Our Family Vacation, Summer 2012

Preparations

The week before we planned to leave for vacation was packed full of excitement and a general sense of busyness. It included the twins' birthday and our anniversary! Sunday was the big bowling party for Henry and Clara, then Nate and I went to a concert in Rochester that evening in celebration of our anniversary. Tuesday was the actual day of the birthdayversary. 

There was a lot of fun and a lot of stress leading up to the big departure. The day before we were scheduled to leave, I bought the kids travel pillows. They were micro-bead neck pillows that looked like different animals. They were very cute, and we specifically told the kids to be careful with them so that they didn't rip open. That evening Jasper informs us that Clara has punched a hole in hers, ugh! We go out to check and there are micro-beads all over the living room furniture and floor. Clara wanted to see what would happen if she opened the seam and jumped on the pillow. Nerves were already stretched thin and much lecturing and yelling occurred. But, Nate took them back to the store and exchanged them for fluff stuffed ones instead of beads. At least the micro-bead explosion happened before the trip started rather than on the road.

While I was busy folding and packing laundry and checking things off of and adding things to my many lists, Clara made an appearance downstairs with a big bloody grin. She had lost another tooth! It had been wiggly, but I didn't realize it was that close to coming out. We got her cleaned up and sent back to bed with a tooth under her pillow. When she woke up in the morning the Tooth Fairy had left her a dollar coin and the tooth was gone!

Saturday morning we ate up as much food from the refrigerator as possible for breakfast. Then Nate played packing Tetris with the two suitcases, three hostess gifts, beach bag, sand toys, fridge bag, grocery bag, car entertainment bag, and other various things that needed to find a home in the back of our Jetta Wagon. Three kids in three car seats across the back seat, two parents in the front with two cups of coffee and minimal foot space for me, and away we went!

The Drive to Manassas and Night One

June 30th

The kids did amazingly well on the first stretch of the drive, which was a very long drive. They had gotten some really cool travel books from Chuck and Missy that included fun things like a travel scavenger hunt, the list of license plates to keep track of, road trip bingo, and blank pages for coloring. This kept them busy for quite a while. We stopped at a Subway for lunch, then got back in the car for more driving. We listened to "Fantastic Mr. Fox" on audio book and worked our way through the bag of travel entertainment including travel Bop-It and travel Simon.

Our first vacation stop was at Hershey's Chocolate World.

We went to see the 3D show which was really cool. It looked like stuff was jumping right out of the screen at us and there were bubbles and streamers that fell from the ceiling and they even pumped in the smell of chocolate!

We had a photo op with a giant chocolate bar, took the chocolate factory tour, and got some paper factory worker hats. And of course, we got some samples of chocolate! They were very considerate when it came to food allergies at the park as well. One of the samples after the tour had almonds in it, so we said that Henry needed to pass on it, but the worker pulled out some Twizzlers for him so that he would have a treat as well.

We checked out some license plates in the parking lot on the way back to our car. We saw some really neat ones including a diplomat plate! Then it was back in the car for the rest of the trip down to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Carla's house.

Once we were well and truly on the road again and headed toward Maryland, Nate called Chuck to check in with him and let him know that we were nearly there. Chuck warned us that the weather service was calling for more thunderstorms. We had been so busy with preparations for our trip that we hadn't seen the news that much of Virginia and the surrounding areas had been hit with a severe thunderstorm with very high winds and that hundreds of thousands of people lost power...including Chuck and Carla! Fortunately their power had been restored that morning, having "only" been out for 12 hours. We started to notice a lot of downed tree limbs and other evidence of wind damage as we crossed into Maryland.

We decided to meet up with them for dinner in Manassas. Carla asked some of her friends for a recommendation for a vegetarian friendly restaurant and we agreed to meet up at Tony's New York Pizza. My stress level was escalating because it was late for dinner and Jasper was starting to get whiny. We got into the restaurant and didn't see Chuck and Carla, but got in line and ordered some pizza and salad for the kids and some dinner for us as well. The restaurant was extremely busy, probably because many people in the area were still without power. So we had to wait a while for the food to be ready, but once the kids had some pizza in them and got to see their aunt and uncle everyone was feeling much better. 

We made it to Chuck and Carla's house after dinner and got the kids' beds set up in one guest room. They had air mattress sleeping bags and their travel pillows. We put Jasper between a dresser and the wall so that he wouldn't be able to flip himself over, and Henry and Clara were in their beds up against a wall. For the past week Henry had been suffering from some nasty allergies with a cough, runny nose, and even some nightly nose bleeds so I had him sleep with a wash cloth in case he got another bloody nose in the night. I also gave him some allergy medicine before he went to sleep. He had a bit of a rough night, I woke up a couple of times to him coughing, so I gave him another dose of Benadryl, but I was a bit worried that he might be getting sick.

Henry Starts to Wheeze

July 1st

We woke up Sunday morning and had a nice breakfast with Chuck and Carla. The kids were excited with the TV set up where Chuck could use his computer to pretty much find any show they wanted to watch immediately. So we had a leisurely morning and made plans to go to a water park that Carla recommended later that afternoon. In the meantime, I wanted to go to the grocery store to pick up some food to keep the troops fed without completely wiping out Chuck and Carla's pantry! Carla was kind enough to drive me to the local Harris Teeter and we bought some basics and stuff to make tacos for dinner. When we got back to the house and got the groceries put away just in time to make lunch. As I was making lunch and doing the prep work for dinner so that tacos would come together quickly after the water park, we started to notice that Henry's allergies were progressing into a bit of a nasty wheeze. Henry's allergist had said that he may have or may develop asthma, but he had never had anything quite like this before. I told Nate to research the local Urgent Cares, just in case we needed to take him some place.

After lunch Henry started to say that he felt "wimpy" and his wheezing was nearly constant. I laid him down in bed to listen to him and could hear the wheezes on the inhale and exhale and his heart rate seemed a little fast. I had him take off his shirt and the skin between his ribs was pulling in with each breath so I went downstairs and told Nate that we needed to take him to a doctor. Chuck and Carla were amazing, they very generously offered to take Clara and Jasper to the water park while we took Henry to Urgent Care. 

Henry's wheezing improved some when we got him in the car, which brought us to the conclusion that it was probably the four cats at the house sparking his allergies. When we got him to the Urgent Care and got him checked in he was still wheezy but not nearly as bad as before. There was a little confusion about our insurance covering the visit, but we got ourselves sorted out and after the nurse interviewed us and checked Henry's pulse-ox, the Physician's Assistant ordered a nebulizer treatment for him. The nebulizer cleared up the wheezing and Henry felt less wimpy. The PA checked him over and agreed with us that it was probably the cats, but she gave us a prescription for an inhaler and thought that the combination of that and allergy medicine should help keep him under control. Then she gave Henry an ice-pop, which made him rather happy.

We took a bit of time driving up and down the rather busy road to get to the pharmacy to get the inhaler. Then we called Chuck to see if the kids were still doing okay at the water park. They were doing fine, so we went back to the house to get ourselves changed into bathing suits to meet up with them. While at their house I sent a quick message to my cousin Lucinda who we were planning to stay with the night of the 4th to see if they had cats, and to see if they would be willing for us to stay with them for a few extra nights if they didn't have cats, just in case Henry didn't improve with the inhaler.

It was extremely hot, but the water park wasn't too busy. It was a really nice park designed for younger kids. The water was only about a foot and a half deep at the deepest part, and there were lots of things for the kids to splash, climb and slide. Henry only got to stay for an hour and half or so, but at least he got the chance to go. We went back to the house and Nate got the kids showered to rinse off the chlorine and dressed in dry clothes while I heated up the beans and got the taco fixings out of the fridge. We all ate some tasty tacos for dinner, then we started to hear Henry wheeze again. It was about 4 hours after his last treatment so we gave him the inhaler. The kids were hanging about the house, going downstairs to bounce on the trampoline and such, but Henry just didn't sound clear. He was starting to wheeze again and it was nowhere near time for the inhaler again. We decided to call around for a hotel.

Nate first called the Super 8 and was told that there were rooms available, so he said that he would just drive over there to book the room rather than do it over the phone. When he got to the hotel and was waiting in line, however, someone called and booked 10 rooms over the phone so that when it was his turn in line he was informed that the hotel was full. He drove over to the Best Western and fortunately was able to get a room there. There were still so many people without power who were seeking relief from the record high temperatures in air conditioned hotel rooms, that we were very lucky to have found a room at all. While we waited for Nate to get a room, the kids ran around the front yard trying to catch lightning bugs, and Uncle Chuck even found a praying mantis to show them. Chuck and Carla were kind enough to follow us to the hotel with the kids mattresses since they were still inflated and wouldn't fit in our car (except for Henry's which seemed to have a leak and was flat after one night of sleeping on it) . Everyone was disappointed that it didn't work out staying with Chuck and Carla, but we simply had to find a way to get Henry's allergies under control. We woke him up at 11 to give him his inhaler, then everyone tried to get some sleep.

The Train to D.C.

July 2nd

When we woke up Monday morning Henry sounded much, much better. I was able to get in touch with my cousin Lucinda and found out that they still were without power themselves! Lucinda had taken Elspeth with her to PA to stay with her mother so that they would have air conditioning so she wasn't even in Virginia. She said that she had two cats, but that they have a tent and air mattresses if we wanted to camp out in her back yard. We left it up in the air as to when we would get together, and whether we would be able to stay with them or not because of power and cat issues! We had intended to go to the fireworks with them and to stay with them afterward that night.

We went down to breakfast in the hotel lobby then raced to get packed up and make it back to Chuck and Carla's to drop off our luggage and make it to the train that was scheduled at 10:19. We did extremely well and made it to the station around 10. Nate bought the tickets for the 10:19 train to L'Enfant station from the kiosk outside the station then went in to check with the station attendant about parking. We had parked in the garage, but it looked like you had to have a permit to park there, so the attendant gave Nate a pass to move into the parking lot right next to the station, and told him that the train was delayed until 11:50 because of all the power outages. 

 

So we decided to walk around town and see the shops and things, then get some lunch. While we were walking around Nate called Heather and Rob to ask if they would be willing to put us up for a few nights. Amazingly, they had just had power restored that morning, but even so were willing for us to come stay with them. We said that we would call them when we got back into town after our trip into the city. We found a really nice restaurant right across from the train station and had a nice sit down lunch. Nate was a bit nervous about catching the train though, and when he heard a train pulling in around 11:45 he had us abandon our lunches and race across the tracks, only to discover that it wasn't our train. Our train had been delayed until 12:15. So we went back across the street and asked if they had cleared our lunch yet, fortunately they still had Clara's tomato basil soup so the waitress brought it out and also brought us some more ice water so that we could sit outside and watch for the train. Shortly after that another train pulled in and we crossed over again only to discover that it too was not our train. Someone sitting nearby who was also waiting for the train to L'Enfant said that it would be the next train. When the next train pulled up to the station Nate glanced into the station and the train station attendant pointed at the train, so we got on board. 

We were walking through the cars to find a spot where we could all sit together and be able to look out the windows since it was the kids' first train ride. As we were walking through the train attendant asked me for the tickets and I pointed back to Nate who was following behind the kids and told him that Nate had the tickets. As Nate was trying to give the tickets to the attendant I noticed that something was amiss so we waited at the end of the car before continuing on to look for seats. Nate told me that the tickets we had were not good for the train that we were on. We had bought tickets for the VRE, but we boarded the Amtrak! The train worker went to go to the conductor to ask what could be done. Nate was very, very upset at this point. I told him that I was going to get the kids situated in the next car. Nate talked to the conductor who very kindly let us stay on the train. The next station had no air conditioning and we would have been stranded if they had kicked us off the train. The conductor basically said that because we were traveling with small children and because of the heat wave, he was going to forgive us the mistake this one time. Unfortunately, Jasper overheard us talking about the mix-up and talked about riding the wrong train for the rest of the ride!

Washington D.C.

Still July 2nd

We got off the train and started walking toward the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We made it to the museum and walked around and checked out the cool exhibits. Jasper wanted to see the ocean exhibits first because he's a big shark fan. It was really neat because they had a reconstruction of the jaws of carcharodon megaladon (the dinosaur predecessor to the great-white shark). I just wanted to see dinosaur bones. We saw some giant sloths, seriously, these things are sloths!

Here are the kids in front of a Triceratops skull.

And in the mammal exhibits we found a walrus, so we had to get a picture with Nate and the walrus!

 We finished up at the Museum of Natural History and the kids got some ice cream sandwiches from a stand outside and they ate those while we walked to the Air and Space Museum. Nate found some tasty frozen yogurt at a food truck, and right across the street from the yogurt was a really cool trombone band playing on the corner. The Trombones were painted bright colors and there was even a little kid, probably around 9 or 10 playing a smaller trombone!

At the Air and Space Museum we saw lots of cool astronaut stuff. They had astronaut suits and a lunar buggy, several space ships and even little things like the real toothbrush used by someone in space! This is a picture of the Apollo 11 Command Module. It was used on a real space mission with real astronauts in it!

 There was also a really cool exhibit of the Wright Brothers and the Wright Flyer from 1903. They had the original frame of the Wright Flyer and they reconstructed the fabric. Here are Clara, Jasper and Henry sitting with Wilber and Orville.

We were getting a bit tired at this point so we decided to head back to the train station. We stopped at a Starbucks where I ordered myself a very large frappuccino and we also got a small snack box with some grapes and cheese for the train ride back. We got to the station and Nate checked the schedule very carefully before buying the tickets for the train back to Manassas. While we waited at the station, Jasper kept asking if we would ride the right train this time, not the wrong train. Some commuter nearby asked if we had taken the wrong train earlier so we had to explain the whole story. He was very nice about the whole thing and made sure that we boarded the right train this time.

The VRE is a commuter train, and was unlike the Amtrak in that there is a second story where you can sit and we were also facing backward which Jasper thought was pretty cool. The not so nice thing was that there were announcements every few minutes saying that conversations should be kept to a minimum and not louder than a whisper. Everyone around us was trying to read or do work on their phones and such. We were just trying to keep the kids in their seats and keep them from loudly announcing everything that they could see out the window. Especially Jasper who would announce things like, "Wow, I see a tree!" "Wow, I see another train!" We managed to keep things under control and we made it back to Manassas without incident. We got back in the car and headed back to Chuck and Carla's to pack up our luggage and head out to Falls Church. We didn't want to let Henry in the house at all because we didn't want to risk him aggravating his allergies again, so the kids spent some time sitting on the porch swing and running around in the front yard. Unfortunately Chuck and Carla weren't home, so we didn't really get to say a goodbye. We called Heather and Rob and made sure that they were set up for us, then we got some dinner at Ruby Tuesday in Manassas before making the drive.

Morgan was out camping with her friend for the night, and she did offer to have Henry and Clara go camping with them, but we thought it would be better to keep Henry where we could keep a listen to his breathing and make sure that the wheezing didn't get out of hand again. So Clara slept in Morgan's bed, Jasper slept on the floor in Morgan's room, and Henry slept in Clara's sleeping bag (because his wouldn't stay inflated!) on the floor in the office where we were sleeping in the guest bed. We had a lovely evening catching up with Heather and Rob and having a drink or two to unwind from a wild first few days of our trip. The only hitch overnight was that Jasper woke up complaining that his leg hurt. I felt it and it did feel hot and a bit swollen, kind of like he had a few nasty mosquito bites, but by the time I found some lotion to put on it and the Benadryl he was back to sleep so I left it until the morning.

The Worst K-Mart Ever

July 3rd

We were feeling relieved at this point in the trip because Henry was feeling and sounding much, much better. Jasper was still complaining about his leg, so I took a look and there were a few spots that looked like bug bites, and Clara and Henry also had several mosquito bites on their legs. I put some bug-a-boo on them and gave Jasper some Benadryl since his were swelling up pretty bad.

Both Heather and Rob had to work today, but the night before we had talked about different things we could do in town. We tried to get tickets to the dinosaur play that Morgan and Currin were going to that morning with their nanny Candy, but the show was sold out. So we decided to just make a brave trek to the local K-Mart, proposed to be the "worst K-mart ever" by a reviewer online. Not having very high expectations for K-Mart in general, I lowered my expectations even further and anticipated a most unpleasant experience indeed. But, since Henry's air mattress was completely flat and he would need it tonight since Morgan would need her bed back, I braved the customer service desk without a receipt. Amazingly the customer service clerk was able to look up my purchase using my credit card and did the exchange with little trouble at all. After K-Mart we made a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few staples so we could make lunch. 

Back at the Wilson's house we made some lunch then walked around the block to the neighborhood pool with Morgan, Currin, and Candy. We also picked up Liz, Morgan's friend who lived a few houses down. The kids loved the pool! Clara got very brave and went without water wings in the shallow end. Jasper was living it up in the baby pool where the big kids couldn't join in.

After the pool we gave the kids showers and got them changed then headed back to the house to wait for Heather and Rob to get home so we could go out to dinner. They knew of a local vegan restaurant that they wanted to take us to. It was called Loving Hut, and Clara was especially excited because she could order anything on the menu and it was all vegetarian. We tried a little of everything and it was all delicious. Clara had a vegan club sandwich with vegan ham and bacon. Jasper had vegan chicken nuggets and Henry had a vegan hot dog. The rest of the menu was Vietnamese and I had a big bowl of Pho, Nate tried the Jalapeno Tofu and we all shared some wontons and golden rolls. It was quite the feast! The kids got vegan brownies and smores, the grown-ups ordered dessert to-go and we headed back to let the kids play for a little while before getting them to bed.

When we got back to the house we took another look at Jasper's leg and determined that it wasn't bug bites, but more like poison ivy. We gave him some Benadryl, Ibuprofen and corisone cream and moved him into our room in case he woke up in the night needing more medicine. Henry was bunking in with Currin and Clara with Morgan. A thunder storm was starting to roll in and Morgan especially was freaked out by the thunder and lightning, having just endured a few days without power in a heat wave. She was scared that we would lose power again. Heather assured her that it wasn't that severe of a storm and that we wouldn't lose power, but Morgan wanted to sleep on the floor with Clara for comfort. 

The Fourth of July

We woke up to no power.

It wasn't the storm, it was a freak accident. An owl flew into the transformer right by the house and only the 6 or 8 houses connected to the transformer were without power. Rob and several other neighbors called the power company to report the problem. 

Jasper's leg was looking worse and worse, it's very swollen and looks red with a few blisters forming. It's pretty obvious that he has a poison ivy rash. Nate heads out to Starbucks to fulfill our caffeine requirements and to go to the pharmacy to pick up some calamine lotion for Jasper. We coat Jasper in pink, give him some ibuprofen for the pain and swelling and have him ice his leg for a bit. Then we all head to the pool to go for a swim and have a picnic lunch together. We also make arrangements with Lucinda to meet up at her house for dinner before heading to the fireworks.

We had a lovely dinner of pizza and salad with Lucinda, Brian and Elspeth and also my cousin Ed and Aunt Cindi. The kids were excited to go sit in Lucinda's Smart Car because it was so little and cute. Unfortunately Clara ended up getting her hand slammed in the car door so we had to postpone leaving for a few minutes while she got some ice on her hand. It looked a bit bruised and sore, but she was a trooper.

We couldn't find a parking place at our original destination, so Lucinda and Brian found another park at the marina where we could sit and watch the fireworks over the water. We didn't want to go all the way into D.C. because it was just so hot and we would have had to get into the city and find our spot at around 3 or 4pm and keep the kids entertained for that much more time. As it was we were very hot, but we had a lot of fun staying up waiting for the show.

 After the fireworks I quick wiped the kids down with wet wipes and changed them into their PJs so we wouldn't have to worry about it when we got back to the house. There was quite a lot of traffic on the road, and there was an accident backing things up on the highway so it took a long time to make it back to Falls Church. The kids finally fell asleep in the car. When we pulled onto the street we saw that power was still out. Heather and Rob had set up all the air mattresses on the floor downstairs because the upstairs in the house was unbearably hot for sleeping. Morgan and Currin were already sleeping on the floor and we carried Clara, Henry and Jasper down and got them into their respective beds. I couldn't help snapping a picture of our little refugee camp before turning in with Nate on another air mattress.

Power came back on sometime around 3 or 4am. The air conditioning felt amazing for a little while, then we all got quite chilly! I got our kids snuggled into their sleeping bags and then found a few blankets to lay over Morgan and Currin and for us as well.

Monuments

July 5th

We were originally supposed to meet up with Lucinda and Elspeth and also Chuck to Metro into D.C. all together to see the monuments. When I called Lucinda to see where and when she would like to meet up, she said that she would prefer not to do the monuments today with Elspeth who is 2 1/2 because D.C. was supposed to reach record temperatures. When Nate called Chuck to make arrangements, he discovered that Chuck had to work. We ended up finding the metro on our own. After a little confusion about buying tickets (there were little signs taped to the machines announcing that you needed to add a dollar to your fare. We got ourselves figured out and made it into the city at the L'Enfant station where we decided to find some lunch before trying to meet up with Chuck. The kids had some Moe's and we found some Mediterranean style fast food. We met up with Chuck in the castle in the middle of the Smithsonian museum area. It was a long walk to the monuments. Jasper was suffering the most from the heat. Every so often we would stop and douse him with some water and give him a drink. We took turns carrying him, but he was still fading fast.  

We made it to the Washington Monument. It has been closed since the earthquake last year because it was damaged. We were able to get up pretty close to see it though.

After the Washington Monument we found a cart that was selling Cherry Philadelphia Ice (basically Italian ice). The kids thoroughly enjoyed their very red and very cold treats.

One of our goals for the trip was to get a vial of water from the Reflecting Pool for our church's water ceremony. The majority of the congregation breaks for the summer, so at the first service in September they have a special service where everyone brings water from their various travels over the summer to pour together into one vessel. We've never participated in the water ceremony before, but we thought it would be neat to bring some water from our vacation. Well, the Reflecting Pool was closed. They seem to be repairing it, it looked really bad actually. It was mostly drained, there was a small amount of water right down the center of the pool, so that if you stood just right at the Lincoln Memorial you could just see the reflection. But, there was a double layer of fencing all around the pool and there was a lot of debris and garbage around the water so we couldn't get to it. Nate got some water from the World War II Memorial though which was right next to the pool.

After being bolstered by the cold sugar water, the kids were willing to push on to the Lincoln Memorial. The twins were excited to see "giant Lincoln" and his chair. We stopped off at the gift shop before making it up the stairs. Jasper got a Washington D.C. hat and all three kids bought huge souvenir coins.

You can see how hot the poor kids look, they're all flushed and sweaty.

 In this picture you can see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building in the background and also where the Reflecting Pool is supposed to be! After the Lincoln Memorial we decided to take a Taxi to the Metro rather than walking the mile back. The kids, especially Jasper, were so excited for their first taxi ride. We rode the Metro back into Falls Church with Chuck then met up with him at  the Wilson's before heading off to Lucinda and Brian's house again for dinner.

We were all a bit tired from our journey, and Clara took a snooze on the way to Lucinda and Brian's house.

Chuck joined us for dinner and Lucinda made a very yummy stir fry and we had fruit salad with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousin Elspeth and we were all sad to say goodbye at the end of the evening. We drove back to Falls Church for one more night at the Wilson's house.

The Trip to Chesapeake

July 6th

We spent the morning getting packed up while the Wilson's were off to the pool. We couldn't thank Heather and Rob enough for opening up their house to us on such short notice with all of the power related challenges, they were amazingly gracious. And, they were getting ready for their own big family vacation, leaving Saturday morning at 4AM! We get on the road and travel a ways before stopping for some lunch. As we're making our way across Virginia we realize that we didn't put Darrell's cell phone number into our phones. I gave Pattie a call, but she's at work and doesn't have her phone on her, so we just plan to surprise Darrell when we get there. Luckily Pattie sees that we called and gives us a call back just before we make it to their house so we do get a chance to warn Darrell that we are practically right at his door!

When we get to Darrell and Pattie's house the kids immediately plop themselves in front of Darrell's very impressive television with very nice surround sound. Transformers is coming on and the kids are absolutely fascinated. Jasper barely stops talking about Transformers for the rest of the night. Pattie gets home soon after we arrive and we decide to get some Chinese take-out for dinner. The kids take an immediate liking to Darrell and Pattie!

After dinner we have the kids get ready for bed. Clara was thrilled when we showed her that she could stay in the guest bed, it was a big double bed just like at home. Jasper slept in his sleeping bag in the office with Clara and we kept Henry in with us in the guest room so we could keep a listen out for wheezing since Darrell and Pattie have two cats.Pattie offered to read the bed time story to the kids. She is friends with an author who wrote a children's story called "The Legend of the Sock Goblins". Pattie said that if the kids liked the book that she would call Sherry the next day to see if she would come over to meet them and sign a copy of her book! They really liked the story.

After the kids were in bed, the grown-ups stayed up way past bedtime catching up.

The Aquarium and The Beach

July 7th

When we woke up the next morning Darrell treated us to omelets then we got packed up and ready for another busy day. We had to move the car seats into Darrell and Pattie's cars because the beach we were going to was military access only so we needed Darrell and Pattie's military IDs. We only just made it to the end of the block when Darrell stopped his car. He was riding with Nate and Clara and I was riding in Pattie's Jeep with Henry and Jasper. Darrell came over and told us that his check engine light was on! He had called the dealership and was waiting to hear back about getting a loaner car. He didn't want to drive around in the extreme heat if there was a problem with the engine. The dealership said for him to come in and that they would give him a loaner so we followed him there. It was a brief set back luckily, the light came on for routine maintenance, so it was fine for him to drive the car. 

We continued on to the aquarium. After we got our tickets we headed straight to the cafe and had a yummy lunch. Then we had energy to go explore. Jasper was thrilled since he is very into "sharks and fishes". Clara was particularly fascinated by the scientific exhibits such as the conductivity of salt water, how the different colors in light show at different depths, and the different machines that humans need to go deep into the ocean. Henry enjoyed anything that involved pushing a button, pulling a lever or opening a door.

 My favorite was the sea turtles. This one in particular seemed to really like people and spent a good 5 minutes swimming right by this corner of the glass. It was amazing. They have a live web cam where you can watch the turtles here: Sea Turtle Web Cam

This silly shark was just outside the shark tank, we couldn't resist getting a few silly pictures before going to watch the real live sharks swimming around. It was all Jasper could talk about!

 Henry kept trying to go ahead and didn't stay at any animal exhibit very long (no buttons, levers or doors on animals) except the sting rays because it was a hands on exhibit. Henry spent a really long time with his hand held out in the water waiting for sting rays to come by for a pet. This one gave him a high five! I was not so interested in sticking my hand in there, but all three kids enjoyed it immensely.

Here we are after our day at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Center. We spent a good amount of time shopping in the souvenir shop. Jasper got a pair of shark socks, Henry bought himself a squeeze shark and growing dolphin, and Clara found a mood necklace in the shape of a dolphin.

 

After the Aquarium we headed to the beach! We stopped on the way to pick up some cold drinks because it was still really hot out. Then we got to the beach around 4 or 4:30 and changed into our suits. Darrell had suggested we go to a beach on a naval base as opposed to the public one, because of better parking and less crowds.  (Rob had recommended it as well since we were going to be with someone in the military.)  We drove past the public beaches on our way, and they looked packed.  The military only access beach was not anywhere near as busy and crazy - it was fantastic. 

Jasper didn't stop giggling for about 20 minutes when we took him into the ocean water, he was just tickled, it was pretty funny. Clara, who had become Darrell's little buddy at this point, went the farthest out with tallest Darrell so that she could go where the waves break. Darrell was impressed with her adventurousness. She wanted him to let her go so she could swim for the waves (with her water wings this time!). Henry also loved the ocean, especially running toward and away from the waves. 

After swimming we went to play in the sand. here's my fairy castle. Clara brought her fairy sand toys that she got as a birthday present, but she was much more interested in digging, since we brought the stuff all the way from Cicero I figured someone should use it!

Jasper was getting pretty tired toward the end of such an adventure packed day, so he spent a bit of time lounging with Pattie and sipping some Capri Suns.

Meeting a Real Life Author

Still July 7th

We made it back to the house and were just getting started with a feast of leftovers when Pattie's friend Sherry Burton stopped by. The kids told her how much they enjoyed her book The Legend of the Sock Goblins. And they asked lots of questions about how she published the book and worked with the illustrator. Sherry brought over a copy so that we could buy it right there and she even signed it for the kids.

We got the kids to bed and then proceeded to stay up way too late again, this time playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero. We had a blast together just like old times.

The Journey Home Begins

July 8th

Pattie spoiled us further by making blueberry pancakes for breakfast (we did warn her that our children can eat their weights in pancakes!). Then Nate and Darrell talked about the route we were going to take into Chaddsford. While we were packing up and getting ready I realized that we forgot to do something! If you remember from earlier that we wanted to get water for our church's water ceremony, well, we wanted to get a vial from the ocean as well as the Reflecting Pool. Of course, we brought the empty vial with us, but were so busy swimming and playing that we forgot to fill it up. Darrell pointed out a spot along the way where Nate would be able to sneak down to the water and get some water.

So all packed back in the car, we said goodbye to Darrell and Pattie. None of us wanted to leave so soon, and the kids were ready to move in with them! We said that we would plan to visit them again as soon as we could.

Our journey took us on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel that alternates between bridge and tunnels for  23 miles! We stopped at Fisherman Island National Wildlife Reserve, the spot where Darrell said we would be able to access the ocean water. The kids had fun looking through the big magnifying binocular thing while Nate made his dash for the ocean water.

Then we piled back in the car for the long ride to Chaddsford. We had the ambitious goal of making it to the winery before it closed. Nate was keeping an eye on the clock and figured we would be able to make it. We stopped at a gas station to buy some bread and a few other snacks to have a quick lunch. We made PB&J's and had cheese sticks and fruit sitting in the small patch of shade up against the building before hurrying off again.

The drive did not go as well as Nate had hoped, and Jasper started to get very whiny. Frustrations ran high and I was awoken from my car snooze to a very grumpy Nate who had been caught in stop and go traffic for 15 minutes with a Jasper who would not be appeased in the least by "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" on audio book. It was clearly time to break out the DVD player.

The DVDs quieted down the children, but Nate was still very anxious. The winery closes at 6 on Sunday and is not open on Mondays, so this was our one shot at getting there. Despite missing an exit and having to circle around for a bit, we managed to pull into the winery at 5:45! We got our case of Sunset Blush and few bottles of their Proprietor's Reserve Red. Then, you guessed it, back in the car! Another 20 minutes took us to our hotel in Malvern, PA.

Nate got us checked in at the Staybridge Suites. They gave us a free upgrade! Then we stopped at the Wegmans across the street to eat in "The Pub" and buy some ice cream to have as a big treat at the end of a long day of driving. The kids watched a bit more of "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" while they had big bowls of chocolate ice cream. Then we got them into their beds just before 9PM. They were in Suite B, their own room!

Nate and I opened a bottle of Sunset Blush, grabbed two spoons and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake ice cream, and settled in to watch an episode of True Blood before turning in for the night ourselves.

Home Again

July 9th

The kids watched an episode of Pokemon while we got up and ready. We had a big breakfast in the hotel lobby then marched the kids around the building a bit while we packed up one last time to make the final journey home. We had a brief detour when we missed a turn thanks to a cranky Jasper, but other than that the drive went smoothly. We listened to some more Harry Potter, stopped for a picnic lunch of PB&Banana sandwiches with bananas from the hotel breakfast, and microwave popcorn from our hotel room, then broke out the DVD player for the rest of the ride. The kids watched the end of Willie Wonka and then Star Wars. We pulled into our driveway around 4:30 in the afternoon, happy to be home again, but sad to have our journey come to an end.

We had a big dinner from Moe's and got Jasper into bed before 8--the first time since we left home! The twins got to work on their summer reading and then got into bed around 8:30. 

Thank You's

The theme of our big road trip vacation has definitely been gratitude. No matter what crazy circumstances came our way, our friends and family were amazingly generous. Through blazing heat, lost power, injuries and illness, we found ourselves having lots of fun and adventure with people we love. And that's what family vacations are supposed to be.

Thank you to our neighbors Missy, Dave and Hayley for caring for our container garden out front and for getting our mail for us. We really appreciate having such wonderful neighbors.

Thank you to Chuck and Carla for spending so much time preparing for our visit. We know how much effort you put in to shampooing carpets and making it so that we would have a comfortable stay. We were all disappointed that we couldn't stay longer and we hope that we didn't cause you too much trouble. Thank you also for taking Jasper and Clara to the water park, it would have been extra stressful to have them with us at the urgent care and they had so much fun playing with their aunt and uncle!

Thank you to Heather, Rob, Morgan and Currin for opening up their home on such short notice after suffering from lost power for so long. We so very much appreciate your generosity and your willingness to accommodate us. We hope that we took all the crazy luck home with us and that you are enjoying a lovely vacation yourselves.

Thank you to Lucinda, Brian and Elspeth for escorting us to Washington D.C. fireworks, having us over to your house for two lovely dinners and for letting us drink your excellent home brewed beer. 

Thank you to Darrell and Pattie for sharing your home and taking us to the Aquarium and the Beach. Your ability to extend the friendship we had to include our children was remarkable, we felt right at home with you, like we were with family. The kids are already asking to come back to see you again!

There is much more for which we are thankful, we hope that those we stayed with also enjoyed the visit.