Archive | September, 2010
Screams of children on water slides and splashing in pools and the roar of the International Drive traffic are just a few sounds you will hear when you wander around the Coco Key Hotel and Water Park in Orlando, Florida. The hotel and water park opened just a few months ago and we were very lucky to be guests of CoCo Key on our last trip to Orlando, Florida. Orlando’s hot, humid weather makes it the perfect home to water parks. And a water park in which you can stay the night? My kids thought that they had hit the jackpot!
The CoCo Key Hotel and Water Park are located in the heart of the touristy area of International Drive. I had actually never been to this part of International Drive before and was fascinated by how much it resembled the Panama City strip or Gatlinburg’s main tourist drag. Within walking distance of the hotel, you will find many restaurants and activities; however, there is plenty to do on the hotel grounds so you might not want to leave!
When we arrived and got checked in, I was disappointed to find that our room was located on the outside of the hotel near the main road. It turns out that this was a great location because we could have thrown a football at the Dunkin’ Donuts that we got our breakfast from and it was much quieter than being next to the pools and splash areas. The hotel room was large compared to other typical two double bed rooms we have stayed in and had plenty of room for my family of four. It was clean and brightly decorated. I believe I spied furniture from my favorite store! When we realized that our room only had hand towels in the bathroom (surely they can’t expect us to dry off after a shower with these?!), I called the front desk for towels and they were delivered about ½ an hour later.
We decided to skip the water play the first evening we arrived because everyone was exhausted from the drive. The kids popped out of bed bright and early the next day ready to hit the water. We were surprised to find the water park incredibly crowded later in the day. We visited over Labor Day weekend after my kids had already started school. I forgot that lots of people hadn’t started school yet! There was plenty to do and I never felt like my kids weren’t able to play, but it was a crowded Sunday afternoon at the park. We kept Little S in a life jacket the whole time and I was thrilled to see that after a few months of constant use by lots of children they were not showing any wear or tear. We started our day in the Minnow Lagoon and Slides which is under the canopy.
The kids spent an hour splashing around, shooting water cannons and sliding down the little slides. After they tired of that, we went to the area that I was dreading…the Parrot’s Perch.
As a slightly nutty mom, I openly admit that I think the worst of things and this was no exception. How would I find my child? Can they escape the area without me noticing? What if they slip and fall? I was happily surprised that none of this happened. Both kids spent almost an hour and a half going up and down the stairs, sliding down the slides and waiting for the bucket to dump its 400 gallons of water on them. To make this more fun for me, Daddy J and I stationed ourselves near the exit gate so we could see the kids at (almost) all times so we didn’t have to worry as much. It helped that parents are welcome to play too so Daddy J and I were able to walk up with the kids for the first few times. Little S and Big S both had strict instructions to wave at us every time they went down a slide and were ready to run back up to the top of Parrot’s Perch.
There are also three very large slides. Little S was too small to check them out and Big S didn’t want her to feel bad (which was sweet but I think he was secretly a little frightened!). We saw many tweens and teens getting off of the slide and heading straight back up again.
The water park is not just limited to guests. You can purchase day tickets or even have your birthday party at the water park.
Besides the water park, there is also a large pool that is open late into the night (one of the reasons I was glad our room was on the street side). We hung out there after dinner for awhile before going back to the hotel and collapsing from water logged exhaustion.
The hotel has a restaurant that offers kids eat free and there is a Pizza Hut Express. There is also an arcade available full of state-of-the-art interactive video games. The hotel has free wifi available but we could never get it working in the room. We were traveling with two laptops and neither one would pick up the wireless in the hotel room. Luckily this doesn’t happen often when we travel, but when it does it is incredibly annoying. We had to spend time working in the lobby because it was the only place our computers would pick up the wifi. The lobby is huge with plenty of comfortable seating. There is even a children’s play area with a TV turned to children’s shows.
The room prices are reasonable and for a fee of only 19 dollars more, you add the cost of water park admission for four. I think that we would stay at the CoCo Key Hotel and Water Park again because of its proximity to the theme parks, the price, the clean hotel rooms, and the friendly staff.
Disclosure: We were guests of the CoCo Key Hotel and Water Park resort for two nights. Our water park admission was included. We paid for everything else including food and gas to get there.
Today we are linking up to Trekaroo’s Spotlight Thursday.
Posted in Sharing on September 23, 2010
Bring your kids to IKEA. Meals for kids, play spaces, and much more.
But if you want to enjoy yourself, I say leave ‘em at home!
I know IKEA is not a destination for some. but our closest IKEA is 6 hours away. Six hours north to Atlanta or six hours south to Orlando!
Stop by Delicious Baby to see other Photo Friday submissions.
Posted in Sharing on September 22, 2010
Thanks to all who participated in the Handmade Autograph Book giveaway. The winner, selected randomly via random number generator, was Dolly (Comment #20) who said:
Going to Disney next month. Would love this to take with us.
Congratulations Dolly! I hope you guys have a great time looking for characters and getting signatures! I wish I could have entered myself! I am going to have to purchase one for each of my kids before our next Disney trip!
Dolly-Email me asap at jennifer (at) twokidsandamap (dot) com to claim your prize!
Thank you so much to Sarah for your generous donation! Be sure to visit Sarah’s new blog and Facebook Fan Page! The autograph book that Dolly does not choose will go up for sale on her website. She can also make customized books for you at a great price!
Here are a few of my favorite posts from around the web over the past few weeks. Do you have a favorite travel related post? Add a comment below!
First, today is the last day to enter my giveaway! We are giving away the most adorable handmad autograph book perfect for your next theme park trip!
Indiana is one of the few states I have not spent time in which is why I am really enjoying reading Arrows Sent Forth. Recently they visited the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge.
Visit the Canada’s Adventure Couple’s site if you are looking for some business of blogging information. They shared the 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for Travel Blogging.
What a cool thing to witness! Carolina of Kids Go West writes about Spawning Kokanee Salmon at Lake Tahoe.
Trekaroo has a lovely guest post today called Finding Peace in Cataloochee.
Posted in Sharing on September 20, 2010
Don’t forget to enter our giveaway! We are giving away a handmade autograph book perfect for your next theme park adventure from The Scrap Angel! Details on how to enter here!
At the end of this week, I will be loading my daughter into my car and making the trek from Pensacola to Asheville, North Carolina for the Type A Mom Conference. A few months ago, I dreamed about heading to Asheville for the Type A Mom Conference. I am excited to meet some of my imaginary friends (as my husband puts it!), get the answers to some of the questions that I have about blogging, but most importantly today I am dreaming of visiting a town that is almost as important to me as my family.
About eight years ago, my husband and I decided that we were ready to start a family. We had a few years of marriage, lots of travels and two great jobs under our belt. One year later, we found ourselves stressed out, making doctor’s appointments, and just generally unhappy.
Friends of ours were heading up to Asheville to relax in a cabin and invited us along. We didn’t hesitate for a second imagining that this would be the perfect medicine to our sadness and stress. We spent four marvelous days hiking to waterfalls, wine tasting at the Biltmore, reading books and just reconnecting.
Every place we have been is a colored-in state or country on our map and holds amazing memories of delicious food, gorgeous sites, and family bonding. Asheville is not just one of the many destinations we have colored in on a map. Six weeks later, our infertility appointment turned into a pregnancy confirmation.
To me, Asheville is a symbol of hope, love, and family.
A little under seven years later, I am excited to return to Asheville with my youngest child but sad that my husband and son won’t be making this trip with me. I am excited to return to that same winery at the Biltmore to stock up on our favorite Pinot Grigio and let my daughter run around the grounds. I am looking forward to exploring downtown Asheville. I want to walk hand in hand with my daughter, celebrate the love our family has for each other, and make new memories in Asheville.
If you are going to the Type A Mom conference, drop me a note so I can be on the lookout for you!
Even though the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel is exactly that, a bridge and tunnel system to get you where you want to go, it can certainly qualify as a great attraction. According to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel website, shortly after the opening of the bridge-tunnel system, it was selected as “one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World.” The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel system is just one of many in this area but it is considered the world’s largest bridge and tunnel system. It just seems to go on and on and on!
Two bridges, two tunnels, causeways, roads leading up to the bridge and four manmade islands all make up the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel system. From one shore to the other, the system measures 17.6 miles. The water depth ranges from 25 feet to 100 feet! It is not only a convenient way to get to the Eastern Shore from Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, but it will also fascinate the kids. Just when you think you have reached the end, you come up on another man made island. When you stand on one of the islands in the middle of the bay, we could not see the ends of the bridge.
This picture was taken with my 75-300 lens from one man made island. I zoomed in as close as possible to snap the picture of the next island.
The turn offs to park on the islands and walk around come up quickly (right before the tunnel begins if I am remembering correctly) so if you are planning on stopping, be sure to pay attention and slow down. On one of the islands, there is a restaurant that was being renovated when we were there and also a fishing pier that was packed to the brim with fishermen!
There are signs that describe a little bit of the history of the bridge and the Naval history from that area.
There are lookout binoculars and it is worth the 25 cents.
They also support a birding program and the website lists many of the different birds that you might see. You will see ships galore.
The toll to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel System is 12.00 per car and goes up from there.
Be sure to stop by Delicious Baby to see where other travelers are going this week!
It doesn’t get much fresher than guacamole made tableside at Cantina Laredo in Orlando, Florida. The avocado is sliced open and smashed, the spices are added, and it is put on your table. It is some of the best restaurant guacamole I have had since I lived in California.
Look at that amazing shade of green!
Do you have an amazing guacamole recipe? My guacamole is never this tasty. I would love a copy of your recipe if you don’t mind sharing!
Stop by Wanderfood Wednesday to see what everyone else is eating!
If you haven’t already, visit this post to enter the giveaway. We are giving away an adorable handmade autograph book perfect for your next theme park trip!
I have the most awesome giveaway for you guys! My friend Sarah has started a custom scrapbooking business called The Scrap Angel. She also has a Facebook Page for The Scrap Angel. You give her your pictures, tell her what you want and she will create the scrapbook just for you! A gorgeous, handmade scrapbook without all the hard work! But it doesn’t just have to be a massive book chronicling your child’s life. She also makes brag books, scrapbooks that honor a time or particular memory, and autograph books. When I saw the handmade autograph book she made for her neice to take to Disney, I told her that I had to have one to giveaway!
Here is an example of a book designed for a girl (perfect for any princess!):
And here is an example of an autograph book designed for a boy:
Aren’t they absolutely adorable?!?! Here are the details:
How to Enter
We will be giving away ONE Handmade Autograph Book (your choice of Boy or Girl) to ONE lucky winner! One name of your choice will be added to the cover of the book but the book will be completed by Scrap Angel with no other input. If you would like a chance to win, leave a comment in this post before 9:59pm CST on Tuesday, September 21 and tell me something about you and scrapbooking. Do you love it? Hate it? Have all the stuff but never print those travel photos? Don’t worry about being creative in your comment, the winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Please make sure that you fill out the required fields by putting your first name in the name field and your email address in the email address field. I do not share email addresses and you will not receive emails from Two Kids and a Map unless you win.
Winners
We will choose ONE winner randomly and announce the results here on Two Kids and a Map on Wednesday, September 22, 2010. Thank you so much to Sarah for your generous donation! Be sure to visit Sarah’s new blog and Facebook Fan Page!
Rules
One comment per person per giveaway post. Duplicate comments and anonymous comments will be discarded. Please make sure that the email address in your comment form is valid so that we can contact you (email addresses are never made public). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except that Two Kids and a Map reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize. Relatives of Two Kids and a Map are not eligible to win.
Because this is a family site and we get a lot of spam comments, all comments on this site are moderated. If your comment doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry!
This weekend I attended The Travel Blogger Show in Orlando, FL. I wasn’t going to write about the trip, but I figured that my husband might be interested in knowing I actually learned something and did not just use it as a weekend to get away with a friend! These are my thoughts, questions and things I took away from the experience. If you aren’t interested in the business of blogging, come back later today or tomorrow when I will be reviewing the amazing hotel we stayed at and comparing an Orlando trip with kids to one without!
The Travel Blogger Show was attached to the beginning of The Tradeshow, a travel retailing and destination expo, which is why it was scheduled on a Sunday morning from 9am to 12!
Things I Loved:
- Sitting in a room with 165 other bloggers or travel industry people who want to start a blog
- Listening and getting to meet 2 speakers that I have read and admired long before I started my own blog
- The fact that with the exception of a minor mic issue during the niche panel, there was little to no technical difficulty that I noticed and I could hear the speakers.
- Listening to real bloggers tell what they do and how they do it
Things I Did Not Love:
- I doubled this trip as a girl’s weekend away after I wooed my friend with thoughts of poolside drinks sans the 50SPF so we explored Orlando together all day Saturday. This means I skipped the tweetup at the Rix Lounge Saturday night. I also have never met anyone who was going on this trip so when I walked in about fifteen minutes before the event was scheduled to begin I felt kind of like I did when I walked into the first staff meeting of the year at a high school that had over 100 faculty members and staff with that deer caught in headlight look/feeling.
- My plans were already set in motion when I learned that there were going to be activities throughout the day Sunday. I am sure it was written somewhere, but I guess it just wasn’t clear to me. I was disappointed that I had to leave town and miss out on the rest of the evening activities.
- To me as an outsider looking in, it looked like there were two very distinct groups that morning-the people who had already met in person and said hi and the people that didn’t know anyone and were sitting by themselves. I wish that there had been some time for a forced mixer of sorts. I am not normally a shy gal but for some reason, I felt like a wallflower.
- The conference room was warm and the tables were tight. With my broken booted foot, I had to sit on the outside table so I had a little bit more room but not much. I did notice the room cooling off once things settled down.
- Even though the program was put together well, you could tell that it was the first annual event! Christopher Elliott got up and introduced himself to get everything moving. There were supposed to be 15 minute breaks in between each part of the program but all three ran right up to the next section. This meant that bathroom breaks/water and coffee refills had to be taken care of while the speakers were doing their thing.
- Because I only arrived about 15m before the event started, lots of seats were taken and I had to sit towards the back of the room. There was lots of talking during the presentations. There were also lots of people that obviously had somewhere else to be about halfway through the morning because the place cleared out…all while the speakers were presenting. The teacher in me just has no tolerance for this!
- There was no family blogger representation on the niche panel. Granted the niche speakers didn’t necessarily talk about their own niche but it would have been nice if family blogging was represented (I am sure lots of other types of travel bloggers felt the same way). There are lots of us family bloggers out there but it seems like we are always in the back of the line behind backpackers, solo travelers, and round the world trippers (then again, other types of travel bloggers probably feel the same way about their own niche!).
Things I Learned About Blogging Conferences/Programs in General:
- Take notes. There is so much information coming at you in all directions and when you leave the conference you aren’t going to remember much.
- Get a phone that has data capabilities. I feel like I missed half of the conference. After my six hour drive back home, I logged onto Twitter to catch up and it seemed like there were two different conferences going on…the program itself, and all of the #trvlblog10 tweets. We have been going back and forth on whether or not to take the plunge, but this sealed the deal. Daddy J and I are going to upgrade our phones this weekend (then maybe I won’t be the last travel blogger with a phone from 2006).
- Jump in head first. I was so excited to meet The Mom Maven and because I didn’t jump right out and introduce myself I found out at the end of the presentation I had been sitting one seat away from her the whole time!
Things I Learned at THIS Presentation:
- Creativity – This blog and my Pensacola with Kids blogs are your basic this is where we went, this is what we did, this is what you can do blogs. I like it this way. That was why I started this blog. I was tired of never being able to find real experiences from families who had been there. I do some narrative writing but the majority of the posts read on these two sites are places to go, things you can do there, and how much it cost (example: one of my most viewed posts on my Pcola with Kids blog is how to have a successful blueberry picking trip!). That being said, I can be a little bit more creative with my posts. A lot of the places we go have been covered 1000 times so I need to come up with a better angle to make it stand out.
- Advertising – I need to start researching advertising options and look into things like Google Adsense.
- I learned about the Google Keyword Tool and how to utilize it.
- Ebooks can be a very effective moneymaker and even a marketing tool. I have been working on an Ebook…ok…not really…I have an outline and I am not sure where to go with it now…but this has motivated me a bit to get back to work.
- I learned that I need to clean up my site a bit (well, I already knew that) and add a PR pitch page about what I expect in a PR relationship.
- Trademark – There were mixed feelings on the niche panel about this, but trademarking is something that I am going to look at doing. If you have been there done that and would like to share advice with me, please let me know!
- I need to look at plugins I am not using. One that was mentioned several times was What Would Seth Godin Do? I came home, looked it up and realized that this is exactly what I have been looking for but just didn’t know what it was called!
Bottom Line: Would I go again? I answer that with a resounding yes!
I am sure that there is much more that I can share. I think I walked away with more questions than answers. I am glad that I was able to attend this three hour program before I head up to Type A Mom in Asheville, NC at the end of this month. What about you? What was your experience at this conference or another?
