Velcome to Virginia

We crossed into Virginia this afternoon! Please note: If you come into Virginia on I95 as we did today, Wednesday, and stop at the "Welcome Center", you will have to wait until Thursday to be officially welcomed. Their Visitors Center is only open Thursday-Monday. I was "officially greeted"into Virginia by a nice lady who was washing the inside windows of the center. She opened the door and said they were closed, I said, thanks and she replied "your welcome". I was happy with that! Around 2:30 we arrived at Fort Monroe where we will be staying for the next month. We will be learning about Fort Monroe and its history over the next several weeks. The girls were happy to be out of the truck and immediately started collecting "stuff". Lindsay had fun playing at the picnic table, while Nikki had to mark our spot in the RV park.

Frosty Fayetteville

Do you know why we don't have any photos of the girls outside today?

Well, let's try 37 degrees with some wind! We left Savannah this morning at 35 degrees and ALL day while heading north on I95 the top temperature was 37 degrees. Hey, if I wanted it this cold in March, I'd take the family back to Washington State! Oh well...we travelled for around 4 1/2 hours and ended up at a family run RV park about 1 mile from I95. When we pulled into the park, the girls had fun playing with two other "boys" who turned out to be homeschooled as well. They were overjoyed to see some other kids in the park. It is suppose to get to a low of 20 tonight and I wish I had some peach schnapps for the hot chocolate. We leave tomorrow and will land at Fort Monroe, just a hop, skip and a jump to Norfolk.

We decided to stay another day here due to the snowy weather north of us. After school in the morning, we headed into the historic district of Savannah, GA. We were able to take a free shuttle bus around the center portion of the city, then decided where we were going to eat. While at the campground, I bought the girls a children's book called, "Scampering through Savannah". It talked about a famous Pirate restaurant that had some very colorful history. Me, being a cultured pirate, that was the place we were going to eat today! I copied part of the information from the Pirate House website that follows:

Since 1753, The Pirate's House has been welcoming visitors to Savannah with a bounty of delicious food and drink and rousing good times. Situated a scant block from the Savannah River, The Pirate's House first opened as an inn for seafarers, and fast became a rendezvous for blood-thirsty pirates and sailors from the Seven Seas. Here seamen drank their grog and discoursed, sailor fashion, on their exotic high seas adventures from Singapore to Bombay and from London to Port Said. Here's the website: http://www.thepirateshouse.com/.

The girls got to meet a very stiff pirate and enjoyed some southern cooking. Well except for Lindsay who had a cheeseburger. She is still gun shy with me after I slipped her an oyster in New Orleans :)

We are off to Fayetteville, NC tomorrow and hope to arrive in Norfolk by Wednesday.

Skidaway Island Interpretive Center

The rain finally passed which afforded Kelly and I the opportunity to talk a walk around the park. We found an interpretive center which had many animals that were from this area. They also had a room where you could watch the many birds who would come and eat from the numerous bird feeders. We finally got to see a "Cardinal". Wow, I thought the Washington Blue Birds were cool but these guys take it. The girls got to learn about several types of snakes and saw an alligator from the Georgia waters. With the colder weather now blowing in, we have decided to stay here an additional day. We plan on doing school in the morning then some sightseeing in the afternoon.

Swampy Skidaway State Park

The girls wanted lightning and thunder and they got it! Nikki now wants to see a tornado so I guess I'm going to have to rent "Twister" for her. Most of the severe weather has passed and we are again glad we decided to take the route we did here, as Montgomery Alabama is having SNOW! I guess it is true what they say about Spring! We plan on doing some school this morning, then taking a nature hike, rain or shine!

We left Tallahassee this morning and stayed ahead of the large weather system that had caused some pretty severe weather north of us. We were going to go through Atlanta and over to Norfolk on I20, but decided against that. We drove up into Georgia and cut across several state highways so we wouldn't have to drive all the way to Jacksonsville, FL. That drive was fun as we got to drive through several "small" Georgia towns like, Hoboken and Homerville. I found a neat Georgia State Park, Skidaway Island, near Savannah, GA. We arrived here around 2:30 and had just enough time to set up camp, start a fire and run over to the playground for 15 minutes of exercise before the rain started. So much for barbecue chicken tonight. It rained pretty steady for 2 hours then quit. I've been watching the NOAA weather online and it looks like most of the rain has passed for now. Lindsay wanted to see a Tornado so I told her we should watch "Twister" instead. We hope to hike around the park tomorrow!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Our family sometimes watches the Extreme Makeover show and we found out chatting with the manager of the RV park, that a new home was being built for a family right here in Tallahassee! We drove 5 minutes from the park, grabbed a tour bus that was shuttling folks to this house and just like that we were there. Our goal was just to see the house being built, but after we arrived the house had already been completed and the family was 30 minutes from arriving. Well, we had to stay at least to see the limo and to chant, "MOVE THAT BUS, MOVE THAT BUS". We heard that folks had shown up at 8am this morning to get a good spot. Hey, our spot was great and we waited only 30 minutes. Timing is everything! April 26th the show will air.

We are leaving here today and heading to Skidaway Island State Park near Savannah, Ga. With the Spokane weather that is pushing south, we decided to stay more on the coast as we head north to Norfolk.