Day 8: visiting the Harlows!

Here are a few pictures from our stop in Jacksonville. We were so appreciative of the hospitality that Elizabeth, Mason, Jack, and Clara Beth showed us!

Days 5-7: The Outer Banks

A relatively easy drive from Williamsburg brought us to the Cape Hatteras National Sea Shore where we were supposed to catch a ferry over to Ocracoke island. The Ferry wasn't running when we got there so we stayed at the Frisco campground on Near Hatteras for the night. We were able to get on the ferry the next morning and spent two nights at the Ocracoke campground. We spent most of our time at the beach (and found out that Laura LOVES the sand, especially climbing on the dunes and sliding down the sand) but also visited the local grocery store (there is only one on the island) and ice cream shop plus had a delicious breakfast at the Pony Island restaurant (the only place we could find open before 9 a.m. I guess it's not quite tourist season yet)

Day 4: Virginia living museum and a delicious dinner

We decided to forego the iconic Williamsburg attractions (colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens) for the lower-key (and much less expensive) Virginia living museum in Newport News. It turned out to be a great choice! It was a really neat place for the girls with hands on exhibits and a wolf-feeding demonstration. We found out that wolves LOVE the smell of Obsession cologne and Axe body spray...which could lead to an important survival tip next time you are in the woods alone.

We returned to the hotel where 3 Bobins napped in the car and then we all took a quick dip in the pool. We were able to set out early for dinner and thus get a table at a fantastic local restaurant, Food For Thought. The food was AMAZING. Perhaps one
of the best meals I've had in a restaurant. A stop at Dairy Queen finished off a terrific day. I am a sucker for their butterscotch dip :-)

Oh yeah and then there was a guy making balloon animals in our hotel lobby, a nice surprise for Laura. She asked for a lion of course!

Days 3: Happy Birthday Laura Jane!

Everybody got a good night sleep and we got up early to take the camper to the nice people at Grumbine's rv center near Harrisburg. While we were there, Lady and the Tramp showed up which made the birthday girl very happy. The mechanic fixed our electrical problem so we will have heat (now that we are headed south and probably won't need it :) We got on the road by 11:00 but traffic, traffic and more traffic turned our quick 4.5 hour trip to Williamsburg into a 7 hour trek on I-95 south through Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. We did have a nice lunch stop at Dixie Bones BBQ in northern Virginia...then back to traffic:(. Literally hours of stop and go...ugh. Luckily the girls were awesome and were SO excited to get out of the car. Being a Friday night, most restaurants had super long waits so we opted for a chilis and all had a delicious meal (I was psyched to find healthy options on the menu!) we finished it off with an Oreo molten lava cake as birthday cake ( I only had a few bites, really).

Next up: the Virginia Living Museum

We're off!

We made it to Hershey, Pennsylvania only to find out that Hershey Park wasn't going to be open until the day we leave. No wonder the campground was so empty! We still had a great time though visiting chocolate world where Laura Jane made her own candy bar. We also made it to zooamerica in the afternoon and were pleasantly surprised that our Seneca Park Zoo membership got us in for free. We decided that we were better off not going to the amusement park after all. Kelli was not a fan of sleeping in the camper on the first night but did great on night #2.