"Guess who`s back"...3 Return for 3 Weeks @ RPR. Parks, KSC with lots of good food and fun...A May 2023 TR

[schumigirl]

You did well as a tipsy photographer at the minigolf

lol.....I was kinda tipsy!!!!

There are some pics I won`t post as they are dreadful, but that`s why I take two or three of the same thing, then delete the bad ones.....although sometimes they are all fuzzy

I need a badge that says....I tried my best!!

 

[schumigirl]

Thanks for the pm’s……..away for a few days in Scotland visiting with family……catch up soon…….

 

[schumigirl]

@Worfiedoodles @disneyseniors

We probably won’t have a lot of pics from this trip, but a couple of our view from this gorgeous hotel!






And of course, champagne in the room……





Skies are clearing now and it’s getting much lighter!

Off for breakfast now

 

[saskdw]

I think it's a rule that father and son have to be highly competitive on anything that involves keeping score!!

The picture of Tom standing over Kyle trying to make his put is hilarious. Tom has a very mischievous grin on his face.

The PBH courtyard is stunning at night. Unfortunately the old style room decor does not appeal to us at all. We would not stay there again just based on the room decor. We had pretty good luck at Sal's in December. Must have caught the chef on a bad night. That pizza didn't look very good.

 

[schumigirl]

I think it's a rule that father and son have to be highly competitive on anything that involves keeping score!!

The picture of Tom standing over Kyle trying to make his put is hilarious. Tom has a very mischievous grin on his face.

The PBH courtyard is stunning at night. Unfortunately the old style room decor does not appeal to us at all. We would not stay there again just based on the room decor. We had pretty good luck at Sal's in December. Must have caught the chef on a bad night. That pizza didn't look very good.

lol....I think you`re right!!! I hadn`t noticed that grin before, but yes......it`s there!!!

We did go back again later in the trip, spoilers......it was amazing!!! Yes, Sal`s is normally top notch but that one for Kyle was just not very good, we`ll forgive it as it was the only time we`ve ever had a poor pizza from them.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Finally caught up again!

KSC is such an amazing place to visit. When we went. dh has ZERO idea about it. I think he loved that the best out of our whole Florida trip. He still talks about it. Both boys want to go there when we finally get to go. I can't wait for our youngest to experience it. He has been a sky watcher for a long time now.

I have to say how amazing your pictures are! They really are spectacular. I can almost feel the Florida heat in your pictures.

Can't wait to hear more

 

[schumigirl]

Finally caught up again!

KSC is such an amazing place to visit. When we went. dh has ZERO idea about it. I think he loved that the best out of our whole Florida trip. He still talks about it. Both boys want to go there when we finally get to go. I can't wait for our youngest to experience it. He has been a sky watcher for a long time now.

I have to say how amazing your pictures are! They really are spectacular. I can almost feel the Florida heat in your pictures.

Can't wait to hear more

Thank you, I do like the pictures Tom takes and the odd blurry one from me....lol.....yes, you can imagine the heat from them at times!!

KSC last few years has been sensational to visit, if you haven`t been for a long time, it`s very different and worth visiting. For astronomy fans too, yes, it`s a must do, but incredible place to experience and absolutely one of our best days.

Glad you`re all caught up!!!

 

[schumigirl]

This little trip to Scotland was very short and we didn`t do our usual touristy things as we spent most of our time with family, but we did get a couple of pictures.

The journey up shows me just how changeable the weather really is here in Scotland, one minute you can have bright sunshine, 5 minutes later it could be a monsoon or bleak dark clouds will have rolled in, then snow before you know it. But such beautiful countryside.

Our very busy motorways.......lol.....this section is normally fairly quiet, but it can get busy in other sections of it.

We always stay in the same hotel every visit, it`s a beautiful place and has been expanded over the years, when I was a child it was one main building, very old and traditional and it was "THE" place to have your wedding reception. It`s still incredibly popular for weddings today partly due to it`s location with the views out over to the Island.
It`s also much prettier in a night picture, the second one down was ours from Christmas.

Sunset here in the West of Scotland is stunning. This one was taken from a beach 10 minutes along from the hotel, that`s the beach I used to play on as a child with all my friends, it was a 3 minute walk to our home then.

Isle of Arran is gorgeous, it looks so different in so many lights, morning to night it can change a dozen times, I have this picture on my sitting room wall........but this NOT one of our pictures, I have no name to credit it, but it blows me away every time I see it.

Arran an hour or so apart.....

This area is impressive as you can be sitting having your picnic or whatever and a submarine can pop up out of the water. The nuclear Submarine base Faslane is only slightly further up the coast and it`s quite common to see them do that, well, maybe not so much now, but many years ago they would often pop up. The water here is incredibly deep which is why this area was chosen to have the base located here.

This was a little piece of personal history below. Tom`s dad was Captain of the tug boat pictured below for many years, it used to guide the larger ships into the docks, long gone now and Tom has some lovely memories of being aboard with his dad. It was kind of refurbished a few years ago and hasn`t been used for over 40 years now, it just sits in the harbour and you can pay to go on it I believe, but I`m glad it`s being looked after by the Maritime Museum people and not just turned into firewood.

A little town along the coast to us is Largs where there are a lot of palm trees that line the beach here which surprises many folks as some think Scotland is just cold, it really isn`t, we can have some stunningly beautiful weather here and it really is one of the most beautiful places on earth.










There is a little island called Millport just off of Largs and the ferries run like buses back and forward all day.
The larger boat behind it with the two funnels is The PS Waverley and she is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. She sailed till 1973 then was bought by the a preservation society. Since then she has been restored to her 1947 appearance and now operates passenger excursions around the British coast, it is quite impressive and she has been seen on numerous tv shows, mainly Scottish ones.

Our last morning I was up around 4.45 and this was my view. I love this place and it`s one of the views I miss more than anything......of course Kyle`s classic line to me when I tried to tell him what Isle of Arran means to folks here was.....mum, it`s a rock!!!! Honestly.......lol.....but he wasn`t brought up here as we moved to another country when he was 18 months old. Can`t say I blame him.

Just a short snap of our trip to Scotland this past week. We had an absolute blast, enjoying time with family and some friends, ate some very good food with wonderful company. I sometimes do a mini trip report within this one when we go, I just don`t have the time this time as I want to crack on with this TR which I will finish as soon as I can!!!

Hope you like the small snapshot of our trip

 

[Elsaspiritanimal]

Just lovely Carole. So glad you had a wonderful trip and were able to spend time with friends and family. The views are absolutely stunning! Hope to be able to visit there someday!!

 

[saskdw]

Amazing pictures!! Thanks for posting those!!

 

[schumigirl]

Just lovely Carole. So glad you had a wonderful trip and were able to spend time with friends and family. The views are absolutely stunning! Hope to be able to visit there someday!!

Thanks Elsa, I hope you do get to visit one day, Scotland is the most amazing country with so many different areas to visit, if you get decent weather it`s hard to beat it for it`s beauty.

Yes, it was a wonderful visit thank you, seeing everyone was so nice

 

[schumigirl]

Amazing pictures!! Thanks for posting those!!

Glad you like them, now we`re home I wish we had done more, but we knew this trip was mainly to see folks, especially my mum

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Those pictures are STUNNING!!!! Europe is on my bucket list for sure. DH doesn't want to go...but I know that my sisters do. So my trips to Europe will probably be with them - and hopefully maybe even Mom. It really looks amazing.

 

[schumigirl]

Those pictures are STUNNING!!!! Europe is on my bucket list for sure. DH doesn't want to go...but I know that my sisters do. So my trips to Europe will probably be with them - and hopefully maybe even Mom. It really looks amazing.

Thanks Pumpkin.

There are only a few countries in Europe we`ll visit again, so many are off our list for various reasons, but the UK has so many beautiful options whether you want cities, countryside, beaches and more and so much history to enjoy.

A trip with your sisters and mother sounds about perfect! If ever you want some recommendations I`d be happy to suggest a few places.

Glad you liked them!

 

[macraven]

Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!

 

[schumigirl]

Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks mac, it is a gorgeous area and when the weather is beautiful, I wouldn`t want to be anywhere else.....well, maybe Orlando!!!

It`s stunning in all weathers though, the mountains just look supreme whatever the climate throws at us, love it. Our next planned visit is Christmas, booked the hotel when we were up, so I`m excited for that trip too.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Scotland has some of the most stunning scenery on earth and your photos captured it perfectly. I’ve only been to a few places in Scotland and they are so so different. School trips brought to me to Edinburgh and Aviemore. We went back to Edinburgh years ago when our eldest was about 4 with my brother and sister in law and their two kids and more recently I’ve been to Glasgow a few times. When my husband worked for Anheuser-Busch they had to go there for their periodic drug testing where they’d cut a whack ( slight exaggeration ) of hair off and send it away to be tested. Us bring us made a family adventure out of it and often booked ourselves into a hotel for the night seeing as the boat was already paid for by his employer. None of the places I’ve visited come close to the beauty of your childhood home. Loved hearing a bit of your history and the happy memories of your and Tom’s childhoods. It must have been hard to leave such a beautiful place and move elsewhere. I’m sure you love going back and catching up with family and friends. Sounds like the perfect place for Christmas.

 

[schumigirl]

SATURDAY MAY 13TH

We all slept terribly last night, I was driving everyone crazy with this cough and I think we all needed a lazy couple of days, so that`s what we did, we took it easy and chilled out, which doesn`t make for a great Trip Report, so these next two days I don`t have a whole lot of pictures to post apart from food and us!!

After we showered and dressed I got Kyle some breakfast and brought it to the room for him, Tom and I went down and had a quick breakfast then came back down and those two headed off to the park for a couple of hours. I rather boringly was going to do some more laundry while they were gone and maybe have an hours snooze if I could. Our housekeeper knocked and I said can we just have towels and that would be ok for today, she saw I was leaving for the laundry and said she`d pop in now and do it properly, so I said ok and took my time with the laundry.

It took longer than I thought anyway. I put my $10 into the machine for quarters and only 4 came out, so I grabbed my laundry and headed up to the front desk to ask for quarters and let them know the machine was empty. This took about 15 minutes as the line was huge with check ins, one of the supervisors saw me and took me aside rather than wait which was very kind of them, so I got back down and popped the laundry in to two machines and headed back up to have a coffee with the supervisor I had just talked to, we knew her from way back and don`t always get the chance to chat, so we had a nice hour or so, although I did have to go down after 30 minutes and pop the clothes in the dryer.

One of my pet hates is folks who don`t come back to the laundry when the clothes are finished, it keeps the machines from being used by someone else, so I make sure I`m back in time. Went back to finish my coffee and chat and then when the drying was done I popped it in the bags and took it upstair, my two weren`t back yet, so I ironed and hung everything up, then took a snooze.

I think I had about 20 minutes which wasn`t great as I think I felt worse when I heard them come in through the door. They had enjoyed some coaster time and did Hagrid`s with weirdly a smaller wait than they expected and had a couple of rides on Velocicoaster, I forget if they did anything else but I was glad they had some time just the two of them.

A quick splash of water and I was better, we took our time to decide where to eat lunch today and Kyle said he had wanted to go to Toojays in Dr Phillips, he had never been before but we had been going there for many years, probably around 2014 when Kyle had stopped coming with us regularly.

Kyle was still pale and not sleeping wasn`t helping, but he still wanted to eat which we took as a good sign. TooJays is a 10 minute drive away but I don`t see a lot of folks mention going there for some reason, it`s a lovely little family run place where the owners are easily in their 80`s but still go in and wander round the tables chatting to guests, certainly every day we have gone in we have always seen them.

We have never waited for a table, but I had heard some days especially a Friday evening the waits can be quite long, and today we get seated straight away.

Staff are pleasant here and efficient, Tom and I ordered strawberry lemonades and Kyle stuck to water, but he was keen to try their fish and chips which had always looked so good, very different to fish and chips in the UK where we have one large piece of cod or haddock not smaller pieces that you always get over here, with gorgeous deep fried proper chippy chips, but this was lovely.

Tom loves sandwiches.....any kind usually and would eat them anytime, so I knew he`d have one but there are so many to choose from, he eventually chose The Rachel which had hot pastrami, swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing on Rye bread.

I fancied something spicy, so I opted for their Nashville hot chicken sandwich which came with fries, coleslaw and a pickle which is not my favourite thing, I think only Tom will eat a little of them. I prefer those little sweet pickle slices you buy in jars for burgers and so on, but I`m told by Americans I`m in the minority liking them....story of my life, I don`t mind being unique!!

The food was lovely, everyone enjoyed it and Kyle had a little more colour in his face after eating his lunch. Tom`s was demolished, he loved it, mine was cooked beautifully and it was nice, but just not spicy, not even close to being spicy, so if you saw this and didn`t like hot food you could happily eat it.

They have a lovely bakery section and very tempting to see it all set out in front of us. Their coconut cake is divine and I do like their Rugalach, but one of my friends makes it so much better!!! Quite the complement for her as TooJays is very nice too.

We have never tried their macarons, and keep saying....next time!

I think Kyle and Tom opted for some chocolate muffins and their rich chocolate cake which they would enjoy late afternoon as none of us had any room for any dessert right now.

Kyle slept for most of the late afternoon, after enjoying his chocolate treats of course, I think Tom snoozed on the sofa so I went down to the lounge and sat for a while and chatted to whoever was working that day. Tom eventually joined me and I had a glass of wine when it was time for the alcohol, Tom was driving so he didn`t have anything except coffee.

Another place Kyle had never been was Nagoya Sushi, so he had said he did want to go, so we booked it for tonight, I did ask him if he felt like going, I didn`t mind staying in and maybe just getting room service, but he wanted to get out of the room and did want to go to this restaurant.

In a way I was dreading going here. The last time we had gone we had been with Lindsey and Devin and this was the last time we had a meal with them, so although I knew we`d enjoy it, memories can change an experience. I knew Tom knew what I was thinking and we never needed to say what each of us were thinking, we just wanted to have a lovely evening with Kyle.

We got a booth and I was glad we didn`t get the same table by the window, and Kyle immediately liked the place, he was doing so well as I genuinely think he would much rather be sleeping, but he wanted to get out as much as possible.

We ordered drinks, well Tom had lemonade, Kyle had water so I guess it was only me drinking....no surprises there!!

With the meals you get your choice of Miso Soup or onion soup, we all chose onion and it was gorgeous, it always feels so healthy when you`re sipping it, so full of flavour.

The waiter who usually looked after us waved over and said he`d come over soon to say hello, but for now our entrees had arrived, Kyle had chosen Teriyaki Chicken with extra sauce and fried rice and he was glad of the extra as he does like a saucy dish!

I opted for the spicy chicken which comes with sweet spicy sauce, not overly spicy, but very tasty and again I asked for extra sauce which was nice to add and Tom went for the spicy chicken bento box.

This is what a bento box should look like and not like the ones from Cowfish which have fries and edamame beans. It is filled with delightful items that all compliment one another and are all beautiful.

Our usual waiter Alex came over to say hello, I wasn`t sure he knew exactly who we were but knew he knew us as previous guests, however when he saw our camera his face was full of recognition and said he remembered our last visit when we were here with our daughter and her boyfriend and he took about 10 pictures of us.

You know when you have that time stands still moment.....this was one of them. He was so genuine and I could feel myself filling up thinking of the memory of our last visit as I had been doing all evening, but not wanting to upset him by bursting into tears in public or upsetting Kyle I gulped down that emotion and smiled, he was so enthusiastic about remembering us and spoke again of it being such a good camera, it deflected a little enough I could answer him.

I hadn`t expected his response about thinking Lindsey was our daughter, and it hit like a knife but again, no one wants to blub in public and my two definitely don`t like seeing me upset, so I pulled it together well. Tom later said he thought I was just going to burst into tears when he saw my face fall.

Nagoya Sushi is one of those amazing little gems that you want to tell everyone about, but at the same time want to keep it tourist free for the most part. It`s a small place but food and service are outstanding and we will go back. The food is sensational and it is so welcoming,

We just wanted to go home now, Kyle needed to get to sleep and so did we to be honest, so no walking into Citywalk as we thought we might, it was bedtime for us.

The view at night might not be a park view, but we do like it, it`s much quieter than the pool view we`ve always been used to and I think we`ll stick to it in the future.

Kyle was in bed in no time, I went on my ipad as Tom was already asleep when I came through from chatting with Kyle for some time and I made a decision to do something I`d been wanting to do for some time and that was to contact Lindsey`s mum. Tonight for some reason felt like the right time to do it.

 

[schumigirl]

Scotland has some of the most stunning scenery on earth and your photos captured it perfectly. I’ve only been to a few places in Scotland and they are so so different. School trips brought to me to Edinburgh and Aviemore. We went back to Edinburgh years ago when our eldest was about 4 with my brother and sister in law and their two kids and more recently I’ve been to Glasgow a few times. When my husband worked for Anheuser-Busch they had to go there for their periodic drug testing where they’d cut a whack ( slight exaggeration ) of hair off and send it away to be tested. Us bring us made a family adventure out of it and often booked ourselves into a hotel for the night seeing as the boat was already paid for by his employer. None of the places I’ve visited come close to the beauty of your childhood home. Loved hearing a bit of your history and the happy memories of your and Tom’s childhoods. It must have been hard to leave such a beautiful place and move elsewhere. I’m sure you love going back and catching up with family and friends. Sounds like the perfect place for Christmas.

lol......I went to Aviemore on a school trip in the 1980`s....I hated it, I could never ski so just bimbled about with the others who weren`t up there with the ones that could. Never did get the hang of it.

Sounds an interesting trip to Glasgow with the testing lol.... we do like Glasgow, it has changed so much over the years in a good way!! Edinburgh we do like but not as much as we used to, in saying that it`s been a long time since we`ve gone there.

Yes, it wasn`t easy moving away, but Tom`s business was such, it wasn`t a choice really and it was for the best, but it`s still home to us up there, Kyle not so much as he only has the attachment to family, not to a place as he has no memories of growing up there. I doubt we`ll ever move back now.

Glad you liked the pictures, yes, it`s a beautiful place to live and we are looking forward to Christmas up there again.

Hope you have a lovely weekend and hope you don`t have the heavy rain we have this weekend.....won`t be going far at all, least it`s mild

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Oh Carole my heart breaks for you and Tom over Lindsey. I know she was so special to you both and you loved her as you would a daughter. You did well to keep those tears from spilling. I’m glad you were able to enjoy the evening with a Kyle though I’m sure it was bittersweet.
I’m sure Lindsey’s mum was happy to hear from someone who loved her girl too.