Another April, another trip! The girls and I had an interesting start to our journey this year. Firstly, Grandpa DC and Grandma Gayle in Alabama had a rough month with serious medical concerns, so Dad decided to skip part of our trip to South Carolina in order to help his Dad (Grandpa) get back home from the hospital and rehab center. We missed him but are happy to say that both Grandpa and Grandma are getting better every day and we were so proud of Dad for taking care of his family.
Secondly, Maine State Music Theater scheduled Sophie second audition for this summer’s season for Saturday April 13th. We were supposed to be in Washington, D.C. with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Linda visiting all the sites and the Holocaust Museum but...we stayed in Brunswick and Sophie auditioned in the morning. What a day! She did a great job and felt awesome, unfortunately they sent all six girls away with good wishes and a promise to call “either way” within a few days.
So at 3 am we got in Ruby (the Prius) and drove Dad to Manchester, NH airport and dropped him for his flight to Birmingham. Then we continued our long drive south. We stopped for a couple of hours rest at Grandpa and Grandma’s house in Connecticut and then got back on the road and drive to Virginia, where we stopped for the night. The next morning, Monday April 15, we drove to South Carolina. The girls watched movies, sang along to Les Mis, drew and wrote poems, and were awesome in the car! The further south we drove, the warmer the weather felt & we were on our way to Myrtle Beach, SC.
We found our hotel, checked in, unpacked the car, changed for the pool and then I got a call on my cell phone. The lady on the phone identified herself as calling from Maine State Music Theater and asked if Sophie would like to “spend her whole Summer with Maine State”! They offered her the roles, yes I said roles, of Young Cosette in Les Miserables AND Jane Banks in Mary Poppins! I was shocked and so proud and I handed the phone to Sophie and she was asked the same question & of course eagerly accepted! We celebrated that night with a fun dinner out at Crabby Mike’s seafood buffet!
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| Sophie upon hearing the news from MSMT! |
Unfortunately, this was the same awful day as the Boston Marathon bombings. It was a strange, surreal week watching the terrible aftermath and then the hunt for the two suspects, which resulted in a massive shut down of the city of Boston while thousands of police searched for the brothers responsible. The manhunt, shoot out, and eventual capture of the suspects played live on cable news.
We spent a lovely week in South Carolina in a small but clean and safe room near the beach and all the fun. My favorite place in the Myrtle Beach area is Brookgreen Gardens, a beautiful public garden and regional zoo with a lot of history and amazing flowers, plants, and sculptures! It was a great price too--our one day admission gained us access to the gardens for the consecutive 7 days--so we came back to the gardens twice more during our week. Sophie and Lily both learned a lot and Sophie did a couple reports for her school days.
We also spent a couple afternoons at the beach playing and collecting seashells. The girls loved the surf and the warm sand and the friends they made. The beaches are beautiful and the water was warm and perfect. We also had a lot of fun at the Boardwalk visiting the aquarium and Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum and a very cool activity called MagiQuest (read Sophie’s report on how cool it was and how much fun the girls had).
We went out to dinner, we played in the pool, and we also did some school--the Daily Sparks and Lily did a lot of reading! On Friday we drove Sophie to Charleston along the Grass Basket highway through the Gullah region (I bought a small, beautiful grass basket from a neat lady on the side of the road), where we met Emma and Linda and Theresa and left Sophie to have fun at her skating camp (read her posts about what she learned & did). Lily and I drove back up to Myrtle Beach and she and went mini golfing! The next day (Saturday April 21) we went back to the gardens, then the state park, and out to dinner. We packed up on Sunday and drove back to Charleston to meet back up with Sophie and watch her skating performance. Lily and I had a couple hours to explore the very cool little southern port city. We went on a carriage ride through the city and learned some of the history, then we walked through the Slave Market--a cool flea market with arts and crafts. Sophie skating performance was cute & fun & she had a good time and met new friends.
We stayed the night there (thank you Emma!) and got up super early the next morning and continued our long drive south. The girls knew we were picking up Dad, who did a great job helping his Dad transition into a rehab center, but they didn’t know where. We drove six hours south and then when we were an hour outside Orlando, I called Kevin and we told the girls the secret we’d kept since January--that we were spending the next week in Florida at Disney World! The girls were so excited. It was cool to be able to surprise them with a trip they’re familiar with but it can still bring so much happiness! Sophie’s great quote when she found out: “I can’t feel my legs!"
Kevin arrived and we checked into our timeshare, then went to Downtown Disney & Disney Quest! The next seven days were magical and fun and warm and sunny and perfect!
On Tuesday April * we extended our trip and drove to Alabama to help DC get back home and settled from the rehab center. Thank goodness for the love and support we have back home so that the house and the animals were cared for another week. While Kevin and I helped clean the house, establish some outside care and help for DC, visit Grandma Gayle in the hospital, and stock the fridge and freezer with food, the girls got to spend some time with Uncle Aaron, Anne, and Hunter in Birmingham. Finally, on Saturday, with DC safe and healing at home, we started the long drive north back home. We drove 14 hours the first day to northern Virginia, then a beautiful and easy 9 hours home. Everyone was glad to see us and I was happy to say again that we made it over 3000 miles and 3 weeks gone with never getting lost, no car trouble, on time and no problem with reservations, no fights or injuries, and everyone and everything safe and accounted for! A success and a wonderful trip!
So with the added time away and the shortened school year (Les Mis rehearsals begin Saturday June 8th) we have accelerated Sophie’s last few weeks of seventh grade. She got 12 days school credit for when we were gone (and she learned and did a lot of work and reports showing how & what she learned). Starting at Day 160 Sophie is working “double time” and doing one 7 7 per day in order to finish the unit we planned.
Her last day of seventh grade, Day 175, is Friday June 7th.
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