Visting South Carolina

A day after we finished Disney Cruise and touring around Disney World Parks, we all took an Amtrak train from Orlando, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. It took us eight hours riding on a train. This was the first for the boys-- they LOVED IT!

While riding on a train, there was some rain on the way. This did not bother us because we had some relaxing over watching the DVD movies, taking short naps, and eating our dinner. The boys chose over pizza than eating adult food! As soon we arrived South Carolina, it was LATE at night: 10 P.M. From there, it took my mother an hour and a half to drive back to her home. By the time, we got there, the boys definitely were pooped out!

The next day, my mother took us to her favorite beach site: Huntington Beach, South Carolina. We were amazed the water was literally warm-- a lot more warmer than in California water. Not only staying in the warm water, the waves was PERFECT! There was no need to worry about the high waves at all. Dylan learned to do a boogie board that my mother and Bruce brought to the beach. Ryan played both in the water and busy making a mud birthday cake. After the beach, she even stopped by where the alligators usually hung around. It was not far from where we swam. Not only finding the alligators swimming near the beach, we also discovered them in the marsh nearby my mother's home. I could not image if they would dare to walk up to the front door. Fortunately, my mother's home live farther away from the marsh. It would be impossible to have them walk on the the street, unless one of them dared to scare any of the neighbors.

We also visited the places where my mother worked: a cozy Sea Shell stores. Both boys were fantasized how much they like to collect shells. Ryan started to collect more shells after we llanded in Castaway island. It was a good feeling for me to him having at least a hobby. While I was there, I admitted that I dreamed about collecting some shells for my teaching: Ocean Theme.

While we were squeezing our tours, my mom was kind enough to take us to Charleston where there were lots of old and beautiful buildings. We even stopped by seeing more beaches and Shrimp Boats. At both times, we stopped for an ice cream especially during the hot weather. With the hot weather, we had a chance to see many lightening. The cutest statement was Ryan thought the lightening was chasing us.

On the last day of spending the time with my mother, she took us to McClellanville town. It was neat to see our last name being in a small town. David's eyes lit it up when he saw the signs before we left for an airport. After we spent the last couple of hours before leaving for an airport, it was nice feeling seeing my mother and understanding what her new home is like.

Disney's Amusement Parks

Believe it or not, we stayed five days in Florida in order to visit four out of nine amusement parks. Each day was non-stop activities.

The first activity was to visit the Animal Kingdom. I can promise you this park was far much better than any zoo in California. Personally from my point of views, there were so many amazing improvising animals creatures all over the world at one park. We were able to go all rides including Kali River Rapids- the wettest and wildest ride in Walt Disney World. It was a true business because I got really SOAKED, but felt so good especially during the humidity weather. While we were there, we were fantasized how the workers created the Tree of Life. This man-made tree is 145 feet tall. From far away it looks like any other tree. But when you get up close, you will realize that this is not an ordinary tree. It's covered with 325 animal images! I am pretty sure that Mark Twain would love to live there. Not only fantasizing the tree houses, there were shows such as "Finding the Nemo." This show provided us a rear reflection. David and I could not complain because it was better than not understanding what the show was. Another show we visited was "A Bug's life." We were warned that it would scare us out, but it didn't including our kids. This show made a great place to watch a 3-D movie. We also visited DinoLand U.S.A. I thought it was brilliant when they created a Dino-themed fair and attended the thrilling ride back to the last few minutes of Cretaceous Period. It made look like they lived while riding on a rough ride.

The second activity was going out to Disney Hollywood Studio. This place mainly showed lots of indoor places unlike Universal Studio. While we were there, it poured rainy for at least three minutes then it all dried out. It was weird! There were some good and so-so rides. We especially like the two rides: Star Wars (though I'm not fond of watching Star Wars movies) and dropping 13 feet down from The Hollywood Tower Hotel. The boys were somewhat exciting and scared at the same time. It felt like we were in a Twilight Zone. While we were there, our disappointment was not going to Toy Story Rides. That was the only LONG waiting line while the Hollywood Tower only at least 5 minutes of waiting. Perhaps next time will do. Just before the day had ended, the boys wanted to meet the "UP" from the characters so BADLY, though they have not seen the movie yet. But at the end of the day, I barely could walk because my hips were killing me.

While having sore hips, I managed to go on the third amusement park: Typhoon Lagoon. Boy, I admitted this place is a ten thumb ups! Way much better than the Soak City in California! Wish Disney would have thought about this first before building few Soak City Parks in California. (Note: please ignore Ryan picking his nose.)

After spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon, we returned to our hotel for a couple of hours before going Disney's Downtown. We managed to get in Cirque Du Soleil until 10:30 P.M. There were times I could not watch where I evoked the performed got injured on the show. Nope, they were AMAZING! I honesty would not mind to watch the shows again at another place.

Going all of the four out of nine amusement parks were too much for all of us ! Without having any choice, we had to do this while we were in Orlando, Florida for five days. We honesty would not mind to visit the other amusement parks that we had missed someday in the future-- only when the weather is not too hot and humidity!

Disney Cruise

What can I tell you about Disney Cruise? The answers are AMAZING and OUTRAGEOUS FUN! It was worth life time memories.

On a very early morning, David and I had to wake up at 4:15 A.M. in order to take a shower before waking the boys up. We were astounded that the boys did not have any obligate to wake up at 5 A.M., getting dressed before the bus shuttle came. Dylan especially was all ready to get going because we knew he was extremely exciting to go on a cruise. Once the shuttle bus came and took us to the airport, we had a McDonald's for our mini breakfast in order to fill our stomach while the airplane only served us a drink-- no more T.V tray meals until we arrived to Denver airport. We grabbed our pizza before taking off to another airplane for Orlando, Florida.

A day after we arrived Florida, the reality came true-- going on a Disney Cruise with 25 of us (David's family.) There were 8 rooms in a row on the eighth floor especially reserved for David's family. It was really nice to greet each other in the morning, or before we hit for bed. We especially greeted each other at breakfast and dinner meals. At the meals, we have the same waitress and waiter at the same table. At the table, we also have two professional interpreters: Marvin and Tara. The best part was seeing every one dressing it up differently, especially on Pirate Night. Not only the best part seeing everyone dressing it up, my family and I enjoyed being served without needing to cook for an entire week. It felt like we lived in a mansion lifestyle.

After the meals, we had the interpreters interpreted for us at every single night at the play. They were incredible amazing interpreters. I have learned that they had been on the cruises more than ten times because they had several other deaf clients on the cruises. This gave them the advantages to practice the plays. The entire family were impressed with their awesome body and facial expression along with the play. Believe it or not, they are automatically part of our extended family members and became our friends on our Facebook.

The boys especially like to play with the computer at the Oceaneer Lab. It pleased us because it gave us some time to ourselves such as going out for a swim. Swimming was one of my favorite relaxing time. Of course, the boys had the chance to swim at the Mickey Mouse Pool and the slides. Next to the pool, there were junk and healthy fast food restaurants. The meals were included the fee.

While not being on the cruise, we visited three islands: St. Martin, St. Thomas and Castaway Island. Each of the islands was different. On St. Martin island, there were two completely different world: Dutch and French. On the Dutch part, there were really poor people trying so hard to renovate the building. On the French side, there were many sophisticated buildings. We visited the Butterfly Farm. It was HOT and HUMIDITY, but we were awed to see the huge size of butterflies in the green house.

On St. Thomas island, there were many beautiful views especially overseeing the clear blue water from the tram. On the top of the tram, there were parrot shows and stores. The boys and David did watch the show briefly while I was drooling for pairs of earrings. At the top of the tram, we greeted two families: The Grants and the Morgans. We all sat down for a drink in order to cool ourselves down, but none of us could not resist the beautiful views.

The last island was Castaway. In case you did not know, this island is owned by Disney. They did create many awesome activities: souvenir stores, food, beach sports, outdoor activities and BBQ meals. The boys enjoyed swimming the WARM lagoon beach. Both Dylan and David enjoyed lying on the lounge while Ryan found his new hobby: collecting the shells. He discovered a BIG shell in the water. Of course, we only could posted for a picture. While we were on the island, we had an interpreter interpreted "Feeding and Swimming with the Stingrays." Dylan and I were too chicken to feed the stingrays. I only was able to swim around withe stingray, but not Dylan. He was too afraid to have some one forgetting and taking out the stingray's poison. But we did not let this small part spoiled our fun, we walked back to to souvenir stores where David and Dylan collected the Disney pins.

On our last day of riding on a cruise, we met at the table for a breakfast. There were an International Show. It was a beautiful show, but it was hard to say good bye to the wonderful waiter and waitress, especially the two awesome interpreters. Still, these BEST memories on the Cruise would NOT erase our life time.

Catching It Up

Oh my goodness, I have been SO FAR BEHIND writing posts. Before and after the Disney Cruises, I certainly have been EXTREMELY BUSY. Before the trips to Disney Cruises and South Carolina, I had to pack both of my sons' and my suitcases. Not only packing our stuff, we also had to double check that we got everything in order: passports, tickets, confirmations for the hotels, and few other things as well.

After I got back from the trip, I ONLY had one day to do at home before returning to work for the County. Mainly, I washed few clothes because I was fortunate to wash many of our clothes at my mother's before we headed for home. It helped because we were exhausted from having on-going activities for the last two weeks.

A day after arriving home, I just had to drop the boys on their first day of Y.M.C.A. while I went straight to my first day of working for the County. On the first week of returning to work before the students resume their school, I either had a long day of meeting or decorating the classroom. There were TONS of things to do, including I had to take care of my boys' school supplies.