Our Long Awaited PBS Raggs Trip Revealed
So here’s the post I promised on our trip to North Carolina where my daughter taped for the Raggs PBS show. I kind of wished I would have blogged about it right on the spot no matter HOW exhausted I was, but here it goes.
Grace was excited for her first plane ride, even more than being taped for a television show. But when we arrived at the airport our plane was delayed two hours! Instead of calling my hubby to come back and pick us up, we waited. I was disappointed we’d arrive in Charlotte much later than anticipated. I wanted to get out and explore the area, but knew it would probably be too late.
Still the alone time with my daughter was special. She got really excited when the plane took off and noticed that all the houses and cars looked like little toys. I smiled, remembering my many flights to Florida and back, looking out all the windows and seeing all the little toys. Grace also love drinking pop on the plane. Thankfully, I had the state of mind to limit it to sprite or she might have been more bouncy and excited. We were pleasantly surprised by the snack they provided us with!
I thank God for the invention of videos and cameras because I have it all recorded!
After changing planes and finally landing a member of the Raggs crew greeted us with a smile and a sign with Grace’s name. I kept it for her scrapbook (whenever I get around to making it!)
 We were driven to the posh downtown Aloft hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was surrounded by everything we needed from restaurants to drugstores and ice cream shops. It was around dinner time when we got to the hotel and when we went to the room Grace noticed the Flat screen tv on the wall! 
She was really excited about that and wanted to watch it, so I indulged her while I unpacked. While the room was posh, I did find it lacking in literature and the standard hotel bible! I couldn’t find the information I needed on restaurants and internet access even on the television hotel information system. Thankfully, dialing zero worked and I got all the info I needed from the helpful staff.
After a while Grace decided she wanted to check out the pool before dinner. We went downstairs to the 3 foot lap pool and discovered two very chatty kids swimming. I knew they had to be Ragg’s contest winners as well. Grace swam for a little, but the two kids who were four and five couldn’t keep up with her and she got bored.
So we checked out the area for dinner and decided on Five Guys famous burgers and had a fun time with the photos as you can see!
After dinner we went back to check out the pool, but no one was there so we went to the room to get all our clothes ready for the next day.
The next morning I woke well rested, but Grace didn’t want to get out of bed! I finally coaxed her out, we got ready for the Ragg’s taping, and waited outside for our ride. It started to drizzle but that didn’t stop Grace from playing in the rain. 
Luckily she’d be doing hair and makeup in the studio!
Everyone was great when we arrived. 
I was expecting the green room to be filled with kids. There were only a couple of families and they were spread out so Grace didn’t engage with them. My biggest fear for the taping is that her true personality (like the ones in the photos) wouldn’t come out. Sometimes it takes her a while to warm up and I hoped playing with the other kids would loosen her up. But she stuck to my side and visited the Raggs website for a while, but when the staff tried to talk to her she was tight-lipped!
Great, I thought! We fly all this way and Grace clams up! Well, I found an activity that really got her jumping, literally! But I’ll save that for tomorrow since this post is getting pretty long as it is!
