Cruise 2011 - Day 1 - Drive to Florida

We had been counting down the days for the past two weeks (literally Paige and Samantha had a paper count down going where Samantha would pull a ring off each day to see how many days were left until our vacation started).   We decided that we would go ahead and get on the road on Friday,  get close to the ship, find a hotel and make sure to get to bed early so that we could get a good start to the Sailing Day.  We had rented a private cabana for Half Moon Cay so we were guaranteed one but they will not give out which one it is until you get on the ship.  (So getting on the ship and picking the cabana you want becomes a contest in itself).  After double checking to make sure we had everything and making sure Samantha was excited about going (see Day 1 video at the end) we loaded up the vehicle and started the five and half hour drive to Jacksonville.  Luckily Samantha has been taking road trips since day 1 so she does really well in the car and she did great the drive down.  While discussing where to stay a thing about Kyle Petty's Charity Ride for Victory Junction came on the radio which said they were all staying on Amelia Island for the last leg of their trip.  I asked Paige where Amelia Island was and she said about 30 mins from the ship.  That sounded perfect; so off to Amelia Island we go.   We found a hotel, threw our bags down and headed for the water.  Samantha had been talking about seeing the beach all week and she was super excited when she finally saw it (again see video to see how really excited she was).  Samantha did her impression of cover your feet in the sand (which somehow translated in her 2 year old mind to pick up sand and sprinkle it over your toes while your feet are not on the ground.)  Paige and I both got a big kick out of that!  We found a nice little local restaurant (right on the water) called Sandy Bottoms which had a band playing.  We decided to catch a bite there prior to heading back to the hotel to go to bed.  Only one more night until we get to see the boat and we were all very excited!!!!