Hot and sticky and a TON of peace, love and salt water.

So we made our way from South Carolina to Florida.  We gave up the fight on Gullivers Travels.  We will come back to it but it just wasn't doing it for us.  Since we are now going to be in Hanibal for Tom Sawyer days with our good friends Edie, David, Aimee, Cedric and Pete (OK we have never met Pete but we know we will love him!) for the Fourth of July, we decided to do Huckleberry Finn (we had Huckleberry Finn on our reading list not Tom Sawyer).  We are all loving it!  I think it adds to it that we are going to the event.  The setting along the road got much nicer and more scenic into Georgia and Florida.  It also got hotter.  With a raging temperature around 100 most of the time and again that humidity, we were not looking forward to our unpacking so the trip taking 5 hours was just fine!

Song of the trip:  It was a tie between Fat Bottom Girls and Another Brick in the Wall. Mom got to pick the music but I am lucky that Kirk has instilled in them a love of the classics.  It always cracks me up when Ella loads up a Sting or Police song and knows every lyric.  Sights from the road....we stopped at a roadside stand for water and bathroom and ended up with a treat of the softest fluffiest Peach Fritter and Cherry Butter.  Yummmmmm

We made it to our campsite at Little Talbot Island.  It truly was / is fantastic.  It literally is a jungle.  Moss is dripping from the trees.  There are lizards and snakes and exotic birds and turtles.  The kids all have these pictures on their phones and will hopefully have a chance to post them soon.  The reception is horrible unless you are on a data connection, as I am now.  We just set up nice and slow and were soaking wet when we were done but I fell in love with the charm of it all.

I love the water and try to spend as much time as I can in it whenever we are near.  So on set up night, we walked the mile from our campsite to the beach and went for a dip as the sun went down.  As most people reading this blog will know, my mom has been dead three years now this month.  Her 64th birthday would have been 7/28.  My love of body surfing, adventure, the outdoors, good coffee early in the morning, butterflies, managing crisis and more comes from her.  My mom spent a great deal of her life not wanting to be alive in it and the rest living it to the absolute fullest.  When I was young she had a passion for the book Hope For The Flowers and spent some time having me read it and trying to explain to me why it meant so much to her.  The remembrance of that book and the meaning behind her death and life has left me seeing her always in butterflies.  That first night as we walked to the beach to swim, and Ella to gather her seashells (a passion she got from my mom that is sure to stink up my car), the butterflies were out in beautiful force.  I can feel her a lot on this trip but that moment was extremely special and that combined with the unique and serene area has left me feeling tender about this spot in general.

Now, the kids don't have the same sentimentality for it all and the Bugs (yes with capital B), the heat / humidity, sand, long walk to the beach and the fact that the campsites are so squished together you can hear your neighbors sneeze like they are in your tent, has not left them feeling so warm and fuzzy.  We did enjoy a beautiful bike ride, albeit short because of the heat and more body surfing along with some snorkeling and shelling tonight.  Everyone is getting bronzed and blonder in these hot days.

Tomorrow we are off to St Augustine for a day trip after we get up at 7am per Ella's request to shell.  For all who know Ella's sleeping pattern, this will seem like a lie, it is not!  She is intent on finding a sand dollar and what she considers rare shells.  Katrin has been promised some car time for air conditioning and to avoid some bugs!  Hopefully I will just keep all this love and peace and joy and tomorrow will be as great as the ones that came before it.

The 11 day

Today was great but a little unlucky we went around town buying things but the only three things we bought was an oil change,  mexican food, and a car wash. At the end of the day we went for a hike and then mom decided ella could take a spin in her car with her in it. So for ella this day was awesome. Captain is okay with his leash he still hate's it though. I meant to do my life lesson with that picture of the bird so this is the life lessons for the picture.

Life lesson: Anything that is around your body and is RED is horrible.

Virginia Beach to Charleston, SC

Virginia Beach to Charleston area was very uneventful.  We drove and drove.  I will say that North Carolina was beautiful and the areas we saw made me think that it will be good to go back there some day. Highlights of the drive were the field of sunflowers, a sign right in front of a cemetery saying "Jesus Saves" and Ben Folds ...especially "You Don't Know Me".

South Carolina, however, what we have seen, is not as impressive as North Carolina.  The roads are long and straight and the trees so dense they are all you see.  The last hour of yesterday's seven hour drive felt like five of the hours.

We went into Charleston today (about 30 miles from us) and although I am the proud new owner of baked okra, baked sweet carrots and purple sweet potato chips and I finally got to sample some authentic South Carolina BBQ, there is not much to recommend itself to me here.  The energy seems off somehow.  It might be where we are staying, the cleanest campground I have ever been at filled with the 60+ camper set and not a lot else!  Maybe it is the complete lack of matching architecture and the multiple generational buildings on every corner in the city that seem to speak to bad times over and over. It might be impending rain the last two days which brings 100% stifling humidity and a swarm of bugs I have never seen before, or it might be the deafening silence compared to the busy road we were camped on the last three days. Whatever it is, the energy feels off.  

We did see a lot of Charleston and got a feel for the local culture.  The heavy African influences in the art, style and feel is both beautiful and somehow a little sad reminder of how poorly we as a culture make decisions sometimes.  The food is wonderful.  :)  Even if we had to stay on the lighter side of things.  Healthy eating might be a little hard here if we were eating out or in town a lot!

Camping is becoming an easier adventure even if I did manage to break our tent (nothing a little duct tape and super glue isn't holding together). We all decided cots are compact but are not going to cut the long haul. Although I am now on a cot with a cot air mattress! The long prep of meals compared to a kitchen is now becoming routine and tempers are flaring a little less. We all seem to be finding a groove of sorts. Our schedule seems really tight and some days it feels like all we see is the inside of the car and the tent but I am learning to let those be ok days too!

9-10

The 9th day was the drive to our next camp site. We are now in South Carolina! We took a 7 hour drive from Virginia to South Carolina! It was a long and boring drive. When we got to South Carolina I found that South Carolina is, in some places, abandoned looking.  Other than that it's a pretty place. Where we are camping is actually quite cleaner and smaller than the other campsites. The 10th day we went to Charleston. We walked around a bit with the bird that had on the leash. The bird got a bit stressed and was not happy the whole time. When we got back we had dinner and then I started writing this.

Life lesson: If you want to get people's attention, get a bird. ( All day we had people saying "Hey, look that person has a bird on their sholder.")

9th day

thisiisiss  is the pictures for my life lessonTwthis is that pic 4 11 dayo days ago we got the bird a LEASH, so we have to put it on him whenever we want to go on a walk. Today was great we switched camps so today we are in South Carolina and that took 7 hours to get there, packing up and setting up camp is not so bad anymore so that was good. Tomorrow we are going to have a lot of fun.  

6,7, and 8

OK so well its been a while since I have wrote a blog. So I will start with the drive to Virginia. Ok so we got up a took a five hour drive from Maryland to Virginia. There was a lot of traffic. When we got to the camp we had a bit of trouble with the camp spots. There were not that much to choose from. We finally got a really good spot. The next day the bird flew off again.  Only this time we didn't find our bird for a long time. Our bird had flew off because of the sound of the bay. The camp we're at is right next to the chesapeake bay. My mom had gone off to see the bay with the bird. The bird had got scared of the sound of the wated. We spent a little time looking for the bird with no luck.  Then my mom finally suggested a walk on a trail that she had spotted while our search. We walked for just a bit when we heard our little bird squeak. After we had gotten the bird done from a tall tree we had turned around and made our way back to camp. At the camp mom ordered our bird a leash. (He is not fond of it at the moment. ) oh ya I almost forgot something. While we were looking for the bird we had gone to a activity the campsite provided. There are a ton of activities to do at the camp at different times. We had gone to one of the activities called: What's in the net? It was a fun thing to do involving nets and fish. There were net that were provided and we took the nets and used them to get fish that swam in the bay. Ok so the next day the leash came in and we watched a video of jow yo put it on the bird. We had gone on a walk with our bird with the leash on. Bird hates the leash, he is not a fan. After we built a fire which was huge for a while. And that was the whole 3 days adventures.

Life lesson: Little things can make a big difference, but only for a little while. (I had got this from putting a ton of twigs on the fire to make it bigger (which it had), but it only lasted for a short time.)

Military Row

Caution....philosophizing follows.

Today we drove from DC (Maryland really) to Virginia.  We passed Annapolis, West Point and Quantico.  In addition, we passed Jamestown, Fredricksburg, Williamsburg, Richmond, York, etc.  You couldn't help but feel the fighting force of this country.  Whether it be outside forces or each other, the military presence was Known (with a capital K). For me, this is a comforting thing.

The drive was beautiful if just straight and well congested with traffic.  Made me wish for the days that you can set your car to autopilot (Have you seen this car?) and play some Candy Crush (level 452 and not a little bit ashamed (more like a lot) thank you very much) while the world passes you by.  Alas, I was forced to watch the passing cars.  You know what I did not see?  I did not see, "Guns don't kill people, people do" stickers.  I did not see, "Teach Parents to Parent" stickers.  Nope.  I saw, Siempre Fi (Always Faithful) and military insignia galore.  I saw one car that carried the saying, "My Son Protects."  I smiled feeling safe and like the "protection" of this country continues to be in the right hands.  I hope.

I philosophized and Katrin slept!

It is the luxury of the young!  Also the necessity I suppose.  Katrin has been a GREAT co-pilot.  She finds me all the cheap cheap gas right off the freeway.  Today we only paid $3.21 a gallon!  She is learning mapping skills as well.  Whenever I miss an exit she is right there researching what happens next.  That may or may not have happened once today when I decided that the appealing, non trafficky HOV lane was calling our name, even if it didn't offer an exit for the exit I needed.  Woops!

The girls do spend a lot of time reading.  Ella is reading a book to Katrin, The Raven Boys, that she in fact has read twice!  That girl does love her books!  Truly it is a beautiful thing to see her love of reading and trying to share that with Katrin.

So, we arrived safe and happy and are settled in.  I will probably be quiet on the blogging front while we enjoy these days of "vacation".  I will let the girls handle the highlights!

Ps....on a capitalist note, it's good to see that Dunkin Donuts has died and that 7-Eleven is a thriving business.

4 & 5

Ok so well what happens these days is very long but I am going to make it short as I have not a lot of time to tell you what has happened In full detail. So well yesterday we went to six flags, which was very fun, and we spent the day there getting wet and ridding really fast roller coasters. After six flags we went back to the camp and just made dinner and went to bed. Then today we went on a metro to Washington DC. When we got there we followed a tour guild, which was a little fun, we got to see some interesting things. I wasn't a fan tho. We followed the tour guild till we got to the Lincoln memorial which was when the tour ended. After making our way back to the metro we got back on a metro and went to a zoo. At the zoo we got to see some cool animals. There were some really cool pandas. When we finished walking tho the zoo we got back on a metro and went back to the camp. We ate a marshmallow and some burnt pop corn, I tried to make over the fire we built.  And that was the quick version of two days.

Life lesson: Food made by fire is not always the best food.

4/5 day

Yesterday was a great day we went to Six Flags and the best part is that THERE WAS NO LINES so we just got on the rides we wanted to go on. Oh and here is a trick I have see if you can find the sentence MOST AWESOMEST DAY EVER.

Today was one of those boring days were you have to go to historical place like the Lincoln memorial (in which we did). But we did get to see PANDA'S. All the walking didn't make me very happy though. tomorrow we're leaving for Virginia 5 hour drive great. I'll have to get some sleep sleep tomorrow. The bird flew again today ugh.

Life lesson: 

you get good bacon by making good music.

Still Going....

Yes we are! We are still going.....

Not even a week in and already we have been to two camp sites, hiked about 8 miles together (me about 20), gotten rid of beds for new ones (Katrin could NOT figure out her cot), burned things (cooking with propane or an open fire pit takes some getting used to), gotten lost (lesson: do not try to get lost cord replaced while navigating Washington DC freeways - holy hell!!!), had individual melt downs (mine was over said cord I had lost), lost the bird 4 times, wished we had lost the bird 20 times (he is like having a 3 year old all over again) and more.....

Our trip to Six Flags was AMAZING.  The day turned out to be perfect and we never once waited in any lines.  We each rode whatever we wanted as many times as we wanted and enjoyed the superbly cool weather.  That was a welcome change especially the last two nights.  We slept 10 hours each night.

Today we spent the day in DC trying to fit in all the sites we would have tried to get in in two days.  We went on a walking tour with Free Tours By Foot and I had a really great time.  Dan Kent was our tour guide and he was extremely knowledgeable, entertaining and just genuinely nice.  The girls were a bit bored but liked some of the fun tidbits he threw their way.  All in all we saw the George Washington Monument (not a memorial because he was alive when they started planning it although it wasn't finished being built until the 100 year celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence), the White House (which used to be situated on a canal and marsh land and was so overrun by stink, mosquitos and the such that presidents would high tail it out of dodge first chance they got), the Jefferson Memorial (so situated so that Jefferson could watch to make sure the Executive branch didn't have "too much" power), the National Mall (who can forget the pictures of the "I Have a Dream" speach?), the WWII Memorial (where the states are so organized in chronological order but across the aisle from each other), the Vietnam Memorail (made of black polished marble so that we see ourselves in the names listed), the Lincoln Memorial (where one side of him deals with his "ideals" in the Gettysburg address and the other side with the realities of what happened after the war) and the Korean War (called a war by those that fought in it).  Whew!  Typing that was exhausting!  No wonder after we were done, Katrin was ready to call it a day.

After a rejuvenating $10 sandwich in our Nation's capital however, we headed off to the "free" National Zoo in the Smithsonian park.  I was told by several locals that although, one of the most heavily visited tourist attractions of our nation, public transportation for tourists was not obvious or easy and we ended up walking another mile (after our already estimated 4 miles) from the Metro.  We saw our pandas, elephants, otters, zebras and more via another walking expedition (the park is over 8 miles) and then walked the mile back to the Metro.  It was a ton of walking.  In the end, though, I am proud of the girls.  Ella never once took a hard line and only the minor, "this is not the most fun" moments, she really was a trooper.  Katrin might be struggling a little more.  We have high hopes for the rest of the summer.  She (and I) can do this!

The pictures are really good from today.  Take a look at the looping feed on this page.  I add them as we go.  So far the girls have forgotten their phones every adventure but soon you will see their initials on the photos that are theirs.

Tonight's dinner was a grilled chicken salad and oh my Goddesses was it amazing.  As a special treat I have some campfire popcorn (a throwback from my childhood camping trips) and that should be a treat.

Tomorrow we are off to our next location and a couple of days of really doing nothing at all except bike riding, lazing on the beach and hiking around.  I think we are all looking forward to that.

Second day and third day

So for yesterday and today we were kinda having slow quiet days. Yesterday we went for a walk were the bird flew off again.  This time a guy with a chainsaw and another person running toward us.
This find and seek with the bird took longer than the others. When we got back we sat back and either took a nap or read. The day after that we packed and moved to a new campsite. This camp site is a lot better with heat and fly wite, but not spiders and tick wise. Well we set up camp after a hour drive and went to the store to get food. Then we came back and finished making camp. After a while we went to a pool that did not end up so good. We swam for about 2 minutes.  There were 2 pools, the out side pool and the inside pool. We went into the outside pool for about 2 minutes till the people there said that the pool was closed. The inside pool was open tho. We go to the inside pool and find out that 18 and older have the pool for 15 minutes every hour. We wait 15 minutes. When the whistle blows to tell the kids that they are allowed in every kid waiting basically jumps into the pool.  About 2 seconds after the kids get in another whistle goes off tell people to get out. It turned out that some had gone number 2 in the pool. We got back to the camp site after getting a refund and made dinner, took showers, and wrote our blogs.

3 DAY

So today was getting better. I had a meltdown because I missed home, so mom cheered me up by going to the pool. I had fun there but I only got 10 minutes to swim. Tomorrow we're going to have lots of fun we're going to go to Six Flags.

Lesson of the day: sometimes a vicious animal can be in a pretty place.

It is HOT

So I'm going to start this blog with my life lesson: Expectations are always managed by reality.

The last two days have been interesting for us. We are at a new campsite, as we moved closer to Washington DC so that we could see the sights of DC easily. That was always the plan. However, our other plans were to go to Six Flags America today in between the two campsites. On our way to the campsite we realized that we didn't know what to do with the bird. If we left him in the car we would come back to dinner instead of our living breathing pet. Thank the goddesses that this one time our camp sites were less than two hours apart and the new campsite was actually closer to Six Flags than the old one.

So, we made our way to the new campsite which I had very low low hope for. This campsite is about 12 miles from DC. Being so close to the city I assumed it was going to be one of those in the middle of the highway, dirt camping pad type things. When we arrived we found a beautiful Green Belt Parkway with acres and acres of trails and beautiful campsites. As we had just left a campsite that was extremely hot and fly laden, this was a welcome change.

With new campsites comes lots of work. First we had to pack up in the morning and then unpack in the afternoon. this was a rude reality awakening for both kids. I feared this moment. Truly it was as bad as I thought it might be. The temperature is in the hundreds and the humidity level is at 90 percent. You can imagine this is not the most ideal situation to be lugging heavy equipment in an out of our car and setting it up. In addition, sleeping is a whole new adventure when the light shines in your tent at 5 in the morning and the sounds of nature serenade you awake. Between the last 2 nights we may be gotten about 4 to 5 hours of sleep each. Needless to say tempers are tight.

In the end, it became apparent that the better choice between heading to Six Flags and staying at Camp, was for us to settle into our new campsite rather than heading to Six Flags today. We each tried to find what would settle and sooth us. Ella read. Katrin asked to go to a local pool where we swam for a little while and then I took a long walk in the woods. All in all, it was a great day. Not what we expected but better.

Tomorrow we go to Six Flags. The day after that we will go see the sights of Washington DC. This change in plans will cause us not to be able to do as much as I wanted but that's life and it was worth the sanity.

That's a picture of us at dinner time in our new campsite. I've been asked a couple times what we eat. Tonight's dinner included Mesquite flavored chicken breast, grilled sweet potato, and boiled carrots. We were all fans of the chicken and the sweet potato but we missed our usual brown sugar on our carrots.

First day

Alright, it started off as a slow day. Woke up, last minute pack, ate breakfast, got the bird, and got in the car. Cant really call that anything but slow. We were on the road for about 5 hours. Mostly it was boring, but I did get in some more sleep. When we got to the camp site I was not impresses, and I'm still not impressed. We got the tent up, but while we were getting the tent up we had a little problem. We had the bird out with us while we were putting up the tent. The tent had scared him a little and we finally realized how far our little bird could fly with clipped wings. Captain (our bird) went up into the sky and circled the camp a few times then ventured off a bit. It took us a while to get the bird down from a branch the bird had landed on. After that was taken care of we set up camp. After a while of nothing really happened except getting settled in. Then for a second time the bird flew off again only a little sorter distance. The problem with the second take off and landing was that a dog had happened to be close and was interested in our little bird. It took a talk with the owner of the dog to keep the dog away to just get the bird down. After the two fly offs we were careful to make sure nothing scared the bird. Other then the bird flying away nothing really funny happened, except made when we passed a person with a cat on a leash.

Life lesson: Everything needs to feel freedom at one point or another.

THE FIRST DAY!

FIRST DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! OK so I thought the first day was going to be the best but I was wrong, the bird flew off TWICE and the second time he got chased by a dog so that was about the "best" thing. The tent was easy to set up but the beds were hard, because they are one of those cots that have to be set up.Oh and it is FREAKING HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Life lesson: A predator might just be on a leash walking by you (especially for the bird.)

Day 1

Our first camp spot!

Martinak State Park, MD

As far as the first day of adventures go, today was pretty nice. Unfortunately for you the reader, there are no Chevy Chase Natioanal Lampoon Vacation tales to tell. Fortunately for us, that is the case.

Today we drove through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and landed in Maryland. We were able to wave hello and goodbye to THE City off of I95 and we were both dumbfounded and very impressed by the rural lands of Maryland. Where's the beach?

Two things of note today; as we're spending a lot of time in the car we're listening to stories and to music. Today's reading material was Gulliver's Travels. Today's choice song was by the Godzillaz entitled Clint Eastwood. Today's sight of note was a street called "Moot Point"!

After about an hour and a half drive down 313 in Maryland ( or mary land as we teasingly call it) both girls are very certain they never wish to live in rural Maryland. However, we all agree it is beautiful.

Tomorrow we search out the beach or at least the famous crabs. We also plan to get in a little bit of canoeing time and maybe a hike is in store for us.

I am filled with a ton of gratitude and peace today to be beginning this adventure with both girls. I'm constantly impressed by how unique they are as individuals and yet how similar they are and how loving they are sisters.