Birthday girls

Paige turns 3

While down in Florida Paige had her 3rd birthday. We didn't let Disneyworld know otherwise it would have cost us a couple hundred more. Since we were out all day and had late nights there was no time for a birthday cake. So as soon as we got home we had a little birthday celebration for Paige. She loved it.

Ash got a real kick out of the birthday card that Rohan sent Paige. It absolutely cracked him up.

Two weeks after Paige's birthday Megan turned 6 in Minneapolis. Once again we didn't have time to do the 'cake thing' though we did go to a restaurant that gave Megan her own special cake. It wasn't until we got home that we celebrated Megan's birthday. She was so excited to be turning 6.

And no birthday parties to organise. Maybe I could get used to that idea....

Megan celebrating her 6th birthday

Minneapolis Easter

Easter was another busy affair that found the Jenkinson fami,y travelling to Duluth on Thursday afternoon to stay at our favourite hotel for a swim, before moving on south to Minneapolis for 3 days. The trip down to Duluth was beautiful again with fine weather and great scenery along the western edge of Lake Superior. With the help of portable DVD players the kids were better at travelling the distance this time and didn't need too many stops along the way. We arrived at the Duluth hotel around 4.30pm - perfect timing for a swim followed by dinner at the local Country Buffet. Thinking that we should walk to the restaraunt as it was only 300m away, the family set off to find a pedetrian crossing to the mall where it is located. No go. There were even signs that tell you no pedstrians are allowed to cross at the traffic lights. No wonder Americans drive everywhere! The fact that it was a 4 lane highway (each way) at dusk with plenty of traffic on the road and hyper children, it might be more prudent to drive after all. More swimming upon returning to the hotel for the older kids (young Paige Marie was plum tuckered out without her afternoon sleep and hit the sack with mum's hair in hand). Eventually Ash and Megan were coerced from the pool at 10pm on the premise that it was adult only time in the pool. Thankfully they went to sleep not long after returning to the rooms. This time we found blackout curtains (must be 1st floor thing) and were able to sleep in relative darkness. Morning saw another big hotel breakfast (waffles) followed by more swimming. We then trusted in our GPS to take us to the next hotel in Minneapolis. Not a good idea. The GPS sent us along backroads to a place called Hermanville, where Jill asked for some directions and found that we had been paralleling the freeway on our slow way to Minne.

The kids dealt with the travel in their own different ways. Once on the freeway it was the fast track - 70mph or >115km/h - what a great way to eat up the distance. Which was just as well as Paige became increasingly cranky about the travelling and would not sleep. Add to this the VERY heavy rain that set in and traffic that almost tailgates as a matter of course at speeds in excess of 120km/h and it became a little tiring on the nerves for the driver. But even more nerve wracking was yet to come. Arriving in Minneapolis was helped by the rain easing and stopping. The speed however did not seem to abate. Imagine driving through the outer suburbs of a large city with 4-6 lane highways, on-ramps with cars popping in regulrly, off-and ramps peeling off in sweeping curves to who knows where and you are still travelling at excess of 115 km/h! The GPS struggled to keep us up to date and it was not helped by 3 yelling kids in the back drowning out the spoken instructions. The long and short of this was huge sighs of relief all round when we arrived at our hotel - all for different reasons.

This picture was taken so that we could show a police officer where we WANTED to go - just in case!

Being the chivalrous gentleman that I am not I informed Jill she could drive in Minneapolis from then on. Naturally she made it look easy and drove like a native Minnesotan - I hate that (and love her for it). We stayed in Double Tree guest suites at the end of Nicollette Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Nice enough - no pool - but cheap.

After a walk along the mall we decided to try and get back via the skyways that link all buildings in the downtown area so that no-one need walk uotside in the cold winters. We thought that we were heading to target to buy some groceries for dinner, but found ourself at the Target stadium! A wonderful local guided us back to the right area and we headed off home for dinner at a local Italian restaraunt and to celebrate Megan's 6th birthday.

These 'skyways' criss-cross the streets for blocks and blocks of downtown Minneapolis.

Saturday was all about visiting the Mall of America - the biggest single shopping mall in the US. It also houses the Nickleodeon Universe which is a kids heaven of roller coaster rides, etc. Ash and Megan started rides immeditaely but Paige did not get on them until later when we found Jill could ride with her for free whenever she needed an adult to go on the ride (which was all of them :-D )

The Nickleodeon Universe is a childs dream come true.

The shopper of the family went for a walk to see what he could buy and was very disappointed to find the mall was made up of about 5 kinds of shops repeated 100x over. Very ordinary and rather expensive.

We did find a new place called Wizards Quest? or similar where the kids buy a magic wand and use it to interact with all kind of objects in order to complete certain quests. It would have been more fun if the kids were not exhausted and I was wasn't coming down with their cold in a big way.

Many of the objects would respond to a correctly waved and pointed wand!

We rode back on the same tram we travelled there on, which was fun too. Next day we went for the cheaper (i.e. free) option of the Como zoo and conservatory in st. Pauls. It was quite impressive and presented plenty of chances to get some close-up pictures of animals and flowers. A beautiful setting and one I would recommend to everyone who visits the area. More pictures can be seen at; http://picasaweb.google.com/jenkoz5/ComoZooStPauls# or click on the title of this blog entry to see another collection. The trip back to Thunder Bay was remarkably quick due to the freeway to Duluth and easy check-out. We are hoping to visit again.

Do U speek inglish?

On our recent trip to Minneapolis, we went to the Como Zoo in St. Pauls.

While photographing some Kudu in an enclosure an elderly American approached me and began chatting. Once he noticed the accent, he naturally asked where I was from (not being American of course). When I told him I was from Australia, he replied, " Oh! And you don't get these animals there?" Now that in and of itself is no great surprise - sure these animals come from hot dry countries so maybe they COULD be from Australia.
Anyhow, after a bit more conversation regarding the wildlife of our different countries, he begins to tell me about a trip he made to Vancouver years before with his family. He is explaining how they are walking in the woods and come across a stream; at this point he pauses and asks me if I am understanding the Englisk OK?

I assured him that I did.

Only in America!

As an Australian, there are things that happen in America that just makes you shake your head and wonder, "What were they thinking?'

This photograph comes from a tourist brochure in Florida and just screamed, "What the...?" I don't know what was scarier though, the picture or my thinking that it WOULD be fun for the whole family!

One cruel irony of this kind of advertising showed up in the news while we were in Florida for the week. Apparently a 14 year old boy had shot and killed his stepmum and her unborn child because he was not happy with her. His dad was reported as saying that maybe he shouldn't have given his son the gun for christmas after all. You think!? What hope did any of them have when weapons are advertised as fun for all the family?

Americans may have the right to bear arms under their constitution, but unfortunately they don't seem to have the right to bear any resemblance to common sense.

As the title says - Only in America.

March Break - 1 week. Go!

When a few of the locals expressed surprise at our antics of travelling to Florida in a break that is only a week long, I explained that we have to try and cram the things that they will do over a lifetime into 1 year!

So, with only a week to spare, we raced for the states and Disney World in Florida. It started at a leisurely pace because we didn't want to be rushed when flying in the states. So much for plans.

The drive to Duluth (@ 3 1/2 hours) somehow stretched over much of the Saturday, but included a lucky find at the Gooseberry Falls. We pulled over for a rest stop for Megan and discovered a magnificent thundering waterfall, complete with ice blocks still mid stream.

This place was fairly thundering

There were few restrictions on safety - a nervous situation for parents

Ash was in a silly face mood on this trip

Hmmm, I wonder how cold the water is...?

These little critters are just too cute to ignore

By the time we flew from Duluth to Florida, we had been swimming, spent lots of money at Walmart on warm weather gear for Florida, chased a small child around numerous shops, got lost trying to find the airport (entered wrong location into the GPS) and were quite anxious that we might miss our flight altogether. The sense of calm evaporated even further as we went through airport security.

Flying United Airlines meant that we had to pay for any baggage that was to be put under the aircraft as checked luggage. So, we carried small cases and took it ALL on board with us which lead to the extra scrutiny at check-in. Add to this the fact that we had 3 small overexcited and therefore semi-cooperative children (the phrase "herding cats" springs to mind) and we were the epitome of harassed parents.

Finally able to relax into our flight to Chicago en route to Florida, I mentally reviewed what we had and realized that we did NOT have our driver's licenses - eek! I assured myself and Jill that because I had sent the entire details of the licences it would be alright - I always knew optimism was overrated.

To cut a long story short - at 1 am in the Florida International airport rental car pick-up booth - my hopes were dashed and we had to use a taxi. How I envied little kids being able to throw tantrums at that moment.

Disneyworld Animal Kingdom

We certainly timed our parks well I believe. This was the last for the visit and on the hottest day of the week it was the best park to see. Not that it was very hot, but the tall trees shading most of the park helped to keep everything pleasant.
The last park and a real crowd pleaser for the family. There were plenty of animals to keep the girls and dad interested and good rides to keep Ash occupied. Mum is happy with everything of course.
We started the day with a ride along the rapids in a raft, which, considering how wet Ash and dad came off was a good idea. Again we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were able to get on the ride which added to the fun.

The River rapids at Animal Kingdom

After this ride we needed a bit of sun to dry us all out. By the end of the day the girls had ridden this ride three times, Ash and I twice.

There was a zoo of sorts within the kingdom and it allowed me the chance to try and photograph different animals to the usual kinds that we see in our zoos in Adelaide. The tigers were out and visible (unlike Adelaide) and birds were not within aviaries for the most part but in open areas making it easier to photograph them clearly.

What are YOU looking at?

This beautiful parrot (one of two) was in an exhibit that barely rated a visitor! They were sitting quietly minding their own business behind and ice-cream vendor and most people simply walked past them.
There were a number of quiet little spots around the park that harboured animals quietly doing their own thing in relative obscurity. It was strange to be in what was essentially a zoo, but being focused on rides and other fun attractions. I almost felt sorry for the animals, but in hindsight, it is probably a good thing that the animals are not too overwhelmed with attention seeing as there are so many people visiting every day.





Jill even managed to get a picture of ME when I wasn't expecting it - I was not happy.......Jan.

There were of course plenty of photo opportunities, with favourite animal characters posing with people for posterity and a big pretend tree to pose under.

Another amazing aspect of the park was the magnitude of the man-made structures in the park. The giant living tree or something like that looked so real, even up close, but was completely artificial even the leaves. Then there was Mt. Everest which hid a roller coaster ride - of course Ash, dragged mum and Megan along on that one. Thank goodness for Paige who was too young to go on the ride. Who can I hide behind when she gets older and bigger?

Paige was NOT happy when she discovered that she would not be going on the ride in the mountain! Dad was delighted to have missed it however.

Despite her disappointment at missing out on the ride, Paige soon succumbed to the thrill of a climb and having her photograph taken - ah the ease of distraction for a 3 year old!!

Take my picture daddy!

Thankfully this park closed earlier at 7pm and we had a chance to head home at a reasonable time. This was very important as we needed to be awake and catching a taxi at 5.30am the next morning.

It was a long day for our last day of March break - Jill and I arose at 4.30 am to make sure would be ready, and we didn't get to bed until 11.30 pm that night. The kids were cactus and so were we - but it was worth it.

Disney World Epcot

My beautiful models at Epcot centre.

My personal favourite of all the parks, this is the park that I want to visit again and again - there is so much to see and do and the rides are so good that you can do them all over again without getting bored.
Unfortunately we didn't get time to look at the International sections at the "back of the park" before it closed with fireworks around 9pm.
One of the wonderful touches that couldn't be captured on camera was the gentle music that emanated from hidden speakers throughout the parks gardens. Plenty of space to move around meant that crowds of packed people were rare, even with the huge number of people there.

We started with a ride through the giant golf ball that typifies Epcot.

The Epcot centre looked good from all angles.

The day went well, with easy access to rides and activities, until I decided to queue for the Soarin' ride that emulates a hang-glider ride through California. A truly amazing ride to be sure, but worth the 2+ hours of queuing for a 5 minute ride? Umm...no. It was worth it for Jill and the older kids to get onto the ride after a 10 minute wait which is why I suffered the original ordeal. Along the way there were huge 5m x 10m digital wall pictures that changed from time to time. After a while the pictures interact with the queue audience through games. The crowd in front of each wall section were required to move in certain ways to move objects around - quite entertaining after 1 1/2 hours of standing in line.

Ash tried some fast crash test ride, but claimed it was not scary (hardened thrill seeker that he is!!)
There was plenty for the younger (and older) less thrill seeking orietented to do too, so we enjoyed ourselves too. What I liked about Epcot was that it wasn't as focused on thrill rides as the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studios seemed to be. A pleasant change for the timid at heart (and weak of bladder).

Fireworks ended the day and our chance of seeing the international pavilions.

I could not resist the appeal of the Epcot centre, even at closing time. It just kept drawing my eye and camera to it - the cheap tease!

Disneyworld Hollywood Studios

An extra exciting moment for Ash as he got to pose with the Green Power Ranger!

Our second park of four in the Florida, Disneyworld flash-tour. I have to say that I am glad it was the second and not the first or last as that would leave me feelings of disappointment - not that this park was bad, it just didn't 'do it'like the other parks did. There was little room to move with such huge crowds (as with other parks- but not as noticeable with them) and the rides took forever. Ash and I rushed to the premium ride for him and found that the earliest we could get a fastpass ride for him would be more than 7 hours later! Waiting in line alone was over 2 hours so we took the fastpass. Unfortunately, I managed to lose it and so Ash didn't get on that particular ride - embarassed dad, unhappy son. Still we managed to try a range of fun activities around the park, which included a Bugs Life playground where all the play equipment was giant sized to make you feel like and ant, a movie tour and a stunt show for Indianna Jones. Ash even had his picture taken with one of the Power Rangers which was a highlight for him. The girls watched a stage show (Beauty and the Beast)too. It is actually hard to remember what went on here as it didn't stand out like the other parks.

Ash with a Yellow Taxi on Hollywood Boulevard.

Mickey's famous hat from fantasia and a not so happy Paige.

A scene from our movie tour. These are all animated machines that activate as you pass by in your cinema seats on train tracks. The tour lasted around 40 minutes and showed many famous animated scenes from classic movies and sometimes our guide would join in for the added sense of life. Very entertaining.

The pictures above show massive painted sets that fill in the backgrounds of some movies. For the picture on the left it is hard to tell where the painted set ends and the real world starts. Here's a hint: there were NO CLOUDS painted on the set!

Not the best shot but the action was so fast that it was hard to watch AND photograph.

The rest of the family missed the Army Man posing for photographs with people - but I didn't!

Florida fun and Disneyworld disaster

I just like to tantalise you with headings like that. It was ALL fun but things didn't quite go according to plan. Those blasted licenses foiled us AGAIN!!!
Purely the result of forgetfulness on our part, not total forgetfulness - I DID remember as we were taxiing along the runway at Duluth on our way to Florida.

Enough, here is the story in detail.
After a leisurely trip to Duluth on the Saturday before the Sunday that we were due to fly to Florida we managed to make an extremely rushed attempt to make the plane on time.....at 3pm in the afternoon. You know how it goes, you seem to have 'all the time in the world' so you take all the time in the world and suddenly realize that you have no time and plenty to do with it. That was us. We made a harried and close to totally panicked rush for the airport in the fear that our seats would be given to someone else if we didn't check in on time. Naturally the children were as helpful as children tend to be - running away in the carpark, arguing, dawdling, half dressed, etc.
To make matters worse, as we passed through the security screening, we had an overtired 2 year old being mischievious, too many "suspicious" goods in our bags that needed to be privately checked and the most dangerous of all - vegemite!! Didn't help that security did not know what it was, but they sure as hell were not going to be responsible for allowing the first vege-bombers aboard their plane!! True to form Jill was not about to leave such valuable cargo with them so she went back to the car and left it there(plus her moisturiser - she wasn't going to have that confiscated again!) . That meant that she had to go through security again! Meanwhile Ian is crumbling from the stress of 5 suitcases and 3 small children all doing their own thing in a small area watched by severe security guards.
As a result of all of these goings on we boarded the plane with a huge sigh of relief and not a backward thought until as I chatted to a lovely bloke from Duluth about our plans to hire a vehicle in Florida it dawned on me about our fatal error - we had left our licences in the car.
Hoping against hope that we would be allowed to rent without the physical licenses with us (I had entered ALL the driver and license details online for pre-booking)we showed at the Orlando airport rental (at midnight)and waited 20 minutes behind some unlucky customers, only to find that we too would be unlucky. Bugger.
So, after a $60+ taxi ride with a non english speaking homicidal driver who clearly earnt his license on the streets of some large and chaotic African city, we arrived at our little patch of paradise.
At least we got it right with the accommodation, even though it was a few kilometres from any shopping centre for food. The kids were in TV heaven with a flat screen TV in every bedroom with 60+ cable Tv channels and a giant flatscreen with Wii in the lounge. 2 storey with a bathroom for every bedroom and Ash got his own queen sized bed. The pool at the back of the house had not been warmed (as per our request) but luckily there was a community pool with slide a couple of minutes walk away.
The first 2 days were taken up with Tv for kids and long walks for Jill and Ian getting supplies (and toys by Ian).
We managed to luck upon a wonderful shuttle service called GT transport - if in Florida USE THEM. They would show within minutes of being called and deliver us from door to door with wonderful advice along the way. On the last night Scott, the owner, dropped us for dinner at a restaurant and collected us later to take us on home at no extra charge - can't say fairer than that.
But what about Disneyworld? Words are not enough - pictures don't do it justice, but both will have to suffice for this blog. What seemed like a lot of money for all of us to go for 4 days (< $700)was actually great value for money considering what you get.As much as the kids loved Disneyworld we still had a hard time convincing them to turn off the TV in the mornings so we could get going.
Disney world is made up of four theme parks and two water parks. We didn't do the water parks because the weather was pleasant not hot and we had limited time.

The first park we did was the Magic Kingdom.

Megan learnt that roller coaster rides weren't all fun and games. But she was always keen to get back on them once the adrenaline rush was over.

A great ride in the dark. Everything glows under fluoro lights. Very interactive. we had to shoot as many objects that we could.

Outside Minnie Mouse's house