Our Disney Vacation with Fay and the Crab Assasins - COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 9/16 About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Pixies that everything is back to normal soon!!

[Jamieaob]

I'm in NW PA and although we didn't have the 75 mph winds ours were around 60 MPH and heavy rain. Lots of people with out Power, trees down etc.

[Hugmonster]

Hope you have your power back. We were lucky, as we are also in Ohio.

[Rainbowy]

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Just got to catch up on your last few updates...sounds like you had a great last day at WDW. Glad you got to enjoy TSMM - that ride is just so fun but I agree your hand can get pretty tired
Sore arms seems to be everyones comment who rode it!!
Glad you parents made it out ok and that they were able to get you a bigger car (that was probably forethought as getting through your trip in a smaller car might have caused bigger problems with all that flooding...
We now know,and will warn others to get a car big enough to hold you AND all your luggage!!
What a trip to Vero you had...I could actually picture what was going on by your descriptions but I was happy when you finally made it to the resort safe and sound.
We were so relieved to get to Vero, we didn't really care that it was windy and rainy, just to be safe for the night was a blessing.
Your view was amazing and sounds like you had a great time dispite the weather...

Hope to hear that you made it out ok and on time...hope that everything is ok by you now after Ike decided to pass through...what destruction it has left in it's path.

DBIL is in Cincinnati, and they say it is like a war zone there. No power anywhere, many roads closed, and to top it off, some looting etc! One more reason I am glad to live away from there, out in the country. We may loose the things in our deep freeze if we don't get power back soon, but that is such small potatoes compared to others and what they have lost.

Originally Posted by I live with a 'Stitch'!

Can't wait to hear more; totally understand about Ike--it got us Chicagolander's too! We still have power, but lots of flooding. It rained for two days straight and my DS5 said, "Are we ever going to be able to ride our bikes or take a walk again " Tomorrow promises to be better .

So sorry to hear about the flooding, we actually got almost no rain from Ike. Just incredible wind. I went over to our house to asses, and we will have to replace some boards on the barn, some shingles on the house, and trim some trees back, but otherwise we are ok. So many others lost their whole roof, a half dozen huge blue spruce one street over were ripped right out of the ground! We are fortunate, and we have family who have power. If we had had flooding on top of the wind, it would truly be a disaster, since we all have sump pumps here, and our houses would have flooded, so God was very good to us!!!

Originally Posted by B.M.

Glad everyone's ok! Hope you get your electricity back on soon! ((My ex-husband lives in TX and they were hit hard, no lights, water, nothing..........cell phones not even working/satelites down.......he wants to get out of there , but all the gas stations are closed, so he cant put gas in his truck to leaver.......FEMA is bringing by food once daily))

They say 2-3 days. But maybe sooner, I hope. I will go back over later and check. If it isn't back on this afternoon, I will have to move some frozen food to moms house!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Pixies that everything is back to normal soon!!

Originally Posted by Jamieaob

I'm in NW PA and although we didn't have the 75 mph winds ours were around 60 MPH and heavy rain. Lots of people with out Power, trees down etc.

I hope they can get all of your power in PA back on soon. Did you have the rain they said they had north of us?? We hardly got any of the rain. Just wind.

[christiejay]

Wow! I'd been following Ike's path through the country, but didn't remember hearing about the high winds that far north/inland. Hopefully your power will be back soon. No, we didn't see Ike - it went around us. Just a couple of days of dark clouds and some wind that was stronger than normal, but not damaging. Looking forward to hearing more when you are able to update.

[lissybri]

Hope you have your power back and everyone is ok. Just got cught up with your stay at Vero beach. Love the pictures. Can't wait to hear how your trip ended.

[DyanKJ130]

Just catching up! The view from your room at VB is incredible! Glad you were able to help out with the wildlife too! Hope everything is back to normal at home! Looking forward to more!

[Rainbowy]

Thanks for the pixies, all is well. We have power once again, even earlier then anticipated. I am still keeping all of those who are not as fortunate in our prayers. There, but for the grace of God, go I..... So pixies to those who are still dealing with Ike

Lets see, where and when were we, , , oh yes, Thursday August 21st, talking to an airtran employee.. so she asked me a second time, very enunciated,and direct. "So, it is flooded around where you are?" Oh, um, YES, it is flooded all around us, to the north at Melborne, to the South at Ft. Peirce. Yes. "ok, she says, I am typing this in, and noting it on your reservation, that if you should need to change your reservation, you will not get a penalty charge, and will be able to book another flight, no charge." Oh, um, good, I think. But then I said, "So if we realize tomorrow morning that we will have trouble getting to Orlando, we can call then and change it?"
The answer of course was Yes! Thank you nice Airtran Lady. So with this imformation, I went back out to the pool, confered with dear hubby, who by this point in the vacation, was up for anything, said, sure, if we can stay why not? Its only gonna get better from here on out with the weather. So I went to the front desk, explained the situation. They had some room, but we might have to move, then after a small conference in back, we were told we could stay an extra night, AND stay in our current room!! End of crisis #2. No stressful drive to Orlando in floods, no waiting on a delayed flight for hours at the airport. I called and booked a flight for 6:30 on the 23rd. Back to our vacation enjoyment, the low stress version!!!
We then went to get ready for our ADR at the high end restaraunt at the resort, which escapes me right now, anyway, we went to dinner, had a very nice meal, not the best meal of the trip but very good. One neet little touch is that the chef there puts together a "trial" dish every night. Sort of an off the menu chef special, which he then sends a small tasting of this dish for each guest our to each table as a complimentary tasting. Our evening, the offerings were duck pot stickers. I have had duck, since my father used to duck hunt, and so had my husband in his past carnivorous life, but neither of our kids had ever had duck, and sort of got squeamish about it. But DS11 who as you know had been really trying new things this trip, tried them, and ate his, my daughters, and DH's!! He loved them. They were very good! The cutest thing was, when the waitress came back out to check on us, my son pipes up " Oh, would you please give my compliments to the chef. The duck was delicious!" I thought she was about to crack up, or melt, I am not sure which, but she didn't do either one. She said she would tell him. And then smiled so huge. When she came back later, she asked how old he was, becuase the chef wanted to know, since she told him it was a boy. The chef was surprised that a young person liked the duck! Well, enjoyable meal, although the most expensive meal of the trip at well over $100, and that is without any mixed drinks etc. That evening was quite stormy, so we spent the rest of the evening playing cards. Everyone in bed by 10:30 looking forward to a possibly sunny day tomorrow.
Friday August 22 dawned beautifully over the ocean. The SUN rose over the water early in the morning, and I was up to see it! I woke everyone early and we ate pop tarts etc. By 8am we were out and claiming our table by the pool. we comando'd this table for the day on Friday.jpg Then heading for the beach. After a short walk up and down the beach to find any sea life or great shells, the kids set of camp and started working on a new masterpiece . . vero first castle.jpg I gave them the beach safety rundown, pointed out the guards just overhead, and proceeded to walk up the beach to a promising shell spot. Disney is really the only resort around, everything else is privately owned, so there arent that many people on the beach, and the ones who are there, we had already met many of them. I would not have walked more than a few feet away at Myrtle, but Vero is much different. DH joined the kids a few minutes later, and then they all decided to see how I was doing, so they came down to find me knee deep in a hole I had dug, with a whole bucket full of shells already collected. They soon joined me and we had quite an excavating oporation going on. After several hours, we had collected two big bucket fulls of cool shells. We started showing the kids nearby where the shells were and we had a real gang going!! Lots of fun, lots of sun! Now THIS was the vacation ender I had pictured!!!Fin ally!
We decided we couldn't possibly take any more shells home, so we helped fill some other buckets, then headed for the pool. Where I took this pictures view from vero slide.jpg We then spent several blissfull hours at the pool.
Next up dinner and the CRAB ASSASINS!!

[mcc0313]

So glad that you were able to add an extra day to your trip and that it ended up being such a beautiful day...what a shell collection after all that storming you deserved a bright, sunshining day and you definitely got one by the looks of the pictures...

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you were able to add another day and change your flight without penalty!! Sounds like it was a great day

[Rainbowy]

. . while the kids and DH were enjoying the pool a little longer,Vero new lighthouse.jpg I went back and got ready, then they came in to do the same. While they were getting ready I was washing and laying out our shell collection, Attachment 24211 and packing for our departure the next day. When everyone was ready to go, off we went in search of, as my DH calls it "local food". So off we went in our WHITE suv rental car. We headed north up the beach. At the end of Vero beach you pass over a really tall bridge which connects the next barrier island called Sebastian. As we came off the bridge there was a large sign. It said in bold letters WILDLIFE CROSSING well, I wonder what that is. In Ohio we have deer crossing signs, in southern Florida they have alligator crossing signs, down on Alligator Alley. But this did not have a picture, or say what the wildlife was. Oh, well, having debated that for a couple minutes, we went back to looking for somewhere to eat. Nothing! DH says "Ok. these people who live in all these houses have GOT to eat out sometimes, and I can't believe they drive over to the mainland for that." So we keep driving. We passed a place that looked like a rent by the hour motel. The sign said "Rosit . .Pizza" I didn't catch the whole thing. I mentioned it to hubby, and he said he saw the red and green painted collums in the rear view mirror. But on we went. What seemed like miles later, we finally came up on a strip mall. It had a publix, a couple other stores,and one mexican restaraunt that looked like any we might see at home. So I said, that the cars in the parking lot at that pizza place didn't look to bad. So he agreed to go back and check it out. Sure enough it was a motel,but, also a restaurant "Rositas Pizza". So we poked our heads in and were very surprised. It was charming, and the menu included some really good choices other than pizza. A real italian mamas place. So we stayed and had two pizzas which were some of the best we have ever had. DH also had some fettucini alfredo. Excellent meal. The locals were the only ones there and everyone sorta stared at us. We found out 6 of the locals nearby who had joined two tables together, usually had our spot every friday night. So everyone knew we were tourists!! The place only seated about 20 people and before we left we had met them all! This would turn out to be one of the most affordable meals on the trip, $46 dollars with 20% tip! Happy and full, we left Rositas after dark. I was just too happy to have had such a nice day!
We headed up the road back toward Vero. I will write this next bit in "conversational style, for your enjoyment....

Me: Hey, whats that on the road?
DH: I didnt' see anything.
Me; look up there. . .its a crab.
DH: Ok, its a crab. So wasn't that the best piz. .
Me (interupting) Theres another crab, Don't hit it.
DH: What? Oh.
(DS and DD stick there heads up between the seats at this point to see whats up)
Me: THere is another one John, don't hit it.
(Johns swerves)
DS,DD &Me: Theres another one!
Me: Oh he's really big. Theres another. wait a minute turn on the brights. There are a dozens of them, they are fiddler crabs. Wow. Can you keep from hitting them, you know how I hate it when things crunch.
DH: Oh yeah, right. NOT! sheesh, look how big they are.

DS,DD,ME: "SCREAM" AAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!
THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

(no kidding at this point it would be nearly impossible to walk, let alone drive, without squooshing them. There were thousands! I was covering my ears, so as not to hear the crunch, which WAS audible. Both kids are screaming, STOP! Husband is laughing his butt off!)

Me: (yelling over screaming) Hey, that car way up there has their brake lights on. Maybe if you slow down, they will move out of the way!
DH: I don't think so!
(But he slows down a little. Crabs are covering the road! They are huge, like the size of dinner plates legs and all. They are on top of each other, some are holding up that one huge claw. It was unbelievable. Crab bits were flying through the air . Yuck. then,,,,)

Me: Watch out AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
DS&DD: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
ME: Don't hit it!!!

( standing upright in the middle of the road, huge crab in its front paws, obviously feasting on the "wildlife" as they crossed, was an enormous raccoon! He froze mid bite, we screeched to a halt, then he dropped the crab and ran!)

DH: I think we interupted his dinner! Sorry dude! Ok hang on here we go, there is no getting around them, so lets get moving!! You did take out the extra insurance on this car right??

Me: What??? Oh, look the bridge to Vero is up ahead, good, they wont be crossing that.. . .whew, that was freaky!

DH: Umm, honey, look at the walls of the bridge!!! They are on the bridge too.

But soon enough, they were gone once we crossed the bridge. We were laughing so hard our sides hurt. What a ride. As we came closer to the resort where there were street lights, we could see that we hadn't gotten away cleanly. There were crab bits all over the WHITE suv!!

DS11: Mom, when they see the car, everyone will know we are CRAB ASSASINS!! lol

From that moment on the suv was called the CRAB ASSASIN.


After a good night sleep, the kind you only get after that good of a laugh, we woke to another nice sunny morning, finished packing, took one last look at our beautiful view, Vero One last look before we go.jpg we headed for the beach, where the kids found some children who were playing, and didn't have any buckets, they gave them our buckets and shovels. We wished them a happy week at Vero, and after filling up those wonderful mugs once more, getting a few last things in the gift shop. we headed for the airport. We had a long wait, since they had changed our flight again, due to a delay, It was pouring in Orlando again. But the wait wasn't too bad.airport J&K.jpg So we took off sometime after 8pm, got this photo of the cloudsClouds during am flight.jpg. Looks so beautiful from above, but It wasn't very nice below! We enjoyed looking at the cities in the dark, trying to guess which cities they could be, and soon we were Home! Sighhhhh. So bittersweet, the end of a vacation , and getting home to your own bed . Mom and Dad were there to help get our bags and take us home. We told them all about our adventures after they left. We all laughed all the way to our house about the "CRAB ASSASIN" and they dropped us off at our home just after midnght, August 24th. We said goodnight, and everybody went in and collapsed in bed, suitcases yet to be unpacked etc. But everyone slept well, with memories of our Disney vacation with Fay and the Crab Assasins dancing in our heads!!

Thank you for reading this trip report. It is my first, and it has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work to write. I will be printing it and putting it with our scrapbook of this trip. We have lots of great memories. Maybe in about three years we will pay the mouse a visit, once again. I can't thank you all enough for all the encouragement, tips, laughs, and suggestions, that you gave so willingly during the planning. Planning was truly half the fun!

And now my TR is Complete!!!!
May all your Wishes come true!
Sheri

[lissybri]

You had me cracking up with the story of the Crab Assasin. Thanks for sharing your TR. It was great. It sounds like you had a very magical time. Because of you, I will add Vero Beach to my list of places to visit. Thanks again.

[Colexis Mom]

Great finish Sheri!! Glad you found a great pizza place, and sorry about all the crabs!! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us!! :thanks :

[a&as mama]

That was a great trip report!! Thanks for letting all of us go with you!

[Lemap760]

Too funny about all the crabs, but what a great memory.