Jul 08
Everyone,
After a 5am wake up call and leaving in a big beautiful thunderstorm, we drove for hours north. We stopped about noon-ish in New York State, at the ranger station in the Allegheny Mountains. Why there? I wanted a stamp for my National Park Passport! But the station was closed on Sundays AND holidays. No stamp for me.
The stop was not unwelcome, however. There wasn’t a much eating because there were these 3 big boulders near the picnic table. Just right for climbing on!
After a few more hours in the car (and driving down TINY roads…stupid GPS), we finally made it to our destination!
And we saw the people we wanted to see!
And did what we wanted to do!
Then we piled back in the car and drove another few hundred miles to where we were going to spend the night. More tomorrow!
Safire
PS- Does the waterfall look familiar? It’s my header!
SafireMusicMan, my family, national parks passport, road trips road trips
Oct 13
Everyone,
The drive home was somewhat eventful. We didn’t leave until around 12:30…maybe 1pm. We enjoyed the swimming pool for a good 45 minutes and ran around the hotel room shoving things into every nook and cranny. How is it that I got all of my stuff there in 4 bags, and had to come home with 6? Stuff explodes with kids. It’s weird.
Juice took my parents to the airport and drove around through Delaware (small wonder!) and I took the short way home with all of the kids. We talked about maybe switching rolls, and I would drive my parents back to the airport but then what would he do with the kids for hours at home by himself? Especially since 2 of the kids kind of need me every few hours. And I kind of need them too. Anyway, it worked out the best and Juice came home cross and tired.
I came home by way of Gettysburg. It was a beautiful fall day. Both the boys are screaming in the back and Butterfly is complaining that she can’t hear her movie. (“They too loud! Make the movie louder!”) I saw the sign for Gettysburg: 6 miles and figured I could make it there and find a nice monument to park next to and feed these boys. One mile away, Butterfly starts yelling, “I need to go potty!” Perfect. We were stopping anyway, right?
I am amazed at how long she can hold it because it took me probably half an hour to find parking. Parking that was not 6 lots out in the boonies. It was far enough away from the new visitor’s center that I had to pull out my stroller and strap everyone into it and walk about 7 rows of cars up. Everyone is so excited to see the twins and frankly, I’ve had enough of being the show. It was fun for awhile. Now stop your “aww…twins!” and just move on.
Wow, that came out harsher than I wanted. Apparently it has been bugging me. Will rant later.
As I was waiting in the ladies room for the big stall, several people came up to me and told me they would watch my kids if I had to go. No no no. I will not let strangers watch my children!! I know they were being nice but seriously, do you think anyone would take you up on your offer? In the end, an attendant showed me where the family room is. Whoever invented this with it’s baby changer, potty, chair, sink, kid friendly seats is a genius. I changed both boys (both poopy), had Butterfly potty, fed the boys and never even had to leave the room. It was awesome!
I figured since I had gone to all that trouble to get everyone out of the car, I may as well walk around some. The only path I could find was leading to the bus parking lot so we toured that and got back into the car. We then drove around Gettysburg looking for “statues” as Butterfly called them. They aren’t hard to find. I took a few pictures, enjoyed the fields of black eyed susans they have there and headed home.
We got here in one piece, although Fern is a little more worse for the wear. Never give your 3 year old a can of chips and expect the back seat to resemble anything like a back seat for awhile. Thankfully, FHE tonight was clean the car so she’s back to being her crumb free self. Until we ride in her again.
It took me all day to go grocery shopping and plan my week out. Looks like I’ve got a lot going on!
Safire
PS- Tried to upload pictures…stupid internet is too slow. Will try again tomorrow.
SafireGettysburg, national parks passport, Pennsylvania, road trips
Oct 09
Everyone,
My feet are sore. My kids are knocked out. My head hurts just a little bit. I must have been sightseeing today! We were off to Philly today. What an interesting city! Our first stop was the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We had to stop and get food for us and the boys right when we got there. Butterfly dropped most of her lunch on the ground and we were asked about 3 times about the boys.
We toured Independence Hall. Which meant that my mom listened to the lecture and my dad and I and the kids wandered around and tried to keep Butterfly out of trouble. That girl has boundless energy! We took some kind of cool pictures (still no pictures at the moment…too tired) and enjoyed the square outside some.
By the time we got to the Liberty Bell, Butterfly had had enough. She was just so busy. Maybe I had had enough. I’m not sure. In any case, my dad took some pictures of us in front of the bell and we moved on to another nursing session while Butterfly and my dad ran and ran and ran.
We then decided to walk to to Penn’s Landing (where Lord Penn landed, and why Pennsylvania is named what it is) and that was probably not the best choice. It was a long walk for a look at the river. We saw New Jersey. We were also stopped by one very large, very drunk women who tried to touch my boys! I don’t mind people looking at them and asking questions, but touching is a no no.
We then walked the long walk back towards our car to find dinner. Dad wanted a cheese steak but did you know that most things close at 5pm downtown? No? Neither did we. So we wandered around trying to find something. And then we were looking for anything but could not find anything.
We lost our car. We couldn’t remember where we parked it. We had to ask a police woman if she knew where One Independence Hall was because that’s what the building said. She didn’t, but suggested we look on our parking ticket for the address. Duh…we had it! She pointed us in the right direction.
One car later, we tried to look for a cheese steak place beyond the Independence Hall area. We found Broad Street, and drove down the Avenue of the Arts in Philly. Cool to see all sorts of art things while we were on the look out for a cheese steak. No such luck. Market Street maybe? Nope. Sigh…we gave up and headed back to the hotel.
We stopped off to feed the boys about 10 minutes later and eat. They screamed when we put them back in their car seats. Maybe too much time in them? We made it back to the hotel in one piece and were in bed a little earlier today than yesterday.
Juice comes up tomorrow. Yay!
Safire
Safirenational parks passport, road trips
Oct 25
Everyone,
So I got sick and then my parents came to visit and then I got sick again. It’s been an exciting 3 weeks at our house. Juice is having a hard time getting all of his hours in at work because he is too busy taking care of me and my sick self. Butterfly is LOVING her Daddy time and barely notices that I’m conked out on the couch not doing anything. But Juice did have to go back to work eventually and she is getting a little frustrated that Mommy won’t play. Mommy is just too sick. I hate this cough. And now, of course, she has it so she is up all hours of the night coughing. I just hope that Juice doesn’t get it.
My parents’ visit was a blast. My mom dropped her purse in the ocean which is huge and SO FUNNY! We also saw a few wild horses, (gotta love Assateague) enjoyed a lot of road food and a bunch of historical information in Jamestown and Yorktown. Lots and lots of fun! Pictures later during NaBloPoMo which starts next week. Look for a post every day from me!
Yesterday, I was laying on the couch and Butterfly came into the living room with a pizza box and a huge smile on her face. “Can I have pizza?” It was so cute and I wish I had my camera. Sadly, no pizza was eaten because we were having tacos for dinner. But it was still very cute.
Safire
SafireButterfly, NaBloPoMo, national parks passport, parent visit
Sep 11
Everyone,
Okay, I know Labor Day was weeks ago. But I just got the pictures off my camera a few days ago and thought you’d like to see us hiking. You know I have this national parks passport book. It is so much fun to put that little stamp in the book! It’s become kind of a quest for me. My goal is get all of Maryland’s stamps in the next year. Most of the ones we have left are battlefields and houses to see. But Catoctin is one we were still able to Soot with us. We had a great time! We hiked only 2 of the 4 little short trails I had planned out because it took us 2 hours to get out of the house.
We thought we should buy some lunch! So we had to stop at the sandwich place and pick up something. And then I thought that it might cost to get into the park (often does) so we had to stop by the ATM which was really busy. And then we had to stop by the babysitting place and feed/pick up their dog. We took her with us. I had no idea it would take that long to do those little errands but they did.
Anyway, we were able to hike to the highest point in the park,
and also the opposite view. These mountains are nothing compared to Utah’s mountains, but they are nice. Butterfly got tired half way through and it’s a good thing I still had my carrier in the trunk. It was a good day for everyone!
Safire
SafireLabor Day, national parks passport
Jul 02
Everyone,
On Saturday, we decided to do a little local sight seeing. Periodically, we decide to be tourists and see what the area has to offer. Okay, I decide, Juice just comes along for the ride. One thing that I have been really into lately is this national parks passport book I bought in Assateague last year. Basically it’s a small blue book with places to get stamps of each of the national parks. The stamping station is usually in the ranger station and it says the date you visited and the name of the park. I think I have everything for downtown DC. I’m now working on getting all of the national parks in Maryland. There aren’t many. Had a free weekend so we looked at the list and decided which park to visit. Harper’s Ferry has been on the top of my list to visit for awhile so that’s where we decided to go. Juice was all for it because he thought it was an actual ferry.
It is not an actual ferry. It’s a small town in West Virginia where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. It’s a very important town in civil war history. It passed hands 4 different times through out the war. Very interesting place.
So, on the way to Harper’s Ferry, we got lost. We got to talking in the car and missed our exit. We missed our exit for about 50 miles. We were about 10 miles from Pennsylvania instead of West Virginia. Oops! It added an extra 2 hours in the car. (1 hour up, 1 hour back) My plan had been to get there, do a small hike and then down to the town for some lunch and looking around. But instead we had to get lunch in Hagerstown, MD and got to Harper’s Ferry, WV at about 1pm (Butterfly’s nap time). We passed through a very tiny part of Virginia and over a very beautiful bridge to Harper’s Ferry. (Lots and lots of tubing on this part of the Potomac, looks like fun!)
The visitor’s center is above the town, about 2 miles up. They have shuttle buses that run down there every 15 minutes. But we had Soot with us and couldn’t go on the bus. So we took the easiest hike that starts at the visitor’s center. That took us up to Murphy’s Farm which overlooks the Shenandoah river. There is a very steep bank of about a mile down to the river. At the very end of the war, the Confederate troops (who had held this land before and so knew about the farm) climbed this bank (with cannons!) in the dark and surrounded the Union troops. They surrendered after their general died, close to this farm.
The farm is very hilly, and I can see how the troops got about half way across the farm before the other side found them. Here is Juice and Butterfly checking out the cannon marking the place where the Confederate troops stood. Imagine a big group of trees about 1,000 feet in the direction the cannon is pointing. That’s where the Union troops were.
The weather was very beautiful that day, but it was still pretty hot. And oh the bugs!! I hate the little gnats that swarm your head no matter how much bug spray you put on. Soot was tuckered out by the time we got to the cannon and she decided to make use of the little shade it gave off. It’s not every day you get to use a civil war cannon for shade!
One other interesting thing about this farm was John Brown’s fort. From what I remember about the little signs they had up, John Brown was one of the slaves that started the Civil Rights movement shortly after the war. He was killed in the fire station house in Harper’s Ferry. The fire house because known as John Brown’s fort. It was moved to Chicago from Harper’s Ferry in the late 1800s. From there, a lady saved it 
from demolition and moved it back to this farm. It was here until the mid 1900s when they moved it back to Harper’s Ferry and it’s original standing place. They left the foundation on the farm to commemorate this important building. Butterfly thought it was fun to jump off of it.
And because she fell asleep in the stroller walking back to the car and stayed asleep in the transfer, we just drove through the town. Besides, there is no place to park down there! I was disappointed we couldn’t go wander around the little shops and the civil war picnic they had set up for the 4th of July. Yes, I have once again showed up at a place where they are having a celebration or fair and I didn’t plan it. We drove passed the picnic and there were people dressed in period clothes passing out something. 
Stupid no parking rule! I made Juice take a few pictures of the town on the way through it.
I think it’s worth going back to Harper’s Ferry to do a few more of the hikes in the town, and also to see the part of the C&O canal that runs past. Plus, now I have to find out where the working ferry is (somewhere near Leesburg, VA?) so Juice can see it.
Safire
PS- Butterfly got a new state! I don’t think she’s ever been to West Virginia. So now she has been to 10 states. Pretty good for only being 2 years old. I have been to 41 states, and Juice, I believe 28.
SafireHarper's Ferry, national parks passport, West Virginia
