Clermont | Wishes And Pixie Dust

July 28, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 2 Comments

Food Shopping

In this blog post we’d like to take a look at two different supermarkets in the Clermont area, which one we’ll probably be using most often, and why. We’re also going to compare and contrast the prices here versus what we were paying in Wisconsin. To begin with, you must know that up to now we are loyal food shoppers. We usually only frequent one grocery store on a regular basis. We will on occasion pick a few items up from Wal-Mart, but they typically are items that are the Wal-Mart brand and not available anywhere else.

Prior to moving to Clermont, we researched grocery stores in the area and knew there were two stores we wanted to check out: Publix and Sweet Bay Supermarkets. We’ll start with Publix.

Publix has five different locations in the Clermont area:

Citrus Tower Village (250 Citrus Tower Blvd)
Publix at Kings Ridge (4351 S Highway 27)
East Towne Center (13900 County Road 455)
Golden Eagle Village (2430 US Highway 27)
Publix at Summer Bay (17445 US Highway 192 Ste 11)

Publix’s ads run from Thursday to Wednesday, and offer some pretty decent savings. For example, this week Tombstone Pizza is 2.99 each, red seedless grapes $1.69/lb, sweet cherries $1.99/lb, and several buy one get one free deals. We felt Publix was very similar to our Festival Foods: there is no loyalty customer card, the employees are super friendly, and it seems to place the customer as its main priority. The non-sale prices, however, are quite high. The average price on cold cereal is $4.99/box ($3.39 in Wis), and a small can of mushrooms was $1.75 ($.65 in Wis). A couple of observations: the price of jam seems to be cheaper, eggs are about the same, the store brand of hot dog buns are the freshest we’ve ever purchased, and the oranges were the best we’ve ever had. Overall, Publix is a great place to shop to get the weekly deals, but too expensive to make it the only store to shop at.

Sweet Bay Supermarket has two locations in Clermont: 1718 E Hwy 50 and 1714 US Hwy 27. The sale prices do not seem as eye-grabbing as Publix’s, but the prices overall are lower and fairly comparable to Wisconsin. For example, a 6-pk of Coke products for $2.99, Kraft Mac & Cheese $.79 and Taco Bell dinner kit for $2.59. This supermarket will mostly likely end up being our store of choice for most groceries that we need to purchase on a weekly basis.

There are some items that are higher irregardless of where we shop. Milk is one example. In Wisconsin the price of a gallon of 2% milk was $2.95. In Clermont it averages about $3.49 per gallon. We bought a half gallon of Sweet Bay milk and a half gallon of Publix milk to judge taste, as being from Wisconsin, a dairy state; we are kind of picky on the taste of milk. My kids are happy to report that Sweet Bay milk has passed their taste test; no verdict yet on the Publix milk. One thing we will need to get used to is the small dairy section in the stores. 🙂 It’s about a fourth of the size of what we are used to.

Thanks for following along! We have quite a few blog posts planned, so keep checking in and hopefully we’ll get them out to you soon!

Have a magical day!

July 26, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 5 Comments

Home Sweet Home

We’re not even sure how to begin the blog tonight because this day was simply the best day ever. The 2 1/2 hour drive from the Florida Welcome Center to Clermont was so awesome, because we put Princess and The Frog music on, and we all just sang along to the tunes. The music literally spoke to us, because as Tiana sings “there’s been trials and tribulations, you know I’ve had my share; but I’ve climbed the mountain, I’ve crossed the river and I’m almost there”. Well, we’ve had our share of roadblocks, we’ve climbed the mountains in Tennessee and crossed many rivers, and now here we are, and it is just truly amazing.

The Gardens at Citrus Tower is a gated community: just look at the pure joy on Ben’s face as we enter!

When we first started looking for an apartment we were able to find out a lot of information on the internet, but you never know for sure what you are getting. Honestly, the pictures do not do it justice. It is way better than we originally expected, and we almost feel like we have “checked in” to a resort. The main lobby is plush, with a few different areas branching off: one is the office, one is like a recreation room for the kids to watch TV, hang out or play Wii; one area is the fitness center, one is the business center, where computers and printers are available, and then there are doors that lead out to the pool area, which features Wi-Fi, all new lounge chairs and a large pool with jets spraying out from each side. Grills are also available for resident’s use.

The apartment itself is wonderful. It’s a three bedroom, two bath apartment, with gourmet kitchen and enclosed laundry room off the kitchen. It features tiled floors in the front hallway, bathrooms and kitchen; all appliances (including washer and dryer, microwave, dishwasher and garbage disposal); and valet garbage. Seriously, someone comes and collects the garbage Monday through Friday. There are these cute little bench-like containers outside each apartment, and we suspect you place your garbage in there. There is also a screened-in patio area off the living room: we definitely plan on using that area once we are able to buy a table and chairs to set out there.

Front hallway and off to the right you can see the patio door:

Patio:

Master bathroom decorated Mickey-style (you can’t see it but it has a garden-style tub):

Kitchen with laundry room door in the back:

We couldn’t be happier: palm trees out the window, and a new home to live in. From what we’ve seen of Clermont, it has everything within close driving distance.

Thank you all for following us to this point; watch for future posts regarding what relocation looks like. Tomorrow we have our car insurance and DMV appointments, and will blog about that later in the day.

July 23, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

So What Does Mickey Say?

One of the blessings of being able to access social media 24/7 is the ability to instantly connect people with happenings as they occur. It’s been fun to document our travels down to Florida using Facebook, Twitter, Gowalla and Foursquare. It also provides a way for you to “follow us” and experience our journey as well!

Last Christmas we purchased at Walmart a mountable Mickey Mouse that utters different sayings, such as “Hiya pal!”, “Hotdog!”, and “Oh boy! It’s going to be a great day!” Before our trip we mounted Mickey on our dashboard, and Ben takes great delight in saying: “So what does Mickey say?” at different intervals. It’s a cute way to include the Disney magic as we journey down to Florida.

Mickey in Chicago:

Mickey in Indianapolis:

It was a loooong drive through Indiana! One of the interesting things we noticed involved the landscape. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana are pretty much the same, flat land, but once you enter Kentucky, the difference is noticeable with the huge hills, trees, and different terrain:

Just wanted to put a quick note in here regarding the tolls on the way down. We paid $2.50 in Illinois: $1.50 at Lake Forest, and $1.00 at the Edens. We paid $3.50 for the Chicago Skyway, $1.50 at the Indiana Toll Road, and $.60 just after Gary. $8.10 in total, which is quite a bit more than we remember paying two years ago. We had put our toll money in an M&M tube, something that we’ve used in the past for the kids to do pressed pennies at Disney, and today remembered why it’s not such a cool idea. All the quarters fell out of the tube! Apparently the clasp is enough to hold M&Ms, but not heavy items like change.

We had a fun picture to share. We saw this sign after we left the Kentucky Welcome Center:

Another Clermont sign! And speaking of welcome centers, we do believe Kentucky has the absolute nicest welcome centers of any state we’ve traveled through. It puts Wisconsin’s rest areas to shame. 😉

We wanted to note a couple of items that have made our trip so much easier. These were mentioned in an earlier blog, but the book The Next Exit provides valuable information about what restaurants and gas stations are at what interstate exits, and it allows you to plan upcoming rest stops. The other item is the Verizon Navigator (GPS) function on the iPhone. Once you are located in a city, it gives you all possible options in terms of shopping, restaurants, gas stations, etc, and will navigate you there. While very helpful on the way down, it will prove invaluable once we arrive in Clermont. Verizon charges an additional $4.95 for their GPS service, but we find it easier and more functional to use than Sprint’s version. (Currently we have phones from both providers.) The only negative we can say about it is the announcer’s voice is a little hard to hear. As of yet, we haven’t figured out if there’s a way to make it louder.

The drive, while long, was so much more enjoyable because we were doing it at a more reasonable time frame. And the postcard idea is working out brilliantly. The kids are really getting into the idea, and it provides a great way for them to document the trip as well as work on writing skills. But shhh, don’t tell them that!

Off to bed for tonight– be sure to follow us tomorrow as we journey through Tennessee and Georgia.

July 22, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

On Our Way

Our morning started by seeing the representatives from Mayflower walking down our street to the house. As it turns out, the city had illegally parked a dump truck at the end of our street, blocking the truck from coming. It was straightened out shortly thereafter:

We were very impressed by how thorough and efficient they were. Carpets were rolled down to protect the carpets, and the upstairs was emptied of the boxes first and brought downstairs. It took 4 hours to empty the house, and we were given a delivery date of July 30th. However, the dump truck that blocked them this morning decided to block them this afternoon, and they backed down the street to leave. It amazed us they were able to do that, given how big the truck was. Our weight was estimated at 5399 lbs, and we came in at 5200 lbs, so we’ll be getting a small refund back in a couple of weeks.

We had arranged with our landlord to come at 3:00 but apparently there was a miscommunication, and we ended up getting a later start. We stopped by Nick’s apartment on the way out, to say good-bye:

We decided to start a postcard scrapbook album with the kids. At every stop we’ll let the kids choose a couple of postcards and when we arrive they’ll have a postcard book of their trip. They can choose to journal on the back, but even if they don’t, it’s kind of a cool souvenir.

We arrived in Kenosha around 7:00 and after we checked in at our hotel we chose to eat at Hillcrest Family Restaurant. Ben was just impressed with the service and quality overall (as we all were), and we joked that he should make a commercial for them. 🙂 He was really taken when he saw the following on the menu:

Afterwards we visited Harry & David to pick up some Moose Munch and went into the Pepperidge Farm Outlet Store but didn’t really see anything that jumped out at us, except the bread, of course, but we’re not going to try to transport bread to Clermont….lol

Overall, we think things went fairly well today. A shout out to Nick and Jessi for helping us with the cleaning and removal of items; without their help we would have been much further behind. Our car is absolutely packed full, and we’re tired, but it is totally all worth it.

Be sure to follow us tomorrow on Facebook and Twitter as we make our way through Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

July 15, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 2 Comments

Thoughts.

I am excited for what the future will bring. It continues to amaze me that one man’s vision could possibly impact so many people in the world. Thank you, Walt Disney! As you know our son Ben is autistic, but he has possibly the greatest imagination of any child or adult I know. He is constantly designing concepts for new worlds, new cities and infrastructures and it makes me wonder: what if he had the foresight to create Ben Vitek World? What would it be like? Ben is our “imagineer” and absolutely loves to draw. I can’t even begin to count how many reams of paper we have gone through over the years, but art has given him the ability to understand and make sense of his world through his drawings.

Confession time. We have never been to The Magic of Disney Animation at the Studios. It didn’t make our list during any of the three trips, and I think back as to why, and I’m sure time was the primary reason. When you vacation, you are limited in what you can experience, and unfortunately some attractions never made the cut. However, as interested as Ben is in drawing, you would think it would have entered our minds at one point! One of the joys of living so close to Walt Disney World is we will have the opportunity to do all the things we never had time for before. Ben is so looking forward to participating in this at the Studios.

It makes me think of all the different career opportunities that will be available to the kids in Florida that are simply not an option in Wisconsin. Walt Disney World in itself offers a multitude of employment opportunities, but even if you look beyond the world of the mouse, careers in zoology or marine biology are a feasible option for Catie to pursue, as she is quite the animal lover. For sixth grade Catie attended a virtual school, and I could only help but think how much more varied and enriched the experience would have been if we had lived in Florida, and had the opportunity to experience more science field trips and hands-on learning.

We are fortunate and blessed to have the children attending a public school that is A rated; moving into a city and neighborhood we don’t know is always a gamble, but we feel secure in the path we have chosen for this year. Catie will be in high school next year, and the particular high school she is on track to attend doesn’t rate as high, so we will need to examine the best option for her.

Both kids are really excited about the move next week, and we are so thankful for that as well. If we had to do it over, we would choose to move earlier in the summer, as they will have less than a month of summer vacation left once we arrive; school starts August 22. It’s wild to believe it’s already mid-July; school supplies are out in full force here and it’s a little odd not to be buying them or even thinking about what might be needed.

As I close my thoughts, it is my hope and prayer that friends in our Disney community recognize that we are not infringing on other blogs, and that our content is unique to our family. We believe this is in the spirit of what Walt Disney would want. We intend to keep this blog active, but it will remain a blog dedicated to the ins and outs of moving to a new city, and the challenges and joys we face there.

Sending pixie dust to all our readers,

Jen