Places to Visit — Page 16

Happy Mother’s Day – in St. Augusutine

May 13, 2012 By Anne

We had an early Mother’s Day last weekend. My mother in law was in town, so we took both her and my mother out to breakfast and then a tour of St. Augustine. It was a great day!

Breakfast at Georgie’s Diner. My mother is on the left.

Waiting for the trolley at The Old Jail.

Waiting at one of the trolley stops.

Stopping for a walk at the Mission of Nombre de Dios & Shrine of Our Lady of Leche.

A beautiful view of one of the many St. Augustine bridges.

The end of our trip at the Old Jail. There are so many things to do in St. Augustine. We will have a great time exploring more this summer!

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Hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

Branson….This Fall

November 22, 2011 By Anne

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hiltons of Branson for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve never been to Branson, Missouri, but I would love to go one day! I’ve read many good things about Branson. It sounds like such a beautiful, fun place to go see. If we went right now, we’d get to see all the changing of the leaves and the air would nice, fresh and crisp. Shh, don’t tell my husband he’ll jump in the car and take off!

Branson has many wonderful sites to see. If you do go check out the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing, set in the Ozark Mountains. Silver Dollar City has an 1880 theme experience. How cool is that? Plus Silver Dollar City is having an Old Time Christmas. It’s supposed to be the most Christmassy place around. They have over four million lights! There are rides, games, shops and restaurants and over 40 live entertainment shows. You get the Silver Dollar Package with two adult and two children tickets, plus rooms starting at $257.50 a night. Sounds like such a great time!

There is also the Santa package which is accommodations for a family of four and breakfast with Santa at the Level 2 restaurant staring at $228 a night. How fun.. having breakfast with Santa!

If you’re staying at the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel, don’t forget the Thanksgiving Day Brunch at the Level 2 Steakhouse or you can even get your “Turkey to go”.

Not sure where to go this fall? Check out Branson and Hilton!

Anne

Spooktacular Visit to Sea World Orlando

October 23, 2011 By Anne

We had a spooktacular time at Sea World Orlando last weekend!! We all dress up as super heroes! The Halloween Spooktacular event will run from 12 – 8 p.m. and will take place each weekend in October: 1-2, 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, and 28-30. Basically they have lots of fun Halloween decorations, trick or treating and cool activities for the family.

Here’s a picture of Hunter enjoying the candy apples. For a small fee, you get to choose milk or white chocolate or Carmel apples. Then you can choose from a variety of toppings. They even had to-go boxes, if you wanted to take them with you to enjoy later.

Then we were off to create some very cool sand art. They have several table filled with sand. You get to choose the shape you want and the workers imprint the shape into the sand. Then you get to choose from an array of stones and place them into the shape. The workers then pour plaster of Paris, I assume, into the shape and let dry, remove and package up for you. We came back to get them after about an hour. They were wrapped and packaged and ready to go. Hunter and Savannah loved their art and it was a perfect souvenir.

In the same area, there was a DJ, games and dancing. So much fun!

We traveled around and saw the manatees, the sharks and my favorite – the penguins. Savannah couln’t get enough of them and we stayed in the penguins exhibit for a while. One of her favorite movies right now is Happy Feet.

The last item on out to do list was the Shamu show. It was a wonderful show and everyone enjoyed watching these amazing creatures and their trainers.

Over all we had a great time!

We received park passes in order to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own.

Anne

Our Trip to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween

October 21, 2011 By Anne

We visited Disney last weekend and went to the Mickey’s Not So Halloween Party! Here we are at the beginning. Everyone loved wearing our new pirate costumes!! Mickey’s Party is a special ticket purchase. You can go all the way through Nov 1st. There are trick or treat stations throughout the Magic Kingdom. I liked going because it’s less crowded!

Hunter and Savannah waiting for the Tea Cups to start….

I finally convinced Savannah to dance with Jessie. She was so happy she did it!! Not a great picture, though.

Don and I waiting for the parade to start!

The headless horseman began the parade and what a parade it was!! Disneyparades are awesome in themselves and this one was made special with all the costumes and ghouls. The pictures didn’t come out as well though.

The Party dates in 2011 are: Sept. 13, 16, 20, 23, 27 and 30; Oct. 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30 and 31; and Nov. 1.

To purchase advance tickets, guests can visit disneyworld.com/halloween or call 407/W-DISNEY. Advance purchase (prior to event day) savings of $6 per ticket are available for Sept. 13, 16, 20, 23, 27, and 30; Oct. 2, 6, 10, 11, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25 and 27; and Nov. 1.

Of course we had to get our picture taken with Jack Sparrow. It was a long wait though – 20 minutes at the end of the day is a long time! WE had a great time – no one does it better than Disney!

We visited another park in the area and let me tell you, Disney is really the most magical place on Earth.

The trick or treating was cool too – they gave you hand fulls of candy and everyone is so friendly. I would do this year after year. Oh and dress up!! It was fun to have the whole family dress up.

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Have you been to Mickey Not So Scary Halloween?

We received two tickets for this event to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own

Anne

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

October 9, 2011 By Anne

In one week, we will be in the most magical place in the world! We’re going to Walt Disney World!

We went to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas last year and had a wonderful time and I could wait to book our trip to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

When you visit during these fun events, the park closes to the general public and only those guests that purchase a separate party ticket are allowed to stay. This means shorter lines, less crowd and more fun!

I think we will make these events an annual tradition!

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party returns to the Magic Kingdom for 23 select nights between Sept. 13 and Nov. 1, 2011.

The after-hours Magic Kingdom party will once again be immersed in the Halloween spirit, including two entertainment spectaculars created especially for the event:

Mickey’s “Boo-to-You” Halloween Parade proceeds down Main Street, U.S.A., heralded by the Headless Horseman and his trusty steed, and trailed by a cavalcade of holiday-themed characters, from Mickey and the gang to Disney villains and the stars of the Haunted Mansion (but make sure to watch out for Hitchhiking Ghosts!).
The bewitching “Happy HalloWishes” fireworks spectacular illuminates the sky in bursts of orange and green fireworks, while Cinderella Castle is draped in eerie hues and ghostly apparitions flit along the park’s rooftops.

The party begins at 7 p.m. and runs until midnight. If you attend, you are encouraged to wear a costume and then you can go trick or treating around the park – how fun!

We are trying to figure out what to wear. We want to dress in a theme, but there are so many to choose from. I should have just made a decision and said that’s that, instead I’m trying to get all us us decide.

The Party dates in 2011 are: Sept. 13, 16, 20, 23, 27 and 30; Oct. 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30 and 31; and Nov. 1.

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Have you ever been?

We will receive complimentary passes to attend his event on order to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own.