Sick!

I started getting sick Tuesday with a low grade fever and a cough Tuesday night. The fever finally broke (for good) Thursday night. My cough is still annoying and my throat hurts and I'm hoarse.

Yesterday, my wife started complaining about her stomach hurting. It looks like she's got the stomach virus that's going around. Today, I've started having problems.

*sigh*

Some Vacation.

Hard to believe it's been so long since I last posted. It's always busy when you come home from a vacation.

I've posted some pictures on my Flickr account, and hope to post some here along with stories, but if you want to see some pics, go on over and take a look.

Vacation!!!

Thursday, we got away on a badly needed vacation.

As I discussed in September, we went to Crater of Diamonds State Park. We ended up taking our pickup truck since we couldn't get everything we were taking into the Caliber. So, after getting it loaded up, we hit the road around 10:00 Thursday morning, and we were all excited!

Things were going basically as planned until somewhere in Arkansas I noticed the truck pulling to the left pretty bad. My wife asked if we had a flat. And she was right, we did. So we pulled into a driveway just a bit away to change it, ESPECIALLY since there was no shoulder on the road!

So, we pull into these peoples yard to change the tire, and we had never changed the tire on the truck before. And of course, the jack etc was under the back seat of the truck, so we had to unload the inside of the truck to get it all out. Then we had to figure out how to get the tire down. Things were going pretty well. When I was trying to get the lug nuts off, the ratchet was working right, and my boy said, turn it around. Course that worked. We got the spare on and the truck reloaded, and off we went. I was a bit worried about the tire since it had never been used since we've had the truck, and who know how long before then. We got to the next town, and they had a Walmart! So, we stopped and I went in to find a tire. They had the size our truck used for 80 each, so I got 2. Come to find out, they only had 2 of that size.

So while we waited on the truck, we walked a few blocks to a mexican restaurant (YUMMY) for some lunch. Now, the problem was, we took our dog Gizmo with us on the trip. So, we couldn't exactly leave him in the truck, so we took him with us. But, you know how restaurants can be when it comes to dogs in the them (unless they are on the menu), so we put him in the pet carrier, and did our best to pretend he didn't exist. And since he's a pretty good dog and didn't make a peep, we didn't have any problems.

So, lunch in us and 2 new tires on the truck, we continued on our way. But it's not looking like we'll make the park before the 5:00 check-in, which wasn't that big of a deal, but I just didn't expect the trip to take that long.

The rest of the trip there was uneventful, well, except for a minor problem of finding the place once we got to Murfreesboro. It wasn't bad except for one part in town, the sign was less than clear (well, I think it's less than clear) so it took us a bit longer to find the park.

So, we got there, found our camp site and started setting up. My boy and I set up the tent as my wonderful wife was getting a lot of the other stuff unpacked and set up.

We managed to have a nice campfire every night which is just wonderful. There is nothing quite like a camp fire. We roasted some marshmallows and they ate some smores.

I managed to get up first every morning and get the campfire started to warm us up by, cause my oh my, it got quite chilly!

There is also something to be said for the cool, quiet mornings with the sunlight coming through the trees lighting up the smoke from early morning campfires.



Friday morning, we had breakfast, and then headed off for some diamond mining! Even Gizmo got to come with us. We all had a lot of fun, but after a couple hours, we went back to camp for some lunch.




My boy found some kids around his age to play with, so when I went to go back to look for more diamonds, he didn't want to go. I hunted for a few more hours. Neither of our hunts were very successful. Well, they were. We found lots of really cool rocks, but no diamonds.

Our air mattress had a leak Friday night, so that made for a rough night. My wife likes camping OK, as long as she has things like electricity, water, and her air mattress. My Saturday morning, it was completely flat! So, I had another trip to Walmart.

We did manage to go for a hike on Saturday, and that was nice. Saturday night, they had a little show that we went to. Which our son was much opposed to. We had a real good time. The amusing thing was my wife new nearly EVERY song they sung. I think I might have known 2 or 3.




Sunday morning we got up and torn down camp and was on the road by 10:15. Course we promptly stopped for breakfast. We then decided to go a different way back then we took there, so we meandered our way home. We managed to go on part of the Talamena drive.





It was a really nice trip. Really needed.

My boy told me Thursday night that the best part of this camping trip was that

1. Mom was with us.
2. Gizmo came too.
3. Digging for diamonds.
4. Hiking.

Though after the diamond mining, I think he switched 3 and 4.

For those that care, the fall foliage of the Talamina drive was just starting. Peak will probably happen in the next couple weeks.

I've added more pictures on Flickr.

October Camping Trip

We finally got our Fall Break Camping trip scheduled today.

We are going to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We initially were going to go to Devil's Den (AR), Robber's Cave (OK), or Roaring River (MO), but all three were out of reserveable camp sites. Since the were out, we started looking elsewhere. We almost went with Roman Nose (OK), but I wasn't sure. Then I found Bull Shoals (AR). It had hiking, camping, fishing in a lake or river. It sounded great. Plus the town also had a cave. So, I went to reserve, and none were available. I guess everyone is going camping that weekend. Then I found Crater of Diamonds. It sounded great, and they had availability... can't beat that!

My boy loves rocks! And even that statement is probably an understatement. So the opportunity for him to dig for diamonds and other stones is a real treat for him. Plus, we'll have hiking trails we'll take and who knows what else. Plus with the trip scheduled in October, hopefully we'll have some nice fall foliage too!

Vacation Journal - Day 7 & 8

Friday 6/22

When we got up Friday, we weren't 100% sure what the plan was. We decided to head on over to Fort Worth and visit my wifes sister. We talked to her that morning, and she was excited to have us, so, we have our plan.

We got up and packed up and went to Denny's for Breakfast. That was some good eating!!! I love eating breakfast out. We then headed out. We got to New Orleans a couple hours later I guess. That place is still all torn up. It really surprised me. We did go into the French Quarter, and we stopped and walked around Bourbon street for a bit. We stopped by an old drug store that had an old soda fountain, but unfortunately, the fountain was broken. We went back to the van, and headed out. Didn't even eat in town. We missed a lot of what Bourbon street is like by being there in the day, but with my 7 year old with us, we thought that was best.

We got to Fort Worth about 8:30 or so, and my sister-in-law cooked lasagna and garlic toast! yummy! We got to see her new house, and just have a nice quiet evening.

Saturday 6/23

The highlight of the day was probably breakfast. My father-in-law and sister-in-law cooked breakfast. It was so tasty! We loaded the van for the last time, and headed home. Not long after we had left, we noticed a smell. Cat Pee. We decided that one of her cats marked our suite case. That made for a long drive, but it would be our shortest drive of the trip, so that wasn't too bad.

We finally got home around 4:30 I think. It was good to finally be home!

Vacation Journal - Day 6

Thursday 6/21

We woke up today, had breakfast and loaded up to hit the road home. We decided not to go home the same way we came, and since I'd never been to Florida before, and we were that close, we headed for Florida.

For the most part, the day was pretty insignificant. while we were in Mississippi, we hit a long line of traffic. It was bad. After being in line for about 30 minutes or so, we finally got to a sign that said road construction, 3 miles. We were still 3 miles from the construction that was causing the problem!!! My wife was driving at the time, and she noticed fish jumping in the swamp next to us. She hollered up at some kids that were hanging out the window in front of us to see if they saw the fish jumping. At one point, I thought we were going to do a Chinese fire drill. During the traffic, I did manage to get a cool picture of a Mississippi sunset though.


Other than the long traffic jam, nothing major happened. I guess the highlight of the day was when we stopped for a hotel room in Buloxi, Mississippi. We looked up a hotel on the GPS and went to it. It was a bit off the main road, but you can usually find better rates there. Anyway, we get there about 8:30 or so, and the office was closed!!! We couldn't believe it. Ok, we'll try again. I found another Hotel real close, we went to it, and when I saw it, I told my wife to just keep driving. hehe It wasn't somewhere we wanted to stay.

When we had got off the highway, there was a hotel that said "Super Low Rates", so we went back there, and it was $88/night, and they didn't have any rooms with 2 beds, and I was NOT sharing a bed with my squirmy son. We went to another place, my father-in-law and I both went in. He ordered a room with a single bed, and wanted to use a senior citizen discount. She told him $55+tax. He said great and took it. He walked out to the van, and I told the girl. "I need a room with 2 beds, and do you have a traveling with your in-laws for 7 days discount?"
She laughed, and then gave me the same rate she gave my father-in-law! That made me happy.

So, we had a shower, and got to watch a little TV on our possessed TV. It would just randomly shut off. Sometimes it would come back on, and sometimes it wouldn't.

Vacation Journal - Day 5

Wednesday 6/20

I slept late again today. It was between 9:30 and 10:00 before I got up; crazy long for me. Walked out onto the dock this morning, and I saw a dolphin really close up. He was close enough for me to hear him breath out when he surfaced. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera, so no pictures.

Later, my wife and I went for a walk. We saw what might have been a hawk. I’m not really sure what it was, but it made a noise I’ve never really heard before. He was smart whatever it was, as we positioned ourselves to see it better, it moved, so I never could get a good view with either the camera or binoculars.

After my in-laws came back from their jaunt downtown, my wife and I decided to head out (without our boy) and do a little shopping out on Tybee Island again. We really like that little island. We did some shopping, had a light lunch, walked out onto the fishing pier, did some more fishing and even played a game of pool. Afterward, we decided to go back to the North Beach Grill from yesterday, and have a drink and look at the ocean. We might have stayed where we were at, but between the rain and the crowds of tourists, we decided the other place would be better. Plus, it would give me a chance to take a good picture of the lighthouse.

We took our time there, and just sorta soaked it all in. It was really nice, and the time was all too quickly slipping away, and we will have to get back in the van, and leave, back to Oklahoma, back to the daily grind, the jobs, responsibilities, and everything else. So, we took some time taking pictures to help us remember.

We came back, and I got probably the best view of a shrimp boat so far as it was anchored not far from our dock.

It was then time for dinner. We had some good shrimp, red potatoes, corn on the cob, summer sausage, and some crabs I caught today (about 7 or so). It was good, scratch that, it was real good!

We sat down, and then planned out route home. We decided not to go back the way we came, so the plan now is to head down to Jacksonville, Florida and then over to New Orleans. Then head home from there. We’ll spend the night somewhere on the way back. But at this moment, not sure where that somewhere will be.

Vacation Journal - Day 4

Tuesday 6/19

What a day! We got up and around, and headed to the Pirate’s House Restaurant for lunch, where we knew that we would meet, Captain Jack Sparrow. We wouldn’t tell my boy that he was going to be there, that was our surprise, but we did say we were headed to the Pirate’s House to eat. And there were all sorts of real pirates that have once been in that place. He was intrigued. Well, he noticed the Captain, and was excited, but kept his excitement down. Anyway, Captain Jack stopped by and chatted with us, and that was wonderful. I couldn’t tell if me or my boy was having a better time. When he found out we were from Oklahoma, he said, “Ahhh, foreigners then. If I’d known that, I’d not’ve sat down.” In the way that only Captain Jack could do, then he stood up, and left.

He came back, sat down, and chatted with us for a while. It was excellent!

Later, when we got back to the house, he was talking to his Nanny, and said, “I didn’t know Captain Jack was real.” Too good!

After dinner, we went down the river front and did a little site seeing and some shopping. Except the fact my boy wanted to come back here so he could play the silly PS2 that was here (we didn’t bring it), it was really nice. I finally threatened him that if he brought up the PS2 again, he’d not play it for the week, or be able to even watch the other kids. The complaining stopped!

Today, we also did some crabbin’. We managed to catch at least 12 crabs. Tomorrow, there is supposed to be some sort of crab stew/soup, or something. We’ll see how that goes.

On one of the tips out to the dock to check on our traps, I FINALLY saw the dolphins that I’ve heard everyone talk about. Seems they come into the river and eat the shrimp that have come out of the marsh. It was cool!

As I sit here and write this, it is raining. I like the rain. Always have. There is a good chance of thunderstorm tomorrow, so we’ll have to see if we’ll get to go to the ocean again tomorrow or not.

Vacation Journal - Day 3

Monday 6/18

Today, my wife and father-in-law made breakfast! It was so good! Scrambled eggs, home made biscuits, and sausage! That’s how every day should start out I really think!

My wife and I went for a walk, and looked around, and here are a few more pictures.

We spent the rest of the morning, trying to figure out what we should do. We finally decided we’d go to the ocean and play today. So, we got around, and headed to Dollar General for the things you forget to pack. You know, beach towels, sun screen, beach toys, that sort of thing. We then head to a grocery store (next door to save time) and buy drinks. Next stop, Payless to buy me some beach going shoes. Didn’t get the (payless version of ) Crock flip-flops since they were not in my size, but did get a cool pair. And my wife got the black pair of crock-flops that she really wanted for Mother’s day. (I got here the white ones cause I didn’t realize she specifically asked for black.

Anyway, we are now done shopping, so it’s off to the beach!

We have a great time! Shoot, saying we had a great time is an understatement! The sand was a fine grain sand, so it was nice. There were people around, but not so many you couldn’t have fun. My boy even found a few kids to play with.

We all got to play together, and that was what mattered. I even got a chance to get out and take some pictures. I wished we were there at sun-up instead of sun set cause some of the pictures I wanted to take were backlit. But I still had some wonderful pictures!

After we finally left, we decided to find a place to eat, and have some sea food. I mean, we ARE at the beach. We ended up eating at a little place right next to where we parked, the North Beach Grill.

We asked for their specials, and they started rolling off steak specials. We informed the waiter that we were from Oklahoma. We have cattle. What do they have in the seafood category? He chuckled and proceeded with other specials. We started out with some chips and salsa. And after just that, my boy said we should eat here for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I couldn’t really blame him, cause it was good. We ordered our food. And while waiting on it, my boy got up to go to the bathroom, took about 3 steps, stopped, and projectile vomited!!! It was so gross, and I felt so bad! Luckily, the people closest to it (which was on the far side of us) had a little one, so I’m sure it wasn’t the worse they had ever seen. I felt so bad though. I carried my boy to the restroom, and checked on him. He said he was fine, and wanted to stay and eat (our food hadn’t even gotten there yet) so I had him wash his hands and face and to finish using it. Everyone there was excellent, especially our waiter who donned on some rubber gloves, got a bucked of water, and proceeded to clean up the mess! We had at least 2 of the staff stop by and check on our boy. That really impressed me. We still have not clue what caused it. My guess is some sea water in the belly, followed by sweet tea and chips and HOT salsa.

Dinner came, and it was wonderful! My boy had a burger and fries. I had a crab cake sandwich, and my beautiful wife had a sautéed shrimp dinner. There isn’t much to say about dinner. It was just excellent. Like my son, I would love to go back there before we leave and have more, but part of the fun and exciting part of vacations, is going and doing things you’ve not done before. (Second vacations are for repeat visits!!!)

As we left, I turned, and the moon, mars/Venus and the lighthouse on Tybee Island were all there a-glow! It was too cool. I tried taking a picture of it, but I’m not real happy with they way they turned out, but this one isn’t too bad.

As we left, we made sure we had our camera out, cause we saw a sign coming into the island that is unlike any sign us land-lovers have ever seen, and we just HAD to get it’s picture.

Vacation Journal - Day 2

Sunday 6/17

When we finally stopped for breakfast in Alabama and I was ready! When the guy asked me what I wanted to drink, I just sat there looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

Later, after my 3 hours of sleep, I was riding along, and we kept seeing what looked like the arms that come down in front of train tracks. We couldn’t figure out what they were for, well, at one of the stops we took I asked. They use it to block traffic when evacuating for hurricanes. Made since, just not something you see in Oklahoma.

We got here around 5:30ish or so on Sunday evening. Just in time for dinner. First, I’d like to say thanks to Dave for loaning me his GPS system; we had very little problems finding this place with it (just a bit but that was because of road construction that it didn’t know about, which was around the town we ate breakfast in).

Anyway, off that tangent. We ate, and then I walked around the plantation a bit. Here is where we are at.

Vacation Journal - Day 1

Saturday 6/16

My boy was up with a coughing fit Friday night/Saturday morning, so we were up with that. Then he woke up around 8:30 on Saturday feeling what seemed refreshed. I got some packing done, and went with my mother-in-law to get the van. My boy and I did some shopping, hit the library, and had some lunch (not necessarily in that order). I got a chance to bake some chocolate chip cookies, and then my wonderful wife and I loaded up the van with the majority of our stuff, and I took it over to my mother-in-laws so she could load her stuff and come and get us after Vacation Bible School. Then home I went and laid down for about an hour. Managed about a 30 minute sleep out of that hour of lying down, then it was time to get around and ready for VBS.

After VBS, we called my in-laws, and I got a shower and cleaned up by the time they got to the house. We finished loading up the van and we got off around 8:30-9:00 or so. Our first stop was the airport. My wife had to fill out some papers to be added as an additional driver to the van. I took her license earlier in the day, but without here signature, that didn’t do any good. After that, QT for some caffeine, cause I’m going to have a very long night ahead of me, and I didn’t get as much sleep Friday night as I liked or as long of a nap as I would have liked.

For the most part, I didn’t have as much trouble as I was afraid of, especially considering how tired I was feeling at only 11:30 as everyone else was starting to dose off.

Back from Vacation

We're back from vacation.

We had a really good time. I've written posts while I was away, but didn't have access to post them, so I'll be posting them each day (two posts at most).

Snow, Snow Everywhere

I'm sure everyone is more than aware that Oklahoma had some snow storm last week. Here at my house, we had around 8 inches of snow on top of probably an inch of ice.


I really enjoyed it as did the kids since they got to skip school. I stayed home on Thursday and Friday. I worked from home on Thursday (much more than I planned on), and Friday since I had already worked all 40 hours that week planned on taking the day off (even though I worked several hours) *sigh*


I did manage to get to the Collinsville park with my boy and the neighbors. We all had a good time (except my wife who had to work).

This is my favorite series of pictures.

Take a close look at him in this picture. Especially his feet, head and rear. :)

Men's Retreat

I've been promising an update all week, and haven't given one, so I guess I'll try now.

Last Thursday, I got up and around and my dad and I went to Roaring River State Park. My uncle and grandfathers (that's too people, cause my uncle is not my grandfather, that would just be weird) church was having a men's retreat there. It's a chance for a group of men to get together, do some fishing or golfing and praise God.

The trip down was nice. (As was the Dr. Pepper I had. It had almost been 4 weeks since I had one.) Once we got down there, we found us each a bunk and unloaded the car. Then we headed down to the meal cabin to grab lunch. Just a quick sandwich, then we went down to the River for some fishing. This was my first Trout fishing trip, so I had to figure it out. Man are those trout tricky. I did manage to land 3 (my grandpa put one on my line, so I wasn't able to get my 4th, but that was fine).


Dinner Thursday night was lasagna. It was ok, but not as good as what I make, course most frozen aren't. But it was still pretty good.

The worship service was great. Good music, and a good message. The man there has been preaching at an inner city church in Dallas... did I mention it was a black church? 75 Baptist men was a deafening experience I'm sure. (He mentioned they cannot even do announcements without some "amens" or "preach it" from the people.) As soon as we were done for the evening, I crashed. I was exhausted.

We woke up bright and early Friday morning with fishing on our mind. My dad and I got to the river around 6:30ish or so I guess since the flier we had said fishing started at 7:00. Well, come to find out, that is August timing. In September, fishing starts at 7:30. So we had to wait a bit longer. I caught 2 and my dad 1 before we left for breakfast.

Breakfast was soooo good. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and hash browns. It's making my mouth water just typing it. After breakfast, we went back out to finish catching our limit. But when we got back, the fishing had slowed WAY down. When we FINALLY finished catching our limit at 12:30, I was more than ready to stop (mainly cause it started heating up). We got the fish cleaned and took it back to the cabin to drop off. I wanted to take a picture of the ice chest that was FULL of trout. We go there, and they had already took out 120 trout for dinner so they could finish cleaning them up and stuff like that. But even with 120 gone, this was still a lot of fish.


After that, we went out on a hike.

I've been looking forward to hiking up there ever since I decided to go. For my birthday, my wonderful wife bought me a really cool hiking stick with built in compass. Very nice, and very helpful climbing those mountains. I had lots of good pictures. Overall, the hike was at least 3.5 miles long. Maybe longer.



Dinner that night was smoked trout, corn on the cob, green beans, brown beans, salad, and baked potatoes. Again, delicious. I was so full afterwords.

Again the worship service was terrific.

I wasn't as tired Friday night as I was Thursday night so I stayed up a bit longer, but nothing crazy. We again set the alarm for 6 a.m. so we could pick up our bunk areas before the morning fishing time. But when I woke up, it was thundering and lightening. No fishing thing in that. I reset the alarm for 7 and rolled over. By 7, the storm had moved on. We contemplated not going fishing since fish don't usually bite very well after storms, but we decided to go. I'm glad we did. We both caught our limits before the 9:00 breakfast time. Once my dad finished catching his limit, we loaded up in the car, went and cleaned the fish, and headed back for breakfast. We got there about 10 after 9, but that isn't bad. Well, breakfast was over. Not sure they really had it. But it was already packed. In fact, everything was just about done. Nothing for me and dad to do except go and pick up our bunks and make sure the cabin was clean (which it was).

We finished up, and checked in to see if there was anything else we could do, (there wasn't), then we hit the road.

I so needed this trip. To get away from my kids, and work and everything really (except for my wife, I don't usually need a vacation from her). The worship services were really good.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the trip, you can see my Roaring River Flickr set.

I'm back

I've made it back from my fishing trip to Roaring River. It was great and I want to talk about it, but I'm tired. Expect a good update in the next day or two.

Trips are good, but it's good to be home with my family.

Stories from the Trip, pt 4

Well, our stay in Maryland was at an end. Time to start our drive home.

didn't really know where we were going except, southwest.

We loaded up the van, and headed south.

As we entered Virginia, we decided we would go through the Shanadoa mountains. From there we headed south, and stopped at the Natural Bridge. It was nice, but it was too expensive for us all to go in. We drove on down, and stopped in Bristol TN. We were only about 2 blocks into TN. We got checked in and we headed to the pool, well, my boy, my wife and I did. It was cold. Too cold. My boy enjoyed it, I only got in to my knees.

We got up in the morning, and started off again. We decided to go see the Smokies. First of all, traffic was horrible through Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg. Somewhere through there we stopped for lunch. At that point, my daughter took the co-pilot seat. She started helping navigate, and she got to learn how to read a map. As we were headed through Gatlinburg, we found Cooters. The General Lee, the jeep, tow truck, and sheriff car from the Dukes of Hazzard were there. My girl and I turned around and went back. We had a lot of fun looking at all the stuff. They even had Clietus from the show there signing autographs. We both had a lot of fun. Through the mountains, we stopped at about every other turn off to take pictures. Everyone else in the car was ready to stop, but we had so much fun.

From there, my girl navigated us to Chattanooga. We stopped there for dinner. After dinner, there was a traffic jam on the highway, so we opted to head west, and see where that took us. Finally got back to the highway, and we had passed the traffic problem. And off to Nashville we go.

We started looking for a place to stop for the night before we got to Nashville, billboard prices were pretty cheap. But there was some sort of music festival. So, all the hotel rates were raised. We kept going trying to find a cheaper rate, but never really did. Stopped around 12:30 for the night. They only had 2 rooms, 1 non smoking, and 1 smoking. So, we took them. Our toilet barely flushed, which I guess was good, cause the next morning, we noticed a toilet outside between a couple of the rooms.

It is now Saturday. Last day of our vacation. We get up and around and hit the road. My mother-in-law wanted to stop at Cracker Barrel to eat. So we stop. Now, my daughter had asked for McDonald's, and that would have been fine for me, but this was ok, even if it was a bit more expensive than I really wanted to spend. We go in, about a 30 minutes wait. Ok, we wait.
Finally get seated, I'm trying to help my boy with his order, couldn't find the kids menu, finally did when my wife pointed it out. My boy knew what he wanted, so, now time to look for me. And she comes to take our orders. Well, I haven't even really looked at the menu. My in-laws ordered, and she was suppose to come back in just a couple minutes for our order. Well, along time later, she returned for our order. And then an eternity passed before we got our food!

Breakfast took us 2 hours!!!

So, we hit the road again. And except for an adventure finding a Walmart in West Memphis, everything else went pretty smoothly. Got my in-laws home around 11:00 pm, and us a bit later than that.

Well, here are some picutres of the Smokies and some other miscellaneous stuff.

Stories from the Trip, pt 3

Wednesday, we decided to go to the Atlantic and go swimming. Being that close to the ocean, can't skip on that. So we pulled out a map, and started looking where the closest place was. We decided to go to Virginia Beach. So we packed up the van and took off. It looked like it would take us about 3 hours or so to get there.

Boy, were we wrong. Partly because of traffic. Took is 5 hours to get there.

My daughter had been to the ocean before, so this was just another trip for her. But this was my boy's first time, and he was amazed!

He had a blast! We all did. It was so much fun watching the waves hit him and almost knock him down. He kept stepping on me and my wife when we were holding him. He finally got use to it enough where I wouldn't hold on to him, and he could take most of the hits from the waves without falling down. He also liked it when I held on to him, and we floated out deeper. I was about chest deep or so, and we would float over the waves as they came in.

I would definatly suggest taking your kids to the ocean (Atlantic or Pacific) when you can. It was so much fun.

We only got to stay there for about an hour and a half or so. Then we decided to pack up and go eat. So as we are leaving, my boy was complaining about his feet hurting to walk. well, we thought he was just being a pansy, turns out he wasn't

We walked up to one of the foot washes, and I took off his swim shoes, and both of them had ALOT of sand in them. hehe it was something else.

While we were washing the sand off our feet, we asked some locals for a good place to eat. They suggested the place we were standing by, which was the restraunt in the Hilton. Not in our budget by a long shot. I'm sure it would have been good, but wasn't happening. So they suggested another place down the road, so we went.

It was nice. We had about a 30 minute wait which wasn't bad. Food was good too, but the price wasn't what I had in mind either. Oh well, it makes for a good adventure. As we are leaving town, my wife flipped out at one of the street signs. Its a no cussing sign. I loved it! So she had to get its picture. It took her a few times, but she finally got it.

On the drive home, my boy was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the restraunt. He had a busy day. Well, about an hour out of Virginia Beach, we made a bathroom stop, and he woke up. And he stayed awake till we got back around 1 AM. And he talked the whole way. about 3 hours in all. I thought my wife and daughter were going to kill him!

Here are some pictures were took at the beach.

Stories from the Trip, pt 2.

After arriving Sunday, we were tired.

Well, duh!

Anyway, we had a wonderful steak dinner prepared for us, and it was very yummy, and we sat around, talked and rested.

Monday, We finally got up and went to DC. We went to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Korean, WWI, and WWII memorials. We saw the Washington Monument, and the reflecting pool. We also walked over and saw the White House. This was all very beautiful and nice, however, it was 95+ degrees outside. So, it wasn't very pleasant.

This took all afternoon to see it all. My boy did a wonderful job during all this, didn't really complain or anything. Though he did get tired and wanted to be carried a few times. After we left, we went back home for more delicious food. On the way, we saw Marine 1 headed to the White House. Now, I'm not completely positive how it works, but when the President goes to the White House, 3 helicopters fly in from different directions, and 1 lands and drops off and picks up the President.

Tuesday, We went back into DC, and drove past the Jefferson memorial and the Pentagon. We went to Arlington National cemetery. It was something else. We saw the changing of the guard and a special ceremony of them changing the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Very touching experience.

After that, we saw some markers for the Shuttle accidents. Both of these really touched me as I have always liked the space program.

We left there and saw the Marine memorial. After that, we got lucky and got to see Air Force 1. We then went home to get ready for my nephews graduation.

We took several pictures of the sites. You may be able to see them on my yahoo photo's DC page. Then again you may not. From home, I can see them just fine, from work I have been having problems, so hopefully, you'll get to see them.... If you're interested.

More later

Stories from the Trip pt. 1

Well, I've promised some stories from the trip. Not that many of you are interested, but I do want to write these down.

As I've said before, the trip up there was mostly uneventful, which is good on a trip that long. We did learn that at least some Pennsylvania drivers are not that friendly. My wife was driving so I could get some rest, and she had the cruise control set on the speed limit, and was passing someone. Well, she got around them, and scooted back over into the "slow" lane. Well, one guy several cars back I guess did not like her going the speed limit, so as he passed us, he honked his horn, and flipped us off. Good first impression of the state.

It was here that we took our first real adventure. There was a traffic jam, so we got off the highway, and decided to find another way through town. I think it made my father in-law a bit nervous, but we survived, and it was a lot of fun. I had contemplated just finding our own way to my brother-in-law's house, but we decided not to.

We did get to drive though some tunnels on the way to Maryland, and it was interesting, as we do not have tunnels here.

Trip up there only took us about 25 hours, and that was with a couple dinner stops, several fuel stops, and some bathroom breaks. Not too bad.

We're home!

It is so nice to be home.

To tired to do much more typing.

I have some pictures I'll be sharing soon as well as some stories, but not tonight.