Archive | September, 2010
If you wander around the web, you will see some of the same photographs over and over again of popular travel spots. Lately, I have been trying to take the typical shots just so I have them and then try to make a conscientious effort to take photographs from a different angle or view. I was so excited to see this photo in my husband’s collection of photographs from his No Girls Allowed boy’s summer camp trip to Brazil. Totally different from the shots that he brought home last year.
To brush up on your photography skills (which I constantly have to do!), stop by Shooting Photographs for Your Blog over at Midwest Guest or Six Reasons Your Travel Photos Stink. Do you have any other travel photo tips?
Be sure to visit Delicious Baby to see where everyone else is traveling!
This summer we had the opportunity to spend two fun filled days at Wilderness at the Smokies in Sevierville, Tennessee. We had such a great time! One of my favorite memories of this trip was the look on my son’s face when he realized he was tall enough to ride the Smokies Surfrider.
The waterpark writes the height of the rides for the little ones on their hand. My son looked at his hand, looked at the height on the sign, looked at his hand again. Then he turned to me with eyes so wide, questioning me. I gave him a big smile and he immediately got in line.
With the little guys, they start at the bottom of the surfrider. The lifeguard holds on to the board, Big S hopped on, and she let it go. I love the look of determination with a smattering of fear!
And up he went!
It was hilarious because Big S didn’t weigh enough so he just kept going right up and over. No surfing here!
See our other posts from our Wilderness at the Smokies trip: a video of our adventure and Wilderness at the Smokies – Sevierville, TN – Part One – Salamander Springs. You can read my full review of the hotel and the waterparks on Trekaroo.
Visit Trekaroo for Spotlight Thursday to see where others are traveling!
Disclosure: We were guests of Wilderness at the Smokies for two nights. Water park admission is included with every hotel stay because you must be guests of the hotel to visit the water park. While on this trip, we paid for everything else including our meals and the gas to get there. My reviews are based solely on my experiences and opinion with no outside influence.
This summer we went to some pretty cool places! We got to go to San Antonio where we visited the Zoo, the missions, some parks, and ate some of the best Tex-Mex we have ever had! We got to stay at a water park resort in Sevierville, Tennessee. After that, we headed up to Virginia where we explored the Eastern Shore with family. When we were back in Pensacola we didn’t just sit around. We explored lots of Pensacola and had so much fun doing it!
We went to the new community pool where the kids went down slides and splashed in the awesome zero entry pool. We were so excited to hear about a new cupcake store that opened called Oh Snap! Cupcakes. We went on opening day and had some yummy cupcakes and can’t wait to try some of the new flavors! We explored some new parks around our area and kept cool with lots of ice cream. We visited the zoo at Gulf Shores and the kids loved the kangaroos. We took advantage of the free entrance day for Florida State Parks! We watched the Blue Angels practice their acrobatics and we picked soooooo many blueberries that I am praying for non stop power to my freezer during this hurricane season!
We have been in school for two weeks now and just had our first three day weekend. I am looking forward to catching up on all the blogging from our summer vacations over the next few weeks and I can’t read about all of your trips!
This post is part of the TravelingMamas.com Tripapalooza Contest.
Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. Did you have a favorite travel related post? Leave a comment with the link so that we can go check it out!
Christopher Elliott was at the Coco Key Waterpark Resort in Orlando, Florida at the same time I was this weekend. Oh how I would have loved to run into him and his family…I will admit I would have been a bit starstruck and probably wouldn’t have said anything!
Hunstville, Alabama is on our list of places to visit because it is within reach for a long weekend. Amy at The Q Family Adventures shared her weekend adventure with us. I didn’t know there were caves to explore!
We drove through Houston on our way back from San Antonio this summer and I told my husband that I would love to make a trip to Houston next summer for the Space Center and of course the Ikea! Sarah is thinking about Houston at Wandering Off, too!
This post isn’t from this week, but I did just find it recently. Tulips and Flightsuits has a lovely post with gorgeous pictures about Seaside, Florida. I drive past Seaside about once every two months but we have yet to make the turn to check it out. I am hoping to head over there for their large community garage sale and to sample some of the fare from the airstreams.
When we were on our big road trip this summer, we were surprised at all of the beautiful flowers we saw all over the interstates in North Carolina. The flowers are everywhere and are an amazing array of colors against your typical green surroundings. Every corner we turned, my daughter would shout out which color flower she could see! I noticed a sign at one of the rest stops with some information about the wildflowers so I did a little bit more research at home and found that there is an actual Wildflower Program through the North Carolina Department of Transportation that began in 1985. The flowerbeds are installed and maintained by Roadside Environmental personnel and make for a beautiful drive through the state. At the NCDOT, you can download a booklet that helps you identify the flowers you will see.
These pictures were taken on the side of the road at a rest area.
And of course, Little S ha to have a picture in front of the flowers!
Stop by Delicious Baby to see other great Photo Friday submissions!
The San Antonio Zoo is probably one of our favorite zoos out of the ones that we have visited with our children. The San Antonio Zoo has so many family friendly aspects and it kept our family busy the whole time we were there. It was very hot but the zoo had lots of shady areas to attempt to keep cool. Our only complaint is that when we went there was lots of zoo construction going on in a few areas. We couldn’t even find our way down to see the elephants which made Little S very sad! Luckily, we were able to spy them from a hill! My favorite part of this zoo is their attempt to get kids thinking and interacting with the exhibits. There are signs at many of the exhibits asking questions and prompting you to look at things.
The kid-friendly areas are great. There is a petting zoo where you can actually get in the pen with the animals. At the petting zoo is a sink/soap station to wash up.
The kids loved the Discovery House the best where they got to get up close and personal with Prairie Dogs and pretend bugs! Little S could have walked back and forth on these lily pads all day!
The San Antonio Zoo is located adjacent to (or in?) Brackinridge Park. We spent about 3 hours in the zoo and a little while in the park. We didn’t see everything at the zoo, but I think that 3 hours was plenty of time. We received tickets to the zoo as part of our S.A.V.E. San Antonio sweepstakes prize package but ticket prices are $10.00 for adults and $8.00 a child, I think that it is worth it and we would pay that price to visit again..
Stop by Trekaroo for their Spotlight Thursday where other blogs have linked up with their travel related posts.
