Christmas/New Year Vacation Part 1

We arrived to Andrew's parent's with a celebration of my birthday with a yummy chocolate cake. Yay! On Christmas Eve, we went to church and they had 3 live Nativity scenes between services. It was kind of fun, seeing it in flesh rather than in pictures or statues. It made it seem more "real". On Christmas day, we opened presents as soon as we were up and we all did quite well on the receiving end of it. The rest of our stay, we did our usual stops of the Kennedy Space Center & Disney. This time we also went to Manatee sighting (none were there) and to an alligator farm where they also have other animals on site.

At the alligator farm, we took a boat ride down the river where we learned about the habitat of the reptile & the different variety of plants in Florida. We also got to hold a baby alligator, a snake and  a tarantula during the animal show where we were also educated on the whole ecological system. Devin held the spider & the snake but not the baby alligator. He ran to the other side of the room when it was his turn. I think it's because whenever I show him a picture of an alligator (since he first came to the knowledge of an alligator), I always say "chomp, chomp" afterwards. So he probably thinks it bites (chomp, chomp) regardless whether or not the mouth was taped shut, lol.

My birthday cake.

One of the live Nativity scene at church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning.

One of Devin's present, a truck sticker book.

The alligator farm. Chomp, Chomp.

Safari Todd "playing" with an alligator.

Hmmm...Anyone interested?!

Devin and the snake.

Andrew & the tarantula.

Swimming at Grandma & Pop Pop's.

At Disney.

Me & my girl.

Waiting for the ferry ride.

Christmas/New Year Vacation Part 2

Second part of our trip, invading the Ferrara's in Gainsville. They were so gracious for letting us stayed with them since they had just gotten back from their trip the night before. It was great seeing them and their beautiful house.  We even got to see our friend, Victoria's new baby, Hannah.

Sable, Philip, Gina & Ruby Ferrara.

Victoria & baby Hannah

The Ferrara girls at the playground.

Devin's surfing on sand.

"can we stay a little longer, please?"

Christmas/New Year Vacation Part 2.5

These beauties deserve their own post. We asked Devin if he wanted to be in the picture. He ran away. He knows when the mommies are setting up some girly shots and he's a manly boy...lol.

Serena, Sable & Ruby

Serena & Ruby

Serena: "Ok-I'm done."

Christmas/New Year Vacation Part 3

The last leg of our trip before returning home is to see my sister Connie in Virginia. We went bowling, shopping, making cookies on New Year's Eve and just hanging out. Devin loves playing with his cousins. We had so much fun.

Sylvia, Kyle & Serena

At the bowling alley.

Andrew showing Devin some moves...

New Year's eve dinner at the Red Lobster.

Stopping by my brother in law's work (he's a chef) for lunch before our drive home.

AutoTrain

Our trip started on a freezing Monday morning. And it was my birthday. I didn't go to bed until 5am. What was I packing? I'm still not quite sure, but somehow that was the amount of time it took me, and to make our home not so scary when our friends drop by to water our plants & drop off our mail.

A usual 4.5 hour car ride to the Virginia auto train station turned into a 6 hour journey. We started out a bit later than we wanted to and getting out of Monday morning city traffic took us a while. To make sure we meet the cut-off time of 3pm car boarding, Andrew drove like a cab driver. And Devin got car sick & all the raspberries he ate earlier came right back up. It was alarming to see all the red stuff coming out from his mouth. I think both Andrew & I aged about 10 years for the couple of seconds it took us to figure out that it was just raspberries.

When we arrived at the station, the whole process was fairly easy. After we boarded our train, our attendant dropped by to give us the run-down. There are 3 bathrooms, exactly the same ones you use on the airplane, and 1 shower stall. On our sleeper car, there are 4 roomettes with 2 people each and our family room that sleeps 2 adults & 2 kids. On the other end of our car, there's an accessible bedroom with its own bathroom. So the ratio per person/bathroom isn't so bad. It's the bathroom itself that gives me the "ICK" feeling. Surprisingly though there were none of that toxic blue cleaning smell or solution in sight. I was glad, the "ICK" factor on my scale instantly got lower.

The food on the train was pretty good, they even have a vegetarian entree and a kid's meal. But according to Andrew, DON'T order the surf n turf if it's on the menu (there are about 3 options). The meal comes with drinks (wine or soft drinks) and dessert. Oh, they even have a wine & cheese hour before dinner. And after dinner, they show a movie with snacks. Or lighter fare can also be purchased at the lounge car. And a continental breakfast was served in the morning.

Sleeping on the train wasn't bad. The attendant turned down our beds at a time we requested. At first it was really nice to have the motion of the train swaying us into sleep. But then the train was going super fast in the middle of the night, our beds were shaking REALLY REALLY bad. Andrew & I woke up but eventually we went back to sleep.

On our return trip back, everything was pretty much the same. But Andrew & Devin both got sick towards the end. Devin felt fine after we got off the train but Andrew ran a mild fever & couldn't eat for a whole day. 

This auto train experience is definitely one to remember. Would we do it again? Yeah but not in the immediate future, LOL.

 

Andrew & Devin were excited to ride the train. On Andrew's left, there's a small closets for our coats & small tuck-aways.

Andrew & Serena

Devin was busy looking at the scenery. My crazy hair is from riding & sleeping inside a car for 6 hours to Virginia. 

Fine dining at the AutoTrain. Yep, real table cloth & silverware with the exception of the water cups: they were plastic. 

Devin with his truck at dinner.

The 2 kids bed upper & lower-Devin watching his DVDs before bedtime.

The 2 adult beds-the bottom is wider than the upper bed.

Watching the sunrise from our window.