Week four was pretty good to us. No breakdowns! Well, the car didn't break down but the two youngest finally did. I'll get to that fun stuff as it happens chronologically. Here is the crew finally enjoying a campfire in Georgia. We haven't had once since so I'm glad we got at least one in on this trip.
July 2nd we ventured into Atlanta to see the sights and see my Braves play! We bought tickets early so we would be sure to have seats (no where near a sell-out but I wanted to be sure), and then we drove around the city looking for something to do. It seems like the best place to be in Atlanta is the well-visited tourist areas. We got off track a few times and it was a bit scary for us country bumpkins. We visited the Martin Luther King National Historic Park, where Mason and Drew were interested in seeing his and his wife's tomb. They learned quite a bit about him at school on the last MLK Jr holiday so it was good for them to experience it. After driving around crazily looking for some fast food before the game, we finally found a McDonalds and then headed to Turner Field for the baseball game!
Here we are at the field! I was so excited. I grew up watching the Braves play in the 80's when they were really horrible. Mom wouldn't let us get MTV so Cori and I would stay up on Friday nights to watch music videos "Night Tracks" on TBS. Inevitably the Braves would be on and inevitably the game would go extra innings and they would lose, cutting into our video time so we watched and waited. I have loved them ever since and I was thrilled to actually be in Atlanta watching my Braves play. The game didn't disappoint! We beat the Marlins11-3. We got to do the tomahawk chop a few times too. The first hour was absolutely miserable with the hot sun beating down on our sensitive faces, but once it went down I think we all had a pretty good time. Since we are cheap we didn't buy any souvenirs at the stadium but Drew and Paul picked up 7 commemorative plastic Braves cups people left behind. Works for me!
The view of the city was beautiful from where we sat. I have seen the Braves play 3 times now so I told Paul we could take a break from them and not plan our next vacations around their schedule. I had such a good time and I guess I owe Texas a big thank you for wasting so many of our days so it worked out I could see the Braves in Atlanta.
Heading north on July 3rd we took a very short detour into South Carolina. Paul and I both started out this trip each needing only 5 more states to be able to say we had seen all 50. South Carolina was one I needed so we took a small detour and crossed the border. It had a nice little turnaround so we took the picture, slapped the sticker on our map, and headed off on our way.
The next stop was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. North Carolina was the first state that was new to all six of us. This park is the most visited National Park in the US, probably because is has a highway running through it. It was absolutely pouring rain as we arrived at the park and it rarely let up. Rain in the east is not like rain in the west. When it rains it is in torrents here, not nice, gentle, never ending showers like we are used to. I'm sure this park is great, and we caught glimpses and outlines of distant mountains that made us believe if we were there on a clear day it would be a beautiful place.
You can see some of the wispy clouds that give the Smoky Mountains their name. Its actually formed by output from the dense foliage in the forests. And these forests are dense. I thought Oregon had a lot of trees, and we do, but these forests are different. I thought where we were in the Appalachian mountains, around the place where Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia meet is one of the prettiest places in the whole country.
Here we are at the state line. You can see how overcast and wet it was.
At the top of the Appalachians we found the Appalachian trail. I was excited to see it. I absolutely love experiencing in person all the things we read and hear about at school and just in life in general. Its kind of like a living history, Americana tour. If it wasn't so wet I would have insisted on hiking some of it, maybe not all the way to Katahdin, Maine, but a little bit to get the true feel of it. Paul, Mason, and I were the only ones brave enough to get out of the car and get a little wet to say we have been on the trail.
That evening Paul and Drew drove about 45 minutes north to hit the Kentucky border. Yep, Paul needed Kentucky. They stopped a the Cumberland Gap and as horrible as it is to say, I'm glad the park was closed so they really didn't see anything more than the sign. I would have kicked myself if they had really been able to see the Cumberland Gap. Some day when Mason has every state in the continental US filled in except Kentucky I will remind him how much more important it was to him to stay in the trailer and watch Spiderman than to visit Kentucky. Live and learn, buddy.
This is just a picture of an interesting plant they have in some of the south eastern states. Its kind of like ivy but its called a creeper or something. It takes over trees and bushes and leaves them looking like something out of a Dr Seuss story. Its kind of cool looking.
July 4th found us in North Carolina. We needed to head east to get out of the rain and find some fireworks before Mason and I came to blows. ALL he could talk about for 2 days was fireworks. Even when we were talking about other things he would say, "wait, did you just say fireworks?" I was so tired of it and I was about to explode like one myself if he said it one more time. We bought sparklers but didn't find a place to light them which set off a million more questions, suggestions, and hints from him. Crimony! Enough! We dropped our trailer in Durham, NC in a more than somewhat undesirable RV/trailer park, and visited the Duke campus. Once again, trees everywhere! I had no idea there were so many trees there. I couldn't even get a good picture of any of the buildings because they were all hidden by trees. Duke was pretty but we liked the University of North Carolina better. Lots of trees again but not so crowded. While at UNC we saw signs for Fireworks parking so we decided to stay there for the show instead of driving 30 minutes south to Raleigh. We got to sit in the UNC football stadium and watch the fireworks show. That was actually the first time we have taken the kids to see fireworks. Horrible, I know. Usually we are at my parents' house with a bunch of family setting off wussy Oregon fireworks and we never go to the good show in town. So this was fun for us all, and thankfully Mason hasn't mentioned fireworks since.
The fifth of July we headed north through Virginia into Maryland to visit with Paul's cousin, Laurie, and her husband Eric and son Logan. It was good to see family again and stretch out in a beautiful home. And Logan was nice enough to share his toys with the kids so they were happy. They also thought Logan was a pretty good guy to call second cousin. He's a cutie! And Laurie and Eric prepared a delicious home-cooked meal for us too so it was a really nice visit. Laurie and Logan were able to join us the next day in DC for the hike around the National Monuments. They were smart enough to head home after about 3 hours in the sweltering sun, but we were glad they joined us for some of it.
The 6th of July was my birthday. I was so not looking forward to it and I wouldn't let my family sing to me till 2:17pm when I couldn't deny that I was 40 any longer. UGH! I woke up that morning to these fun posters and streamers Drew and Paul came up with to decorate the trailer. I love my family.
We drove into DC that morning and toured all the sights, starting at the White House. Our plan was to see the monuments before it got too hot and then go indoors to the Smithsonian museums in the afternoon when it was warmer. Well, there was no such thing as less than too hot. It was so stinking hot and humid that we were all dying. My poor kids. Notice in the White House picture how Darcy is missing. The first stop of the day and she is already throwing a fit and refuses to be in the picture. That was par for the course for the day. Either Darcy was making a horrible scene or Bree was. At one point in one of the museums Paul had to stand in the hall and man-handle Bree to keep her from flipping out of his arms while she stiffened her body and threw a major fit. I understand they were hot and tired but jeez, happy birthday. It seems they know when Mom is doing something important to her and then it sets off a break-down alarm in their heads. They freak out and there is no stopping it.
Thankfully Darcy graced us with her presence for the picture at the Lincoln memorial. We saw many of the monuments but skipped the FDR and Thomas Jefferson ones because they were just too far to walk to for my family's little legs. We saw Lincoln, WWII, Korean (one of my favorites), Washington (which looks nothing like it should as its covered in scaffolding for work being done on it to fix the cracks from last year's earthquake), and the Vietnam memorial which I missed because Bree was throwing a fit and I didn't think she needed to be bothering others trying to experience it. Thankfully I had seen in before.
After lunch at the Reagan building we headed to the Smithsonians. We visited the Museum of American History where Drew found this robe worn in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (She's a huge HP fan), though I'm not sure why it was there since Harry is British. Oh well, she was thrilled. There was some great stuff in there and I can't even remember it all right now. Oops! I do remember feeling like I couldn't believe all those things were really there and they weren't just replicas. Those museums are awesome. We also went to the Museum of Natural History with all the dinosaur bones. Mason was in heaven! I swear he took 500 pictures of bones in there. I'm glad he found something he enjoyed. He also admired the mummy in the picture below which came from Egypt thousands of years ago. Good stuff! Unfortunately we had to race around that museum, which was extremely hard to do since it was a zoo in there. There were so many people, all with the same idea as ours I guess, get inside to beat the heat. We had tickets at 4pm to tour Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot. We had to miss the Air and Space museum but thought it was OK since we visited NASA earlier in the trip. DC is just too big to see all in one day and we had to pick and choose our stops.
Ford's Theater was so neat, as weird as that sounds. I have been into Lincoln and Civil War stuff lately so I was thrilled to be there. The chair on the right in the picture is where President Lincoln was sitting when he was shot. The museum had the actual suit he was wearing the night he died, and I was very surprised to see the actual gun Booth used to kill him. What a great stop. Drew, Mason, Darcy, and I went next door to the boarding house to view the room and bed he died in. Wow. What an experience.
Bree threw another fit in the car about buckling her seat belt and I was wrestling with her so hard I started to cry! It was a long, hot, day that was hard on all of us I guess. My phone logged us walking 7.4 miles in 8 hours in 95 degree heat with I swear 200% humidity. No wonder we were all exhausted. Paul drove all over Maryland it seemed trying to find a Dairy Queen for me to get an M&M blizzard for my birthday. It was a very full day and hopefully the kids got something good and memorable out of it all. I think Drew and Mason did.
Today we drove north to Pennsylvania to visit Gettysburg. Yes, it was the last day of the 150th anniversary celebration, but we were surprisingly able to find a parking space for our huge caravan near the visitor center. Well, Gettysburg was an experience. I didn't realize it was so commercialized I guess. They actually charged $12 per person to watch a movie about the battle and to enter the museum. At a National Park! And my pass wouldn't get us in. I was really disappointed at how it was run. We all were. We were able to get a magnet and a hat pin for Mason but that's about all we got out of the vistor center. We attempted to drive just a bit around the battle field to get a sense of it. Thankfully we were able to make it through pulling the trailer but it was close. I "enjoyed" it though, for lack of a better word. I have been to Antietam and Vicksburg battlefields so I guess I was OK not touring the whole place. Maybe when Paul and I are old and gray we can go back and experience all of it. Darcy was throwing a fit again and she refused to pose for the picture. The bottom picture is a bit of the battlefield.
Tonight we are in Hershey, PA. We plan to visit the Hershey amusement park tomorrow to celebrate Darcy's 5th birthday. Even if she does throw a mean fit she is still my sweetcheeks and deserves a special birthday. You don't turn 5 every day!
Here is my weekly installment of things I have learned on the road:
1) Shorts in the South are SHORT and TIGHT. Yikes! I don't know if its the new summer style or if its just a southern thing but let me just say I am glad I live in the Northwest where capris are prevalent. And body type doesn't really seem to play in anyone's decision to wear the shorts. Yikes.
2) We are silly northwesterners. I insisted on carrying sweatshirts to the baseball game in case it got cold when the sun went down. HA! And we took sweatshirts and blankets to the fireworks show in case it got cold. HA! That's how it works at home. When will I learn it doesn't EVER get cold here!?
This is the quote of the trip so far:
Bree: Mom! Drew is a mom.
Me: Drew is a worm?
Bree: No! Drew is a MOM!
Me: No, Drew isn't a mom but she will be someday.
Drew: I'd rather be a worm.
Me too, sweetheart, me too.
No comments:
Post a Comment