Virginia

What a unique place. For starters it’s mottos is “Virginia is for lovers”. What? Want to know the story behind that. Also it’s such a mix of historical events, centuries old, original colonies and modern shopping, eating and tourism. It’s green and humid, It has swamps, rivers and beaches and thick trees, farm fields, giant industries and manufacturers . And we have only seen the eastern part of it.

We stayed in Newport News and went to Yorktown and Jamestown. We will do Williamsburg when we come back someday.

JamesTown with The Chicks Life

We stayed at Pocahontas State Park which is an amazing campground with access to a pool with slides, toys, kiddie pool and all other swimming options. We met a family that was camping there who has 5 girls. They we’re there for a homeschooling convention. The kiddos all connected and played non stop. Riding bike around and around, playing at the pool and around the campground. We went to an historical settlement that re-enacted the 1700s way of life with farming tobacco, home life, gardening and cooking. The kids weeded the tobacco crops, moved dirt to cover the potatoes and moved fire wood into the house.

I don’t remember how it all happened but I know we went between Virginia, WaDc and Maryland a few times. We had to get new truck tires and have some other work done. We went back to DC to do the zoo and the Air and Space Museum super quick. It was a busy day with a lot of walking. We saw a mama gorilla with her baby, a tiger swimming, and pandas being super lazy inside where it was cool. We watched an elephant ? taking a dust bath and another one itching itself the hanging tires

Sweet Home Alabama

I have been excited to get to Alabama the whole trip. I didn’t really have any specific reason but I wanted to see it because of how I picture the south in my head. Oh it was better than what I thought in my mind. We stayed out on country roads surrounded by thick trees, green fields and the cutest homes with front porches and yards. The folks were all so friendly and had great “accents” and respond respectfully yes sir and yes ma’am’s. The food, well it’s fried, extra sweet and not colorful; but we did learn about conecuh sausage that is really good.

Mobile- We went and explored the USS Alabama Destroyer War Ship and The Drum Submarine. We learned a lot and got to walk around the whole ship.

Blakeley- state park that is a civil war battlefield. We learned about the war and Confederate and Union sides. What the way was about. We also got to run around and pretend what it would have been like as we hid in trenches, saw sharp tree spike guard fences and the pits and walls where soldiers were. Walked on the ground that men lost their lives for us for our freedom. It was powerful and impactful for us all.

Fairhope-

We boondocked at Big Daddy’s Grill. Great spot. Fun for kids to play at sand pit while parents have a beer or eat. On the river with a dock to go out on. We met some great friends that we connected with very quickly. Can’t wait to hang out again. We even had them all over to our house for dinner. It was a great time.

  • Good  Coffee: Refuge
  • Good Breweries: Fairhope Brewing
  • Good Libraries: Fairhope= AMAZING Could spend all day every day there. Kids have their own area and can be normal, roam, use computers, great story times. LOVE IT!.

Gulf Shore= big hotels and beach house rows. Eat at Flip Flop Deli. Watch out for sand gnats- noseeums- they itch bad. We like Fort Morgan beach area. It was less tourist hangout and commercialized

Pictures that speak for themselves.

By far one of our TOP favorite places.

2018=Firsts for Family

Welcome 2018!

This year will be full of firsts for our family. First time in most of the states we are going to, firsts in exploring, firsts in adding adventure to our adventure, first in life. We are excited for it all. We are going to try to add other firsts to our mundane normal days as well.

Being at the Gulf of Mexico is our firsts first for the family. Amongst that we have had many more firsts some including this I shared on Instagram

Today was amazing! SO many firsts for the family. We met this awesome family who travel in this van a few days ago. They told us where in the beach they were camping, at mile 53 along the coast #so we decided to check out the shell beaches and see if we could find them. We did. It was awesome! They let us borrow their paddle boards and take them out ON THE OCEAN. I haven’t even done that. It was the best thing ever, and it was just Scott and I?. They also cooked all of us dinner, yeah from their van, the 6 of us…they are only a family of 3. They rock! Oh and we also found a TON of shells and pulled a rig out of the sand at 9:30pm. It was fun. I didn’t get any other pictures the. The one scott took by the fire. Scott also swam in the ocean and the kiddos all fell in as they ran and jumped waves. #adventureforth

We also have gone shelling, met great folks, ate shrimp freshly caught, and been to new towns.