A Southern Adventure August 2018 Pre Travel Day

[pretty71]

August 8th Pre Travel Day

A Southern Adventure we are calling this report, but I am sure we will end up calling it something different by the time we finish it!

A quick run down of who we all are in case you don't know us. I am Angela, now 47...sshhhhh and a very seasoned traveller to Florida, having been visiting for quite a few years now, I think this is my 23rd visit or something close to that.

My DH is Mick, but in the reports he is Daddy...41 and loves Florida, the sunshine, the food and also the wonders of Disney Magic.

We have Grace who turned 8 yesterday and spent a very long Birthday on a plane bless her...she is a trooper, she will tell you she doesn't like flying but is actually a really really good traveller (thankfully)

Coming with us again this year are Mick's Mum and Dad, Margaret and Gerry otherwise known as Nanny and Grandad for trip report purposes.

We are doing things a little differently this year as we realised last year that Grace is spending 2 whole weeks with 4 old fogeys and may not be having the best time she could, so we are spending 10 days and doing 3 nights travelling around a bit before ending up in Dibber Hank's gorgeous villa in Rotunda West again for a week.

I will fill you in as we go though. We booked our bargain flights last September for 398 pounds...we live just outside Southend so the downside is we drive up to Manchester to fly out from there and then over to Frankfurt and then to Miami, but for that price we couldn't not do it! We are well up for it and consider it an adventure.

Nanny and Grandad however declined the cheapness and are flying direct to Miami from Heathrow and meeting us there. We broke them last year running for the connection in Charlotte lol...you can read all about that in my trip report from last year...I know I know it's not quite finished yet, but hopefully I will remedy that in the next few days!

So this is another year and another report, this year I will go back to writing it daily as it just is impossible when you get back home and back to normality. I will also do MUCH better with photos!

So enough waffling here goes!

The big day had arrived! You wait so long from booking flights to actually leaving you wonder if the day will ever come!

Poor Daddy was at work! He works the night shift, 12 hours, 4 nights a week and only gets 16 nights holiday a year so it's very precious and we decided he would work the Tuesday night and rough the Wednesday and sleep in the car on the way to Manchester... yuk I have to say! He is a trooper though! I got up just before 6 and started to the last things on the list I had, things like turn the water off, lock the windows and make some sarnies for the journey...you get the idea Daddy gets in at 6.45am and we planned to be on the road by 7.30am... this of course turned out to be 7.50! We played suitcase Tetris ...love that game lol...NOT! We had 2 cases with another stashed inside and 3 bits of hand luggage...we only have a Yaris! Mick really wanted to lie down in the back, I was ever optimistic ... silly me! Grace started off in the back and we got in and were on the way.

We had debated many routes but I decided to plug the Sat Nav in and just follow that.
Grace called a toilet stop...at Toddington! Really! Already? It was 9.15 and had been a little slow on the M25 around J20 but nothing terrible. Daddy stayed in the car when we went in and then he had swapped the seats when we got back as he felt there was actually a little more room in the back. Grace was very happy to be in the front and she is prone every now and again to a bit of car sickness so I felt this was better.

Off we went again and to be fair we had a fantastic journey, 4.5 hours including the stop (we didn't have to make another) and we were outside the Heald Green Premier Inn at 12.30, happy days! We had gone all the way up to Nottingham and then across on the A50 until we then joined the M6.

The room was unfortunately not ready in fact none were ready so we googled the nearest McD's and got Grace a happy meal and we had 2 coffees and the rolls we had made. Due to the travel sickness Grace had not eaten anything yet bless her so this went down very well. We then went back to the Premier Inn and the room was done so we got everything in and left Daddy to sleep. It was 2 so we had a couple of hours of girlie time and went to John Lewis and Sainsburys which are next to each other just up the road. We got back about 3.20, so we went in to the Beefeater next door for a drink, sparkling water and an orange juice...5.40! Really!

We went to wake Daddy up at 4 as we were going in to Didsbury to meet a friend of mine from school who is actually Grace's Godfather and we haven't seen him in a while. The plan was to get there for around 5 and find somewhere and then he will come and meet us.

We parked up outside Solita, I had had a quick look on trip advisor and this had good reviews, it was an American themed restaurant so thought it would get us in the mood.

We got a table and waited for Sean who arrived not long after. We missed the starters out and ordered a garlic and cheese flatbread to come with the meal. Grace ordered Mac and cheese balls with fries, I had a Caesar salad and the boys both had a Smoke house burger which was a burger with added brisket chilli and a bacon wrapped jalapeņo ... it was all good! Grace ordered fried cookie dough balls for dessert and ate most of it! Where she puts it I don't know!

The best thing that happened during the meal was Grace's wobbly tooth fell out! Thank goodness! I had been stressing for a few days about her not being able to brush properly but now the problem is over...the new tooth was right behind and quite big so it wasn't getting brushed properly...problem solved...the issue now is the tooth fairy! She visited us at the villa last year so I am sure she will come again when we get there this year

It's was a lovely meal, it was only a 15-20 minute journey and well worth it great food and great company, a cheeky glass of prosecco, happy days. we were sad to leave but it was just gone 7 and we had a 3am wake up call

We said our goodbyes and said we would try and meet up on the return leg too, which we really will try and do.

We got back and Grace and Daddy were in bed for 8 and I was not long after as I had a little bit of sorting out to do first.

It had been a great start to the journey so hopefully this trend will continue!

Thanks for ready and I should see you tomorrow

[app]

New Photo Added by pretty71 - 10 Aug 18 11:26 AM.

[mick]

Great start

Joan

[Jake71]

I've been reading along on last year's report. A good start to this year's, looking forward to reading along.

[Cinderella]

Looking forward to your trip report!