Camping in Maine - Day 1

It is amazing to me how difficult it was finding a week that worked for the whole family to go on our summer camping vacation. With Bess in college and working, Brian's job as time consuming as ever, several great church activities and a couple summer weddings, it was a logistical challenge. Here we were pushing the end of August and finally making our way to Bar Harbor, Maine. Brian and I have been to this area a few times in the past, the first time for our Honeymoon twenty-five years ago, but the children have never been. We love taking them to new places.

The drive up was uneventful in a good way...light traffic, no problems, happy children and dry weather. We stopped to fill up the van and ourselves at lunchtime and one more time just to let everyone stretch their legs. We made the trip in nine hours. After the days and days of driving last summer, this seemed like a short outing.

We are staying at the Bar Harbor KOA. Brian didn't have any trouble backing into our site and we were hooked up and ready in no time. It is a lovely campground right on the water. We walked down to the water and knew we were going to have a great time.

The kids quickly collected some shells and rocks. Poor Gracie wanted to go into the water so badly, but we did not want to deal with wet dog right away. Tomorrow will be soon enough.


Rachel's arms raised to the sky pretty much expressed how we are all feeling. It is wonderful and we are all so pleased to be here.

Bess looking lovely as always. We are so glad that she was able to work out her schedule to join us. We realize it will be harder and harder for her to get away from school or work to come on our family vacations.

Let the adventure begin!

Camping - VA & DC - Day 5 - 8/30 - National Zoo

The National Zoo was our first destination point in DC. Brian braved the traffic, no easy feat with our 12-pack van, and drove to the zoo.

It had been 26 years since I had been to this zoo and Brian never had, so this was basically a new experience for all of us. The children were so excited to be going to see so many animals and some we hadn't seen before.

It was a lovely day, a bit hot, but sunny and nice. They had these great misting stations around the zoo where you could walk under a very fine mist. You didn't get real wet (well the children sure did), but it cooled you off wonderfully.

These guys didn't look like they were too hot.

Ones of Gabe's favorite moments was seeing the Pandas. He was so thrilled and especially excited that one of them was awake and eating. We made sure to get a picture of him and the Panda.


We hit just about every exhibit at the zoo and that is a lot. We spent six hours there, walking and walking and walking some more. The children did a great job, but you can tell by this picture and some of the others, that Dan was tuckered out.

We ate at one of the places in the zoo, but for future visits, we would bring our own...very expensive as we anticipated. It was a nice break and we were able to see the last few exhibits after being refueled and a bit refreshed.


One of the last animals on our list was the Hippos. Gabe wanted to see one "live and in person" and the excitement for him was worth the whole day for us. He is at such a wonderful age where things are still so exciting for him and he is making a lot of life connections between things he has read and learned about then experiences in real life. Our Filipino children are just getting to this point as they gain more knowledge of the world around them.

I loved these jelly fish. Even when watching them for myself, I find it hard to believe they are a real living creature. They are so delicate and seemingly made of well...jelly...just lovely.


Look at the size of these fish!

The crew taking a rest in the shade of the bamboo.

Here's the handsome couple. Still smiling after a long day. I enjoy traveling and seeing new places, especially when we are all together. We saw a lot of this particular bush behind us. They were beautiful and I have no idea what they are...maybe some type of spirea, although I've not seen any like in our northern clime. Any southern gardeners out there have a clue?


After a very long, hot day, we made our way back to the campground. We stopped and picked up take-out on the way back...too tired to cook. We shed our walking shoes, put our feet up, ate our food and went to bed. What a great day!

Camping - VA & DC - Day 3 & 4 - 8/28 & 8/29

The 3rd day of our trip found us driving around the Charlottesville area. We didn't make any plans ahead of time and we needed more time to see all the things available in the area. It is a beautiful area to explore.

We saw this statue in downtown Charlottesville of Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea. I had not realized that Charlottesville was where all the planning and organizing for the expedition began.

We drove up to Monticello but did not go in. It was a very rainy day and we were running out of time. We are hoping to return to the area again with a better plan.

This trip found us staying at KOA campgrounds. We did not know what to expect as we had never stayed at one before. We were very pleased with the Charlottesville KOA. It is one of the many privately owned KOA campgrounds. It was clean, the sites were big and the staff were excellent. There was also a nice pool, but we the weather was not agreeable for swimming. We would use them again with no hesitation.

The next day we loaded up and headed for Washington, DC. The drive was easy and did not take too long. We stopped along the way to have lunch. One of the many reasons we love traveling with the camper is having bathroom and kitchen facilities ready wherever we stop.

The Capitol KOA was also a great campground. It was clean, had a great playground and pool and a nicely supplied store. Part of the campground is wooded and part open. There are also a few cabins you can rent.

After we set the camper up and relaxed for a bit, I took the children up to the pool. This was a great feature of both KOA campgrounds that we have not enjoyed at other campgrounds we have used. The children loved being able to walk up to the pool and have an hour or so of water fun.

Camping - VA & DC - Day 2 - 8/27 - Visiting Kristine

When we were trying to decide where to go this year for our vacation I had Bess and Gabe make a list of the things they wanted to do. There were two things in the top 5 on both of their lists...visit my on-line friend Kristine and her family and go to the National Zoo. I was thrilled because Kristine and I had been trying to figure out when we could come visit. Brian is always up for meeting new people, so he had no objections.

They live about 3 hours from Charlottesville and that is where we headed out for on Thursday. The ride was easy and uneventful. Kristine and Robert have a beautiful home in the woods...our kind of place. They most graciously opened it up to us and we had a terrific visit.

They served us lunch as soon as we arrived and that is always a good start for my crew. I'm sure it isn't easy having seven extra people in your home for a meal.

They have a great deck and the day was great for visiting outside. Trevor took some of the kids down to the creek. The younger children enjoyed the dog and the cats, running around the yard, lizards with blue tails and yummy Popsicles. Bess and Holly went off and did their girly thing...I think nail polish was involved at one point.

Gabe and Trevor hit is off right away and we rarely saw them during the visit. They have so many things in common and really enjoyed each other's company. Trevor taught Gabe some new DS tricks and that worked out great later in the week as Bess and Gabe were able to compete against each other on their DSs. Sometimes Gabe doesn't always click with other boys his age as they can be so physical and in his words "hyper". Gabe loves being active, but also enjoys some quieter activities and he and Trevor were a perfect match.

Bessie and Holly have been emailing and IMing and Facebooking for a while, so they had a ready made friendship. I think it took them a bit of time to work through the awkwardness of first meeting, but then they had a great time together.

It was such a privilege to finally meet Kristine after being on-line pals for so many years. Kristine has been a tremendous encouragement to me especially over the last few years. I felt instantly at home...of course maybe some of it was Robert's teasing. :-) It was so nice to spend the afternoon with them. Robert and Brian hit it off well and I'm sure it isn't always easy for the husbands. Kristine and I have shared so much in emails and blogs that we feel like we really know each other but the hubbies don't have that advantage. I think they had a good time too.

I was so reluctant to leave and we did actually have to come back after we were down the road a bit as Gabe remembered his cap.

Look at all those happy faces.

Kristine, Robert, Holly and Trevor, thank you so much for opening your home to us. We had such a pleasant time and are already hoping to come back again.

Camping - VA & DC - Day 1 - 8/26

On August 26th, we packed up and started out for a weeks camping trip to Virginia and Washington, DC. This was the first summer in 16 years that our big summer camping trip wasn't to Maine. It felt strange to be going south instead of east and north.

We hear so often from other parents how difficult it can be to travel very far with their children. I have to say, our children are great travelers. We had very little complaining and only a few "why so long" from Dan. Generally they get along well in the van and take the hours of driving in stride.

Our large van allows for plenty of elbow room for all, including Grace the dog. We watch DVDs, Bess and Gabe play their DS games. We listen to audio CDs. Bess brought her collection of Classical Kids which were very much enjoyed. Each child has a small bag with a few toys and books. Bessie even worked on her cross-stitch project.

Dan amused himself with his contortionist routine. I don't know how he does this while strapped into his carseat. He entertained the rest of us for quite a while with his antics.

We ran into construction in several areas and there was an accident that slowed us way down. At one point it took us an hour to drive 3 miles. As the day began to wane, we realized we would not make our first night's destination before dark. We pressed on.

Five states, 591 miles and 14 hours and we reached the Charlottesville KOA campground...in the dark. Bri did a great job parking the camper and everyone was very relieved to be out of the van. We let the children relax and play for a bit and then settled in for our first night on the road.

NY Camping - Day 5

This summer as most of you in the northeast will attest to, has been quite cool and very rainy. Each day, we had at least some rain while we were camping. Our last full day showed more sun than not, so we decided to try going to one of the beaches on Lake Ontario. The Wilson-Tuscarora State Park was just up the road from the campground. We had done a drive through the park the day before and found it to be a very nice park.

It was only 72 degrees and the water temp was only 55 degrees, but this did not stop our intrepid crew from enjoying the water.

Hannah and Gabe were the last ones out. Poor Dan shivers so hard that his teeth clack together, but he seems to enjoy his water time anyway.

Bessie enjoyed some stitching time in the sunshine after her swim. I did some sketching. I think my drawings are getting a bit better. Maybe one of these days I'll even feel brave enough to share one. I am enjoying keeping the nature journal, so that is good enough for me. Brian enjoyed watching the boats go by. We saw some of the bigger tankers off on the horizon and several sail boats.

We took a break and had a snack and the children had a romp on the large playground structure. Gabe did not understand the need for all the rules on the playground equipment. He is our rebel. We went back down to the beach and enjoyed some more water time.

The whole time we were there, storms kept rolling across the horizon. They were wonderful to watch. There was quite a bit of lightening activity and you could see the rain. Finally one of these storms came too close to the shore and they closed the beach to swimming.

We packed up our stuff and headed back to the campground. It was a wonderful day.

NY Camping - Day 4

Monday we headed into Niagara to the Niagara Aquarium. This is a very nice small aquarium right near the river. We had packed our lunch and ate before we went into the aquarium.

There was a large display area with all things "shark", which the children enjoyed. Seeing how large a Great White Shark really can get was quite the eye opener.

There were many aquariums set up with smaller fish and sea creatures.

The center of the aquarium houses a large circular tank with Sea Lions. What fun to watch them swim by the glass so close.

They held a great demonstration show. The Sea Lion below is a retired Navy Sea Lion. The handler gave a great talk on how they train the Sea Lions. There was a lot of humor in the show and the Sea Lions seem almost human in their silliness. They really seem to enjoy preforming for the crowd.

Watch out the sharks might get you!

This was as close as we got to the actual Falls. Can you see the misty area right behind the bridge. This wasn't high on the children's list of things to do and we knew we would be taking another trip out here another year...next time with passports for everyone.

We stopped for ice cream on the way home. A very nice day.

NY Camping - Day 3

Brian took Dan and Gabe out fishing Sunday morning. Dan doesn't stick with the whole fishing thing for too long, so they were back within 30 minutes or so.

We finished packing up the camper and hit the road. We were driving further west toward Niagara. We stopped once for lunch and gas and mapquest got us right where we needed to go.

The Daisy Barn Campground is right on Lake Ontario. What a beautiful location. The campground was small...only 38 sites and 30 of them seasonal. It was very quiet and we had a gorgeous view of the lake. This is taken out the camper window toward the lake.

We relaxed for a while and let the children watch a DVD. We love the new bunkroom. There are four beds with one of the lower ones folding into a small table. This works out so well for the children to have their own space. There is room for their clothes and a few toys and books.

After dinner, we all went down to the dock for some fishing. Well, I didn't fish but got him some birdwatching. I'm the designated dog watcher, so Gracie and I sat on the stairs and watched the birds. Of course, I'm just trying to identify them and I think Gracie would like to chase them. It was a gorgeous evening and the lake was very calm. No fish were caught, but everyone had a fun time.

I could have sat their until dark just soaking in the beauty.

Everyone settled down eaiser and quicker as we all got used to life in our new camper.

This was Gabe's sleeping place of choice. He just loved having Gracie right with him and I think she enjoyed it too. At home, she is not allowed to sleep in the children's rooms.