Disney World//Florida Family Road Trip 2008!!

Day 1
So, for the next few weeks, my personal blog is going to turn into a family blog, as it follows the Martisek and Eernisse families to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. My parents, myself, and my and three sisters are on the trip: John, Julie, Sara, Emily, Claire, and Becca Martisek. Also, my cousin, Nanette Eernisse, and her three oldest kids are with us: Emily, Ethan, and Elissa. We started yesterday, July 19th and arrived in Orlando, FL today, July 20th. Our Disney park passes are for Monday through Thursday and we’ll leave for home sometime either Thursday or Friday. It is going to be an amazing trip full of long winding roads, multiple “potty” breaks, four Disney theme parks, and tons of family fun! Join us on this crazy ride and feel free to leave us comments on each blog entry as we go!

[These are blog/journal entries from yesterday, but we couldn’t find wi-fi anywhere so I’m posting both yesterday’s and today’s this evening.]

John: “We pulled up to the house about 11:15am honking the horn looking for bodies. To my surprise, Mary is at the front door and out pops Elissa, with Nettie not far behind. I think honking the horn got everybody stirred up. We left just after 12pm, and I knew we had 8 hours of traveling ahead. We made our first two bathroom stops in Edna and Houston. One problem, I was talking to Mary on the cell phone when I accidentally missed the I-10 exit, taking us to downtown Houston. Here was the problem: in downtown, everyone’s restrooms are “out of order” due to the many homeless people in the area. We stopped at a Valero and a CVS; this did not relieve the Disney World crew. We continued on our trip with the goal of catching up with Emily, Claire, and Becca, who were in second car, coming from Hallettsville. Finally, we caught up with them at a Love’s, just past the Louisiana state line. Continuing on, we made a stop in Vinson, LA for gas and another quick potty break. Our final stop before the half way point was in Lafayette, LA, were we ate at Wendy’s for dinner. At this point, the kids moved into Sara’s car, while the adults moved into the suburban. This made for a great time, as we got to discuss more things from the heart. Nettie bragged about her mother, with two comments sticking in my head, “She’s the greatest mom,” and, “I don’t know what I’d do without her.” In fact, we got to joking and talking so much, that I missed the last exit for the hotel, which caused us a delay of 30 minutes. Ok, it’s 11:30pm, and now I’m going to bed.”

Julie: “It is midnight in room 275 in the La Quinta Inn in Slidell, LA. Elissa just got out of the shower and we are out of towels. (Grammy, I promise I will do my best with the hair!) Today we played the “ABC” game in the car, Nintendo until the batteries ran out, and counted all the trains between Beeville and Slidell. If there are any better traveling kids in the world, I sure don’t know them! Tried to decide today which Disney characters are our favorites…Emily is on the look out for Hanna Montana, and the rest of us are still thinking! We’re also wondering what Disney surprises might be in store for our birthday girl on Monday. Stay tuned for more info!”

Elissa: “I’m doing the bicycle with Claire on the floor. I had fun at Wendy’s. I packed my special blue coconut shampoo; it smells good!”

Becca: "Claire woke me up this morning at 9am and I figured it was time I started packing. I was ready to go by 11am and we ended up leaving the house at 12pm. I figured I could have slept for another hour, but I slept all the way to the Wendy’s stop. This was when the kids joined Sara and I in her car. I’ve been up ever since. It has been fun so far!"

Claire: "As much as I hate car games, I had fun playing the “ABC” game with Emily and Elissa all the way to Louisiana! More tomorrow…"