Month: June 2016

Early mornings are not my friend, but when I’m on vacation I never want to miss a thing! We were up early for breakfast and trying to break camp by 9…we hit 9:30, not bad at all! 

Our first stop was High Falls Gorge. It had a short loop hike to the gorge and it was magnificent! The beauty around us here in the Adirondacks is stunning. What a mighty God we have! 

What a mighty God we serve, What a mighty God we serve, Angels bow before Him, Heaven and Earth adore him, What a mighty God we serve! 

Onto our next stop, the bobsled track from the Olympics. We had heard that you could run half the course and daddy was determined to try it. Sadly, when we got there it was one of the two days they don’t run. 😥 Daddy was bummed, then the lady told us we could hike up and actually get into the new 2000 track and see the curves. So that was the second best option. We headed out up the mountain which was a mile trek UP. This mama was not excited, but for daddy, his girls and I would do anything. We were about a quarter of the way up when we came across a spectator entrance that was covered and we could walk right next to the track. We decided to duck inside as Alan and I were keeping our eye on a vey daunting looking rain cloud. A few minutes later, thunder, rain, and hail came down! Thankfully we were covered! Praise the Lord!! We waited out the rain walking along the covered part and then the cloud moved off over the valley. We headed out searching for the entrance where we could get on the track. Around the 1/2 mile mark we found it! We were able to get on the track and walk down a bit seeing a curve that would be ridiculous at the speeds these bobsleds go…I would be terrified! 

The 1980’s Olympic track ⬆️
The valley after the rain! 

Unfortunately the pictures of us in the track are on my camera!

Activity #2 complete, off to #3! 

We headed to Tupper Lake and the Wild Center. We went through beautiful mountain roads, looking for moose every which way. Alan really wanted to see a moose but we have struck out in the moose department. 

We reached the Wild Center around 2 and had lunch in the parking lot! Then went out to explore. This is a museum of nature and had a treetop course to help you become more with nature. It was a lot of fun and the girls loved it. 

What a day! We had a little over an hour to our campground for the night so after being exhausted we jumped in the camper and headed on. When we arrived the girls ran around as if we hadn’t been yay all day, they have endless energy! This campsite was the first to be really over run with mosquitos, so even though we had a beautiful fire we had to move indoors to play cards and watch movies because of all the little pests! 

Grand Isle, Vt. was spectacular! Its gorgeous campground and beautiful shores were amazing. We enjoyed spending a cool night again with no water, no electricity, & no sewer but it was beautiful! When we woke the next morning we went back to the shore to walk around. The shore was made up of tons of rock that had been eroded off the cliffs. Exposed tree roots were hanging off the cliffs behind us. Alan and the girls found a perfect spot in an exposed root for a picture, but I was too chicken! 

We spent a few hours down on the shore and the girls learned how to skip rocks with daddy.  By the time we had to leave they were pretty good at it! We left Grand Isle and headed to our next destination via a ferry. We had to stop to get gas and stumbled on a cute little homemade bagel shop! It was phenomenol, they make their own bagels every morning,  18 different kinds. The owner talked me into a Montreal Spice bagel!  A-mazing! 😳

Onto the ferry! We decided to catch a ride back to NY on the ferry! It was a short 15 minute ride but a fun experience! We drove our RV on with a semi truck and about 15 cars! 

Our stop for the night is Lake Placid. Home of the 1932 & 1980 winter Olympic Games. We toured a few Olympic sites.

• Whiteface Mtn. – downhill skiing 
• Lake Placid – ski jumping & speed skating
• Mt. Van Hoevenburg – bobsled track

We had a little bit of inclement weather, thunder and lighting, hail and rain. We didn’t let it stop us though. Then we headed back to our fancy campground for the night! Full hookups!!! The girls and Alan played putt putt, giant chess, and on a sea saw while I did laundry. We had a delicious dinner, then nice hot showers and off to bed. This is the coolest night we’ve had and we didn’t even need the air conditioner even though we had hookups. 

Tomorrow we have a packed day so it’s an early morning wake up call! 

Good morning! Today we started out nice and early, we had a 10am call time at the downhill tubing in Lake Lucerne. Basically, they took their winter snow tube trails and turned them into giant slip n slides! The girls were super excited. 

They wet the slides and grease them up with dishwashing liquid, then away we went!! After an hour and a half and about 20 runs it started raining and we were exhausted from all the fun, so we got an ice cream snack and headed towards Vermont!

It was awesome!!! 

We have taken mostly back roads since getting the RV and they have proved very fruitful in exciting and fun adventures! 

It was raining a bit as we headed into Vermont, but the welcome center was awesome! Alan was super impressed with his 42nd state! This was also a new state for the girls, their 45th! 

42nd state for Alan and 45th for the girls! 

We ended up eating lunch in the RV in the welcome center parking lot, chili dogs and French fries! Having a traveling kitchen sure makes eating so much better than having fast food every time. We headed up a small road in Vermont to our campsite not having any thing else planned when we stumbled on The Vermont Teddy Bear factory! 

Bree and her love for bears made this a place we had to check out for sure. We went in and took a tour of the factory. These are teddy bears made right there in Vermont with lifetime guarantees…and a price to back that up. How could we tell our sweet baby no?!? So we added Mindy the Vermont Teddy bear to our family! 

After the factory we continued towards our campground until we saw a Ben N Jerryy’s add! The factory was only 30 minutes away!! Next stop!! 

We got there in time for the 5:00 tour and got to see how the ice creams made and of course a free sample! Then we had to each get our favorite flavor, mine of course being Chunky Monkey! There are tons of dairy farms up here and I have loved seeing all the dairy cows. My favorite animal! 🐄 The factory also had dairy cows and I had to get a picture with them and my ice cream! 

After our ice cream stop we once again started towards camp. We were headed to Grand Isle, Vermont. Our campground was on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain! 

We finally made it! Tonight was Bree’s night to start the fire all by herself, and she too was successful. My girls are growing up and learning all kinds of life skills! 

Vacations are for learning things!

After the fire was roaring I set to work on dinner while the family went to fish. Papa has lended us fishing gear, but so far we have come up empty. Teriyaki chicken was grilling and rice and beans were ready on the stove so I went to gather my campers! I walked down to the shore and saw the most beautiful sunset and three of the most special people sittin on the shore! 

We headed out of Max V Shaul state park and drove the short distance to our next stop Lake Lucerne a few miles south of Lake George. Alan has done a great job driving! Once we got backed into our spot we set up for lunch! My parents have these famous sandwiches that I have eaten since I was a kid. We only get them on vacation and they are so simple but they are my favorite! So I decided that would be our sandwiches…except I’m the only one who likes all the fixin’s that go on them! My family just had turkey and cheese!! My sandwich had, turkey, ham, lettuce, cheese, tomato, salt, pepper, mayo and a tiny bit of mustard on soft bread! 😍😍😍 It was amazing!! 

Anyway, enough about my lunch, it was time to tour Lake George! I didn’t know much about it, just that it was on all the tourist sites so I decided it was a must! Turns out it’s just like Gatlinburg only in New York! We drove in, struggled to park anywhere and ended up in a holiday Inn parking lot! That didn’t stop us though! We finally walked into town to see what it was all about! 

We walked the street and found a few souvenirs, then had to grab some ice cream because it was 95* out! After that, the girls were dying to go on the bumper boats and wanted Alan and I to do it too! One of the things we always tell the girls is that having such a small family like ours gives us the freedom to do more things, this was one of those things. We all piled into a boat and went after each other…these bumper boats also came with squirters attached. We had so much fun squirting each other and bumping into each other. It’s these things that make our vacations unforgettable! After it was over it was clear by how soaked mommy was that they were all after me. Ryanna even had a shorter squirter that somehow always ended up squirting me in my mouth, I was always laughing and she just kept squirting me!

We headed down to Fort William Henry where Alan found whittling knives for the girls. They have been whittling in every campground with him. It’s so sweet to see him teaching them even though I’m freaking out about the knife thing! After the fort we watched an old paddle boat head out across the river, then we decided to let the girls swim in Lake George! They didn’t have their suits on, but it didn’t matter, they went out up to their chest and swam all over, in their clothes. They had such a blast and thanks to our traveling home they had a dry change of clothes as soon as we got back in the RV! It was a great day! We headed back to our campsite, with electricity this time and turned the AC on high! It had been super hot up here! We had steaks and baked potatoes for supper. 

Then Ryanna tried her hand at fire making. It’s hard to watch her grow up and do things all on her own. She was successful on her first try and was super excited! We roasted marshmallows for dessert and got ready for bed! Day 2 of RV’ing is a success! And just for the record I prefer the campsites with full hookups, I am not the primitive type! 

We had a great day yesterday! We left New Jersey early and drove to Poughkeepsie, NY. We picked up our RV and we’re ready to rough it for the next 7 days! 

Gotta love that selfie stick! 

 Daddy was behind the wheel and he was In charge of piloting our 30 ft traveling home! He was hoping not to add any excitement that I could put in this blog, and he didn’t. He had a super navigator and he drove fantastic! 😜

Before we could even get out of Poughkeepsie though we stumbled upon two exciting places! 

1. The Culinary institute of America
2. FDR’s home

The first was the Culinary Institute, this was the college I had planned to attend after first completing two undergraduate years at PCC. Instead, I met Alan and my whole life was changed! 😘 It was so fun to see the place, but I wouldn’t change my course for anything! (Pun intended) 

Just up the road, we stumbled on FDR’s home! We toured his presidential library which is the first ever library of its kind. Alan loved it! We also saw pieces of the Berlin Wall, where he is buried, his beautiful gardens and then his gorgeous home, Springwood. 

Hanging out with Eleanor and Franklin! 

We then headed out into the Catskill Mountains and to our campsite. Max V Shaul state park was tucked away in the mountains. We pulled into our site, got a fire going, because our girls love a campfire and started dinner. We ate, hiked around, sang, then made our beds and slept. What else is there to do when you have no electricity and the sun has gone down! Successful day one! 

Yesterday turned into a very long day, 6 states, 13 hours, and rush hour in our country’s capital! 

We headed out leisurely from our hotel and traveled through North Carolina and into Virginia. Our first big city was Richmond, a favorite of mine when we travel north. 

Everything was smooth sailing, we had subway for lunch, the kids were happy, full tank of gas and we headed in Wahington DC at 3:45 on a Friday! 

I don’t have any pictures of the traffic, because even though we were inching along we were trying to find neat things! 

We crossed the Potomac on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge which is one of the few draw bridges in the US on the interstate. When we crossed we could see the capital building and the Washington monument in the distance. 

After DC we headed to Baltimore still in the midst of rush hour! We tried to avoid some traffic by taking the Francis Scott Key Bridge but ended up sitting at a toll plaza wig a bunch of angry, confused, and honk happy others. It was quite amusing, at one point a car was reversing down the lane because a truck refused to let him in…goodbye sweet south, these folks mean business! 

We finally emerged from Baltimore at 6:45 pm, it took us 3 hours to travel 60 miles. After a much needed break we headed onward! We crossed into Delaware and Alan touched his 41st state while we were waiting in line at a toll plaza. It’s my rule you gotta put your feet on the ground in a state for it to count. 

Delaware!! #41 for Daddy! 

After Delaware we traveled into Pennsylvania and through Philadelphia. It was dark and hard to get any pics but it was beautifully lit up and the ships in the harbor were magnificent! 

We finally drove into Princeton, NJ around 10:30, turning our 9 hr drive into a 13 hour experience! 

Tomorrow we go RV’ing! 

For years my friends and family have told me I should start a travel blog of our many adventures, so I did! 

Some friends of ours are traveling and have a blog and I have become obsessed reading it and living through their adventure. They are my inspiration, So here we go! 

Our inaugural trip is to Canada to see our newest niece! However we couldn’t just go to Canada we had to add something so we decided to rent an RV and rough it for a few days in New York and Vermont! 

We started this trip in a whirlwind, we received a call from The RV rental informing us we had to pick up our RV before 11am…5 hours earlier than we had planned for. So we ran to the computers rearranged some reservations and headed out at 10pm to get a, even if just a small one, jump on our 14 hr trip to the RV pickup! 

My girls kicked it into high gear to help mommy be ready to go!

• Vacuuming
• Dishes
• Laundry
• Cleaning toilets
• Making beds
• Packing the car
• Packing the snacks

Everything on my list was taken care of thanks to my family chipping in! 

We arrived at our first hotel at 3am crashed into bed to rise at 7:50 this morning to start another day! Our goal today is New Jersey! 

“Goodbye sweet sweet South, hello great white North”