Shenandoah Colors

10/16

On Tuesday, we drove up to Shenandoah National Park to see the fall colors.  We also saw a bear!!  We drove along Skyline Drive, starting in Front Royal, got to Matthew's Arm Campground and turned around to head back.  At one point, a car was stopped with its hazard lights on going the other direction.  We couldn't figure out why until we went past and saw the black fuzzy blur in the bushes on our side of the road.  A bear!  We U-turned and tried to spot it again (only half of us saw it) but it has made its way too far away from the road. 

Mystery Baby has a love/hate relationship with the car.  If we can manage to get him to sleep, he sleeps wonderfully.  But most of the time, he just screams.  On this longer trip, we finally got him to sleep and he stayed in the car for the photo ops, hence the photo of him sleeping in his car seat.

New car with its new license plate (and Romney bumper sticker).

We stopped for apple donuts at The Apple House on the way home.

Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD

 B has been wanting to take us to Fort McHenry in Baltimore since we moved here.  It's where Francis Scott Key penned what became the national anthem during the War of 1812.  The Pittsburgh Pirates were playing the Baltimore Orioles (an unusual match up) so we headed to Baltimore for the game (which I told B counted as an early Father's Day present, even if I could only convince one of our kids, PS, to cheer for the Pirates).  Little did we know, there was a huge Flag Day celebration (or Sailabration as they called it) going on at the fort and the harbor.  We parked forever away from the Fort and walked in (no parking due to crowds they were expecting) and just as we neared the fort there was a LOUD noise and fighter jets flew over.  It turned out to be the Blue Angels and we got to enjoy watching them for about 30-45 minutes. 

Shenandoah National Park

We drove to the northern part of Shenandoah National Park, visited the visitor's center there and then went on a shortish hike to an old cemetary.  We saw some interesting insects and two deer as we got back to the road.  When we first arrived at the vistor's center, a ranger showed us on his digital camera a film he'd gotten at about 6:30 that morning of a mama bear and her two cubs walking along Skyline Dr.

Birthday Hike

Some of the National Parks and Battlefields were free this week so we thought Buddy would enjoy going for a little hike for his birthday.  Except Saturday's forecast looked rainy, so we went on Friday and made it also into a mini-field trip learning about the Second Battle of Manassas (which we just learned about in our Civil War studies).

Little Guy took a lot of these pictures (flowers, me, etc.).

Hiking in Shenandoah

3/23

Princess Sparkley had a Girl Scout campout near Shenandoah, but didn't want to spend the night.  She drove down with her troop and a few hours later we headed in the same direction and hiked with the boys in Shenandoah NF (Doyles Falls and ___ hikes). 


The first part of the hike is a very steep decline, during which we were drizzled on the entire way.  And we didn't really dress for rain, or cool weather.  Oh well, we survived.

Scenic shots. 

We sent B across the stream to get the pretty

purple flowers with the waterfall in the background.

We did a loop that was two trails together.  B and I did the first hike, Doyles Falls, last May when we went camping on our own.  Roundtrip, this hike was 8.5 miles.  Little Guy and I gave up (he's four after all, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant) at 5.5 miles and waited in a parking lot 3 miles down the road from our car while B and Buddy high-tailed it 3 miles on the Appalachian Trail to the parking lot where our car was.  Little Guy and I sat in the parking lot, swatting bugs away, watching the sun slowly get ready to set crossing our fingers that they were going to be quick.  And I thought they only had 2 miles to go.  They did it in just about an hour.  We were all worn out. 

Then we headed to Taco Bell for dinner (so I could try the Doritos Taco).  Except the steamer for Cheese Roll-ups wasn't working and our boys had been excited about Cheese Roll-ups for the entire hike!  So we drove to a different Taco Bell, ate, and then drove around in a thunderstorm on dark back roads until we found the Girl Scout camp and Princess Sparkley. 

Little Guy was long asleep by then.  When we parked at our home about two hours later, Little Guy woke up, said, "What about... Oh."  He was wondering where PS was since he was asleep when we picked her up.  Then he saw her sitting next to him.

Marine Corps Museum and a Hike

The Richmond cousins had a day off school (3/19) and wanted to meet us for some fun halfway.  Except, it turns out that there isn't a whole lot to do halfway between them and us, so we tricked them into coming a little further and we took them to Buddy's favorite museum, the Marine Corps Museum.  Then we took them hiking and played at a park in Prince William Forest Park.

In the gift shop, there is a Lego version of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

L->R: PS, S, Buddy and Pickles

Then we played frisbee and volleyball at a park (we picked up a couple of stragglers).

Then we went on a little hike and ended up at a stream we played in.

Then we followed them to IKEA to help load bookshelves, etc. 

St. Paddy's Day Hike

On St. Patrick's Day, we headed over to Manassas Battlefield and hiked the Old Stone Bridge.  The kids had been sick during the week, which we'd taken as our Spring Break so we decided to get out of the house and be active on Saturday. 

When we hike and we come across a bridge, the kids take turns (at each new bridge) being a troll and asking each of us a question before we can pass. 

Shenandoah National Park 2011

The apple orchard we go to (Stribling) is in Markham, VA which is fairly close to Shenandoah National Park.  Last year we had gone to Shenandoah with B earlier in the week to see if the leaves had changed color yet and our 7 day pass was still good, so after the apples, we headed over to Shenandoah again.  This year, B and I bought a year pass to Shenandoah when we camped there in May so the kids and I drove into Shenandoah and had a picnic.  The leaves hadn't changed too much yet, just a tree here or there.  We saw three deer really close to the car (we stopped on Skyline Drive and rolled down the windows to say hi to them on the side of the road across one skinny lane of traffic). 

deer

August 9: Bryce Canyon NP

We listened to a geology talk from a park ranger (so the kids could earn their junior ranger badges) and learned that Bryce Canyon is not actually a canyon.  Someday it will be a canyon, but right now, it's the eroding edge of a plateau.  Princess Sparkley liked that and has been calling it Bryce Eroding Edge of a Plateau since then.

Little Guy was too young for the ranger program so his nice daddy bought him a Junior Ranger hat.

We hiked down into the "canyon."

These sort of pillars of rock are called hoodoos.  A few days later, Little Guy saw the red rocks near Grandma's cabin and said, "I see Bryce Canyon and the tutus."  :)

This was supposed to be a family picture (with B holding the camera).

At the bottom we stopped to rest and saw a woman pet a super fat chipmunk.

This is the hike we actually wanted to do, between to walls of rock, but it was closed due to what appears to be a rock slide.

At the bottom, heading back up.

Almost to the top.  B was trying to rest his back (35 extra pounds of Little Guy saying "I'm not tired!")  I thought it was funny when I came across Buddy resting the same way.