3,298 miles, 10 breweries, and 1 Mega Meet - a July '16 Trip Report *New 6/5/17 - Link to new TR!*

[rteetz]

I am not a cat person, I am a dog person however Lion is very cute!

Looks like a lot of fun at the breweries! That beer can arch is cool. I am not great at selfie taking either but I think you made it work!

And I ordered a flight ... gotta love the sign on the tip jar! (the beers go from right to left, 1-5)

That tip jar is awesome! I would ask what if I want a kid to get a mullet

 

[missangelalexis]

Olivia must be happy with her new (and adorable) friend!

Sounds like a nice time at Oscar Blues and an even better time at the Funkatorium!

Oh what a bummer about your phone!

Sounds like a great dinner stop!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Oh my goodness, I am obsessing over little Lion! What a cutie!

 

[ashleymrush]

Yay for Asheville! I'll have to go to that brewery next time we are there. It is such a great place to visit.

I'm so sad that your TR is coming to a close. Do you plan on reporting to us about your solo trip? I look forward to seeing what you have to say about the experience.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I am not a cat person, I am a dog person however Lion is very cute!

Looks like a lot of fun at the breweries! That beer can arch is cool. I am not great at selfie taking either but I think you made it work!

That tip jar is awesome! I would ask what if I want a kid to get a mullet

Thanks - yeah, we have both cats and dogs (I see pluses and minuses to both) - Olivia is quite pleased with Lion though!

I do like when breweries to fun things like that with their empty cans or kegs or anything - Oscar Blues was definitely a fun place

hmmmm, not sure - maybe they take the beer away from you

Olivia must be happy with her new (and adorable) friend!

Sounds like a nice time at Oscar Blues and an even better time at the Funkatorium!

Oh what a bummer about your phone!

Sounds like a great dinner stop!

Yes, Olivia is quite pleased with the whole thing - the whole family really liked Lion though so it is fun

Oscar Blues was a lot of fun and I could see hanging out there often if we were in the area - but the beer itself at the Funkatorium was on a whole 'nother level

I got the phone fixed eventually, but was annoying at the time - and I had lasted virtually the entire trip and then practically the last day i drop it!

We did enjoy dinner - it was fun to try some more local places to eat

Oh my goodness, I am obsessing over little Lion! What a cutie!

Thanks - he is very cute - and getting more comfortable in our house and pouncing on things and exploring and stuff - it's very fun!

Yay for Asheville! I'll have to go to that brewery next time we are there. It is such a great place to visit.

I'm so sad that your TR is coming to a close. Do you plan on reporting to us about your solo trip? I look forward to seeing what you have to say about the experience.

We definitely liked Ashville and would like to go back at some point

I haven't thought too much about at TR for the solo trip since it is so short - but maybe I'll do a quick write-up or something. Could also try to do some Facebook Live or something while there

 

[Imagineer5]

Your stops on the way home look like fun for the whole family, the kids seem to really be enjoying them since you included really family friendly places! SO great. The food looks amazing and while I'm not a beer drinker i can just pretend these are super awesome wineries and that works for me

 

[Dugette]

Hey, a "dragon playground"! We have one nearby that Izzy loves, but our dragon is green. Glad you found a good place for the kids to play.

Aw, congrats to Olivia on her new little buddy! Cute!

All these updates I just read are almost making me wish I liked beer. Some of those flavors sound good, but not the whole "beer" part. Love hearing about your road trip adventures, though!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Your stops on the way home look like fun for the whole family, the kids seem to really be enjoying them since you included really family friendly places! SO great. The food looks amazing and while I'm not a beer drinker i can just pretend these are super awesome wineries and that works for me

We tried to have a few things aimed at the kids - though I think we had more specific / set things on the way down vs the way up - so they were getting a bit "brewery'ed" out by the end

Hey, whatever works for you!

Hey, a "dragon playground"! We have one nearby that Izzy loves, but our dragon is green. Glad you found a good place for the kids to play.


Aw, congrats to Olivia on her new little buddy! Cute!

All these updates I just read are almost making me wish I liked beer. Some of those flavors sound good, but not the whole "beer" part. Love hearing about your road trip adventures, though!

Ah, that's cool! We hadn't seen a playground like that before but the kids enjoyed it!

haha, well, a lot of these beers definitely don't taste like what you would traditionally think of as "beer" - and that the best part about visiting a brewery in that you can try a lot and not have to commit to anything

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 95: Travel from Disney - Days 3 and 4
Woodstock Garden Cafe and Getting home​

The next day we were to drive back to Judi's parents' house to spend the night and pick up the dogs. First the millage:

​

On the way, we were looking for somewhere to stop for lunch and one place came up that sounded interested - the Woodstock Garden Cafe in Woodstock, Virginia. When we got there we found it to be in a garden center/nursery but it was a cute palce with good food (and also a lot of random things for purchase - stuff for your yard, furniture, food, beer and wine, etc.)

​

They had a nice menu of mostly sandwiches and salads and that sort of thing. The kids I think were feeling kinda over everything and each just went with some combination of peanut butter and jelly, yogurt, and grapes

​

Judi went with a panini of some sort and a side salad (they had sort of a "you pick 2" type option on the menu) - while I did the fritata of the day and a side salad

​

Oh, and they had fancy water too

​

Overall it was a nice place to stop (though it was fairly empty and the kids were a bit all over the place so made me a bit anxious - oh well)

We made it to Judi's parents' no issue and then the next day headed home. I think I was pretty done wwth pictures by this point - but I did make sure to take a picture of our final millage when we pulled in the driveway - of 3,298.2 miles

​

I also took a picture of all of the glassware we picked up on the trip (the Chewi steins were from the fireworks party - we each got one).... as well as the beer we, er, I picked up

​

And that brings us to the end of the trip! Hope you enjoyed the report and got a sense of the fun we had and all we got done. Definitely a different type of trip for us and full of a lot of "firsts"

I'll look to do a couple of recap posts - hitting on highs and lows and recapping some of the gifs I made .... let me know of anything you would like me to cover and I will be sure to include it!

TTFN

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm sure it was nice to get home, that sure was a lot of mileage!! Thank you for sharing, definitely enjoyed reading along! Looking forward to your recap posts

 

[rteetz]

Awesome trip report Phil! I really enjoyed following along and I can't wait to follow the next one and possibly make a cameo in a few weeks.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I joined in while you were nearly done so I couldn't comment throughout, but THANK YOU for another awesome trip report! I can't believe how big your kids are getting (especially Emma!) and it was so fun to see another round of your adventures!

I look forward to the wrap-up post! (Also, that's a VERY impressive collection of glasses!)

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Great report, thanks for the read.

That's an impressive drink ware collection, although I'm not sure I like the Chewbacca mugs, they seem a bit creepy. I guess one benefit of driving is being able to take all that stuff home. My Disney mug collection is limited because we're always flying.

 

[annie170]

Another great report, Phil!

I'm not much of a beer drinker, but the breweries you stopped at looked like a lot of fun. Great souvenirs, too!

 

[mousehappync]

I guess you've heard the sad news about the Wicked Weed buyout? Ugh! We have not tried the Funkatoriam because neither one of us likes sour beer, but we LOVE Asheville. So much good food and drink there. And Athens was a very fun visit for me waaaaay back in my salad days at Auburn-- the AU/GAgame was the best. I used to stop in Johnson City as I drove back and forth from my mom's house in Nashvlle-- it's very remote! I love how you are easing out of vacation with...well, more vacation!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm sure it was nice to get home, that sure was a lot of mileage!! Thank you for sharing, definitely enjoyed reading along! Looking forward to your recap posts

It was nice to get home - I think having a few things to look forward to on the ride home helped. I know the last time we drove down we did more of a just quick stop over - so not as much "fun" on the travels and that drive home was pretty painful ... breaking it up definitely helped.

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Awesome trip report Phil! I really enjoyed following along and I can't wait to follow the next one and possibly make a cameo in a few weeks.

Thanks Ryan, I appreciate it! I think a cameo can be arranged

I joined in while you were nearly done so I couldn't comment throughout, but THANK YOU for another awesome trip report! I can't believe how big your kids are getting (especially Emma!) and it was so fun to see another round of your adventures!

I look forward to the wrap-up post! (Also, that's a VERY impressive collection of glasses!)

What can I say, I guess your welcome! Thanks for reading along!

haha, and Emma is even bigger now and a real chatterbox!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Great report, thanks for the read.

That's an impressive drink ware collection, although I'm not sure I like the Chewbacca mugs, they seem a bit creepy. I guess one benefit of driving is being able to take all that stuff home. My Disney mug collection is limited because we're always flying.

Thank you for reading along!

Yeah, the Chewbacca things are a little creepy and we definitely didn't need 5 of them - but they were included. Definitely made it easier to pick souvenirs
with more volume - and of course, room for the beer - with driving

Another great report, Phil!

I'm not much of a beer drinker, but the breweries you stopped at looked like a lot of fun. Great souvenirs, too!

Thanks you Annie! Yeah, breweries can be a lot of fun even if you aren't a beer drinker - and usually there is enough variety that there would be one or 2 you might want to try (a cider, or sour, or fruit beer or something)

I guess you've heard the sad news about the Wicked Weed buyout? Ugh! We have not tried the Funkatoriam because neither one of us likes sour beer, but we LOVE Asheville. So much good food and drink there. And Athens was a very fun visit for me waaaaay back in my salad days at Auburn-- the AU/GAgame was the best. I used to stop in Johnson City as I drove back and forth from my mom's house in Nashvlle-- it's very remote! I love how you are easing out of vacation with...well, more vacation!

It was pointed out in this TR that Wicked Weed got bought by InBev - I am very disappointed. I hope they are able to keep up with the funky stuff, but time will tell

 

[Dugette]

I also took a picture of all of the glassware we picked up on the trip (the Chewi steins were from the fireworks party - we each got one).... as well as the beer we, er, I picked up

​

We came home with only 3 Chewie steins from our last trip and I had trouble figuring out where to put them. You have quite the collection there!

Enjoyed your TR, as usual!

 

[afwdwfan]

First we headed to Frontierland for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain - and I was able to ride in one car with both Olivia and Peter (the former seeming more into this whole thing than that later, but they both really enjoyed it and after the trip Peter deemed it one of his favorites)

Can't go wrong with BTMRR. Peter has great taste!

Peter got the Kids grilled cheese with Turkey Noodle Soup

Honestly, this looks just about as good as anything you guys ordered. Sometimes a good grilled cheese sandwich and soup really hits the spot.

(I really wanted to ride it at night - I love how it looks with the lights on and with the water, etc.).

I love Dumbo at night in it's new setting. It really looks great when the lights come on.

In the end we waiting almost 40 mins in lin - definitely our longest wait of the trip - but I can say with 100% certainty that it was worth it. The characters took so much time with us and just created a lot of memories.

Yikes... a long wait, but I'm glad the meet with Joy and Sadness was so great.

Olivia was jumping with excitement and Joy started jumping with her ... so I was able to say that Olivia was literally and figuratively "jumping with Joy"

#dadjokes

and of course I am glad the kept Patrick.

Removing him would have been unforgivable.

After this we decided to switch it up ... and ride Living with the Land one last time (what can I say, it is a family favorite and, in our opinion, one of the hidden gems at WDW)

I love that ride, but even that many times at once is a bit much for me!

The family next to us offered to take a family picture ... I think Olivia was getting to be "done" with pictures

Totally understand the feeling...

I'm glad you made it to La Cava. I always enjoy getting a margarita there, although I usually just grab one to go.

Overall we enjoyed the pizza - definitely very good for Disney. Though, we do have several places near us that serve similar style pizza and I must say this was one meal that when the bill came I was like "whoa, that was a bit much" - so I definitely get why people like this place and I could see us returning, I don't think it is the "must do" for us that it is for others.

I can understand your take on it. I usually feel it is one of the more affordable options in Disney World (although pricey for just a pizza). We usually just split a pizza and it ends up being one of our cheaper meals in the parks. Although when you add a $12 beer that price quickly escalates.

But then it was time to head out ... though we hit one obstacle along the way as the draw bridge was up (it was like Disney didn't want us to leave )

Well then it's settled. We're not leaving!!!!

But - now we had the long drive home... which starts next update in Athens, GA!

The drive home is always longer...

Other reasons was, well, beer

What? You stopping for beer? No way!!!

They then found a little friend who was also playing on the play set. I know for many of you a little lizard isn't a big deal but we don't have them in NY so the kids were rather excited about it

I remember growing up I could have cared less. My sisters would chase those lizards all over the place when we'd go south.

Peter was apparently really studying up on one of the offered beer facts:

The kid is going to open a brewery some day.

Then we got a bit silly with the pictures and selfies

Yep, that beer was kicking in.

We drove for about an hour into Tennessee before stopping for dinner. We passed a lot of really nice scenery during this part of the drive:

That really is a beautiful stretch of scenery through the Smokies and the foothills.

We made it to Judi's parents' no issue and then the next day headed home. I think I was pretty done wwth pictures by this point - but I did make sure to take a picture of our final millage when we pulled in the driveway - of 3,298.2 miles

That's a lot of driving... and the biggest thing I've noticed, it seems like your kids did great with it, overall.

And that brings us to the end of the trip! Hope you enjoyed the report and got a sense of the fun we had and all we got done. Definitely a different type of trip for us and full of a lot of "firsts"

I might not have been able to keep up with it, but I enjoyed reading it!

 

[amazingact21]

The kids I think were feeling kinda over everything and each just went with some combination of peanut butter and jelly, yogurt, and grapes

Too much fun the day before?

but I did make sure to take a picture of our final millage when we pulled in the driveway - of 3,298.2 miles

Wow, that's a lot of miles put into one trip. Lots traveling for one vacation!


Love all the souvenir cups/mugs from the trip. That's one of my favorite things to bring back home. They serve a purpose plus are a great reminder of a fun vacation.