Happy Campers

Well, we did it again. We went camping. We pulled out those nicely packed bins of the spanking new camping gear we bought for our inaugural trip last year and loaded up for our 2009 destination: Natural Bridge, Virginia. Just like last year, we camped with our friends, the Bairds. We figured that they didn't laugh at us too much last year so it was a good bet that we could make it work again.






We headed out Friday afternoon and stopped for dinner at the Pink Cadillac diner in Natural Bridge. Suffice it to say that its been a LONG time since the place looked as good as it does on the website. I'd read somewhere that it was fun--kind of 50's Elvis themed. The only thing that was fun was the irrational fear that I felt upon seeing the angle of the hostess's anterior dentition. And the place was absolutely filthy--its a wonder they have a license. We stuck with it, though, because there was no where else to go and, after all, what good is an immune system if you don't use it now and then? They did have a very cool King Kong out front, though! We finally got to our campsite at Jellystone around 8:15pm after some haggling about our original site which was WAY too small. It turned out great, though, because they ended up moving us to a much better, bigger RV site down near the river and closer to the main activities area. The Bairds arrived 45 minutes later which meant that there was alot of setting up for everyone in the dark. But, we're experts now, so we did really well, built a campfire and had s'mores before calling it a night. The only thing remarkable about that first night in the tent was that it was absolutely FREEZING cold. Stupidly, we had not unpacked the sleeping bags from the car and only had sheets and thin blankets on our inflatable beds. Thankfully, Connor ended up snuggled next to me and he is like a hot brick at night.



On Saturday morning we had a donut breakfast at the campsite and headed up to the Flagpole for the Pledge of Allegiance with Boo Boo and Cindy. While waiting for the festivities, Connor found this pooch tied to the bench unaccompanied and spent some quality time giving him attention. I think he needs a dog, because he was really happy and serene spending time with that pooch. We followed that with a brief trip to the waterslides and pool for about 90 minutes, but wound our way back to the river where we spent most of the day.






Ralph called this the Redneck Whirlpool. When I brought them out those Corona's in a water bag you'd have thought that I had just cured cancer.





This is a disgusting helgrammite. Ralph fetched it from under a rock after Bob reported seeing something in the Port-A-John that Ralph thought sounded like one of these suckers. Gross. The boys loved it and Connor chanted "Hel-GRA-mmite, Hel-GRA-mmite" all weekend long. Per Ralph, these are preferred bait of fisherman and he spend many a summer day hunting them for his dad's fishing endeavors. Since returning home I have (of course) researched the creature extensively. I learned that I am absolutely correct--it is disgusting.



Here's a nice shot of the boys wending their way across the rocks. Shout out to whomever thought of inventing watershoes/crocs. Spending the day staggering there, I was coveting a pair of these, which would have been perfect. At the end of the day we headed back to the campsite for a great dinner prepared by the Bairds which consisted of a smorgasboard of kebabs and "packet" dinners. Of course, there was more marshmallow roasting, including some leftover Peeps which are the best roasted and carmelized. After that, we headed to the campground beach for the Saturday night "Glow Stick Dance Party". I didn't get any good shots of that because I never turned on the flash on the camera. But, buy 9 or so the party broke up because weather started rolling in and everyone hightailed it back to camp to secure things for some storms. Connor and I were at the bath house when Carole came in and told us that the storms were coming. By the time we got back to the campsite, Bob had packed everything up and we pretty much made it into the tent in the nick of time. The storms were loud and there was a fair amount of rain, but we stayed dry and snug in the tent. On Sunday morning we packed up in the relative mud and headed out early to visit the Natural Bridge. Here's a shot of all of us at the end of the long trail in the park at the Lace Falls.

The Natural Bridge itself was really awesome. I'd seen many pictures of it, but did not appreciate how BIG it really is. I'd highly recommend a trip there with a picnic lunch and plans to walk the whole trail. I wish I'd worn better shoes, though! I'm the only dummy with flip flops on. After a few hours there, we headed to the Safari Park which was very surprising. Its really in the middle of nowhere, but it is a well run, highly professional place. Basically, its a drive through safari where you can feed the animals from your car. Hightlights included: a long lick up my right arm from a camel, an entire Bison head in the passenger compartment of the minivan, the spilling of half a bucket of feed into the car console and onto the car floor, the spitting at Ralph of another nasty camel, the viewing of a hatching nest of rheas, and a quick camel orgy right near the exit gate. A good time was had by all!

After that, we headed home. It was a great weekend. Connor's big reflection on it was that we needed to "spend more nights in the tent so we can have more fun". I couldn't agree more.

Easy Rider

So, while we were busily packing the car for our camping excursion, Connor suddenly decided it was time to take the training wheels off his bike. I'd been thinking/wondering what my responsibility was regarding this issue for a month or two since I see kids his age now and then riding about without the mini side wheels. But, he had not really brought it up so I figured we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

Not wanting to let him think about it too much, and despite the fact that the timing was inconvenient (I mean, really, who wants to go camping with a kid in an arm cast?) I went inside and got Bob and he brought the wrench. Wanna see the ride? Watch it here on Dropshots. It's the first video at the top dated July 23.

On video, it looks funny to me. He is SO big. And he's so big compared to that little bike which he almost never rides. But he did it--no hesitation. Way to go, Connor!

Football 101

Connor expressed some mild interest in maybe maybe trying out football. So, due diligence mommy that I am I jumped on the web and got the scoop on the Ashburn Youth Football League. This is the largest football league in the area and it is tackle football--even for 6 year olds. Helmets, pads, hits--the whole schmear. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're me and you're dreading this sporting step forward), the committment was too great. Basically, they start practice in early August and there's a two week period where they practice every day in gear. They tell you straight up--its a safety issue and if you're not going to be around for practice don't bother signing up. Well, since I'm not ready to give up the last two weeks of the summer when I'm off work to football, that was a big NO GO. But, I did a bit more digging and found a local company called I9 Sports that offered a 6 week FLAG football program. One night a week for about 90 minutes and its focused on learning the game--not playing actual games. Perfect. We signed up and the first week was last week and Connor did really well. His coach is really good with him and keeps him focused. We had our second week tonite and again he was engaged and interested until about 10 minutes from the end when he tired out and gave in to a huge blister on his foot. The boy is a trooper, I have to say. All day at camp, swimming at the pool, tennis lessons, etc. and then over to football practice. He's having a good time and I've met a really nice mom to talk to who lets me prattle on. Good deal.

Road Food

A few weeks ago while listening to "The Splendid Table", I heard about the Woodside Farm and Creamery.

Jane and Michael Stern from Gourmet magazine just went on and on about the absolutely fantastic cows and their resultant fantastic ice cream at this working dairy farm in Delaware. Intrigued, I was determined to make it a stop on our way to/from NJ. The Sterns were right.

It is absolutely fantastic. And we just happened to be there on National Ice Cream Day. I tasted butterscotch, cherry cola, some kind of crazy chocolate explosion, vanilla cookie dough, dirt (chocolate with crushed chocolate cookies and gummi worms), triple chocolate, and banana. I ended up with that bowl of the banana with chocoalte sprinkles and it wins as my fave.

We also got to enjoy a tour of the farm on a hayride and some fun with firetrucks. Great place.

More From The Garden

Picked those nice green zucchini tonite and quickly turned them into that yummy dinner!

Something Crunchy On a Busy Day?

Tooth #3 made its exit today. It happened on the way to football practice, in the car, while chewing gum. Suddenly, I hear..."Mom. There's someting crunchy in my gum! Oh, jeeez. Its the tooth!" Gross.

This all solved a problem that we'd been discussing for 20 minutes though--his fear that someone would knock it out at football. Took care of that, didn't we, boy?

7-Eleven

17 years ago! Amazing. Not amazing that we've made it this far--amazing how great it has been. And other than your gray hair, honey, we look exactly the same. Happy Anniversary!

A Little Personal Growth

Inspired by my friends Michelle and Andrew, I decided to try a little veggie garden this year. We had a spot in the backyard where the grass was a mess so Bob tilled it up for me. This is what it looked like:

We decided it needed some kind of border to keep the lawn mover crews from making a mess of it so we got a pallet of round river stone and made a simple english garden border for it. We divided it into three sections for this year, but those little walls will probably come out as my planting skills come back to life. The top bed is for the magnolia, the center for veggies, and the bottom right bed is for flowers. We added two decorative planters at the gate and some stepping stones and gravel under the gate itself. That whole area was a mud pit. Here's what it looked like yesterday:

I'd also be very remiss if I didn't point out the large cleared section directly behind the fence. Bob literally spend HOURS clearing the brush out of that area, including a few random small trees. It was totally overgrown, ugly, and full of ticks. We're still trying to figure out what we'll do there. Technically, its common area and we're not supposed to mess with it at all, but I'd liked to plant a lilac hedge or maybe a few evergreens for coverage. In the winter, those woods become pretty bare. That's a fall project. Yesterday, too, we harvested our first vegetable. Here it is, still on the vine:

And here's the little farmer with his bounty:

I cooked that beautiful yellow gift up for dinner along with some delicious green beans that Connor harvested at Great Country Farms yesterday on his summer camp field trip. They were both delicious. Its funny how you forget how fresh vegetables taste because we get so used to them from the grocery store. We've also got canteloupe, zucchini, tomatoes, and yellow bell peppers out there. And about two weeks ago I made a second attempt at starting some of those giant pumpkins for fall harvest. The first shot at growing those was a dismal disaster. The squirrels or the birds ate them up. But this time I have five of them nicely sprouting.

The Florida Department of Tourism Loves The Tates

Pirate family aboard the "Pirates Ransom"




Headed out of town on the People Movers at Dulles



Fine dining at Rusty's


Toes in the Sand!

Connor and a load of sponge in Tarpon Springs

The sponge boat half unloaded

Connor on Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise

The updraft air tube at the Museum of Science and Industry

Gyro at Mama's in Tarpon Springs

We just love Frenchy's. The rum punch. The grouper. The corn dogs. Its all good.

Yes. We went back to that peninsula of joy. The Sunshine State. Governor Crist should be sending us a note of thanks any day now. We originally visited Clearwater two years ago on a lark. First, there was a nice Sheraton on the beach that received decent reviews on Trip Advisor. Second, a friend told me it was a nice place for family beach time--meaning, no skanky boardwalk, no loud clubs, etc. Turns out--we loved it. So we went back again this year and we still love it. The only catch this time is that we had alot alot alot of rain. Not that I was keeping track or anything....but half the days were cloudy and rainy. I honestly can't remember what we did other than the one day we thought we'd drive south to Naples and escape the rain on the radar. But, as is usually the case with such cagey plans, the weather swung south and we ended up driving across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in tropical storm type rain with black sky and violent wind gusts. That little jaunt took up 4 or 5 hours. We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry and went to see Transformers 2. It was a pretty nice trip, regardless. More than the rain, the biggest barrier to happiness was the grumpiness of the participants, which, I guess, you could blame on the rain. We definitely all got on each other's nerves at various points. Next trip will be to a desert climate OR ELSE!