Planting Basil from the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

by TimJones

Every year our family hits Spring with a visit to the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.  This is one of our favorite times of year at Epcot.  The flowers are amazing around every corner, butterflies, and lots of activities for the kids!  One of the kids’ favorite areas this year was themed from the new Oz movie.  It was a huge playground with a seating area and shade for the adults.  Our kids spent a good 2 hours playing in this fun area.

The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival is always a lot of fun.  This year Disney went a step farther and added lots of amazing food kiosks in World Showcase.  One of our first food stops on this visit was the new Dole Whip kiosk.  The kids got Dole Whips and the adults got the Dole Whips with a splash of rum.  Sweet!  As a freebie, the Cast Member gave us some seed packets – lots of seed packets.

The seed packets were for basil.  We took those seed packets home and taught the kids how to plant seeds.  This was our first experience with the kids planting seeds and we had a blast.  Check out our video on how to plant basil with the kids.

For your next Disney World vacation, plan it around the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.  There are so many fun activities for the kids and adults.  You can even make it a learning experience!  Happy Planting!

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Jim’s Restaurant Review

by TimJones

A relaxed, family-style dining environment made Jim’s Restaurant the perfect fit for our first night in San Antonio.  To make it even better, our kids ate for free!  We’d had a long day of visiting family and tourist attractions, making us nearly too late for the kids eat free deal, but Jim’s had no issues with that and gave us the deal, anyway.

The booths were comfortable, food was good and reasonably priced, and we were walking distance from our hotel.  Jim’s seems very similar to Denny’s with a little San Antonio local flavor added in with “Real Texas Breakfast” selections, award-winning tortilla soup, and Texas sized steaks on the menu.

I tried one of their burgers and the wife tried a steak.  Both were good, although typical diner quality meals.

We enjoyed a nice evening stroll back to our hotel.  Bellies satisfied and ready for San Antonio adventures, tomorrow.

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Review: Aloft San Antonio

by TimJones

More comfort, more convenience, and less “hipness” made the Aloft San Antonio a much nicer stay than it’s cousin, the Aloft Houston by the Galleria. The Aloft San Antonio lies near the San Antonio airport and within walking distance of a Target and many dining options.  Although part of the Aloft series of hotels from [...]

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Zion National Park and Staying in a Covered Wagon

by TimJones

In leaving the Grand Canyon, we had the opportunity to exit the South Rim to the East and see a few view points that fewer people get to experience. One of the best was the Desert View Watchtower (also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View) stop. The Watchtower was designed and constructed by [...]

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Review: Aloft Houston by the Galleria

by TimJones

Starwood dubs the Aloft a “hip hotel” describing them as “A new destination sensation with loft-inspired design features, accessible state-of-the-art technology and a stylish urban attitude.”  We definitely felt that during our stay in the Houston Aloft. Entering the hotel from the garage, we are greeted with the familiar Starwood signature scent and a check-in [...]

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Review: Sheraton New Orleans

by TimJones

The first night of our month long road trip was spent in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Sheraton New Orleans.  Within walking distance of the French Quarter, the Sheraton New Orleans sits in the heart of the fun in New Orleans providing a great view of downtown New Orleans. This also means you’ll be experiencing [...]

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Saguaro National Park Driving Tour

by TimJones

We’ve taken a lot of “road footage” on our family road trip with our GoPro camera.  Similar to our 13 hour drive in 15 minutes, we had a fair amount of driving footage from our trip to the Saguaro National Park. Saguaro National Park is divided into two sections, called districts, lying approximately 20 miles [...]

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13 Hour Drive in 15 Minutes

by TimJones

We had a BUNCH of footage from our drive from San Antonio, Texas to Tucson, Arizona taken on our GoPro camera (affiliate link) and thought it would be fun to create a video of our journey in super fast time! This turned out to be one of our better “long” drives.  The kids and Allison slept [...]

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Junior Rangers Unite!

by TimJones

Spontaneity Our one full day at the Grand Canyon started off with zero plans. We figured we’d start off with a visit to the visitor’s center for stamps in the kid’s passports, catch a view point or two, maybe a trail hike. Who know’s? It became so much more and all because of a lack [...]

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Onward to Grand Canyon!

by TimJones

Worst drive ever!  The drive from Tucson to the Grand Canyon was a bit on the stressful side, but only due to a portion of the trip.  From Phoenix to Flagstaff, the highway gains a tremendous amount of elevation in a short period of time and the temperature was 108!  Curves, sharp turns, then a [...]

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