The Great Smoky Mountains- Part 1 Dolly's Homecoming!

We took another short trip at the beginning of May, this time we ventured into The Great Smoky Mountains. It just under a 9 hour drive from our house so we planned in extra stops on the way there and on the way back. 

Our way out took us down through Nashville and we stayed the night just outside in a place called Murfreesboro, I have recently just gained gold status with Hilton Honors so it was really nice to get upgraded to an executive level room and two free breakfasts!
I started to feel a little ill at the hotel, I think a cold was settling in but after a good sleep I was feeling better the next day. We carried on to our cabin in Sevierville, TN.

The Cabin was amazing, it was everything I thought it would be and more. To get to it we climbed up and up and up a spiral road and when we finally reached our cabin the view was breathtaking! I could quite happily wake up to that view everyday! The cabin was fully equipped with a kitchen, 1 bedroom and 2 bathrooms, It also had a hot tub outside. It was beautiful!

The first night we decided to take Calleigh into Pigeon Forge and on our way there we noticed that the main road was being closed off. After a bit of googling we discovered that it was for Dolly Parton's Homecoming and she would ride right down the road we were on in a parade! It was still early so we took Calleigh on the Dinosaur ride and went for something to eat. Then it was time for the parade and what an amazing parade it was- Lot's of the local shows were there and then Dolly Parton herself riding right down the street just feet in front of us. Calleigh was shouting "Dolly! Dolly! Dolly!" the whole time bless her!

After the parade we drove back to the cabin and enjoyed the night together in the comfort of the cabin. It was truly a great evening- I may have even cried a little at seeing Dolly.
We made sure to get an early night as we had big plans for the Smoky Mountains the next day!

More on our trip to come soon- I promise!

Seaworld.

Calleigh had been so excited to see Shamu since we told her we were going to Seaworld. For weeks before the trip she would randomly shout out to us "Who are we going to see? .. Shamu, Shamu, Shamu!" It was adorable.
The instant we arrived in Florida she wanted to go and see Shamu but we managed to get her to wait one more day as it was already 3pm and after a long drive all we wanted was some food and a soft bed!

As I mentioned in the previous post (you can read it here) we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn as part of a Seaworld package so our tickets were included in the hotel stay. We were thrilled to find out that Seaworld was just a 5 minute walk from the hotel so we didn't have to drive and pay for parking.

That morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then planned to walked across to Seaworld. Before we left we picked up our complimentary express passes from the lobby and a nice lady gave Calleigh a Seaworld backpack with a Shamu teddy inside- she loved it!

When we got to the park it was so quiet. We did have to wait about 10 minutes for the park to open but it didn't bother us. Our first stop was going to be Dolphin Cove but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. I was really gutted as I always loved Dolphin Cove when I went as a kid. Nevertheless we didn't let it bother us too much so we moved on to the new Antarctica and took Calleigh on her first ride of the trip, Antarctica- Empire of the Penguin. It was still early so there was no queue and we went straight in. We took the mild ride as Calleigh was too small for the wild ride. It was a gentle ride that followed the life of a little Penguin called Puck. At the end of the ride we exited through the Penguin enclosure. Calleigh loved watching the penguins but we couldn't stay too long as it was so cold in there and Calleigh was shaking like a leaf!

We then made our way to the Dolphin Theater to catch the dolphin show- Blue Horizons. After we had sat down we were informed it was going to be a bit of a different show as the dolphins were not co operating very well and the trainers couldn't go in the water with them. It was still a great show and Calleigh was in awe watching the dolphins jump out of the water!

After the show we went to see the Sea Lions. As we were stood there watching them from behind the glass I asked Calleigh if she wanted to get some fish to feed them. She said yes after she had finished finger painting. I was so confused about this answer until I saw her with her finger in large pile of white bird poo! "Noooo Calleigh!! That's poo!" I shouted. Even after we had washed her hands she went on about it all day, looking at her finger and talking something about poo haha!
So anyway we fed the Sea Lions, Calleigh's attempt only made it to one of birds that hang around that area and after that she didn't want to do it anymore.. The birds were kind of aggressive!

We then made our way to Shamu Stadium, stopping for a drink and a snack on the way. When it was time for the show we took a seat in the reserved seating section (another perk from the hotel package) safely away from the splash zone! Calleigh was so excited and it was great to see her joining in with the crowd and all the ooohs and ahhhs when the Orcas jumped. Her favorite part of the show was when two of the whales kissed each other, she still goes on about it now.

After Shamu we took Calleigh to see the Polar Bears after the Wild Arctic ride. These were another animal that she was really excited to see, but sadly we were informed that the last one had passed away a few months back. We did still get to see the Beluga Whales, the seals and the huge Walruses! Calleigh was amazed by how big they were. One of them was just hanging by the glass, bobbing up and down out of the water, and Calleigh happened to notice his.. er.. bits. She asked me if it was his belly button or if he was doing a poo. Not wanting to explain what it really was, especially in front of an audience, I settled with his belly button. To which she told me how big and cute it was haha!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and enjoying the warm sunshine. We picked up some bits at the gift shops and lastly we saw the Turtles and the Manitees.
By four we were all knackered and started our walk back to the hotel. Calleigh was talking about it all night and kept saying we will go again tomorrow.
She had such a great time!

Our Holiday to Florida

After what seemed like the longest winter ever we decided to book a holiday to Florida to get a bit of sunshine. This post will just be a run down of our trip and then I'll go into more details on another post!

We took the same drive as last time on the way down, stopping for one night in Atlanta to break up a long car journey. 

The trip down to Atlanta was the hardest, we got stuck in a lot of traffic and it ended up taking a lot longer than we thought. It was over 11 hours and we didn't arrive at the hotel until after 9pm (because we headed east we lost an hour crossing through a time zone). We promptly went to bed so we could get an early start on our drive to Florida. That was a much better run thankfully and we arrived in our hotel in good time. 

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn at Seaworld as part of a Seaworld Vacation package so our tickets were included. Calleigh had been beyond excited to Shamu for weeks so we were really looking forward to that! 

We didn't do much the first night, just unpacked and chilled in the hotel.

The next day we got up early, had breakfast in the hotel and then walked to Seaworld (it was a 5 minute walk from the hotel!)We were there for the whole day and had a great time.
I will write about our time at Seaworld in another post!

The next day we didn't do much, just took a drive around and hung out in the pool. Calleigh loved playing by the pool, she is still a little bit afraid of water but it didn't stop her playing in the shallow end, even though the water was freezing!
That night we took Calleigh to Downtown Disney and she got to play in the fountains again and we also took her in the T.Rex centre and she dug for some dinosaur bones, or more precisely, buried my foot in the sand.

We really wanted to take Calleigh to either Disney or Universal Studios but we just couldn't justify spending the money when we realised that Calleigh was still a bit too short for most rides, so instead we planned on going to Aquatica and booked ourselves a Cabana for the day!
It was the best plan ever as Calleigh absolutely loved it there! Her favourite was the wave pool and playing on the sandy beach. She didn't go on any slides with me but she did have a float around the lazy river. I think she enjoyed it, even though she gripped onto me the whole time with her death grip haha!

That night we also took Calleigh to play Mini Golf, it was fun although she just cheated the whole way round by picking up her ball and putting it inches away from the hole.

On our last day we took Calleigh to Seaworld again to see Shamu one last time. We didn't stay as long this time as she happened to find the water fountains and played in them until she was soaked through!

This time Calleigh also went on her first roller coaster- The Shamu Express. It was hilarious, she got off and said to me "Phew! That was so fast!".

The next morning we got up early to get a good start towards our next stop. Even though it was our last day in Florida we still had some holiday left. The road we took home was a long route through Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. Look out for another post with more about our journey back!

Chicago and The Field Museum

The night before we were due to leave for Chicago we decided to stay in a hotel to make it easier for us. Our flight wasn't until 12 so we didn't see the point in getting up at the crack of dawn to make the trip to the airport. It turned out to be a really good idea, we had a good nights sleep and woke up relaxed and refreshed.. Which was good as we went to the wrong terminal and had to get on a train to get to the right one. Luckily we left ourselves plenty of time. 

The plane was delayed before take off which left us sat on the runway for an hour but other than that the flight went well once again. Calleigh got a bit stir crazy during the last couple of hours but nothing we couldn't handle. 

When we arrived in Chicago we were excited to get to our hotel. We decided to treat ourselves and booked a tower suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. 

We arrived and checked in and then took the elevator up to the 34th floor and into our suite. The first thing we noticed was the amazing view from the window- the skyscrapers and buildings looked amazing! The second thing we noticed was how old the room looked, it was in fact one of only a few rooms left in the hotel that kept the original architecture from back when it was built in 1929- pretty cool. 

The room itself was amazing- it only had one bed but it was plenty big enough for us all to fit in easily. 

We didn't spend too long in the room, we just quickly freshened up and then went down to the restaurant for some dinner. The food was really nice although they didn't have a children's menu which was a bit disappointing. 

After dinner we headed back to the room to get an early night- we were all pretty tired. 

In the morning we were all up and dressed extremely early and after a gorgeous breakfast we checked out and headed to The Field Museum for Calleigh's special surprise. 

Inside the Museum Calleigh came face to face with one of the most complete T-Rex skeleton's ever found- Sue. She was so excited to see it and couldn't wait to explore more. She has gotten quite into dinosaurs just recently and she really know her stuff. Back in England Mee-Maw brought her a dinosaur balloon from the Zoo and she told me it was a "Bracha-saurus that eats plants"- so clever!

There were lots of animals displayed at the Museum and Calleigh loved pressing all the buttons and interacting with the displays. There were also more dinosaur skeletons and we even took her to see a 3D movie about Sue. 

Not such a good idea though, whilst Paul and I enjoyed it Calleigh sent the whole time hidden in Paul's chest not looking at the screen, maybe a little too scary for her.

After the Museum it was finally time to start heading home. It was a 5 hour drive but Calleigh slept for a good amount on the way after her exciting day! We arrived home about 6 and actually managed to unpack all the suitcases and start on the washing! We did well! 

So that's the end of our trip posts, I think I've pretty much covered everything. 

Now I am looking forward to Halloween and my favourite season- Fall!