Outer, "outta" Banks and Myrtle Beach

We have been looking forward to getting to North and South Carolina, as everyone we know talked to us about the "Outer Banks" and the quaint beauty of the southern states.  We were not disappointed.  We were coming off of busy days in Williamsburg and were ready for some beach days.  As we drove over the bridge into the northern part of the outer banks, we stopped at the visitors center, unhooked the car and headed north in search of the beloved and famous wild horses.  It was a long 20 mile drive through busy beach towns.  The road literally comes to an end at the beginning of a 10 mile beach stretch.  There are house that are only accessible via the beach by 4 wheel drive vehicles.  We let air out of the four tires, and off we were heading down the beach. 


The end of the road, beginning of beach



Stopped to see some gigantic dead turtles.  Too gross to include.



And we find the Wild Horses!!!!

It was a great different experience for all of us and Matt couldn't help himself from drenching the car in one swoop of coast line.  The boys think he walks on the moon when he does stuff like that.  I was distracted at the time and I didn't have the same reaction.    Afterwards, we found a great local secret to filling up our tires again.  Only in a small beach town would we find tire pumps lined up!

After pumping our tires back up, we headed down the road and enjoyed the narrow road of the outer banks.  Our first camp site was a nice quiet place.  We stayed for three nights and enjoyed the beaches and kite surfers all around. 


Outer banks beaches in Buxton, NC.  Quite windy and cloudy this day, so they build a fort

A favorite shot of the boys

I just love this photo.  A girl enjoying the moment

 
We moved further south, but first had to use the ferry to get off the islands without backtracking.  It's better to pay a small fee to load on a ferry, than gas to go around.  Plus, it's just more fun.  The first ferry went Okracoke Island.  A very cool small island where we found a café and went to finish up our online schoolwork.


We took up the whole side of the ferry!  Do we look lopsided?



Sometimes school includes smoothies.  This was their lucky day.

 The next ferry was a bit longer as the boats have to zig zag around the sand bars.  There are over 1500 ship wrecks and quite a few that are still visible from years before good navigation. It was a rainy afternoon, so a good time to relax in the RV with open windows, reading our books.

As we pulled back inland, we found a great park with a water slide. The kids were so disappointed that it was closed down. One of the downsides of the offseason. Our next park was on an another isle called Pleasure Island which wasn't a great park other than location. We were a block from a fantastic beach. Tanner will tell you that it was his favorite beach as he picked up an unwanted parakeet from our neighbor. As parents, both Matt and I felt like the kids were ready for a small change from the routine. They were so excited!!



This is one happy boy! Meet Tweety

Daddy finally got a beach day. We all loved playing on the boogie boards in this gorgeous surf. 

Onward south into South Carolina!  We have a 5 day stay in Myrtle Beach at a nice resort using our Passport America membership. The pool is really nice but very cold! We have the place to ourselves.

When it's that cold, the kids find other ways to play at the pool. Tanner is the taxi driver. 

We splurged on alligator adventure one day. It was a bike ride away from is and turned out to be very fun. A local park that's been open since the 90's. It's got great photos of one of the first owners/trainers getting bit by a gator. He survived and it's a great shot. We held a baby gator. I loved it.


High five little guy!

Tense moment.  (Just kidding, Dad.)



I really was that excited! 

 

We walked on Myrtle Beach boardwalk today after a library day a block away. It's a mixture of old and new architecture , stores and beauty. 

                                                 Great sign outside. Made me want to eat there.
 

                         Gorgeous day, no crowds. Very busy place in the summer. 

                  I liked this old storefront. The rotating peach has been around since 1937. 

We head about 15 miles south tomorrow to a park called Lakewood which is ocean front and has a new waterpark on site. How can we pass that up?  Photos to come.......

Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia. Our history lesson continues.

We are now heading south and our last big history lesson involved coming to Williamsburg, VA, which has preserved a portion of it's downtown to teach about revolutionary history.  The entire working force and small town is in the original colony form, including the governors manor, Capitol, homes, taverns and even the slave houses and plantations that would have existed.  I had to remember that we the colonies were BRITISH, not American.....yet.  The British flag flies clearly all over the colony.

On the plantation.  Crushing the corn for corn meal.

A slave lets us in his house and explains what he does for every day and how he lives.

Inside the abode, we learn that 15 or more slaves lived here. Children on the ground, many without blankets. If you walked, you worked.

Outside, another slave gave the kids a GREAT talk about how everyone in the house contributed to the family and sat to the table with grateful and thankful hearts.  If they did not do chores with a grateful heart, they did not eat.  He then asked them if they were grateful helpers.  I liked him A LOT.

Beautiful original tunnels into Williamsburg

Transportation!

Exploring the governors house which was very showy with lots of guns and swords.

A great actor in colonial dress gave us a tour of what the British governor's house looked like and how he and his family fled as the patriots and British began to near the point of war.

Near the end of the tour in the ballroom

Walking the streets to shop, eat and talk to the colonists!

The Declaration of Independence read out loud!

The canons are fired!  Notice how scared the people are. 

A local girl showed Matt how to whip the ox when they are working.

The yoked oxen were hauling wood across the grass.  Alex tried to pet one, but was told to step back as they were "working"

She likes riding on her brothers shoulders

Very friendly colonist

A certain change in the weather brought rain all night and drizzle the next day.  We discovered an outlet mall near by us and to my surprise, Matt wanted to go.  I know, I had to ask twice if he was feeling well.  It was a fantastic outlet though with all the goodies;  Nike, Adidas, North Face, Columbia, Ann Taylor, Gap etc...  We stocked up on jackets and new shoes.  We have walked right out of our shoes.  We headed out to Yorktown, in hopes of biking the battlefield, but it was too cold! Quite a different day from yesterday. Our new coats helped.

More canons at the battlefield of Yorktown

Will she be an actor or a soldier??  Or just a ham....

 End of Day 75.  We are officially two days away from beating our old record of lasting 77 days in the RV.  Interesting enough, even with our adventurous days, our boys would return home in a heartbeat. 

How To Crush a Penny for Free!

My kids love to spend money on the machines that crush a penny.  Well, our latest camp has a railroad track.....a working railroad RIGHT behind us (like 10 feet behind the RV spot).  It has active trains several times a day AND night, which have caused Matt and I a few nights of little sleep.  The kids, however, love the idea of crushing pennies on the train track (totally Matt's idea, Dad). 

Step 1:
Put the penny on the track.

Step 2:  Listen for the train.

Step 3:  Wait for train.  After it passes, hunt down the penny!

The penny machines have nothing on this.  Goodbye, penny machines, goodbye. 

From Virginia into the metropolis of Washington DC

We have been eagerly awaiting Washington D.C.  We don't have too many "appointments" on this trip, but rather we have a general schedule.  With the world as it is nowadays, we discovered that to see the White House, we had to set an appointment months in advance through our Idaho Congressman.  So, we put our request in three months ago with tentative dates.  As our dates grew nearer, they finally got back to us with a much later date of Oct. 3 to tour the WH.  We were a bit disappointed as it meant that we were going to wander around a bit in wait for that Friday.  As it turns out, that was all part of a grand plan.  If we had been on our own timeline, we'd have never met our newest friend, Debbie. She has been so good to our family and together we've conquered Gettysburg, Walter Reed Medical Center (where the kids witnessed first hand the effects of bombs on limbs) and the now Washington DC.  Debbie is a retired Navy Master Chief, who absolutely loves history.  I am so grateful for her experience and knowledge of this area, as it's changed the way we've learned and studied it.  Walter Reed was her idea and walking through the hallways where we witnessed a soldier with two missing legs and one arm, smiling as he conversed with another soldier was so moving.  Then were able to talk to and thank another young man who rides a Segway with his prosthetic leg. It was a field trip we will not soon forget. 

We moved from the Virginia camp, Skyline Resort into our closer DC camp in Maryland. 

Debbie and Elise in Gettysburg

A rare treat of Hagen Daz shakes in uniform after a big day at Walter Reed MC.

Petting zoo at the Resort where we were camped in VA.

We get to meet Debbie's grandkids.  Sadi and Elise were two peas in a pod.

Alex uses his boogie board in the gorgeous pool at camp

That day, we sadly drove off, only to hear from Debbie hours later asking if we'd mind if she joined us in DC.  Since then, she's gotten us a great spot on Andrews Air Force base in the Family Camp.  She's taken us into DC and shown us the National Mall and then escorted us to her favorite spots. 

The day started at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and we weaved our way through FDR, Korean War, Vietnam, WWII war and of course, the Washington Memorial.  The big views were wonderful, but the smaller, less known memorials were just as striking and fun to explore. 

Eleanor Roosevelt, an amazing first lady

FDR served four terms( 16 years!) during the Depression years, hiding his polio from the public at age 39.

I was moved by many great quotes, but after Walter Reed, I better understand FDR's mindset her.

Loved seeing Alex working on his Ranger packet here in this amazing setting.  Washington Monument behind him.

One of all of our favorites.....Abe Lincoln!!!!! 

Taking it all in where Martin Luther King's famous words rang out (and Forest Gump)

Albert Einstein is off the National Mall, so not many people get to see this great statue

 We moved from the Memorials to the Ford Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a play.  We learned the conspiracy, event timeline and fate of John Wilkes Booth (a famous actor at the time) who committed the murder.  We even got to see the actual weapon in the museum. He broke his leg jumping from the balcony and escaping the theatre. It's such a crazy feeling to stand in the exact theater that such history took place.

Balcony where Abe Lincoln was SHOT!

Across the street, he died of his wounds at a home that is now preserved in history.

This was a bookshelf illustrating ALL the books written about Abe Lincoln.  Over 1000!

Well, the day was LONG, and the kids were tired.  Debbie wanted us to see a different side of the area, so we went to National Harbor, which is a beautiful area with a new giant Capitol Ferris Wheel.  We ate a fabulous meal and dared to ride the Wheel afterwards with the lights of DC beneath us.  Spoiled rotten, are we. 

180 feet above water, over looking the Potomac River

Cool sculpture brought here out of DC recently.  Kids LOVED jumping all over him.  "The Awakening"

On the Ferris Wheel!!  Tanner and Alex did not love the heights, interesting enough.

Finally, Friday arrived and we set out early for our White House tour, feeling very privileged.  That is, until we realized we were at the back of a long line of other "very privileged" people. We waited in long lines, with lots of security checks.  We also could not bring anything with us (no purses, backpacks etc) which can be a pain when in the city for the day.  When we finally did enter the ground hallway, our kids were less than thrilled.  I wanted to shake them, as I quietly explained that they were standing IN the White House, instead of reading about it like most 5th and 6th graders.  Regardless of the kids lack of awe, for me, it was exciting to see the beautiful portraits of past presidents and first lady's.  The tour is self led with Secret Service agents in each room to answer questions.  It was disappointing to realized how short and uninformative the actual tour was.  We did have an exciting moment when the President's Marine One helicopter appeared outside the window and we were able to watch it land.  Turns out the President was in House and would soon be leaving.  As the crowds crammed the windows for a glimpse, we found ourselves without a view.  We took the opportunity to talk to a young looking SS agent for a bit and then left out the entrance of the House.  Did you know that it is one of the smaller presidential houses in the world?  A mere 5000 square feet.  The first family lives on the floor above the tour floor, so we didn't get even a glimpse of the first dog.  As we left, we walked out front where many protests were occurring and the kids were able to witness the SS agents in action, as well as, see the snipers on the roof of the WH as his helicopter took off (well, his and the other two decoys).  The amount of people who run the show all around there is staggering.  

The ONLY photo we could get right after the tour.  No photography allowed inside the House.

 Yesterday, we were able to meet up with a relative that we've never met before.  This is Kitty, who is our Great Aunt.  She was married to John, who is Grandpa's brother.  She is a wonderful woman who shared her amazing life stories with us for the afternoon.  She traveled all over the world with John, who was a submarine captain and later, Navy Attache' in Portugal.  We had a lovely afternoon with she and Michelle and Roy (her daughter and husband).  After visiting the White House, it was fun to hear some government perspective from a family who is in the trenches of Washington!

90 years young!  What a treat for our family!

Beautiful house in Vienna

A rare "play all afternoon" day for the kids.  They didn't even go in the theater room.