Procrastination pays off right now!

[fortpartyof4 108]

You've heard the saying, "Hard work pays off later. Procrastination pays off right now!"?

Well, I am the queen of procrastination, and am finally doing a TR from our spring break at the fort in April.

So, you could look at it as "paying off", if you enjoy reading TR's like I do. And I have enjoyed so many of yours, so thought I should contribute, as well. But be warned. This will not include the wit or foreshadowing that all you seasoned pros possess. This is my very first TR, and remember, I'm lazy. I don't think to take photos of things that others do, and it was 4 months ago so I don't remember everything we did. So it will be much duller than those.

But, you have to start somewhere, right?

Just to set the scene, my family consists of my husband and I and our 2 sons. We've been camping for about 7 years, discovered the fort on a Scout trip back in 2006 and have been hooked ever since. Tented until 2010 when we bought a pop-up, and graduated to a TT Sept. of 2011. We visit the fort several times a year, as well as many state parks and other CG's. Each summer we travel up North, where my husband and I are originally from, and almost always camp when we do.

We live in Jacksonville, on the very southernmost end of the city. It takes us about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get to the fort towing a camper, depending on traffic. My husband will often take the kids and camper down, I drive my car, and then he comes back during the week to go to work. That's what we did on this trip.

The guys left as soon as the kids got out of school on Friday, the 30th of March - about 2 pm. I followed a couple of hours later after finishing up some packing and food prep. As much as I do in the days before, and with all of my lists, I'm still never ready when the time comes! There's that procrastination thing again.

When we tented and had the pup, we always stayed in 2000, occasionally 1500. Since we've had the TT, we've been trying different loops. Sometimes we have a cart, sometimes we don't, so that factors into our decision. This time (thanks to you guys), I rented from Kenny & would have one all week. So it didn't matter where we ended up, but my husband does like ample space to back in. And, these plans had been made somewhat last minute - we were supposed to go to the Keys but my husband had stuff come up at work - so all I could get was part of the week in a premium site, part of the week in a full hook up.

He was given a choice of 1200 or 1300 at the gate, so the boys went in and circled around and ended up choosing 1215. Later during our stay, I went up to the desk and made it so we stayed there for the entire time instead of having to move to the full h/u. Even though it would have saved us money, I didn't want to have to break down, hook up, and move. I used to tow and set up the pop-up by myself all the time, but have yet to pull the TT. And I can't even lift the hitch, so it was best to stay put. 1215 wound up being a great site for us.

That first night, we got partially set up, it rained, we hung out inside. No pictures. Everyone had already eaten, on the road on the way down. We got a good night's sleep and got up first thing Sat. to finish setting up and have some fun. While I went to WM for supplies and groceries, the boys took a boat ride over to the MK:

We aren't passholders, and weren't planning any trips to the parks. It was Easter week, we aren't insane. We live here and can go down whenever we want to.

They didn't even get off of the boat, just rode it over and back.

The Avengers monorail went by (though it's difficult to make it out):

Then they headed back over Bay Lake to the fort, and stopped to play some tetherball on the beach. They LOVE to play tetherball and have played on every one in the fort, I think.

Next, the rest of our laid - back first day, and some MLB!!!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Love the pics! Looking forward to more.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Very cool!! The "shoe tree" is filling up again :)

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Cool! I'm in and ready for more.

[fortpartyof4 108]

Already, I am back-tracking. See what I mean? Stumbling on my first TR! But, it's just one photo, so hopefully it won't happen again..much.

Forgot to plug this one in of my solo drive in the day before. Some pictures are from my phone, some from the camera, and they didn't upload in order. It's a shot seen by all of us so many times, but I feel it's kind of obligatory to share mine:

Back to Saturday. The boys had just returned from their boat ride, and from the photos, it looks like they then headed over to visit the ponies and play in the arcade. I was still wandering around Wally-world in kid-free, carefree shopping mode.

After that, we all converged back at camp and probably had lunch. Again, it was too long ago to remember the details. But, if it was anything like any of our other fort - only days, we probably looped, chilled at the camper, played on the playgrounds and/or basketball court in our loop, and rode our bikes. The evening likely consisted of dinner in our TT, more looping, s'mores, the movie and/or the fireworks on the beach. That's all the photos I have from that day.

[SCTigerCock 171]

Looks like fun! :jumpforjoy

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I'm in! Can't wait for more!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Very good, FP4!

You don't need to get all fancy in a trip report.

Just post your photos and tell a little about them. The report writes itself!

By the way, your photos are very good.

Keep them coming!

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

Sunday morning, April Fool's Day! This would be my husband's last day with us until he returned the following weekend. We are all baseball fans, but it happens to be Mom's favorite sport. Luckily, it was the last week of spring training, and one of my favorite teams was in town to play the Braves at WWS. My husband went over on Saturday to pick up some tickets, and off we went to the game Sunday afternoon.

It was one of the hottest April days I can remember in a long time, and I've been in FL for 20 years. And sat through pre-season football, in the nosebleeds, in August. It was that bad. But it was also MLB, and we made the best of it! Fortunately, you can take bags into the stadium and I had a couple of soft-side coolers with waters and gatorades along for the ride. They didn't last long, though!

I'd never been to the WWS complex and enjoyed it very much - it's really nice. I love ballparks!

We ate stadium dogs, peanuts and my husband & I had a beer. I think one dog cost what I paid for an entire pack plus the buns the day before at the store! But, there's something about having a dog and some peanuts at a ball game. It just tastes better.

Here's the whole gang, including my husband sporting his I'm-on-vacation scruff:

Outside the stadium:

I have a friend whose son works here, and she says it is super-seasonal work. I wonder how they're able to keep such an elaborate complex going when it doesn't have events booked year-round? The day we were there, it was the MLB game, some soccer stuff, and a big HS girl's basketball tournament going on in 2 of the other buildings. We had to park way far away in a grassy area and take a tram.

We left the game in the 7th inning, couldn't take the heat any longer, and retreated to the A/C in the Nintendo gaming station across from the stadium:

Then, we picked up some souvenirs and headed out. Traffic was heavy, but not too bad. Lots of CM's directing, as well as OCSO and blocked lanes to allow for more flow.

I'm not sure what we did for the rest of the day. We were at the fort, so probably more of the same as Sat. night.

My husband would get up in the wee hours and drive back to Jacksonville to go to work, while the boys and I would chill at the fort for the rest of the week.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Doing a great job ... just one thing.

shhhhh... don't tell my kids that the fort has an arcade!

[fortpartyof4 108]

Love the pics! Looking forward to more.

Thanks! Funny how so many are things we've all seen a hundred times, but never tire of looking at more!

Very cool!! The "shoe tree" is filling up again :)

There were less when we were there last week. Does Disney remove them from time to time, or is the bottom of BL full of old sneakers? Perhaps that's what caused the problem with that water that closed RC?

Cool! I'm in and ready for more.

I'll try to keep it up. This is kind of my tutorial for doing my most recent trip. Although, now that I've looked, I think some of these pictures are actually better!

Looks like fun! :jumpforjoy

It was! We're at the fort, how could it not be?

I'm in! Can't wait for more!!

OK! Coming up!

Very good, FP4!

You don't need to get all fancy in a trip report.

Just post your photos and tell a little about them. The report writes itself!

By the way, your photos are very good.

Keep them coming!

TCD

Why thank you. A true compliment, coming from the master of TR's. My trips aren't fancy, so my reports won't be either! Just simple family fun.

[fortpartyof4 108]

Doing a great job ... just one thing.

shhhhh... don't tell my kids that the fort has an arcade!

I know what you mean. I think I was able to keep it a secret for a long time, but my husband loves it as much as they do and almost always caves. I think it's one of the biggest wastes of money there is, but it does buy a few minutes of time to think and at least you know where they are!

[daddyphat808 - Eric 16]

Great report!

[fortpartyof4 108]

On to Monday, and it's just the boys and I. From my pictures, it appears that we went for a morning cart ride and ended up out at the beach, where the boys played tetherball and I enjoyed my cup 'o joe on the deck. Which I do almost every time we are at the fort.

I do remember that most of the rest of the morning was spent at our site. I had wanted to rearrange some of the storage bins and cabinets and do some other cleaning jobs in the TT. I know, it seems a shame to waste a day of vacation doing work, but I am one of those people who cannot sit still. And, because we live in a gigantic planned community with stupid CDD rules that prevent us from keeping the camper at our house, I never have a chance to do any work in it because the storage place we use has no electricity or water. So I have to do a lot of it when we're camping.

I got a lot done,and changed our outside set-up as well. After the heavy rain over the weekend, some things needed to be moved. Plus, I had brought along some Easter decorations so put some of those up too. The boys stayed in the camper, watched TV and played on their games a little bit.

After lunch (which was probably sandwiches and chips - no photos of the food, sorry!), we headed over to the Meadow swimmin' hole to check out the activities going on poolside. The boys ended up getting inked, Disney-style (or as MD calls them, "lick-on" tats):

There is one other thing I recall from this event. The CM who did their tattoos was a very sweet young girl and really took time to talk to my boys, even asking my youngest about his Rays shirt and if he played baseball (he does) since he chose a baseball tattoo. Afterward, he whispered into my ear that the girl "kinda had a mustache". I felt so bad for her. But, thank goodness he didn't blurt it out or anything. He was only 9 at the time, and it must have been the first time he noticed something like that.

Here we are playing some lawn darts at the site. I remember my Dad and Uncle playing the real thing as a kid. Always with plenty of beer. It's a wonder my cousins and I have all of our eyeballs after some of their marathon jarts games that went on long past dark!

[photogal06...Sommer 10]

Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing your trip :) Jarts were the best. DH accidentally pierced the trunk of his dad's car with one when he was young, lol!

[stefa70 205]

Wow, I'm so far behind!!

You're doing a great job.

I love that you can't remember everything you did, it means you were relaxing and going with the flow.

Ahhh, lawn darts........."c'mon kids, let's go throw some 12 inch long, steel, pointed tipped darts in the yard!" :rofl3: Whoever thought that was a good idea?

Looking forward to the rest!

[fortpartyof4 108]

Tuesday, we slept in, hung around the site and looped. The boys shot some hoops for a long time - another plus for the 1200/1300 that I need to remember for future visits. Unfortunately, some kid stole one of their basketballs. They had each brought one, and let another kid use one of them while they were over there, sharing the second one. Next thing they knew the kid was gone, along with their ball. Geesh.

After lunch, we headed off property to play putt putt. Wound up at Pirate's Cove on 192, near Old Town. It was a great little course - we've played many - and the boys gave it 2 thumbs up.

Believe it or not, there are many more - not sure why I took so many putt putt shots! I guess because I wasn't playing.

When you're out and about in the Orlando area, do you ever look at some of the older hotels and resorts and wonder how you could fix them up, make them nice again? I do it all the time. I hate to see things just sit and rot. There are lots and lots of hotels/motels in the WDW area that are no longer open, just sitting there. Primo real estate, shame to waste it, imo. The one you see in the background of this photo is one of them:

Took this one on our way back in to the fort. Seeing this sign just makes you happy, doesn't it?

[fortpartyof4 108]

Great report!

Thanks!

Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing your trip :) Jarts were the best. DH accidentally pierced the trunk of his dad's car with one when he was young, lol!

It was fun. I can see that happening! Those things were like weapons!

Wow, I'm so far behind!!

You're doing a great job.

I love that you can't remember everything you did, it means you were relaxing and going with the flow.

Ahhh, lawn darts........."c'mon kids, let's go throw some 12 inch long, steel, pointed tipped darts in the yard!" :rofl3: Whoever thought that was a good idea?

Looking forward to the rest!

Thanks! Yeah, there are a lot of things from my childhood that I sometimes wonder how I survived without major injury!

[fortpartyof4 108]

We ate dinner while we were out - kids had CFA, and I needed to pick up milk so we stopped at Publix where Mom got a sub. For you non-FL peeps, if you're ever visiting and want a really good sub, Publix is 10x better than subway, and sooo fresh!

When we got back to the fort, we went over for an evening swim at the Meadow pool. By then, it wasn't too crowded at all.

[MetalDad 33]

Heck yeah! Great TR.

First of all... Rays! Awesome.

I was quoted with the fake tats. As Eeyore would say! "Thanks for noticin'"

And Jarts! The very last time we played Jarts, we were dumb enough to say "Let's play catch with them!"

Either Mom or Dad got wind and tossed 'em.

I love how your family is content with jarts, basketball, and tetherball, makes that over-priced hot dog taste that much better!

I can't sit in a stadium without a bag of roasted, salted shell peanuts...ballgame, concert, seminar... I'm a mess with shell shrapnel.

[Seals 111]

Yay for procrastinating on TRs. Makes me feel better that I won't be able to get to mine for a while.

My boys love playing tetherball at the Fort. I know they wouldn't play if we had one in our yard.

While we were there we were daydreaming -- what if we lived close enough to go to the Fort on weekends? We knew we'd go all the time.

[fortpartyof4 108]

Heck yeah! Great TR.

First of all... Rays! Awesome.

I was quoted with the fake tats. As Eeyore would say! "Thanks for noticin'"

And Jarts! The very last time we played Jarts, we were dumb enough to say "Let's play catch with them!"

Either Mom or Dad got wind and tossed 'em.

I love how your family is content with jarts, basketball, and tetherball, makes that over-priced hot dog taste that much better!

I can't sit in a stadium without a bag of roasted, salted shell peanuts...ballgame, concert, seminar... I'm a mess with shell shrapnel.

I'm betting it won't be the first time I quote you! Can't come up with stuff that funny on my own!

The sad thing is, it wasn't us who got out of hand with the jarts, it was our Dads! After one too many Gennys!

Sidenote: autocorrect doesn't like the word jarts! Keeps trying to make it jars. Where is that urban dictionary when you need it? And why doesn't autocorrect work for everyone? Because sometimes, it should!

[fortpartyof4 108]

Yay for procrastinating on TRs. Makes me feel better that I won't be able to get to mine for a while.

My boys love playing tetherball at the Fort. I know they wouldn't play if we had one in our yard.

While we were there we were daydreaming -- what if we lived close enough to go to the Fort on weekends? We knew we'd go all the time.

I know, mine probably wouldn't either. Too many Legos and video games to distract them here!

This is my maiden voyage as far as a TR. It's kinda fun, but time consuming.

We are very fortunate to be able to go often. But like everyone, I'd go more if I could! The day we left, I had to stop at the front to return the old-school internet contraption and saw the pass in the car next to mine was good until mid-September. I was like, man, those people are SO lucky!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Interesting about your son, my son is starting to notice those things too.... he just turned 10.

Great pics.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

We get Publix subs almost every Sunday after church. It's one of the few meals that all 7 of us enjoy.