Our last day of vacation is over! After breakfast at the Hampton Inn in Salem, Virginia, we decided to take the scenic route home. Instead of the Interstate, we cut across Virginia and West Virginia on Route 60. This was a very nice twisting road through the mountains that reminded all of us of Colorado. The weather was great, sunny and warm, but dropping down to the lower 70's up in the mountains. The only bit of rain today was in Ohio, and it was brief. While we were in West Virginia, we stopped at Gauley Bridge, a great waterfall that we had visited a few years back. It was just as we remembered it...only more crowded. We stayed for an hour, took a bunch of pictures, and had a nice Subway lunch. From there we made our way to Interstate 77 and headed for Ohio. Our only stop was for gas (Speedway), dinner (Olive Garden), and state line photos (Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan). We threatened to stop at Dairy Queen at one point for dessert...but it never happened. Their loss. We arrived at home at 9:30pm, just as the sun was setting. We took our usual welcome home photo in the dark and unloaded the van. We came home a day early because Joshua needs some emergency churching. Besides that, we're all happy to be home again. It's nice to have another day off before work on Monday. Can't wait to see the family.
License Plates spotted: Utah, Delaware
After the long day at Carowinds yesterday, everyone slept in a bit this morning. Since we didn't have a lot of miles planned for today, we took our time getting going. We skipped breakfast at the Best Western and headed for Dunkin' Donuts. Before we got there we stopped at the North Carolina border for a quick photo. After breakfast we gassed up and grabbed some Subway sandwiches for a picnic lunch for later in the day. From there we headed up Interstate 77 and hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a beautiful drive that we've done before. We stopped after an hour to eat our picnic lunch and take a nice hike. It was a warm day, so we only hiked a little more than a mile before everyone was tired. After lunch we winded our way towards our hotel in Salem, Virginia, stopping only for a quick photo at the state line. We hit rain while we were up in the mountains, but nothing too bad. We arrived at the hotel at 5:30pm, dropped off our luggage, then headed to Golden Corral for an excellent buffet dinner. This family loves it's buffet dinners. Back at the Hampton Inn, we swam for an hour then headed to the room to watch the Olympics. It's an early night. Tomorrow we drive home.
We had a great day at Carowinds today. After a quick breakfast at the Best Western we arrived at the park just after the gates opened. It was hot and humid, but the park was almost empty, so we got a lot of rides in. Among the many coasters we hit were the Intimidator, the Vortex, the Gold Rusher, Afterburn, the Hurler, Ricochet, Thunder Road, Nighthawk, and the Carolina Cobra. We also rode Windseeker, the Scrambler, the Yo Yo, the Rip Roarin' Rapids, Whitewater Falls, and the Boo Blasters. It was a perfect day for the water park, and we spent a couple hours in the wave pool, the lazy river, and on the water slides. We left the park tired and hungry, so it was pizza at the hotel and off to bed. Tomorrow we head for the mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We really hated leaving the Hampton Inn in Savannah this morning. Easily one of the most spectacular hotel rooms we've ever stayed in. Oh well, off to a faceless Best Western in South Carolina. We slept in this morning, barely getting down to the lobby by 10:00am in time for our breakfast. Before we left Savannah, we visited the downtown area. It was really hot and humid, and worst, Josh was really crabby, so we only spent an hour or so checking out the Riverwalk. Seemed nice, but we didn't have enough time to see much of anything. The drive to our hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina was a relatively short one, and after only stopping for a state line photo (South Carolina), lunch (Cracker Barrel) and snacks (Shell), we pulled in to the Best Western at 4:30pm. First order of business on this 100 degree day was swimming at the fabulous outdoor pool. We had the whole pool to ourselves for the first hour, so an intense cannonball competition broke out immediately. I checked out a huge record store near the hotel for a couple hours while the boys finished swimming, then it was off to dinner at Shoney's. The food was just ok, but the hot fudge sundae ruled. Tomorrow we do some more roller coasting at Carowinds...
License Plates spotted: Connecticut, West Virginia
Up early this morning for a long day of driving. We skipped the hotel breakfast and headed for Dunkin' Donuts. It was messy eating in the van...but worth it. We made a couple long stops today: Costco (for water), the mall (for baseball hats), a record store (just to browse), and the Circle K (for gas). Because of all the stops , we didn't get to Savannah until 7:30pm. No chance to visit the city, just time to eat and swim. We'll check it out tomorrow before we head to Charlotte.
License Plate spotted: Massachusetts
We said goodbye to New Orleans this morning after a quick breakfast at the Hilton. Back on the road we hit eastbound Interstate 10 and headed for Florida. Josh asked dozens of hurricane-related questions today. I guess the movie yesterday really got him thinking about storms, floods, and evacuations. We spent the whole day reassuring him that we weren't going to get hit by a hurricane, cyclone, tornado, typhoon or tsunami. That said, it was creepy passing by entire districts that obviously hadn't been rebuilt since Katrina. We passed Six Flags New Orleans just outside of town, now abandoned. The site of beautiful roller coasters falling down was a bummer. Before too long the sun was shining and that cheered us up. We took some nice state line photos at the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida borders. The clouds threatened several times, but we never saw rain until late in the day. We drove along the Gulf of Mexico for a couple hours, passing through a bunch of resort towns. They all looked great, but we continued on to Panama City. We arrived at the Quality Inn at 5:30pm, and it started to rain. No swimming (pool was gross anyway) so we headed off to T.G.I. Fridays for dinner. After dinner we walked the beach and watched the sunset. The beach was rather disgusting, but the sunset was spectacular. We shot many photos. Tomorrow we're off to Savannah...
License Plate spotted: Nevada
We had a fun, busy day in New Orleans today. Thanks to our ultra-exclusive Gold Member Hilton Honors status, we were invited to a continental breakfast on the 29th floor of the New Orleans Hilton. It sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it's the same stuff we get every day at the lowly Hampton Inn. The food was ok, and the view was spectacular. After breakfast we headed across the street to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. This was a pretty cool aquarium. We enjoyed the sharks, the sea otters, the poison dart frogs, the manta rays, the penguins, and the tropical birds. After lunch we saw an IMAX movie about Hurricane Katrina's affects on the Louisiana Bayou. It was pretty sad seeing what happened. After the movie, we checked out the Butterfly Garden and Insectarium. Lots and lots of bugs, living and dead. The boys loved the ant exhibit. Jennifer hated the spiders. All of them. Everyone enjoyed the butterfly house. Afterwards, Jennifer and the boys headed back to the room to cool off while I checked out a couple more record stores. Tomorrow we head off to Florida and if the weather cooperates...the beach.
