Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

First, the cast of characters:

Me : Well, that's me.
Lewis : My ex.
Brett: Lewis's girlfriend, 9 months pregnant.
Ginger: Brett's mom.
Kandy: Brett's aunt.
Granny: Ginger's grandmother, age 95.
Tommy: My son, age 5 - you remember him?
Robby: My other son, age 4 - you remember him, too?
Cheyenne: Brett's daughter, age 3.
Ally: Brett's cousin, age 2, aka the demon.


Our Mini-Vacation - See bottom of this post for photo links.

For several days, all Cheyenne and Ally could talk about was going to the zoo. Tommy and Robby were upset that they weren't going, but I was planning to take them to see Rudi's Reptiles at the library, so that was okay. Tuesday evening, Ginger came by to invite all of us to go along with them.

Wednesday morning, we were up early, all packed to go. Ginger picked up the boys, and Lewis, Brett, and I took the car. We met up with Kandy, Granny, and Ally, who rode in the van, and we were off. Our group was made up of one 95 year old lady, one 9 months pregnant lady, four kids under age 6 (Brett says three kids plus one demon), one grandmother, one mom, one dad, and one aunt. Six adults and four kids in all.

After a stop at the store to pick up food, because the Hotel Roanoke food is really too expensive, we were on our way. It was only a little over an hour drive to Roanoke. It was about 2:30 when we finally got to the zoo. We got everyone out of the vehicles, got Granny settled in her wheelchair, and hiked up the rather long walkway to the zoo entrance.

The zoo in Roanoke isn't a huge zoo, but the kids had a terrific time looking at the animals. We saw the petting zoo first, even though you can't actually pet the animals. It was more a display of domestic animals. It included pigs, sheep, chickens, llamas, and a cow-ish creature I think was a zebu. We saw several snakes, including pythons and a cobra. The cobra was just resting, so I couldn't show the kids the distinctive hood, but that was okay. The foxes were cute, as was the rather lethargic red panda. The bald eagle and the hawk were beautiful, but I was a little surprised to see a common crow. The cougar was resting under a tree, looking much like a large house cat. He was pretty. Sadly, the tiger was in a small holding enclosure, supposedly on special display, but actually pretty much out of public view. The macaques were fairly interesting. My favorite animal was the snow leopard, who was really beautiful. Tommy thought the cow skull in the prairie dog exhibit was a dinosaur bone, and insisted on having a picture of it. There were also geese, deer, a turtle (which I didn't see), koi, and a few others.

While we were having lunch in the picnic area at the zoo, a thunderstorm broke right over us. We rushed Granny and the kids under a shelter to wait it out. Te view across the valley was pretty nice.

When the storm ended, we headed for our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Roanoke, which is one of the old, Grand Ladies of the city. It's a pretty pricey place, but it was Kandy's birthday, and she wanted to stay there. When we arrived, I sat in the lobby with Granny and the kids while Ginger and Brett went to get us checked in, and Lewis got our stuff out of the vehicles. Kandy, as usual, was sitting like a lump, doing very little. It turned out that our rooms weren't ready, so we settled in to wait. I read the kids several fairy tales from a book I took with us, but that only killed about an hour. After that, the kids were getting restless, so I took pictures of them in various parts of the really luxurious lobby and sitting rooms. Tommy and Robby tried to play checkers, but Cheyenne and Ally kept taking the pieces off the inlaid game table.

In the midst of waiting, Ally did something - I'm still not sure what, exactly - and Kandy decided to spank her there in the middle of the very fancy, formal lobby. The rest of us were thoroughly embarrassed, as we all felt she should have taken Ally to the restroom or outside, if she needed to do that. Sadly, Kandy doesn't think of those things. Thankfully, although they were fussy and restless, Tommy, Robby, and Cheyenne still minded their manners and behaved well enough to gair compliments from passersby.

After a bit over two and a half hours, we were told one of our two rooms was ready. We went up to our room, through a seemingly endless warren of halls, only to find that the housekeeper hadn't even been to the room yet. Brett, Kandy, and I stayed with Granny and the kids in a sitting area near the rooms while Lewis and Ginger went back down to sort it out. I'm not the sort to just wait at that point, so I spoke to the housekeeper, who was three doors down from our room. I explained that I had a handicapped elderly person, a nine months pregnant lady, and four small kids. She dropped the room she was working on, and started making up our rooms right away. After about fifteen minutes, Ginger and Lewis returned, saying the hotel manager had said we should all go to the pub for complimentary drinks and appetizers while we waited for our rooms. Lewis and Brett stayed upstairs to get our things into one of our rooms, while Ginger, Kandy, and I got Granny and the kids back down to the lobby and into the pub. We each ordered an appetizer (nachos, wings, and a couple of bowls of soup), including the kids, and each ordered a soda, except Granny, who had coffee.

We waited another twenty minutes or so, then the drinks came out. Lewis and Brett had joined us shortly after we got there, so all ten of us were gathered around two tables. A waitress came over then, to tell us that only two of the appetizers were complimentary, and to ask if we still wanted them all. We told her the manager had said we should all have complimentary appetizers, so she went to call him again. We waited another ten minutes or so, the kids getting really restless, and the adults all pretty fed up. Our second room had only just been finished, and the manager brought us the keys and a bag of fresh cookies. Then the waitress came back, saying it really was only two complimentary appetizers. Lewis got angry and started to storm out, and the waitress said if that wasn't good enough, she'd call the manager again and work it out. She said they just wanted us to be happy. The others were all grumbling, so I spoke up and told her we were not only not happy, we were disgusted. We'd been waiting about three hours and still weren't in our rooms. Our dinner plans were ruined, we were hungry and tired, and at that point, just wanted to get Granny up to bed. The waitress was really apologetic, but the others in our group were leaving, so she asked if we just wanted to forget the food. Lewis told her to forget it, but I told her "unless you want to send it up." She looked relieved, Ginger looked impressed, and we all poured out of the pub.

We got to the rooms, and they were tiny. They were smaller than a Motel 6 or Super 8. Each had two double beds, but they were narrow beds. We had three adults and two kids going in each room. We weren't happy, but the manager said the only other rooms had a king bed in each, which would have been even less useful. We were just getting settled when room service delivered our appetizers. We were pretty disappointed in the food, and glad it was free, since the nachos were exceedingly stale, and the hot wings were slimy. Still, we were hungry. We did have a cooler of sandwich stuff and deli salads with us, and bread, so we did our best to have some supper. (I never did learn what dinner plans we'd had that were ruined, if there really were any.)

When everyone was fed and reasonably rested, Granny took a nap while the rest of us headed for the outdoor pool. Brett was irritated to find that it was 3 feet deep throughout, since she likes to really swim, but it was good for playing with the kids. The hot tub was nice, too. Cheyenne and Ally loved it, but Tommy and Robby said it was too hot for them. The swimming was really a lot of fun. It was the first time the boys have been in anything more than a wading pool. Before we were done, Robby floated on his back by himself. Tommy was afraid of drowning, but seemed to have fun as long as we held onto him. Really, the swimming was the best part of the day.

We got back to the hotel, and Kandy, the kids, and I got into nightgowns and pajamas. Lewis, Brett, and Ginger went for a walk to take pictures of a really gorgeous church near the hotel. The kids made a sort of picnic on the floor with the food from the pub, while they watched cartoons and I read my book. Ally was supposed to be with Kandy, in their room, but was over with us. As usual, she was hitting and shoving the others, but they were dealing with her without needing me to intervene. When Cheyenne was going to the bathroom (all by herself, with dry undies!), though, Ally grabbed Brett's eyeliner off the vanity and started to draw on Cheyenne's face. I pulled Ally off, washed Cheyenne, then took Ally back through the connecting door to give her to Kandy. Kandy had gone to bed, without a word to me about watching Ally, and took several tries to get her up. When she was awake, I left Ally with her, and closed the door between the rooms.

Tommy, Robby, and Cheyenne cleaned up their picnic, then got into bed. Cheyenne was supposed to be in with Ally, but I told her she could be in her mommy's bed until they got back. The three were all asleep before long.

Before Brett took Cheyenne to her own bed, once they got back, we took pictures of the three sleeping kids. Then we all went to bed. That was challenging. I often sleep in the same bed with the boys at home, if there's a storm, or they don't feel well, or whatever, but the hotel bed was too narrow to get us all in. I ended up sort of curled up across the foot of the bed with the spare pillow and blanket. I didn't need the blanket, though, as the air conditioner failed, and the room was stifling.

By morning, I was stiff and tired, though I did sleep a bit. I got the boys and me showered and dressed, and we all had donuts for breakfast (which we had brought with us, as the Hotel Roanoke doesn't have a complimentary breakfast, and charges too much to buy food there). We got both rooms packed up, then headed for Chuck E Cheese.

Chuck E Cheese is a child's dream, and an adult's nightmare. We got Granny settled at the table farthest from the games, ordered a pizza and sodas, and bought a handful of tokens for each child. The kids had a wonderful time. Kandy stayed close to Ally, Ginger and Brett stayed around Cheyenne, and Lewis and I stayed near Tommy and Robby. I wandered all over, actually, making sure I got plenty of pictures of each of the kids. After about an hour, we made all the kids eat, then let them play again. After about three hours at Chuck E Cheese, each kid had 111 tickets from the games (carefully equalized by the moms based on Tommy's winnings, since he had the most - Ginger and Kandy played games to get the extra tickets), which they exchanged for some little toys.

We were all grateful to be in the car after that. We drove home, turning on the fans in the house as soon as we arrived. Once it was just us at home again, all five of us were happy to just relax, even the kids.

So, it was a pretty screwed up trip, from an adult standpoint, but the kids had a terrific time.

Visiting the Zoo: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=db39re2

Waiting in the Hotel Lobby: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=42eere2

Swimming at Hotel Roanoke: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=9f58re2

In the Room: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=a914re2

Sightseeing at the Roanoke Catholic Church: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=ba95re2

Checking Out at the Hotel: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=baacre2

Chuck E Cheese: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dkpalmer1969/album?.dir=6558re2