Travel - Pocketful of Joules

Our Williamsburg Trip, Part 3: Yorktown Beach

Here is the third and final post about our fun 3-day weekend in Williamsburg. If you missed it, feel free to check out Part 1: The Timeshare and Part 2: Old Cars & Busch Gardens.

We had to check out of our hotel by 10:00 am on Sunday, so we packed up all our mess and threw it all in the back of the truck by 9:45. Our original plan was to drive to Yorktown, which was only about 20 minutes away, to find some breakfast and then spend some time on the beach.

I used Yelp to figure out a good breakfast stop… but unfortunately we never found it. I don’t know if it closed at some point or if my GPS was punking me, but we ended up eating breakfast at McDonalds. The day went up from there though because we took advantage of some free parking and walked a super short distance to the beach.

That’s right, a BEACH that was super close to Colonial Williamsburg. After a full day at Busch Gardens, spending a couple hours listening the quiet lapping of the water was exactly what we needed.

It wasn’t quite warm enough to play in the water (however, some other kids jumped in with no problem), so we basically just layed on our blanket while Jack played with his toys. There was even a really cool “pirate ship” that Jack decided was Jake’s from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Oh and Jack’s shirt is from Old Navy. It was on the clearance rack a couple weeks ago and I just couldn’t resist. So cute, right?!

So there you go, our entire weekend in three posts. We had an amazing time and it was such a nice break from the normal reality of working. I would HIGHLY recommend Williamsburg if you’re traveling with a toddler. They probably won’t get much out of the historic area, but between the animals, amusement parks and beaches it was a total winner for us!

Have you taken a fun 3-day weekend family trip recently? Where do you recommend (or not recommend)? Have you followed the yellow brick road to a Yelp reviewed place, only to NEVER find it?

Our Williamsburg Trip, Part 2: Old Cars & Busch Gardens

I had to divide this into a few pieces, because there was just too much FUN to stick in one post! If you missed, it you can read Part 1: The Timeshare here.

After we escaped our timeshare meeting, we grabbed some breakfast at one of the half-dozen pancake houses in the area. We ended up at the Capitol Pancake House and I can vouch that their pancakes and coffee were amazingly delicious!

Once we stuffed ourselves full of caffeine and carbs, we followed signs to a local car show. For just $5 we were able to check out a ton of gorgeously restored cars. Oh and you may recognize my outfit from last week’s Stitch Fix – I’m so glad I decided to go with the chevron top because it was the perfect shirt for a day of outside fun!

After browsing the pretty cars, we hopped down the road to go to Busch Gardens. We had visited Hershey Park in the Fall and thought that Busch Gardens would be a hit with Jack now that he was a bit older.

The park opened at 10:00 am and we ended up getting there around 11:00 or so. I have been to pretty much ALL of the amusement parks in the area and I have to say that Busch Gardens is one of the most well organized parks I’ve ever seen. The parking lots are super easy to navigate with shuttles picking you up and dropping you off at the park doors. As an added bonus, Jack thought the shuttle was a ride.

Since Jack is a HUGE fan of Elmo, our first stop was the Sesame Street Forest of Fun. Right when we got there, we saw that we could do a photo session with Elmo and Big Bird. Of course, Jack isn’t smiling but he was basically pulsating from the excitement of sitting on Elmo’s knee! Hmmm… maybe this can be this year’s Christmas card?

We rode a TON of rides and my husband even surprised Jack with a mini Elmo to add to his collection. Oh, and the reason Jack looks so freaked out is that he just saw a grown-up rollercoaster go by and thought we were going on it.

And here he is giving kisses to a caterpillar in the Sesame Street forest:

Over a span of about 6 hours we visited the ENTIRE park, from England to Germany to France and back. The weather was gorgeous and OH THE FOOD. We devoured lunch in Italy, dessert in France and snacks in Germany.

We also watched the Pet Shenanigans show, which Jack was GLUED TO the entire time.

Family CHEESE!

The only thing we missed out on was we really wanted to see the Sunny Days Celebration on Sesame Street, but we were stuck on the wrong side of the tracks while a train went by and missed it. I could see Elmo’s head bob into my line of sight every couple minutes if I jumped as high as I could (which is basically 3 inches), but that was about it.

We had SO MUCH fun though and Jack didn’t even have a meltdown from skipping his afternoon nap. It honestly could not have been a better day and I’d go back in a heartbeat!

We even had some energy left over and decided to walk around Colonial Williamsburg after the park. After cruising around and visiting a few stores, my world was rocked by a colonial drumline. Unfortunately, they weren’t QUITE as awesome as the real* Drumline… but they were still pretty cool. To be honest though, if they played each other’s drums I may have fainted from happiness (the ‘oh no they DIDN’T’ part is at 3:17).

Are you an amusement park lover? If so which one is your favorite? Are you one of the 5 fans out there of Drumline?

Disclaimer: This post is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and comments are my own. However, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the people at Busch Gardens for providing us with free park tickets.

* The first time Travis and I ever watched a movie together, it was Drumline on TV, so it holds a special place in my heart. Also, it is awesome.

Our Williamsburg Trip, Part 1: The Timeshare

One of my favorite things in the world is vacations – whether it be a week on a sunny island, a one-night getaway to a B&B or a three-day weekend somewhere within driving distance. It really doesn’t matter WHERE; I just love to get away for a bit. Especially if there is a beach nearby!

I am frequently (ahem… always) the vacation planner. I’ve planned every single vacation that my husband and I have taken. Ever. I have a spreadsheet I use for our packing lists, I do a bit of research before we go to find fun things to do, I remind Travis to ask off of work, and I even PACK for the entire family.

It can be a bit exhausting, even if I do love traveling.

I may have mentioned a time or two (or twelve) that I’d love it if my husband surprised me by planning something. I’d honestly be happy with ANYTHING if he took the initiative and planned a getaway.

Well, apparently my husband was listening because one day when he and Jack were shopping at Bass Pro Shop he was approached by a man asking if he’d like a 3 day/2 night vacation package for just $199. The man told him what a GREAT DEAL it was, because for the price of $199 you go on the amazing vacation AND get a $25 Bass Pro gift card today. Oh yeah, AND an additional $75 in Bass Pro gift cards when you go on your trip!

Sounds pretty great, right?!

My adorable husband thought it sounded pretty great too. He can be the hero by planning a fun vacation and it will hardly even cost us anything! He signed some paperwork and went on his way.

When I noticed the strange charge on our credit card, Travis told me about the AMAZING DEAL he had purchased for us. He handed me the paperwork and that is when I saw that we had gotten snagged for a timeshare presentation. Yup, the amazing deal with a timeshare weekend where you are required to attend an “approximately two-hour sales presentation and tour.” After a bit of googling I found that many of the presentations lasted much longer than two-hours… which is when I started to worry.

But then, I found it. The magic words in the teeny tiny print: “Maryland residents are not required to attend a timeshare sales presentation in conjunction with this promotion.”

That’s right, Marylanders are exempt, which means we can enjoy the trip, receive the gift cards and mosey on our way! YAY, Maryland!

We booked our weekend for the Bluegreen Patrick Henry Square in Williamsburg, Virginia. It did cost an extra $50 to have a weekend reservation, but it was worth it. The suite was BEAUTIFUL with two bedrooms, a large sitting area, two bathrooms and a full kitchen.

Our room had a king-sized bed that I wish I could have brought home with me. We set up Jack’s pack-and-play in the other room… but soon realized that this will probably be his last time sleeping in it. My kid is a GIANT! And I’m not sure why he’s doing a kissy-face in this picture…

The hotel was located within walking distance to Colonial Williamsburg, which was fantastic. There were tons of restaurants around too – including 5 pancake houses within about a half-mile. Apparently Williamsburg visitors love their pancakes!

There were also horses across the street, which Jack LOVED! Basically every time we walked out of the hotel doors he started yelling, “Horse, HORSE! Neigh! Neigh!”

When we checked in we were informed that we’d have to show up at a 8:30 am timeshare meeting the next morning. I told them that we were Maryland residents and would be passing on the blabbity blab, but they said that we still had to show up and prove our state residency.

Um…okay.

The next morning I was all fired up, ready to fight the good battle to get out of there with our gift cards. I had my game-face on. Imagine me entering a room in slow motion with Turn Down for What blaring* and maybe an explosion behind me. It was totally like that. I instructed Travis to keep from smiling and being nice (it’s really hard for him, because he is one of the nicest guys in the WORLD). Jack was ready to spazz out because he hadn’t had his morning cup of milk yet. We were READY.

And it was totally anticlimactic because it took about 10 minutes total. We filled out some paperwork, got some mild snootiness from the receptionist, and went on our way with $75 of Bass Pro money.

Yeehaw!

So there you go, our timeshare experience was SO MUCH less horrible than we were expecting! We actually loved the hotel, even though you’d have to either buy another timeshare weekend or purchase the actual timeshare to stay there again.

I’d love to hear about your timeshare experiences – have you ever bought a timeshare weekend? Did you get sucked into a super long presentation? Are you as confused by the Turn Down for What video as I am?

3/4/16 Update: I published this post on 2014 and in the last couple months I’ve gotten a few emails that Maryland law has recently changed to allow time share presentations. When we dealt with this, it was right in the small print on the offer that we were not required to go… so be sure to check the small print for your particular ‘deal’ before committing.

*I JUST watched the Turn Down for What video for the first time and that is EXACTLY how I imagined I’d enter the room. You know, like a crazy man humping a TV. Obviously. Also, what the hell is happening in this video and why is it making me laugh so hard that tears are streaming down my face?!