Category Archives: Bloggings

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Bloggings, Travel

Family time

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Today Lucas woke up around 7:30, which is still 6:30 our usual time. He played transformers while we got ready for breakfast. Breakfast was ok. There were a lot of different sandwiches, cereal, and yogurt. After breakfast we went to Lola’s house. Lucas played transformers again, worked on writing and watched tv. After lunch we went to the pool at Lola’s apartment. It was fun but chilly. The water was nice but the wind was cold. Lucas has fun swimming around though. 

Then we came back to the hotel to nap. A woman was still cleaning our room so that was a bit weird. I tried to converse a little in Spanish to tell her the pillow and sheets were dirty. I think she understood, Duolingo for the win!

After nap we headed over to Jonathan and Wighanda’s. On the way there we were trying to figure out the child lock on our car and I accidentally closed the latch so the door wouldn’t close. A quick fix for this is using the outside door handle. It was so crazy. We drove 20 minutes with Don just holding the door shut because we didn’t figure out this easy fix until we were already at Jonathan’s.

We were a little hesitant and worried to go see Lucas’s cousins because one of them had been sick and hopefully she was getting over it. It’s hard not to see them because we don’t get to visit often. It was fun to see them together. Fingers crossed Lucas stays well. 

They played mostly outside on the trampoline, with cars, swing set, and Lucas did his first sparkler here. 

We got home late. Lucas played with transformers. It’s almost 11 pm and he’s still not asleep. 

Bloggings, Travel

travel day

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We woke up, had breakfast and finished packing. We left the house at 9:15. I thought our flight was at 1:10 but that was the boarding time! The real flight time was 1:45, so we were pretty early. We wanted extra time for parking because last time all lots were full.  

So we made it with plenty of time. We decided to leave the stroller behind since we didn’t need it for anything other than the airport. So far Lucas is doing great walking. 

We had lunch at burrito beach then we went to our gate. Lucas practiced drawing his letters for a long time. Then I showed him the surprise transformers book we got him. It has little figurines. 

We learned our flight was delayed due to waiting for the captain, who was coming from another flight. 

The flight was over an hour delayed. Lucas fell asleep before we took off. I don’t know how he slept because a family who sat across from us had 2 screaming kids. One was maybe a little younger than Lucas and he was just plain loud. The other was probably 4-5 months and he would just let out these loud screams. Lucas woke up with about 20 minutes left of the flight. 

Then the baby really started screaming, screamed the whole descent. Thank God this was only a 2 hour flight. 

We could see NYC as we landed. It looked cool. Lucas looked slightly distressed during the landing but he was worried about his movie Cars which had stopped, not the actual landing.  

Lucas did great walking thru the airport to our rental car. We have a Ford Escape, which I believe is what we had last time we flew into Newark. Spacious car, but I don’t love things about it. However, we were able to connect our phones to the screen and use the GPS this time so maybe this car isn’t so bad!

Then we went to Don’s mom’s apartment. We had dinner and hung out for a bit. Lucas found a box of old binoculars and Lola gave them to him. That is funny because on the drive over he said “oh no, I think I forgot something. My binoculars!” 

We got to the hotel Home2 around 9 pm and Lucas did not want to go to bed. After bath and bribery he finally fell asleep around 10:30. He started coughing about 20 minutes into sleep. The coughing was pretty bad and at one point around 12:15 he puked. Luckily, he only got the pillow and a small portion of the sheet. I felt so bad for him and I really hope his cough gets better soon. 

Bloggings, Travel

Heading home

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Lucas woke up again around 6:15. We packed and played store again a bit. We sat on our balcony and then we had breakfast at the hotel. We had a little bit of time so Don found a little free space history museum next to space x. A worker named Larry greeted us. He gave Lucas a scavenger hunt that had like 12 pictures on it. That was fun and he got a pin and a patch for it. Don also bought a little stuffed Astronaut for him. 

Then we made our way to Orlando airport to drop off the car. It was pretty easy. We had Chinese for lunch. Lucas was choking /gagging on an egg roll and spit up into his lunch. Luckily, we were pretty much done. Then we went to our gate. Storms were moving in so gates were getting switched and delayed. After boarding our plane and getting it loaded up with our stuff we were sitting on the plane for an hour. Lucas fell asleep during this time. He slept most of the flight thankfully.

Traffic was horrendous on our way back to our house. We decided to have dinner at Brownstone. We also talked about how we needed to plan another trip!!

Bloggings, Travel

back in port canaveral

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Lucas was up early again! This kid is an early riser. We had to be up early anyway for breakfast in the dining room at 6:45. It was an ok breakfast but not as good as the previous days. I really missed the eggs benedict!! After we finished they announced we could get off the ship. The line was long and winding but it surprisingly went very fast.

Once off the ship we got to our car easily and there was no traffic! Seriously so easy. We called Hampton Inn to see if was possible to check in early and it was only 8:30 am, surprisingly they had a room ready! The room is so spacious and great with a balcony.  

So we got in and Lucas played a bit while we got settled and then we got our swimming suits on and went to the pool. Lucas tried his snorkel some more but he gets frustrated. Eventually we got him to just swim and we had fun. He was swimming really well with his goggles and puddle jumper. He even jumped from the steps a few times.

For lunch we ordered BBQ and brought it back to the room. We watched Bluey. Lucas was so cute and tired. He laid his head on my legs while he finished his food. 

He quickly fell asleep in his pull-out sofa bed for his first really good nap of the trip. We all napped. After nap we went to Golf and Gater. We held a baby alligator; Lucas was not sure about it and the picture shows! Then we fed them. There was a mineral treasure hunting that Lucas did. He loved it. He asked the worker if he was a pirate because he had treasure. It was crazy hot here. I don’t know how people live in Florida. 

Next we went to the boardwalk at Cocoa Beach. We got a candle for Gigi. Lucas got a baby turtle hatchling and a little keychain with his name. We looked at the beach and watched people surf. Then we went over to PizzaVola.  We had a cesar salad and pepperoni pizza. It was absolutely delicious. It was NY style pizza. We came back to the hotel and Lucas played for a bit. We all fell asleep pretty early and we go back home tomorrow.

Bloggings, Snorkeling, Travel

Castaway caye

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Lucas woke up around 4 am with a bloody nose but went right back to bed. Then he was up again at 6. No sleeping in on vacation even with small or no naps. We had a lazier morning because the ship was having trouble with the weather. We had breakfast again at Marceline Market. The Eggs Benedict is so good. Then we walked around and explored the upper decks a bit. The winds were very strong at Castaway Caye so we docked about an hour later than scheduled. Then the sea and wind conditions were too bad for our glass bottom boat excursion. That was a bummer, but we got refunded and we ended up having a good beach day. 

We walked off the boat to castaway and found a tram to take us to the beach. Since we had a lot of stuff this was ideal although the walk is not long, maybe 10-15 min if that. We got dropped off at Pelican Point and got lucky with a beach stroller. Then we made our way down to the water. We got an umbrella and 4 chairs in the first row. Lucas wanted to try snorkeling again. He isn’t a fan of the fins so after trying them again and him wanting them off I took him out to see if we could see anything. 

He used his snorkel a few times, but he was scared. It was very windy, and the waves were a little big so we went back to shore. Don stayed out to see if he could see anything. Visibility in the water was very low though due to the weather. Lucas played in the sand a long time. We had brought a shovel from home, and we had a popcorn bucket from the cruise theater. He loved it and he had so much fun. He also loved making “soup” with the washed up seaweed. He also really enjoyed taking the seaweed from the beach and cleaning it off in the water. It was fun to see him get more brave as he played near the water. Eventually he wanted to get in the water and play more and that made me happy.

Then it was lunch, and it was provided at Cookies BBQ. The food was ok, it was hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs, salads, cookies, chips and ice cream. We took the stroller so after lunch hopefully he would sleep. After lunch we took him to a small splash pad, but it started to get stormy so we went back to our chairs on the beach and got all of our stuff. Then we got Lucas in the stroller, hoping a walk around would put him to sleep. He really wanted to buy something, so we looked around but didn’t find anything. On the walk I saw a woman who looked familiar, and I was sure I worked with her at NY Presbyterian. I had to ask, and sure enough we worked together! Her name was Melinda and she precepted me. That was wild to see someone on the cruise that I knew! Eventually he fell asleep in the stroller.

Don got 2 Pina Coladas and we sat on the beach in the shade for a good 45 min. The wind felt great, and it was getting cloudy like a storm. This was the first relaxing nap of the vacation, until some really loud people came and sat behind us and Lucas woke up. The whole beach was empty, but they sat behind us, yelling at each other. 

We decided to walk back to the ship and on the way we took pictures. We got back just in time for a downpour. Then we got ready and left for dinner around 5. We had some time to spare so we stopped at a show that was like a video game, but Lucas was afraid of the witch. We waited for the doors of the gift shop to open. It was kind of cute because there were a few other kids there waiting. You would hear their parents say, “you can pick one thing”. Lucas found a Captain America. He brought his wallet and wanted to pay with his coins. It was very cute. The cashier let him pay with my card.

We had our last dinner in 1923. It was an ok dinner, but it was a bummer it was not a show like the previous 2 nights. We walked around after dinner and saw Donald Duck. Don got a cool Spiderman watch. Then we decided we really wanted to try to see a show, it was Aladdin. We got popcorn. I felt bad for Lucas because he kept saying he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Then the show was just way too scary for him, so we left. When we got back to the room, we packed up our luggage. After Lucas was asleep we sat on the balcony and watched some more lightning.