). Since mini golf is one of my absolute least favorite things to do, I opted to drop them off at Pirate Cove and drive my parents around to a few stores. While they golfed, we visited the Croc Outlet, Lane Bryant and the Christmas Mouse.

They had a pretty good time, and Libby got a hole-in-one on the second hole!

After golf, we picked up the kids and Andy and headed to Cold Stone Creamery. I was a little bummed because they didn't have Salted Carmel ice cream. I was going to get the No Fair Funnel Cake, but I knew Andy wanted that and he has this weird thing about not ordering the same thing as someone else, so I got banana. I got it with chocolate shavings and white chocolate hoping it would be like Chunky Monkey. It was not. 

It was another good day in Williamsburg. It rained a little, but it didn't really effect our day.  We had some fun, took some pics and spent some quality time together creating lots of scrap-worthy memories! Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!

Williamsburg Day Five ~ Busch Gardens

Hey Scrap Fans! Day five of our Williamsburg trip was a day at Busch Gardens. We all got up early and got ready to leave for the park at 9:30 so we could be there when it opened at 10. Since we all had on hats, my mom thought we should take a picture so I could scrapbook it and and call it "Hats." 

We arrived at the park and waited anxiously so we could pay $15 to park. I personally think that is a huge rip off, but hey, you gotta park.

After we were parked and in the gate, we picked up a map to plan out our day. We were there last year and didn't ride everything, so we wanted to focus on hitting the stuff we didn't get to before.  Last year I brought my DSLR and took lots of pictures so I didn't really get to ride much because I held the camera and everyone's stuff. This year I decided I wanted to have fun and not be satteled with my camera, so I packed very light and just shot with my iPhone. 

We started out in London, where we discovered the London Rocks multi media show was playing at 12:30, so we decided to come back for that and then have lunch after. We headed to Italy to ride the Battering Ram.

On our way through Italy, we discovered Escape from Pompei was closed for maintence. I was a little bummed since that was one of the rides I wanted to go on. We rode the Battering Ram, and since there was no line, rode it again. 

Libby rode these gliders, which I'm pretty sure she thought was lame. 

We all headed over to Germany because I wanted my parents to experience the DarKastle. They don't really ride, but I thought they would enjoy the 4D experience.  When we got to Germany, we came up on the Verbolten.  Last year, Libby rode all the roller coasters, starting with the Lochness Monster and loved them.  But she didn't love the Verbolten. It looks innocent enough. A row of what looks like European race cars in bright primary colors, it starts out nice and slow...

Then it stops at the entrance to a tunnel and then shoots into it. I remember last year watching it go into the tunnel and thinking, "gee that was kind of fast, I hope Libby isn't scared." What I didn't know was, inside the tunnel it is completely dark and and you are traveling at near break-neck speeds. Then it starts to thunder and strobe lights simulate lightening and wolves are coming at you. Then it stops. And then the entire car drops 15 feet straight down and then you shoot back out of the tunnel to a near vertical drop. It is absolutely terrifying. Or totally awesome. Depends on how you look at it. So last year when Libby and Andy rode it, she said "Daddy I'm scared, I don't want to ride this anymore." Of course that was when they stopped in the tunnel and by that time it was much too late. So she finished out the ride and survived, but she said she didn't want to ride it again.  All year she talked about how scary it was and how it was on all these lists of the scariest roller coasters. 

So we come upon it when we get into Germany and what does she say? "I wanna ride the Verbolten." What!!?? Are you kidding me? She was serious. She grabbed Andy and headed for the entrance. So I'm thinking, well, I did decide I wanted to have fun this year, and if my seven-year-old, then six-year-old could survive it, how bad can it be, right? 

Oh. My. God. 

I'm pretty sure I prayed the whole time. I seriously had one of those moments of "why the hell did I put myself in this situation?" and I'm pretty sure my body physically went into shock for about 30 seconds, and I'm pretty sure the guy in front of me enjoyed my commentary more than the ride. When it was over I was just so happy to still be conscious. 

It was scary. And it was awesome. Would I ride it again? 

Probably. 

I didn't take any pics this year, but I found this one online. I don't think you could ever truly capture the experience in photos though. 

So after we had a good laugh watching the video playback and I readjusted myself to life on solid ground, we headed to the DarKastle. It was still early enough in the day that we got right on. My mom really enjoyed it, but my dad got a little nauseous. He said no one warned him that it twisted around. I may have forgotten to mention that....

Since it was close to noon, we decided to ride the sky carts back over to London and wait for the show. 

Selfie in the sky...

My parents in the car behind...

Waiting for the show

We got in the theater a half hour early to get good seats and rest and enjoy the air conditioning. 

The show was called London Rocks and was the story of a young couple in London and how music effected them throughout the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.

It was entertaining and the music and effects were cool. 

After the show, we headed back to Italy to find the Cucina, which was an all-you-can eat pizza, pasta and salad buffet. At only $12.99 per adult and $7.99 per kid, drink included, I'm pretty sure it was the best deal in the park. (Especially since a bottle of water is $3). 

Before we ate, Libby and Andy rode Apollo's Chariot real quick, since there was no line. It was another one of the coasters she didn't get to last year. I took a pic but it wasn't a very good one. 

After we ate, we decided to separate and meet up with my parents and Abby later. The restaurant was right next to the Roman Rapids, so went right to it. It was probably the longest line we had to wait in all day, but it was fun. 

It's hard to tell from these pictures, but we were all pretty soaked. I think I got it the worst, as I was directly under both waterfalls when we passed them. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon riding as many rides as we could.  We hit up the a Battering Ram again (my favorite). Here's Lib and Andy on the Trade Winds. 

Waiting for the swings to get loaded. 

Another trip in the sky cart.

Chillin on some kiddie rides. 

The flying machine. 

Grover's Alpine Ride... It only lasted about 10 seconds, but as Libby put it was "pretty intense for little kids." 

Around 5:00 we met my parents back in London and headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. We headed out to Lone Star Steakhouse. 

Here's Abby with the huge burger she didn't eat. 

Andy and I ordered the porterhouse for two with table side steak sauce. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, it was sooooo good. Here is Andy eating the meat off the bone. I told him to go for it cause no one there knew him. Then I took a picture of him and put it on the internet. ;) 

After dinner we went back to the room for a good night's sleep. It was another great day on our Williamsburg vacation. I'm grateful for the time we were able to spend together as a family and I'm grateful I didn't die on the Verbolten. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our day and until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!