Battlefields

After staying at Smith Mountain Lake for several days, we headed out to Northern Virginia.  We wanted to go to Shenandoah National Park straight after the lake, but we needed to stop in at REI, so we camped for a night at Prince William Forest again.  Turns out, we needn't have bothered.  

We had put J's shoes in the washing machine at Monica's and Ray's because J left them out in the pouring rain at OBX.  These are brand new shoes.  I've put shoes in washers and dryers before, never a problem.  REI wouldn't accept them back because you're not supposed to wash shoes.  I had never heard that.  I've put tons of shoes in the washer and dryer, never had them fall apart. So, after detouring to the NOVA area for naught, we bought some shoe goo at Wal Mart and headed out to Shenandoah.              

On our way, we stopped in Fredericksburg.  We needed to hit Lowe's, and then we went ahead and hit the battlefield since we saw the signs for it.  This statue is in honor of Sergeant Richard R. Kirkland.  He was a confederate, and he crossed into the line of fire to bring water to the Union soldiers who were crying out. Union soldiers ceased firing at him and cheered him on.                

The Jr. Ranger booklet had the kids looking for things all over the battlefield, including in the cemetary.  K was struck by how many graves there were, which led to the discussion on how many people were killed in the Civil War.  Many, many lives lost.                  

When we arrived in the park, we were greeted by the wildlife.  Not a bear, but I like seeing deer.  We're still looking for a bear.  We've gotten a lot of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer, but no bear just yet.                    

The picture above is the campsite we stayed at for the majority of our tiime at Shenandoah NP.  But in the middle, we moved to a spot right on the edge of the campground, right off the Appalachian Trail.  A cool site that let us check out the thru hikers.  Plus, we've played on the Appalachian Trail.  NB wants a shirt that says he's hiked the AT.  I think it's more appropriate to say we've been ON the AT.              

 Our time in Shenandoah has been without internet, so I'm far behind.  I'll catch up at another time.  We're at Costco getting our tires replaced, and now I must shop!

Lake Life

The kids were very excited to get on the water any way they could, even if that meant getting IN the water.  While they've all taken swim lessons, the thought of going into water that was 14 feet deep made some of them a little nervous.  Solution?  Life jackets.              

Uncle Ray and Bill also took them tubing.  My neck/back have been giving me trouble, so I sat (or laid) this one out.  J was also not well, so he slept during this adventure.  Three on the tube at a time was apparently not their thing, they much preferred the two at a time gig.                  

While the younger kids got on the tube, G was kickin' it in the boat.  He also found out that he's old enough to get his license to drive a boat, so now he's into that.  Bill looked into it, and apparently the laws are different for alll the different states.  Uncle Ray was saying he thinks the Coast Guard course is recognized nationally, so if he were to take a course, that would be the one.                

Uncle Ray and Aunt Monica took us to the area where the carp congregate.  Because tons of people feed them stale popcorn.  So we did what was expected and fed those carp their old popcorn.  I've never seen carp before.  They're HUGE.  And they look like living vacuum cleaners when they're eating.  It was pretty cool to see.            

There were a ton of floating devices to choose from to get out there on the lake and just hang.  NB and NS got on the tube with paddles, so K decided to take a ride with them.  That didn't last long.                    

Let me tell you, that water is COLD.  Ray said it was about 66, which is a heck of a lot warmer than when the kids went swimming in EC Manning up in Canada, but I froze my butt off.  I got all the way in, head and all, lest you think me a total weenie.  But after I dove under, I got out.  I floated for a bit, but I think dock life is more for me.                  

We got one more boat ride in before our visit was over.  We need a different group shot.

Smith Mountain Lake

We started our Virginia experience this time around in southern VA.  My aunt and uncle own waterfront property on Smith Mountain Lake.  This is our first opportunity to visit them here, even though they've been here for years. In our defense, we moved to CO before they moved to VA.  At any rate, we're very excited they agreed to host our chaos for a few nights!  This is their dock on the lake, as taken from their boat.  They took us out for a boat ride our first full day here, and we're off to a good start!                                

NB took on a true nautical look as he peered through the binoculars as we boated around.  The kids were all thrilled to be out on a boat, all except G.  G wasn't feeling well, so he stayed back at the house while we hit the lake.                    

Uncle Ray let all the kids take a turn "driving" the boat.  They all did a great job.  I think this made their day, possibly their life.  They have been wanting to rent a boat on every lake we've stayed, so it was an amazing opportunity for them.  We ended up on the water for several hours, leaving some of us redder than we intended.  Oh well.  It also led to a bit of exhaustion.                                  

There's an osprey nest on a pole out on the lake.  They've got a camera looking into the nest, but this snarky osprey is sitting on the camera instead of in the nest.  But if you look closely enough, you'll notice there's another bird INSIDE the nest.  Even though we've seen several of these beautiful birds on this trip, I get a kick out of seeing them every single time.                

After lunch the kids all decided they wanted to fish.  We spent quite a while before any fish were caught.  NB was using a net, the others were using poles.  NB caught one first with the net, which shocked me.  All in all, the kids are enjoying their time at Smith Mountain Lake!

Life is a Beach

The weather for two of our full days in the OBX area were cloudy and a bit windy, so we didn't spend the full days at the beach.  Always made it down there, though.  So we made sure we did some other fun things in the area.  We made it back to the Wright Brothers Memorial, where K and Bill finished up their Jr. Ranger activity booklets.  Bill actually did this one because it's a Jr. Flight Ranger, which he was psyched about.  This boulder marks the exact spot  the first airplane lefted off for the very first time.  The ranger who gave the talk was very passionate about it, telling all of us there that this was the tombstone for the impossible.  The Wright Brothers accomplished the impossible, so we know that the impossible is just something that hasn't been done yet.        

We also checked out the Lost Colony at Ft. Raleigh.  We explored more of the Roanoke Colony mystery, and learned about the role of the area in the Civil War.  We've read quite a bit about the Roanoke Colony, so it was good to visit the location.                                      

Our final day at the beach.  We put on our raincoats and hit the surf anyway!  With the storms present, there were warnings galore about winds and rip currents.  We wanted to find seashells, though, so we toughed it out.  It was really neat to see the stronger waves.  Finding seashells we wanted to take home wasn't overly successful, though the kids managed to find quite a few.                

The kids were dying to get up in a lighthouse.  We only visited two of the lighthouses on the barrier islands, and we chose to go up the Bodie Lighthouse, even I went up!  Going up was good, coming down was bad.  The stairs have holes in them, and you can see the whole windy path down.  That's 230-ish stairs.  Of doom.  Death.  Mayhem.  Destruction.  But I made it just fine, thank you.  And days later, I can still feel the journey in my calves.  This trip has not been conducive to an exercise regime.  I know people do it and manage to stay fit while travelling, but I am not one of those people.  Someday, but not today.  And now we journey onward.

OBX, Baby!

Oh, what's that?  That's our setup hanging with the sunset at our campsite at the Oregon Inlet Campground at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  It's been tooooo long since I've been to the Outer Banks.  I've spent several vacations in Nags Head, but never quite this far south.  Livin' the good life, y'all.                  

After setting down the trailer at the campsite, we headed north to Kill Devil Hills to learn more about the Wright Brothers and the birth of aviation.  We got there with only an hour before closing, but we picked up the Jr. Ranger booklet, so we'll be back to turn that in.  We did have a good time checking out the sand dune from which the Wright brothers launched their glider, and read how they lugged their glider up hill thousands of time.  Amazing the determination and perseverance, simply amazing.              

Our first night here, we hit the beach, just to say we did, but I had left my camera at the trailer.  Our first morning here, I went ahead and brought the camera.  Climbing the dunes is thrilling.  Until you step on a burr.  Or a bug bites you.  But I love visiting the beach.  Just so much fun to play in the waves, watch the birds, check out the shells, keep an eye out for dolphins...love it all!                                  

G and I hung back while the others raced into the water.  I did get my feet (all the way up to my knees, though that was unintentional) wet, and the water was quite chilly.  G had a good laugh at my chill-out, but he made his way into the water, too.  His shock was just as funny as mine.                  

NS kept doing push ups in the waves.  He was "trying" not to get wet, but ended up soaked.  What a shocker.                      

After the beach we had lunch, then headed out to check out other parts of the barrier islands.  Down at Cape Hatteras, there's the museum for the Graveyard of the Atlantic.  It's small, but it goes through some of the shipwrecks in the area.  The Monitor is the one that drew our attention, and is one that NOAA and ECU study the most.  After spending some time there, we headed out to the national seashore's visitors' center, where the Hatteras lighthouse is.  We didn't have much time to spend here before everything closed down, but it was enough time for K to finish the Jr. Ranger booklet.  This lighthouse is the tallest in the US.  It's also not in its orginal location--it was moved because the shifting sands of a barrier island were shifting enough to be a threat to the stability of the lighthouse.  There are several lighthouses up and down the coast of NC.  Our campground is actually across the street from another one, which we'll check out before we leave the area.                      

After leaving the lighthouse, we hit the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We actually drove through the refuge on our way from camp to the cape, but on our way home we stopped and did the wildlife walk.  We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but we did get to see a few of these guys.  All in all, it was a good day on the outer banks!

Five Miler

NS still had to do his hiking/backpacking snack for his cooking merit badge.  We've had the ingredients for a while, but finally got around to it.  He's closing in on getting his merit badge finished up, so it's just like, get it done!  I checked the trail map.  I chose the path to take.  I told everyone what we were doing, and that it was a five miler.  No one listened. Most were somewhat unprepared for the length of the hike.  Oh well.  No one died, so it was a success anyway.  

As we started the hike, this is the flower that caught my eye.  Pink lady slippers are common in the forest around our campground, but I only saw a cluster as we started the trail.  Quite beautiful, and I'm glad I got to see it since there weren't a lot of them hanging out.                                      

Here the creek is quite large, or alternatively, this is one small river.  There were places where the water was quite slow moving, but in other places, there were mini rapids.  We hiked most of the time following this creek.  The day was noticeably cooler when we were near the creek.  I chose to NOT follow the creek at the end, and it was a hot part of the trail.  Oh well.                

Along the trail we found a graveyard.  The graves were from the late 1800s~early 1900s.  A good many of the people died young (2-25), and the oldest was 84.  There wasn't a sign telling us anything about this family, but their last name was Vinson.                  

J and NB drew my attention to the toad and the slug.  This is inside a hollowed out stump.  A good find!                      

It was just such a pretty hike.  Nice and relaxing, despite the heat and the lack of preparation.  We all enjoyed the snack that NS prepared for us, though we decided that we all enjoyed carrying our own snacks instead of having one person in charge of a snack.  I did have G carry his own.  He tends to have blood sugar issues, and I'd rather him eat whenever and however much we wants.  Such a nice day!

Medoc Mountain

When we decided to bail on Pettigrew, we were in a bit of a bind as to where to stay.  It's infrequent that I have a list of places that are possibilities, I usually just find a place and that's where we head.  After spending time at the fish hatchery and Pettigrew, we decided to hit a Wal Mart for the night so we could figure out where to head next without worrying about rolling in in the middle of the night.  I have never seen another Wal Mart like this one.  Most Wal Marts, if they let you park overnight, just have an area for you to stay, keeping out of the way of other customers.  Oh, my.  As soon as we parked, security was all over us to escort us to the next place in line.  Bill counted 27 other RV/trailers out there.  The biggest operation we'd seen prior was maybe 15.  Holy cow.  At any rate, a lot of Wal Marts are in towns that are large enough to have decent cell signal.  We were lacking that at Merchants Millpond, so internet was key to our search.  Bill found Medoc Mountain State Park, and so we headed out there the next morning.  

What a great find!  The campground has 34 sites, 12 of which have electric.  Since we were there Tuesday through Thursday nights, it was never crowded.  The sites were set apart from each other, and the woods that surrounded each site helped along that idea that others were far away.  Internet was again scarce, which added to the solitude.  But man, it was beautiful.  K, NB, Bill and I hit a short trail while the other boys just hung out at camp.  We found this bird at the bathhouse before we truly set out on the hike.              

There's a creek running through the park, with tons of these little foot bridges.  We enjoy looking at the water to see what lives there.  At one point, NB went down a bank to get a picture of a ledge.  Something large splashed through the water, so he boogied out of there quickly.  The park is home to otters and beavers (though not many--they tend to get kicked out for building dams and such), so perhaps it was one of those guys.                

He did go back and get the picture, though, as he thought it was really pretty neat.                      

It rained while we were at the park, so we took one day and headed into Rocky Mount for their children's museum and then into Raleigh for Costco and Trader Joe's.  This tornado machine is one of our favorites.  They have one at NCAR in Boulder, and it always draws us in.                                      

Putt Putt for the Fun of It!  So this museum was really geared towards much younger children, but we had a good time because of the unique interactions they have.  This putt putt course shows some of the obstacles towards growing things.  There was also a game where they had to choose the right fertilizer to grow super huge pumpkins (competitive, of course, to make sure you are into it), a plant vs insect game that showed the characteristics of each and pitted them against each other, and a pit  you play in to show the changing pathways of water.  The other side of the museum is an art gallery that also lets the kids play with art.  Pretty cool.