A day in Atlanta Georgia
Our first stop on our cross country trip was Atlanta Georgia. We decided to stay at the Embassy Suites as it was located within walking distance of the 2 things we wanted to see – The World of Coca Cola and Centennial Olympic Park.
The World of Coca Cola is a great place to wander around and learn all there is to know about my favorite drink! There is lots of interactive games for the kids to play on like designing their own bottle. They could also meet the Polar Bear Mascot. We got to check out the famous ‘Vault’ where the secret recipe is kept. The Kids’ most favorite part was the tasting room where they could drink all the different drinks made by Coca Cola from all over the world…..there are over 100!!!

A nice treat was that everyone got their own free souvenir bottle of coke as we left.

Next stop was Centennial Olympic Park – this is a large park in the middle of the city for the kids to run around and explore. There are different water feature that the kids climbed on (not allowed apparently!) There is a fun playground for them to get their wiggles out! And they got to play in the very cool Olympic Rings Water Fountain. We didn’t have any swim stuff with us but we were heading back to the hotel so we let them run crazy in their clothes!

 

A day in Nashville Tennessee

2nd stop was in Nashville Tennessee. We drove to the Grand Ole Opry and just wandered around – we choose not to take a tour as we didn’t think the kids would be into it! We did however visit The Opryland Hotel and WOW, what an awesome spot to spend a couple of hours. We wandered around their shopping area and bought some frozen yogurts, sat under waterfalls, meandered through their indoor gardens and watched koi fish play.

We drove to our hotel – The Hampton Inn in downtown Nashville. We again choose to stay downtown as we wanted to be able to walk to everything and not worry about parking! First order of business was to get the kids some cowboy / cowgirl boots! There are lots of stores but I had heard of a store where you buy 1 pair get 2 free – Yes you heard GET 2 FREE! And since we have 3 kids it was perfect!! Boot Country on Broadway was where we found the kids there cool boots!

They choose to wear them out of the store! Now that we had the boots we just had to go dancing so we headed to Wildhorse Saloon on 2nd Ave N where they teach FREE line dancing classes to whoever wants to be learn! We also had dinner there too and watched all the dancers from our table next to the dance floor.

They had a live band perform and my littlest dancer loved dancing to the music. We wandered all over town checking out lots of cool stores and listening to live music pour out of all the bars.

Side Note:
‘Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums across America to offer free admission to the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, from Memorial Day through Labor Day.’  http://arts.gov/national/blue-star-museums

One of the Museums on the list is the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. We trekked up to it and walked around it – the kids were super bored as it was not very interesting for them so we made it a quick visit! We had seen the speeding golf cart taxis all over the city so we called for one to pick us up and bring us back to the hotel. The kids loved the ‘Joyride’ and it was FREE we just had to tip the driver!

 

2 days in St. Louis
3rd stop was a few days in St. Louis Missouri where we stayed with friends, who had literally just moved there a week earlier! Nothing says military families like inviting your family to stay at their house and them accepting the invite! They were just as excited about discovering the city as we were.
Our first day was spent at the St. Louis Zoo. The best part about this is that it is FREE! There are a whole bunch of different Museums on the site that are also free but we choose just to spend our time at the zoo. The zoo is huge with all the expected animals in exhibit. The highlight was the Polar Bear who was super excited to see Kian’s Cowboy hat and followed it while splashing in the water and giving high fives! The underwater tunnel in the sea lion enclosure was a reprieve from the heat. The penguin exhibit was a cool 45 degrees Fahrenheit!!! The Butterfly garden was a great way to get up close to the butterflies as they flittered by. This zoo is a must see while in St. Louis.

On our 2nd day we ventured to the world famous Arch.

We had booked tickets in advance as you can’t book them the day of your visit. The line to get in moved quickly through security. Kian 10 has always had a fear of heights but I think him being the oldest of the 6 kids he plucked up the courage to enter the carriage and it made its way up the inner column to the top. He didn’t like it for a second but he was a trooper! The rest of us enjoyed the views of the city from 630 feet up in the air! We didn’t spend much time in the visitor’s area as we had little kids with us and their mama was waiting on the ground outside!!!

Our next adventure was to the most amazing ‘museum’ I have ever been to – St Louis City Museum. It is not a museum as we know it, it is ‘an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects.’ We spent hours climbing through Monstrosity the outdoor 6 story maze of rebar tunnels and planes and slides! We ventured inside to the caves and climbed to the rooftop where there is a Ferris wheel and school bus overhanging the building! We made our way to the bottom by sliding down their 10 story slide! There were circus classes and art classes going on. It was every adventurous kid’s heaven and every claustrophobic parent’s nightmare but one not to be missed. A must visit while in St. Louis.

 

Drive by Kansas City

– We just made a quick pit stop at the Kansas City Library – the famous exterior of the car park is decorated like a book shelf. The Library is in an old bank and thus the Vault is put to good use downstairs! A fun stop for the kids to stretch their legs!

 

A weekend in Great Wolf Lodge Kansas City
We had heard of this themed hotel and decided to incorporate it into our trip. We checked in early and were able to go to the water park for the day. The kids loved the 3 indoor / outdoor waterslides, the lazy river and the bucket dropping 100’s of gallons of water every 10 minutes! We had a yummy pizza for dinner that we ate water side accompanied by some girly foo foo drinks. We choose to include the breakfast option the next morning and it was a nice addition to the stay. We headed back to the water park for another day of wet fun before loading back up and heading west. I’m glad we experience The Great Wolf lodge but it wasn’t worth the cost and we won’t be staying at one again.

 

A few days in Denver Colorado
Denver was a fun city for us to explore. We checked out Centennial Center Park where the kids climbed the rock wall and spider webs, swung on swings, dodged the water – they enjoyed getting their wiggles out.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science is part of the Blue Star Museum’s program so we decided to check it out. Trying to find parking in their parking garage was terrible, I resorted to stalking people exiting the elevator and following them to their parking spot! Once we got inside the museum we were surprised by how huge it was! We spent the whole afternoon exploring all the different exhibits. The kids loved The Power of Poison and Ronan was asked to help the science teacher in a science presentation. The Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids was a little weird but I guess that’s why they are so popular. The Prehistoric Journey was really interesting and the kids got to chat to and watch a paleontologist remove dirt from dinosaur bones! Expedition Health was an interactive exhibit where we had to take part in physical activity and it gathered all our stats. We were then able to see just how healthy or unhealthy we were. The Discovery Zone was hand down the most favorite area for all 3 kids. So much for them to get creative and discover through the art of play! Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a must see if you have a few hours to kill in Denver, we will be back as we were unable to see everything that they had to offer!

 

Park City Utah
The whole reason for our road trip was a Family Reunion in Park City Utah. We stayed at the Double Tree where the reunion was being held and had lots of fun with all our crazy relations. We swam in the pool, had a picnic in the park, had a big family dinner and a few too many drinks in the evenings!
We did go for a fun hike at The Alpine Slide Park close to the hotel and were able to see the beautiful vista over Park City.

The highlight of our vacation was The Olympic Park. It was where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held and it is an official Olympic Training Site.

We sat through a 2 hour Hotel Time Share presentation in exchange for 5 Gold Passes to the park – it was so worth it when the value of the tickets was $250!!! We watched athletes practice their jumps and landing in a huge pool – I never thought about them landing in a pool! We then headed down to the Discover Adventure Course where we climbed and shimmied our way to the end. And at the end we all had to Zipline back to the beginning. Such a fun activity for all ages.

 

Next up was the Alpine Slide. We had to take a very scenic chairlift ride to the top and we rode the Alpine Slide smoothly down, taking in the amazing views of Park City. The boys had a tough time on the slide and ended up slowing down too much, stopping and taking their sled off the track. Luckily Uncle H wasn’t far behind them and helped them back onto the track!

The adults were all able to ride The Extreme Zipline and it was pretty thrilling for a first time zipliner. Only Ronan wanted to do the Freestyle Zipline so the other headed back up to wander around the museum. We spent the whole afternoon at the park but it wasn’t enough time! You need the whole day if you want to take part in everything as the wait times are long and putting on the safety equipment at each activity takes time. All in all this was the most fun day of our trip!

 

Road trip home
We left Park City Utah and headed for Florida. We planned on driving 8 – 9 hours every day in order to make it home in 4 days. We stayed at hotels with pools and continental breakfasts and rented movies from Redbox and returned them the next day in the next state!! The only place we stopped worth mentioning was Metropolis – Home of Superman – we toured around the little Superman Museum, took pics with the 15 foot Bronze statue and had dippin dots in their visitors center!

We made the 4,772 mile round trip from Florida to Utah in 16 jam-packed fun filled days. Now I’m busy planning our next adventure!