jenseib
Mommy to Claire
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
Hello! Welcome to my newest trip report ….one that is NOT about Disney World or Disney Cruise Line, or anything Disney related for the most part! I took a step on the wild side this Spring and went to Williamsburg, Virginia.
Some of you have read my previous reports over the years. You have traveled with Me, Claire and Skip, you have traveled with Me, Claire and my Parents, you have traveled with me and several of my friends and co-workers, and most recently you have traveled with me, Claire, my parents and my sister Gail and her family, My Aunt Mary and Geoff and extended cousins. This time you will be introduced to my other sister Amanda (though she has been mentioned in other reports). This is our first trip together as adults. Claire, of course is along for the fun, as are my parents again.
Let me introduce myself. I am Jen. I am a HUGE Disney fan. I have traveled there over 10 times now. 10 used to be that magic number I was trying to achieve. Something about that number just made it sound like a seasoned Disney vet, and I am past that number now! Woohoo! I have also sailed on Disney Cruise Line 3 times and I am hoping to take many more in the future.
I am the wife of Skip, who is what many people call a resistor. He enjoys Disney, but he doesn’t see the need to go there or anywhere for that matter that often. I love him very much, but I need to get him turned around on that idea.
I am the mother to 3 children …..Michael, who is 24, Paige, who just turned 21, and Claire, who is 8. Claire is my travel partner and she enjoys it just as much as I do.
This trip came about last fall. My Mom has a timeshare through Marriott. She decided that this year she would like to go to Williamsburg. My youngest sister Amanda usually travels with my parents as well. They both agreed this was the place they would like to go. My Dad on the other hand said there was no way he would be going. He also said it would be the start of his busy season with his work, which is a lawn service business. Mom mentioned to me that if Dad didn’t go that perhaps Claire and I could come along. I thought that would be wonderful. Colonial Williamsburg is a place I had wanted to visit for years. Actually I have wanted to go for over 20 years. We came close to going a few times, but in the end, we always headed to Florida instead.
Months passed and it was talked about here and there, but nothing really came of it. Sometime late January my Mom called and said it was official, Dad was not coming along. I told Skip about the plans and he of course made a face about it, but I went in with the fact that if I went with my Mom he would be off the hook. I knew this wasn’t a top spot he wanted to go to and he knew I wanted to get there someday. Basically he didn’t say yes or no, but he just said for me to keep it quiet, as his family and friends tend to be anti-travel and they seem to get upset and think I go too often. I am not sure why they care, or why he cares what they think, but I agreed and didn’t mention it to too many people.
Now for the planning. The dates were April 13-20. I am a planner, but it soon became clear that my sister did NOT want to do much planning at all. It got a little heated at times, as Mom would tell me one thing and she would tell me another and I felt stuck in the middle. I decided that I would just go with the flow. That is very hard for me, but I actually did a pretty good job. I did have a list of a few things I wanted to do, and I also said that I was not sleeping in and wasting days, nor leaving early to come back to the resort. I mentioned renting 2 separate cars, but I was assured it would all be fine. We did work things out, but in the future, I WILL be renting my OWN car.
I booked our flights out of Columbus, OH, where my sister lives, reserved the car, and got us tickets to Bush Gardens and the rest was going to wait till we got there.
I did a little research, but not like I would normally do. Luckily I have looked into Colonial Williamsburg over the years more than once, so I was slightly familiar with it.
The plan was to go to Bush Gardens on Sunday the 14th, only because the park was only open limited days while we were there. The rest of the plans were to do at least 3 days at Colonial Williamsburg, and spend one day going to nearby Plantations. The rest was going to be on the fly. That is so not like me at all, but I managed.
Once the plans were made we just had to wait for our dates to arrive.
I would like to say I took fantastic notes, but I didn’t, so most of this is going to be from memory. I also didn’t take as many pictures as I normally do. Now don’t get me wrong, I took a lot of pictures, but there are periods of time where I took absolutely none.
Now, this is going to be very slow going as I am also still working on my last trip to Disney as well ......
Some of you have read my previous reports over the years. You have traveled with Me, Claire and Skip, you have traveled with Me, Claire and my Parents, you have traveled with me and several of my friends and co-workers, and most recently you have traveled with me, Claire, my parents and my sister Gail and her family, My Aunt Mary and Geoff and extended cousins. This time you will be introduced to my other sister Amanda (though she has been mentioned in other reports). This is our first trip together as adults. Claire, of course is along for the fun, as are my parents again.
Let me introduce myself. I am Jen. I am a HUGE Disney fan. I have traveled there over 10 times now. 10 used to be that magic number I was trying to achieve. Something about that number just made it sound like a seasoned Disney vet, and I am past that number now! Woohoo! I have also sailed on Disney Cruise Line 3 times and I am hoping to take many more in the future.
I am the wife of Skip, who is what many people call a resistor. He enjoys Disney, but he doesn’t see the need to go there or anywhere for that matter that often. I love him very much, but I need to get him turned around on that idea.
I am the mother to 3 children …..Michael, who is 24, Paige, who just turned 21, and Claire, who is 8. Claire is my travel partner and she enjoys it just as much as I do.
This trip came about last fall. My Mom has a timeshare through Marriott. She decided that this year she would like to go to Williamsburg. My youngest sister Amanda usually travels with my parents as well. They both agreed this was the place they would like to go. My Dad on the other hand said there was no way he would be going. He also said it would be the start of his busy season with his work, which is a lawn service business. Mom mentioned to me that if Dad didn’t go that perhaps Claire and I could come along. I thought that would be wonderful. Colonial Williamsburg is a place I had wanted to visit for years. Actually I have wanted to go for over 20 years. We came close to going a few times, but in the end, we always headed to Florida instead.
Months passed and it was talked about here and there, but nothing really came of it. Sometime late January my Mom called and said it was official, Dad was not coming along. I told Skip about the plans and he of course made a face about it, but I went in with the fact that if I went with my Mom he would be off the hook. I knew this wasn’t a top spot he wanted to go to and he knew I wanted to get there someday. Basically he didn’t say yes or no, but he just said for me to keep it quiet, as his family and friends tend to be anti-travel and they seem to get upset and think I go too often. I am not sure why they care, or why he cares what they think, but I agreed and didn’t mention it to too many people.
Now for the planning. The dates were April 13-20. I am a planner, but it soon became clear that my sister did NOT want to do much planning at all. It got a little heated at times, as Mom would tell me one thing and she would tell me another and I felt stuck in the middle. I decided that I would just go with the flow. That is very hard for me, but I actually did a pretty good job. I did have a list of a few things I wanted to do, and I also said that I was not sleeping in and wasting days, nor leaving early to come back to the resort. I mentioned renting 2 separate cars, but I was assured it would all be fine. We did work things out, but in the future, I WILL be renting my OWN car.
I booked our flights out of Columbus, OH, where my sister lives, reserved the car, and got us tickets to Bush Gardens and the rest was going to wait till we got there.
I did a little research, but not like I would normally do. Luckily I have looked into Colonial Williamsburg over the years more than once, so I was slightly familiar with it.
The plan was to go to Bush Gardens on Sunday the 14th, only because the park was only open limited days while we were there. The rest of the plans were to do at least 3 days at Colonial Williamsburg, and spend one day going to nearby Plantations. The rest was going to be on the fly. That is so not like me at all, but I managed.
Once the plans were made we just had to wait for our dates to arrive.
I would like to say I took fantastic notes, but I didn’t, so most of this is going to be from memory. I also didn’t take as many pictures as I normally do. Now don’t get me wrong, I took a lot of pictures, but there are periods of time where I took absolutely none.
Now, this is going to be very slow going as I am also still working on my last trip to Disney as well ......
Can't wait to see it brought to life with all your gorgeous photos!
