Adventures of Evie

  It's our final day of vacation and todays adventure is New Orleans! This was not a part of our original trip and the weather was decidedly rainy so we made plans to check out City Park and the Childrens Museum of Louisiana. The park was absolutely beautiful and nestled inside of it is the museum, an art museum, many little collections of statues and art installations, as well as Cafe Du Monde which promises to have delicious coffee and beignets. We started there and they definitely were delicious! While we ate and enjoyed our coffee Evie put on many "shows" for us in this gorgeous gazebo that's right across from the cafe. She had a ton of fun using it as a stage and singing and dancing and then of course encouraging us all to clap for her when the show was over. Then it was museum time! I still honestly didn't find this museum as nice as our own but it was VASTLY superior to the Tampa one. Evie started out on the water table again. This water table had a lot of ...

  Today we did a series of mini trips while we made our way from Florida to Louisiana for our final vacation destination of New Orleans. This was an add on to our originally planned trip and even though we were all tired and feeling a bit under the weather it was worth it. We started in Mobile, AL. There were quite a few cute little shops there as well as lots of street art. We didn't stay in Mobile long but we snapped a few photos and enjoyed the sights before we headed off on our way. Stop two was in Biloxi, MS. There is a lighthouse there which has some cool history and near by it is a Hurricane Katrina memorial. Evie and I have talked about weather, climate, and hurricanes on more than a few occasions and it was a really great way to show her how hurricanes can affect people and nature and how we, as a society can help and rebuild. We got to see some of the items they gathered from homes that had been destroyed, a memorial with names of people who died or were missing from the ...

  Today is our last day at our pool house so we decided to spend the day exploring and relaxing. We stayed in Dunedin and it's such a cute little town. It even has a little trolley which will take you around the city and to the beach. We found lots of little shops, colorful art installations, and more breweries than I've ever seen in such a small area. We had planned to spend a good chunk of our morning in Tampa at the Glazer Childrens Museum. I have a Cincinnati Museum Centers pass and it's gotten me into many museums for half price or less so it was a cheap and potentially fun activity since the morning was supposed to be rainy.  We ended up getting in for free and I was really glad about that by the time we got into the museum because to be frank...it was terrible. There was a water installation which most museums have but it was geared towards how rivers contribute to larger bodies of water so it mostly just had some dams and some water spouts that Evie had a hard time ...

  Today we decided to have a nice, relaxing beach day. We've been right here by the beach for several days and haven't really gotten a chance to even look at it yet! We drove out to Honeymoon Island to spend the day gathering shells, swimming, and relaxing. The ocean is Evie's favorite place. She has always loved the water, even when she was a little baby. Her first experience with waves and salty water was in Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea when she was just 9 months old. Since then she's swam in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean Sea many times. She isn't a huge fan of the salt water in her eyes though! She was a little disappointed to find out that she can't swim underwater without her goggles on in the sea.  She gathered up lots of shells though and she had a ton of fun playing in the sand, swimming around, and "surfing" on her waveboard. It was a really nice way to spend the day together and the beach was empty, warm, and absolutely beautif...

  Today is the first OFFICIAL day of our vacation. We originally planned it to be a low key beach type trip since COVID is still a thing and it was meant to be a last relaxing week before life gets hectic with school and the holidays. However, once we found out that Universal and Disney were less than two hours from our house there was no way weren't going to go. We started with Universal Studios.  It was a really magical day! We got to ride the Hogwarts Express into Hogsmeade and our first order of business when we arrived was an interactive wand. Evie had fun waving it at the windows in the shops to try to get the magic to happen. We all had a few goes at it as the day went on and even though it was hit or miss it was a lot of fun trying! We stayed in Hogsmeade for awhile and got butterbeers and some sweets from Honeydukes. Evie really wanted to go inside Hogwarts but she wasn't tall enough for the ride and she was not interested in the Hippogriff ride so after we finished s...

  For day two of our vacation we went to Disney World! Evie has already been to Disneyland when she was younger and she really enjoyed it. This wasn't part of our original vacation plans (although neither was Disneyland when we went there!) but there was no way we could be so close and not go. We set off early in the morning and got there around opening. One thing I will say about the Disney World experience is that it was FRUSTRATING. Like...REALLY frustrating. When we went to Disneyland on a whim it was a pretty painless experience. We drove up, parked, walked in through Downtown Disney and spent a fun and stress free day at the park. Not the case at all with this. We had trouble figuring out where to park, the trams were super slow to get us from the parking lot to the park, then we had to wait AGAIN for the monorail. That was also packed although someone did move at the last second to at least allow Evie to sit down. After all that we had to wait in line to get tickets because ...

  First day of our summer vacation! Today we spent a little bit in Atlanta. Evie and I have both been in Atlanta before on several occasions but we've never explored the city much and today we didn't have a ton of time for exploring either but we did grab some breakfast and then see some of the sights downtown before we headed to our final destination (for a few days anyway) in Florida.  We also ended up with a flat tire before we headed out but luckily it was easily pumped up and patched and we got on our way without much of a delay. Since we're staying in a pool house we have our very own pool to use everyday and of course the first thing Evie wanted to do when we got there was jump right in! It's going to be a fun but jam packed trip! :)

  Vacation day is finally here! Today I had to work a little bit in the morning so we played some games and wrapped up the last of our packing for our trip. This is our last summer trip before Evie is a big kindergartener so I'm hoping it's going to be a really fun one. Even though Evie is really excited about riding the school bus, her excitement for actual kindergarten has waned as it's gotten closer and  now she is mostly nervous about it. She has been home with me now for over a year and even though we've done a lot of learning it will be a HUGE adjustment for both of us to give up those few hours together. But hopefully it will all work out and she will love it once she settles into the routine.  After I finished up work we headed to our first vacation stop...ATLANTA! :)