Day 1: The Nickelodeon Suites Hotel

So on Monday, May 23rd, Mom and I headed out a a grand road trip.... Now, we had done road trips before: many to HHI from ATL in her vanagon in the 80s, many to soccer camps-games-tournaments during that same decade, a college trip to Notre Dame, a few trips to Florida to see her parents in the 90s, and a really amazing long weekend in NYC not long before Elsie full of shows, dining, and decadent adventure... and probably a few I can't remember.  And for all of these road trips, she was an excellent mother duck or wingman as needed...  This trip was no different.  She was beyond a champ...  

But this road trip was different: this was road-tripping toddler-style, a road trip bursting with Disney DVDs and goldfish snacks with the first stop at the Orlando Nickelodeon Suites Hotel.  We needed a stop to break up the drive to south Florida and Orlando seemed a good distance, but we weren't ready for Disney yet with Kit at 2 and winced at the equally high price tag for Sea World for girls not quite giving up the nap.  The Nickelodeon had Dora and Diego, had characters, had breakfast with characters, had two pools and water parks, had themed bunk bed suites in all the rooms, had a 4D movie theater, had a tattoo parlor and hairwrap salon, and it was a hotel with an ice machine--all of these things seemed exciting and eye-opening for our little first time Orlando visitors.  And we were right.... they were blown away by it all.... we couldn't do it all enough or fast enough or long enough.  They eagerly embraced it all and Kit cannot stop talking about the "slime time" with the giant bucket of slime gushing down after the countdown over the crowd chanting "we want slime."  Since we have returned, she has carried a bent postcard around with a picture of the sliming to share with anyone who will listen.  If you see her, you should... it is simply priceless....