Our goal was to leave by 5am and we weren’t too far off the marker. It is way easier waking kids up to go on vacation than it is for school. As I said in the last post, it’s sort of like Christmas; everyone springs out of bed!
We had a few minor setbacks in the first 45 minutes – forgetting some things, and then needing to find a bathroom quick for some nervous tummies, but we finally got on the road!
Our route took us through the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and then finally into Virginia. Along the way we played the license plate game on and off (with two teams and many arguments over who saw the plate first), used the “conversation cards” I had brought a long, listened to some talks and books on CD’s , watched a movie (“Big” with Tom Hanks), watched the first few episodes of the first season of the Brady Bunch (all the kids could really identify with the first few shows where all the kids go through all the “transition”), watched a bit of Archie (which was a flop) and a bit of The Beverly Hillbillies (which also was a flop) and some Magnum PI (they all loved…me too – it’s that theme song that gets me every time!). Then the kids also just slept a bit, we listened to some music, they watched me dance around a bit in the front seat lip syncing a few songs (right at the border too – how embarrassing), and chatted and talked about everything.
We stopped for lunch in Pennsylvania shortly before the Maryland border and then found a “Stuckies”! When Rob was a kid, his family used to drive to Hilton Head and they would stop at a place called “Stuckies” and buy these “pecan logs”. He had been telling the kids all about it, so was happy to find the place and then we loaded up on some pecan logs! They are good – but crazy super sweet.
We made a few pit stops. Here is the Welcome Center in Virginia:
Rob did most of the driving – but I took over for about 1.5 hours so he could get some sleep. Of course, I ended up taking over in the most traffic area outside of Washington D.C.!
We decided to stop at the outlets in Williamsburg, Virginia – give the kids a break and we knew they would want to go to a few of the outlet sports stores. They ended up going to “Lids” (where you can customize your own cap) and we spent about 1.5 hours there! They loved it though! We bought them each a cap as a souvenir from this trip (ya I know, we haven’t even arrived yet, but already have bought them their souvenir! Here are a few pics of that experience:
Josh chose an Adidas hat and had his name embroidered on the back in small letters, and the others all customized their hats with graphics and/or words.
Zandra and I also went to Claire’s. She loves looking at jewellery, makeup, bags, accessories etc. She picked out a necklace pair – two s’mores, each on a necklace – one said “best “and the other said “friend”. Sadly, one of her best friends just moved to England, so I wasn’t sure who she was planning on giving the other necklace to, so I asked her. She responded: “You!” My heart melted. I proudly put it on (or Rob attached it for me). She also got her cap made with “Sweet Pea” written on it in green – it is my little nickname for her. So cute!
I took the older 3 boys down to the Adidas store. After a bit of arguing with Josh, I let him spend his money on an Adidas shirt – that is white. This kid can’t keep a shirt clean for 20 seconds and I have to bleach ones that I can. This particular one can’t be bleached – but he insisted, and it is his money. The older boys each bought themselves a knapsack. Zach deliberated over it a lot because his knapsack that he has is perfectly fine, but he loved this Element one. He finally got it, and made the decision solo – which is big for him. Gabe had no probs buying a new Hurley backpack – but of course I owed him money for something else so to him, it didn’t feel like it was his own money or I suspect there would have been more deliberation!
We finally arrived at our hotel overnight in Hampton, Virginia. Let me just say, it was not the highlight of our day. Zach said, “Did you pay a lot for this place?”and Gabe asked, “Are we going to hear gunshots tonight”? Need I say more?? Simply a place to crash….
Today we are finally moving on to our final destination: Duck, Outer Banks. Can’t wait!!
