Virginia Vacation

The kids have been to Virginia multiple times over the years. In 2015 the kids and I spent a week in Williamsburg with my parents. We had been on many vacations with them prior to that, but it turned out that was the last one with them as my mom passed away a year later. In 2019 we spent a few days in Virginia on our way down to Myrtle Beach with Paul's parents. Similarly, it was the last vacation we took with Paul's parents due to COVID and then Ellie passing away. My dad moved to Virginia in 2017 so we also made a few trips to Lynchburg over the last six years. Despite having been to Virginia multiple times, there were still some places that I wanted to take the kids in this state that we hadn't been to yet. So, I planned a one-week trip to Virginia. Since my dad still lives in Lynchburg and Nadia plans to go to college at Liberty, I anticipate future drives to Virginia and back, but I don't think we'll spend another entire week here on vacation in the future. 

We left on Monday morning (Memorial Day). Our first stop was to drop Milo off at the Seibert's house. Then we drove to Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland. The kids each earned a badge. In hindsight we could have spent more hours at the battlefield because the Ranger station at our next stop (Wolf Trap) was closed. Because we had appointments for the kids to have water skiing lessons from 5:00-7:15, we were somewhat limited in what we could choose to do instead. We ended up visiting another National Park site - Prince William Forest Park. There are times when we scratch our heads a bit wondering why a particular site was chosen to be a national park. This would be one of them. The kids earned their second badge of the day. After eating an early dinner at Subway, we headed to Bumpass, Virginia for water skiing lessons. 

Nadia has been wanting to try water skiing for many years. It has been challenging to find an option that wasn't extremely expensive. We had originally planned to go to this place last year in August, but it didn't work to do it that month albeit we did make two trips to Lynchburg, Virginia that month. The weather forecast hadn't looked good for Memorial Day, but thankfully the weather forecast was wrong. The weather was perfect, and the water temperature in the small lake was 80 degrees! Oliver chose to go first. I thought he'd have the hardest time of the three kids, but I was completely wrong. It didn't take him long at all to get up on the water skis. I had gone water skiing on Long Island with my aunt's family when I was growing up, and I knew from experience that was the hardest part of water skiing. Once you're up, it's not nearly as hard to stay up. Oliver did fall off a few times when making turns, but he easily got back up, and he didn't fall of his skis that many times. Of the three kids he definitely spent more time water skiing around the lake as his lesson lasted a full 45 minutes. After his lesson was over, Oliver and Nadia sat in the back of the boat while another man had a very short lesson on his slalom ski as he was preparing for an upcoming competition. Nadia went next. She couldn't manage to get up on the skis. After many attempts, they gave her a break, and Ian had his lesson. He also didn't struggle with learning how to get up on his skis, but he fell off more than Oliver did. Also, he got a bad leg cramp, so his lesson was cut short. The rest of the time we had paid for was given to Nadia. They tried again having her use a pole instead of the traditional ropes, but she also struggled with that. She was up for a few seconds one time with the pole. She said she'll stick with snow skiing. I felt badly since she was the one who most wanted to try water skiing, but at least she knows we have been trying to work through her wish list. Other things on her experience wish list that haven't happened yet include sky diving, swimming with dolphins, hearing Riley Clemmons in concert, visiting England, France, and Italy, and scuba diving lessons. The boys however had a blast, and they both said they want to go water skiing again in the future. I'm not sure when or if that will happen, but I'm glad they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

On Tuesday our first stop was at Maggie Walker's National Historic Site in Richmond. I honestly had never heard of her before, but she was truly a remarkable woman! We watched the movie, and the kids earned a badge. If it had been possible to tour the house sometime between 9:00-10:00 we would done so, but the first tour didn't begin until 10:20, so we skipped the guided tour of her home and went to King's Dominion. When I was growing up, that was my favorite amusement park that was within a reasonable driving distance of our home in Maryland. The "Rebel Yell" was my favorite wooden roller coaster until I moved to Pennsylvania in 1996 - at which point the Phoenix at Knoebels became my favorite. Unfortunately, the roller coaster that looked like it is the most intense one at that park wasn't open (Intimidator 305). Nadia and Ian rode the rest of the 13 roller coasters. I rode some of them, and Oliver rode most of them, which was a big improvement for him as he's usually been too scared to try many of them. His favorite was Twisted Timbers, which we rode multiple times. The only three rides that Nadia and Ian rode that weren't roller coasters were the pirate ship and white-water rapids - both of those I insisted they ride because of my walk down memory lane and a huge drop tower. At most amusement parks the pirate ship doesn't involve going upside down, but I remembered going upside down on the pirate ship at King's Dominion when I was their age. The day we were at King's Dominion it was in the 80's so it was a perfect day to get soaked, but we didn't ride it until closer to 5:00. The kids didn't enjoy getting soaked. My family used to love that ride on a hot day. Paul didn't ride any rides until after we had dinner. He rode three rides altogether - bumper cars (not as good as the ones at Knoebels), old fashioned cars (we hadn't done those in a while), and a wooden roller coaster called the Grizzly with Oliver. For the first time in our lives, I had purchased tickets that included an all-day dining plan. It didn't include drinks. Three of us just drank water all day long (free). Paul purchased two sodas, and Ian used some of his money to buy one soda. We were allowed to get an entree and a side every 90 minutes. I got two meals (lunch/dinner). The rest of the family got three meals because the pizza dinner only included one slice of pizza (with a salad or two breadsticks) so they went back 90 minutes later to get a second slice. Nadia's lunch was gigantic. She couldn't possibly eat it all. I really enjoyed my lunch from the burrito place, but the pasta I had for dinner was a small portion and not very tasty. The meal plan I bought for Canada's Wonderland on Nadia's birthday includes drinks and snacks, and I'm certain we will greatly appreciate those additions. Nadia used some of her money to buy an Italian ice from Rita's. Oliver and I didn't get anything beyond what was included in the dining plan. Although the water park portion of the park opened the previous weekend, it wasn't open on the Tuesday that we went. Altogether everyone had a good time. We're looking forward to seeing the Towfighis again in a little less than two weeks at HersheyPark, and we should be meeting Brendan for the first time that day.

On Wednesday morning after eating an amazing (free) breakfast because we had spent the night at an Embassy Suites, our first stop was Fort Monroe. We were planning to have a guided tour, but once we found out that the Towfighis were meeting us at the beach that day we scrapped the tour and also our plan to visit the Virginia Zoo. The kids earned another badge, and we visited the Casemate Museum. We met the Towfighis a little before noon at Virginia Beach. Eight members of their family plus Toby's sister (Lily) joined us at the beach. Yvonne, Jenna, and Brendan didn't come. My dad met us there a few hours later. The weather was perfect! The kids enjoyed the beach FAR more since they were enjoying it with their cousins. Joe taught a class online for about 2.5 hours, but Paul and I were able to watch the kids while he did that considering only four of the kids were under the age of twelve. We had dinner at a pizza place and sang Happy Birthday to Joel as his 13th birthday was the next day. Grandpa bought 7 large pizzas for our group of fifteen people. The next day I found a place that sells 28-inch pizzas - those slices are gigantic! Probably just two of those pizzas would have been enough. Micah, Julianna, and Wesley spent some time in the outdoor pool at our hotel before their family began the drive back to Maryland. After they left, we went to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream (cost a small fortune!) and also bought t-shirts for me and the kids.

Thursday morning my dad joined us for a trip to the Virginia Aquarium and for lunch at a sub place. We had packed a lunch for Monday, got lunch at King's Dominion on Tuesday, and skipped lunch on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The kids appreciated that my dad treated us to lunch on Thursday. He left after lunch, and we headed to the beach for a few hours. It was a little cooler on Thursday, and their cousins weren't there, so the kids didn't last as long at the beach before they switched to the swimming pool. We had pizza for dinner (just one large for our family), and we had custard from Kohr Bros. (so so MUCH better than Ben and Jerry's). My most favorite ice cream is chocolate/peanut butter twist soft serve. I never had that in 2023, so I was thrilled when I saw that was one of the choices. It was SO yummy! Nadia got something from Sweet Frog instead. Oliver tried my favorite (and also loved it), and Ian had their version of a peanut butter cup "Blizzard."

Friday morning, we left Virginia Beach and drove to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. The kids were at Busch Gardens in Tampa in 2022. Oliver had made progress at Kings Dominion, but he made even more progress at Busch Gardens as there were only two rides that he declined to do. Wow!! Way to go, Oliver!! He discovered he enjoys going upside down on roller coasters. Nadia and Ian only rode one ride that wasn't a roller coaster - Finnegan's Flyer. That was one of the two Oliver skipped. Oliver rode 9 of the 10 roller coasters. They rode some of them multiple times - especially Apollo's Chariot. I insisted that we watch one show that featured Irish step dancing. The kids weren't thrilled by my request, but they enjoyed the show after all. I rode several of the roller coasters. Paul didn't ride anything We didn't have a meal plan. We brought in some snacks (crackers, trail mix bar, etc.) that constituted our lunch. We bought two pretzels to share (which were very overpriced), and we waited to have dinner until after we left the park. We went to McDonald's, and when we found out their ice cream machine caught on fire earlier that day, we went to Rita's for dessert.

Unfortunately, as I was checking into our hotel on Friday night, Oliver started vomiting. He didn't have much success with doing this without making a mess. Thankfully he didn't throw up in the bed, and thankfully Paul was a saint and he cleaned up the messes during the night. The last time it happened was 2:00 am. We had planned to be out the door at 8:20, but we delayed our departure until 9:30 in light of his GI issues. We had planned to attend two programs at the battlefields, but those plans were scrapped. We made a brief stop at George Washington's birthplace. The kids had already earned a badge for that site when we were at another park. Although George Washington is Paul's most favorite president, we weren't too impressed with this particular site. I again found myself wondering why it's a national park site. As of today, we've been to 156 National Park sites in person. Some of them I'd highly recommend, and others I'd recommend skipping. Today Oliver earned his 200th Junior Ranger badge. Nadia has earned 214, and Ian has earned 216. I'm hoping they each hit at least 250. Today the kids earned three badges at Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, and Fredericksburg. They could have earned a fourth, but we didn't make it to Wilderness. The kids and I are not fans of battlefields. Nadia dislikes them the most. I said it was an early Father's Day gift for Paul, as he loves visiting them. We had dinner at Bob Evans. We shouldn't have bothered ordering Oliver a meal as he still doesn't have much of an appetite. Thankfully he hasn't thrown up since the middle of the night, but he has still been dealing with the runs. I'm not sure if he caught a bug or something he ate didn't agree with him. Thankfully the rest of us have escaped it thus far. 

My original plans for tomorrow had been to visit Prince William Forest (which we ended up visiting on Memorial Day), Theodore Roosevelt Island, and Great Falls Park. It turns out the Visitor Center is temporarily closed at Great Falls Park, so I totally revamped our plans for tomorrow. At the moment the plan is to listen to our church's 9:00 service while we drive to the Udvar-Hazy Center (larger site for Air and Space Museum). After lunch at a sit-down restaurant, we might visit Clara Barton's National Historic Site before driving home (and picking up Milo!). We hope to be home by 7:00 so that we can watch the first episode of season four of The Chosen. During this trip we've continued working through the NT portion of the Bible Recap together. It's a plan to read the entire NT in 92 days. We've also been listening to the 7th book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series together. During our trip I also began the 8th (final!) unit in Duolingo. I'm so thankful that we can take trips like this and make memories together as a family, and I'm so thankful Paul has a job now that he can do just about anywhere as he can make stock trades on his phone even when we're at an amusement park!