This year we are planning to do the Disney thing (in December), but wanted to take a week and "get away" for a little while. Since we hadn't been up to my brother's house in Pottsville, PA we decided to go up to visit then head back through Washington DC for the 4th of July.
Saturday morning we got up at 6:15 to hit the road by 7. The thought was the earlier we hit the road the sooner we would have more time to swim when we got to our hotel. We had about a 8 hour drive ahead of us.
Got on the road around 7 or so and headed to Publix in Knoxville, TN. We got 8 pieces of Fried-Chicken for a picnic on down I-40. We stopped at a rest-area right before I-40 heads toward Asheville and I-81 heads up north toward Virginia.
We had fried chicken from Publix along with drinks we brought and snacks we had brought. After eating we had a crazy tag game using the large hill behind where we had our picnic.
Hoped in the car after lunch and drove on up to Roanoke, VA. In Roanoke we used our phones and found a steak and shake. Heather had a buy one get one free for the kids milkshakes. The steak and shake was crowded and looked like it had just opened up (brand new).
Time for some driving to get to Harrisonburg, VA. Our first night was Harrisonburg, VA at the Holiday Inn. We arrived around 5 or so. Once we got our bags up it was time to go swim. The pool was inside. We spent the next 2 hours swimming. Heather and I got in and we played "keep away" with the balls that we brought. There was a lot of splashing. Was nice to go swimming with the kids.
We decided that around 7 or so that it was time for dinner. We were planning on getting pizza and I needed to go by Walmart for some medicine for Kayla. She had a nasty cough at night.
So we got everyone out and they were drying off.
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| Kayla drying off... |
The boys decided they did not want to go to Wal-Mart and stop and get Pizza (we had been in the car all day). So Kayla and I went to Dominos Pizza and ordered the pizza; headed over Wal-Mart and purchased medicine and some sandals for me. Then we headed back to Dominos to pick up the pizza.
For dinner I ate the left over chicken from lunch and Heather and kids ate the pizza. Once we finished eating we did baths and Heather went down to the gym to work out. I worked on putting the kids to bed.
What a long day!! The kids went to bed just fine.
Sunday morning we got up at 7:15 to get ready to go at 8:30. We wanted to make it to Martinsburg, West Virginia for church at 10:30. Driving up I-81 toward Martinsburg, PA the fog was rolling over the mountains out the window. God's hand was definitely painting a great picture for us.
We made it to Martinsburg, WV around 10:15 and we thought church started at 10:30. So we drove around the neighborhood a bit for the 5 minutes or so. Once we arrived we noted their sign showing Church started at 10:45. So we drove around a bit more. While driving around we saw another Church of Christ called "Martinsburg Church of Christ" not even half a mile away. I wonder why there are two so close together?
We then attended Central Church of Christ in Martinsburg, VA. They were a friendly congregation. Definitely, enjoyed worshiping with them this morning.
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After Church we decided to take our kids for a treat to Ryan's. Our kids have never been to a place like Ryan's with unlimited deserts and food. The Ryan's was just down the street for the Church. We all enjoyed eating the food. Josh especially enjoyed the Chinese food. Josh and I have that in common.
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After lunch everyone was tired so we put in a movie and kids relaxed while we continued to head up north. We drove past the Gettysburg National Battlefield. There was a lot of people there. (found out later it was the 150th anniversary of the battle). They were going to have a reenactment next week. We sat in traffic for 15 minutes or so. We decided to not park and get out (parking was at a strip mall and you would be shuttled down to the battlefield). I put the GPS to Hershey, PA (we had about an hour to go to the Chocolate place). Drove through Harrisburg and made it to Hershey, PA for Chocolate World. Chocolate World has a free small ride that you can take to learn about how Chocolate is made. It actually was pretty interesting.
Like all great marketers the ride ended in a large candy shop. They had available the largest chocolate bar for sale. It was $40! Kayla got to hold one of the bars. Look how large it is.
Leaving Chocolate World...it was time to head up to Pottsville, PA to visit Jeremy. Made it there by around 6:15. Jeremy and his family was out playing when we arrived. The kids wanted me to get out the scooters for them to ride as soon as we pulled in. After riding scooters and playing we headed in the house for a tour. Jeremy sure has a nice house. During the visit we took our 1 visit to the upstairs. Jeremy and Kara sure has done a good job decorating.
After the tour and getting our luggage in Kara warmed up the dinner she had planned (lasagna, green beans and bread. - excellent meal). We played with toys until Nathan and Chloe needed to go to bed. We took our kids into the guest bedroom and watch Night in the Museum until 9:30 or so and then hit the sack. Michael and Josh are sleeping on spots on the floor while Kayla, I and Heather are going to sleep on the bed.
Ready for a fun filled few days in the Poconos.
The next day (Monday) after getting up was play time at Jeremy's house. We played with toys in the living room, play room and the basement. The upstairs was closed.
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| Playing with Toys at Jeremy's House |
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Don't be loud; no wrestling.....
One of Jeremy's neighbors had given Jeremy some toys (their kids had grown up). Jeremy went through the toys and picked the ones he wanted and gave us the toys he didn't want. We played down in the basement with these toys. The basement was nice and cool. Jeremy told us the temperature stayed around 60 degrees all year round. The main thing was to make sure we didn't mix the reject toys with the toys that Jeremy wanted.
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Toys Jeremy let us take with us...."Don't get them mixed up"...
We headed up Jeremy's street (up the hill) to a hiking path. Michael and really wanted to go down the hill with his scooter. We brought 3 scooters for the trip (something to ride at Jeremy's house). While going down Jeremy pointed out that there was a hiking trail. Couldn't help but hike up the trail. The trail was a bit muddy. It was pretty steep until we go to the 4 wheeler path. Jeremy carried Nathan and Chloe, Kayla and the other kids hiked up on their own.
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| Kids hiking up the trail |
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| Let's all hike.... |
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| 4 wheeler trail at the top.. |
Time to take the scooters down the hill. I felt Josh was probably too young to take the scooter down the hill on the road. These scooters actually went pretty fast and they were hard to control.
Michael and I took the scooter down the hill and we walked on home. Lunch was furnished by Jeremy (Sandwiches and chips). After lunch we headed outside to play.
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| Come on daddy! "Let's take the scooters down the hill again." |
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| Use the brake....Use the brake. |
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| Playing outside is fun. |
Michael really enjoyed riding the scooters down the hill so Michael and I headed out one last time for a hill ride. It was sprinkling when we left. By the time we were half way down the hill it was pouring down rain. Rain so hard it was hard to see. We headed back to the house, but we were drenched. So we continued to play out in the rain. Kayla, Chloe and Josh joined us when we arrived to their house. Kayla and Chloe were cute running out in the rain.
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| Now we are officially wet. |
We went back out after it quit raining and Josh begged me to take the scooter down the hill. Jeremy had a bicycle that I could ride. So I took Josh and Michael back to the hill. I was concerned that Josh was took young to control the scooter, but let him go anyway since he threw the "you let Michael do it...but not me". I sat at the top of the hill and let them go down. Josh lot control and crashed go splat on the pamvent. I was at the top of the hill and quickly rode down to Josh to make sure he was ok. He seemed ok; no broken bones. He had some soft hands and his knee was scratched up just a bit. Glad he was not hurt any worse. After that we went on in.
Kara got home from work and after dinner we headed to Cabela. I had not heard o Cabela before and had no idea what to except. Jeremy told us it was like a Bass Pro Shop. It actually was really cool. Lots of stuffed animals that you normally wouldn't see. The kids loved seeing the unique animals.
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| These look real! |
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| Polar Bears!! |
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| Looks like Michael and Josh fighting..... |
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| Photo bombed by a grizzly.... |
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| All stuffed animals.... |
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| Growl like a lion..... |
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I can growl like a lion too....
They had a shooting range....We let each of the kids have one time at the shooting range. |
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| Kayla get your gun.... |
After an excited day we went into our bedroom and watched the rest of "Night at the Museum".
The next day Kara was off work. So far it has rained most of the time we have been at Jeremy's house. We decided to go to a dollar movie.
The movie started at 9:30 after breakfast and heading over there we made it. Since we are on vacation we got popcorn and a large coke to go along with our movie. The movie showing was "Alvin and Chipmunks - Chipwrecked".
We started out all watching the movie but within 30 minutes or so Nathan and Chloe had been taken out. Jeremy and his family spent the time walking the mall area.
After the movie we headed back to Jeremy's for lunch. After lunch Chloe and Nathan were taking a nap. We decided to take our kids to a park that Jeremy had picked out. It was a lake and about 20 minutes away. The Park had a playground and a few walking trails.
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After a few minutes I asked who wanted to go on a nature walk to see what trails were available. Michael was the only one interested at the time. Michael and I took the hiking trail to the owls nest, water fall and dam.
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| Owl's nest was a lot smaller than we thought it would be. |
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| Water fall from the trail. |
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| Hiking |
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Hiking to the dam
After Michael and I hiked to the dam we came back to find Josh and Kayla looking at the lake. We as a group hiked to the waterfall and Kayla and Josh got a drink out of the soda machine. Michael's drink got stuck in the machine so we promised him he would get a drink later.
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| Kayla in front of the day lilies near the waterfall. Looks like PA is a great place for day lilies; they were everywhere (even in the woods) |
Jeremy sent a text that they decided not to come to the park so we stayed for about 30 more minutes and then headed back to their house.
At their house we made a Frisbee course. First hole was a tree near the deck, second hole was on top the table near the bench, third hole on a spot of grass with a different color grass, forth hole another tree in the back yard, fifth hole was the shed and the last hole was the 5 stepping stone from the deck. Jeremy, Michael and I played the course. Jeremy kept winning until we switched Frisbees and found out why he was winning. His Frisbee was a lot easier to control and throw.
This was the last night as Jeremy's house and we knew we were going to get up early to head to DC.
July 5, Wednesday I had the alarm set for 6 in the morning. The goal was to leave around 7:00. We had an appointment at the Capital Building at 2:00. Got all the kids up; I had packed the van the night before. We hit the road heading south to Harrisburg; then over to Baltimore back down to Washington to Arlington, VA (our hotel was the Marriott Gateway in Chrystal City).
We arrived around 10:30 got checked in and carried the luggage to the room. Before heading over to DC on the Metro we stopped at Sabarro and order some pizza. Chrystal City has a mall below the hotel. To get to the mall from our hotel there was a tunnel under the street.
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| Pizza time! |
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I love Cheese Pizza.
After lunch it was time to figure out the Metro. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get passes for all of us. We headed down to the Metro and got on the Blue train headed toward DC.
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| Ready for the train (only picture I had....moved too fast) |
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Our train station
It had been raining all day. In fact heading into Baltimore and DC it rained hard most the drive. When we arrived at the Capital South train station and came up on the escalators to the city it was a bright sunny day. So glad it wasn't raining.
We walked down 1st avenue toward Dirksen Building room 425. This was Bob Corker's office in the senate building. We were scheduled to go on a tour of the Capital hosted by his office staff.
We stopped at the Supreme Court for a quick view of the Court. The court was not in session so we were able to see the court. We walked around the Supreme Court. Kayla decided she was going to work there when she grew up.
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The Supreme Court....Guilty as charged...
We didn't stay long at the court. We headed over to the Senate office building. We got there a bit early and waited outside and had a quick snack. (good thing we ate our snacks because the capital security made us throw away all the food we had with us - most of it was eaten.)
At about 1:30 we decided to head up to find Bob Corkers Office. It took us a while to find it. It was surprising to me how we could just walk around the senate office building by ourselves. I am sure they were watching us on video, but it was surprising how some powerful people walk those halls every day.
We finally found Bob Corkers Office and there were some other families waiting on the tour.
The two tour guards took us to the senate monorail train (from the office building to the capital). They had a separate train for visitors then that actual senators. The guards made us get rid of our food in Heather's purse (we didn't have much left).
We took the tour of the capital. The tour was shorter than I remember and it was a lot of discussions on the statues. Of course, the kids didn't really enjoy the discussions on the statues.
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| The Star each President walks over before giving their inaugural address. |
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| Listening to the tour guide talk about statues. |
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| I don't think I want to hear about statues. |
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| Roof of the roof of the rotunda in the Capital building |
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Speaker of the House's Office in the Capital
After the tour the tour guides left us in the visitors center of the Capital. They had given us tickets to go see the House Gallery. I really didn't know where to go to see the House gallery so I went over to a police officer guarding the stairs into the Capital and asked him where to go. He told me that we needed to get in line to his left. So I went over to Heather so we could go see the house gallery. The police office came over to us and asked us if we would like to go on the House Floor. His shift was over in about 5 minutes. Of course, we would like to. So we waited for him for shift to be over.
Once his shift was over he came over and took us behind the doors for "authorized personnel" only. He took us to the balcony over looking the House Offices. He unlocked the door to the balcony and took us out there. He said that some representatives like to come out and discuss business on the balcony. He told us when a vote is decided to come up the representatives have 15 minutes to get from their office to the floor to vote. The police office told us that they close the road and they vote.
He then proceeded to take us to the house floor. He had Heather and I put our camera and phone down and he took us on the house floor and we were able to sit on the seats. We sat on the row behind the podiums set up for representatives to give speeches. What a treat! We were sitting in the room that a lot of powerful people had been in. (the row was the 6th row from the front). I just imagined the state of the Union is given there every year.
It was funny to me to see Kayla bouncing up and down on the seat in the House of Representatives of the United States of America.
The police officer told us some interesting stories of things that had happened on the floor of the House. He pointed out the door that the President takes when he walks into the House Floor to give the State of the Union.
When we were leaving the floor we went out the right door near the stage. I stopped and looked up the stairs to behind the podium in the front. That is where Roosevelt stepped up the stairs to declare war for WWII after Pearl Harbor....all the important people that had spoke behind that podium.
The kids might know what they experienced but we definitely have a story to tell them when they are grown.
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TimMichaMAA