Highest Point: Campbell Hill, Ohio

B and Buddy visited the highest point in Ohio in January 2010 in the snow, on their own.  They got certificates.  This has been a bitter subject for Princess Sparkley who is all about certificates, but turned down the chance to go on that trip.  On the way home from Ohio, we were on a county trip in the area so we stopped again for the entire family to get this high point.

Little Guy is very adamant that he does not want to get counties.  We usually give high fives to each other when we get a new county.  Little Guy makes sure each time that we understand that he does not want us to give him high fives.  He feels the same way about high points and having to raise his hands in the air.  I usually have to bribe him with candy.  This time, I tried Peanut Butter M&Ms to which he said, "I don't like peanut butter."  (How is this kid mine!?!)  So I had to promise him that I'd dig some plain M&Ms out of the trail mix for him.  (Because he loves trial mix but without all the "yucky stuff, only M&Ms.)

He and PS were both thrilled with their certificates.  Hooray for the high point in Ohio!

Hoosier Hill: Highest Point in Indiana

July 2


Top left picture was taken by Little Guy... that's why I had to crouch down low.

Thanksgiving Break: Going Home

Yea! California! Oh, it's California, PENNSYLVANIA.
(Great Grandma M went to college here to become a teacher in the late 1920s/early 1930s)


The whole Ohio trip our kids were hoping for snow. I was not. Then Princess Sparkley decided maybe there would be snow at the high point in Pennsylvania. We didn't think so. But there was!


Highest Point in Pennsylvania: Mount Davis (3213 feet)

A deer hunter stopped us as we parked the car to ask if we were heading up to the observation tower. Then told us we were going to freeze. B told him how we froze at West Virginia's high point the week before and he asked how high West Virginia's high point was. Then said WV had them (Pennsylvania) beat. Sort of a fun competition.


It was cold. The "hike" was little. Little Guy didn't want to raise his arms (hence the two pictures). The plaque behind us says it's the highest point. You can see the observation tower in the background.


We hiked to the top of the tower. Our kids were a little nervous but very brave. And for once, all of us our looking at the camera (perhaps just to see if the wind was going to blow it over).


After climbing down, B saw a US Geological Survey marker on a large boulder and had his picture taken standing on it. Since he was climbing, Little Guy was climbing too. The picture of the kids with their hands in the air is on the neighboring boulder.


[Keep in mind that you can see these collages larger if you click on them.]

Thanksgiving Break: Going

After traveling to B's parents' in Ohio last January and dealing with cold and snowy driving, we decided this year we'd make our holiday trip to Ohio in November, hoping to miss that. And we did. No snow. Yea.

B skipped his Tuesday night class and we left Tuesday morning around lunchtime. Because it's B... we of course picked up counties on the way**. 10 of them. (12 for Little Guy.) And we got a new highest point**: West Virginia's Spruce Knob (4,863 feet), the tallest mountain in the Alleghenies.


After winding up and around this mountain road past deer hunter after deer hunter, we finally made it to the top. And it was windy and COLD.


Here's the lookout tower.


Here we all are celebrating on top of the lookout tower. And freezing. And almost being blown off.


Since there was no clear marker for where the high point was, at least that we could find, we also took our celebratory pictures with the sign.

We listened to every Weezer album on our drive starting with the Blue Album and ending with Raditude. (We got to our hotel before we could listen to Hurley, and their two newest albums (released in November) are only on our cell phones). B gave them the behind the scenes info on the band (like how there is a big space between the Blue Album and Pinkerton because Rivers (the lead singer) had surgery to lengthen one of his legs).



We stopped for the night in Bridgeport, WV. Little Guy got to sleep on a chair.


*B keeps track of how many counties he's been to.
**And now we are trying to go to the highest point in each state.

The end of day five: heading home

We left Philadelphia around dinner time (after not having any room for dinner). And stopped at the highest point in Delaware.




Buddy assured us he didn't want to stick his arms in the air. But he did.


The sun was setting and the lighting was bad.


Yea! Arms in the air.


The highest point is on a super busy street and cars were driving past on their way home from work. I think I like the more secluded highest points better if B's going to make us all raise our arms in the air.

Highest Point in Ohio Trip

Buddy's riding arrangement for county trips and highest point trips = front seat fully reclined, headrest removed, and on this trip, he got Grandma and Grandpa M's GPS attached to his window.

Buddy and I went to the highest point in Ohio. It's a drive-up that involved less walking than Fort Reno Park in DC.After we took our pictures and left, I realized we'd forgotten to take them with our hands above our heads. Buddy said it was okay anyway. I said, "It'll be our only one not like the others? Should we go back or not?" He decided to go back.
High points visited so far: District of Columbia and Ohio.
by B

 And, they saw Warren G. Harding's home and burial site.

New Hobby

As you probably know, B keep track of things, specifically places he's been.

• He's been to 33 states (AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, WI, WY)
• He's been to 22 state capitols (AZ, CA, CO, DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MO, NE, NV, NM, OH, OK, PA, UT, VA, WV, WI, WY)
• He's been to 1,115 counties
  

So it only makes sense that he would add something else. He recently decided to start visiting each state's highest natural point. To start, on December 17, we went to the highest point in the District of Columbia, which doesn't even count on the list, since it's not a state.

Since we're dealing with the "highest natural point" here, in some low-lying states it's possible that land has been graded as a building pad which is higher than the "high point." Such is the case in Washington, where just next to the high point in Fort Reno Park is the higher land of historic Fort Reno. But hey, at least it's not as bad as Delaware, where the "high point" is actually a step DOWN from the sidewalk.

B declared that everyone needed to have a celebratory jumping pose for the pictures. Buddy complied with the request, but you can tell from the look on his face that his heart wasn't in it. Baby X didn't quite get the idea of raising his hands above his head.

However, we've summitted our first high point, and only have fifty more to go.