This summer the road took us east to North Carolina to visit with Wes' parents and grandparents. I was very apprehensive about driving across the country with a 2 1/2 year old who is currently potty training, but the trip went remarkably well. This is partially due to the fact that Riley was extremely interested in seeing Grandma Lewis because she owns 2 cats. We were asked repeatedly about the cats over the 2 day drive! The other thing that kept Riley occupied in the car was her DVD player. Wes hooked up some computer speakers in the car so that we could turn the volume up high enough to hear it and we enjoyed countless episodes of Mickey Mouse ClubHouse and Yo! Gabba Gabba during our travels!
We arrived in Spring Lake on a Wednesday, and enjoyed the rest of that day and the next at the house. Thursday morning we loaded up and set out for Kure Beach. Wes' parents rented an amazing condo for us that is right on the beach, and we stayed there until Tuesday. We enjoyed playing in the ocean and in the sand, hanging out on the balcony, playing Wii games, and eating lots of good food! Riley also enjoyed feeding the seagulls, however birds kind of freak me out in large number, and this was no exception! The beach was amazing - and so much cooler than further inland.
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| Riley and Grandpa in the ocean! |
We left the beach on Tuesday morning and returned to Spring Lake for a few days. On Thursday morning we started back towards Kansas with a planned stop in Nashville, TN for a few days.
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| Riley on the deck of the condo |
We arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville on Thursday and after navigating our way through the check in procedure and getting parked, we hauled our luggage to our room. The hotel was beautiful. We spent the evening finding our way around, and we had dinner at a pizza place inside the hotel. To be honest, the pizza tasted an awful lot like Sbarro's pizza (available in many mall food courts!), but cost around $30 for 3 pieces of pizza, 3 breadsticks, and 3 drinks. Needless to say, we dined outside of the hotel for the remainder of our stay!
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| Riley enjoying the hotel |
We had all day Friday to enjoy the hotel, so we started out with a boat ride around the Delta area of the hotel. Riley really enjoyed being on the boat. We told her she had to sit still on the boat, and she was very proud of herself for accomplishing that goal! We saw lots of fish and a couple of ducks along our ride. After visiting some shops, we headed down the street to get some lunch.
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| A boat going through the waterway inside the hotel |
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| Just one of the beautiful waterfalls inside the hotel |
In the afternoon, we all took a nice nap and then headed out to check out the parts of the hotel that we hadn't seen yet. The place is massive! We had a big lunch, so we opted for the fine dining establishment of McDonald's for dinner. We brought it back to the hotel and ate in our room because if you are going to spend that much money on a room you really ought to stay in it as much as possible!
Riley was ready to go swimming after dinner, so we headed down to their outdoor pools. They had an awesome kids pool that was only 18 inches deep and Riley had a great time playing in it. She met another little girl and they played together for a while before we needed to get to bed.
The next day we left early in the morning and headed back to Kansas. It was an awesome trip, and Riley had a great time visiting family and having some new experiences. Time to start planning for next summer!
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