Day 9

Today began at 1:30am with people leaving the park and strong winds, so I assumed that meant rain was on the way.  Awesome. I hopped out of the tent and put away tennis shoes, chairs, and other things I didn't want soaking my car and went back inside.  The kids are so used to the noise of me zipping up the tent windows they don't even sleepily shift around anymore!  Fortunately, the rain must have been very light as I immediately went back to sleep until just after sunrise.  Which meant I missed to fog over the lake, bummer. I did get to take some shots of the beautiful lake.

And with crumbs around me from the night before's granola bars, at least this guy was desperate enough to let me get a shot before he scurried away.  This morning was quite a bit more mild, so we bundled in layers and hopped into the car after packing up in search of breakfast.

We'd gotten a little bit of a late start as we had to have a family meeting about behavior and consideration - do those ever end?  Over breakfast we discussed our options for the day.  We had to stop to stock up for food, but other than that and the drive time we had a free day.  We could go to a reptile museum, the chocolate tour at  Hersheypark, a farmer's market, or just head to the campsite.  The kids opted out of all amusement except for what they create at the campsite so we only stopped at Trader Joe's on the way.  I can spend some serious cash there just on snacks and fresh produce for camping!


The backroad drives through this part of the country reminds me of the backroads of England - just trusting the turns and quick hills (and other drivers!).  The views are spectacular and difficult to fully take in at 55 mph in the middle of a hairpin turn! Once again 5 miles from our campsite destination, we began the very steep climb up the mountain.

Our park was nestled in the middle of more beautiful tall trees and our site was huge! Immediately after setting up and finishing a snack we headed to the amphitheater for a bird program.  The kids enjoyed a game of bird bingo while learning interesting facts about birds in the park and all over.  They won with everyone else at the blackout end and walked away with handsome prizes of Smokey the Bear books and pins. I didn't even realize that bear was still around!

When we got back I sorted through the groceries while Laney read her Smokey book and the other two were up to no good.  Since the park in Virginia, they had been attracted to the ash in the fire rings so today they were using it for magic trick smoke.  A shower was definitely in order for these two.



After dinner (will these kids ever get full?) we headed for a walk down the beach trail and around the campground.  Showers were not fun, but we made it through them.  Being the one supervising, I think I got more soaked than they did - not fun walking out in the chilly evening air for sure!

Today wasn't one of those days chocked full with activities and pictures, but they sure did have a lot of fun.

We'll be in search of waterfalls tomorrow!

Quote of the day - As we were going to sleep Brayden and Ryan were talking about something Ryan had said a few days ago.  Ryan said she'd never said it so Brayden, making sure she wasn't lying, asked if she were crossing her fingers or anything when she'd said it.  She said, "I was crossing my butt, does that count?" Yep folks, everything is about butts here.

Day 9 - Drives and Dirt