Vacation Day 2

So, on Sunday morning - Ronnie and I slept in as much as we could - got up, ate the free breakfast in the hotel and got on the road.

In an effort to avoid at least a COUPLE of the toll roads surrounding NY, we chose to skip the NJTurnPike and took Hwy 1. We got to see more scenery this way, and also, it took us right to the heart of Philadelphia.

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We stopped there because I had never seen this before:

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One more step in actually seeing the historical pieces of our country. History is so much cooler when you see the memorials and stuff in person!

But more importantly, while in Philly, we stopped and had these!

REAL PHILLY CHEESESTEAK... with cheezewhiz and everything!

Then we were back on the road again.... it was just a short stop.

Until we arrived in Baltimore - when Ronnie took us to the harbor to see some boats, and a submarine.

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a lighthouse,

some old warehouses that they are using as new places now,

and we ate crab cakes. I don't have pics of that because we had both had our hats on while walking outside, but inside we took them off... so the bad hair that resulted did not need to be rememered forever. That is why I tell stories on a blog! So here are random other pics taken at the Harbor.

Crab Cakes are some of my favorite things to eat.... having them in Baltimore... WOW...

Ronnie says he travels by food - - where there is good food to eat, we will stop for it.

The weekend was amazing and DEFINATELY something we needed after the political season that pushed us all to the end!

Thank you to my wonderful man for taking care of me... and having such a wonderful time together!

some pictures

Here are a few pictures of the beach last weekend...

The hermit crab picture is for Aubrey - - she got her hermit crab as you can read about here... so Ronnie wanted his pic taken with "his" hermit crab in VA. Beach...

my new coffee table...

and me and ronnie before that political event that I referenced here.

Cabin pics

Posted here - go see - come back - comment - have a nice day!

The cabin

Ronnie and I went to a cabin in the Blue Ridge mtns this weekend (really just Sunday night and all day Monday since he was off for President's day - but I like to pretend it was the whole weekend!) and had a BLAST! I have to tell ya the story though, and will provide pictures as time allows this week - I have a lot of teaching and stuff this week... so I might be slow - but I promise they will come eventually, they are too good not to share!

The cabin was so cute - it was a one bedroom little cottage - mostly brown as cabins should be. The decorations were very.. umm.. "cabinesque" (is that a word??? it is now). the kitchen was perfect! (It even had an OVEN!!!!! AHHHH!!!!) The view was nice out the windows and one of my favorite things was the swing on the front porch! I think it was possibly the first time Ronnie and I have ever been on a swing together (yeah, we are new at all this married stuff.) The back porch had great places to sit and stuff (we didn't spend much time on the back porch, but I am sharing the experience with you guys). There was a fire pit out in the driveway and looked like it would be a lot of fun to sit around and have a campfire - - but to us, it seemed like too much work for this weekend!!! Basically, the whole cabin was adorable!! I couldn't have asked for a better place for us to relax! However, I have to tell ya the scary part for me. As I walked into the living room, in the floor was a HUGE bear skin rug. I am talking about one with the head and claws still attached. OH MY GOSH! I don't think I have ever seen one in person before! So, in order to avoid the view of this, I looked up on top of the TV and there was a "bobcattish" thing. Not the whole animal, it was the head, attached to a board of some sort. The mouth was formed as if it were coming OUT of the board! It looked so mean. There was a stuffed owl sitting next to the bobcat, a duck, skunk skin, raccoon skin and two deer heads on the wall. (one of those deer was in the bedroom.... I STRUGGLED to sleep when I first laid down!! but then the bed was QUITE comfy - and it was raining on the tin roof... so the struggling was very short lived as you can imagine). It was kinda funny I was so jumpy the first 30 minutes we were there because I just kept wondering where the next animal was going to be hanging around!!! On the back porch, there was an Elk... AN ELK!!!! Other random skins were laying around as decoration on the tables etc. etc. Once I got over the shock... I realized that this is what you put in cabins... It was just that I had never really been in a REAL cabin. The ones I usually stayed in were the type that we had at Kids Kamp or Youth camp or something.. basically a wooden building with rows of bunk beds... I was welcomed into the world of cabins with a few animals... :)

Now, I love animals - outside. I particularly love dogs (esp. my poop-recruiting-Ziba... but that is another story). I think bears are cute from a LONG distance. I like to watch birds fly over head and here in VA I always notice when the skunks have gone on to the stinky place in the sky and give ample respect! HOWEVER, there were a lot of animals!

Anyway, I will finish this by saying that once I got over the initial surprise... I really LOVED the weekend with my man! The owners of the cabin let us ride their 4-wheelers, and other than the one time I got stuck and Ronnie had to save me (my hero!!) it was all so much fun I had no desire whatsoever to leave that mountain home with the animals. I have to admit that I never got around to actually stepping on the bear-skin rug. I bumped the edges a few times but promptly moved away from it. But other than that.... I really got used to the animals faster than I thought I would. Maybe it was more that I was finally away with my husband. No cell phones. No internet. Lots of movies. Antenna TV. the first day was cloudy (REALLY FOGGY) - and a wonderful time of necessary cuddling and cooking together while watching movies. The second day was as clear as could be with perfect weather to layer up and go ride the 4 wheelers. It was a little muddy but not so much that we were getting stuck every few minutes or anything.

I really LOVED the weekend! I really can't wait for another time to get away like that. It was a perfect get-away for us and the perfect time!

A Campin' We will go!

Friday afternoon, Ronnie and I, along with another couple, Zach and Nicole, went camping.

Now, I must begin by stating that each of us had BEEN camping before. However, none of us had even been in charge of the preparations for camping.

Nicole and I started this plan a few weeks ago, and wanted it to be a surprise for the boys. However, by two weeks ago, we realized that this wasnt going to work, so we included the boys in the planning. We got tents ($25 ones from Wal-Mart.... our first clue that this was a problem should have been the day before we left... Ronnie and I saw them on SALE at Wal-Mart for $11.....hmmmm... we will call this mistake number 1) - We planned the trip - well, Nicole planned the route, and did a good job of it. We planned the food, along with a travel grill for chicken, pancakes, and sausages. We had firewood... enough for several hours at night time. (Not enough for a morning fire tho.... mistake number 2). We had flashlights.. (but no lantern... mistake number 3.. as I will explain later.)

THE TENT

(a.k.a. mistake number 1)

As previously mentioned. We got a GREAT deal on our tent! We went to Wal-Mart, and got the smallest cheapest tent we could find. How wonderful to have a tent for only $25! A 4-man tent (which we all know really means a 2 person tent) would be PLENTY for us right??

Well, we had plenty of space, however, it seems that the cheap tents have LOTS of ventilation. Which is wonderful in the summer I am sure. However, we were camping on the top of a mountain, in the blue ridge mountains, IN OCTOBER! The tent probably protected us from a few bugs, and maybe a critter or two during the night, the tent did NOT protect us from a BIT of wind that might blow through at less than 40 degrees!

THE FIREWOOD

(a.k.a mistake number 2)

Zach did a great job getting cheap (free?) firewood for us. We thought, as we left home, that we had too much. It took up so much space in the jeep! But we took it all with us, and built a GREAT fire Friday night while we were setting up camp. We sat around the fire, ate dinner (chicken on the grill, pasta salad, and baked beans warmed over the fire), and toasted marshmallows for S'mores. It was great! The fire kept us so warm and we were so thankful for it. Since we only had one night, we wanted to stay warm as long as possible, so we used all the firewood that night. Ummmm.... We obviously weren't thinking that it would STILL be cold the next morning! We had no more firewood for the morning. We spent the morning gathered around the grill and looked longingly at our camping neighbors... you know.. the ones who had a nice warm fire that they were gathered around!

THE LANTERN.... or lack thereof

(a.k.a. mistake number 3)

We didn't have a lantern. Normally, this might be ok. But since we couldn't leave until 6:30 Friday evening, we didnt arrive until almost 8 at our campsite. 8:00+October+Eastern Timezone=DARK! We left the headlights running, and used our two flashlights, for the first 10 minutes. Maybe it was the loudness of our arrival, maybe it was the statements of "have you guys even opened your tent yet?" or "I hope all the parts are here" or "who knows how to start a fire?" that led our camping neighbors to think that we weren't prepared. Whatever the reason, those two gentlemen saved our tent settup up... One came walking over with a Coleman Lantern in his hands and asked if we needed it... "YES" Thank you so much!!!

TO SLEEP? OR NOT TO SLEEP?

We brought lots of extra blankets to sleep on... not enough... I have camped once on an air-mattress... I have also decided that for the rest of my camping life - I will camp on an air-mattress. It may be flat by morning, but at least for PART of the night I will sleep without my bones digging into the frozen ground!

We decided that next time, these lessons learned would be helpful! We also decided that we would need better tents before next time. We do know that there will be a next time... we have to get better at this! We don't think that next time will be before the spring time. We actually had a great time.

We spent Saturday driving along the BlueRidge parkway stopping to hike and "view" all the scenic overlooks that we wanted to. We sat and admired God's creation, we laid down and looked at the sky, we grilled our lunches sitting on the side of a mountain viewing the city of Roanoke from above.

God has a wonderful creation. As we looked up into the night sky on Friday night and saw more stars than I have seen in a long time (its amazing how many there are when there are no other lights around....) As we drove along and watched the velvet mountains rise and fall to the right and left of us as if they were rolling along like the ocean...I could not help but wonder how it is that they say there is no God. That beauty like this could come from an accident makes no sense to me. I took several moments to do as I wanted to do on Friday. I thanked God for the moment. For the moment to cuddle with my husband, for the moment to stand alone on the edge of a mountain, for the time to spend with wonderful friends that God sent to us, and for the mistakes we made that make for a good story and good bonding time.... I was thankful.

(There are more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/allegro425/CampingInOct)