Day 11

Having used Friday's good weather for Busch Gardens and having a forecast of afternoon rain again and having decided that getting on the road earlier would make our last couple days of driving less icky...we sadly opted not to hit Colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown.

Instead, we spent the morning/early afternoon at the Yorktown Battlefield (the National Parks portion of things). It was a good choice. ;) Boys got to learn more about the end of the Revolutionary War. I got to learn the difference between mortars and howitzers and field guns and how to operate them (apparently the boys already knew). We got to see a replica sailing ship in the river while visiting Victory Monument.

And we all got to see the volunteer re-enacting folks fire a 6 pound and an 18 pound cannon. Cool. (The boys definitely preferred the battlefield tour and weaponry and such to the archeological stuff we'd have seen at Jamestown, lol.)

After that we bid adieu to the area and started driving to NC, with a brief detour in Durham to show the boys where we used to live and where I'd gone to law and graduate school.

Day 10

We hit Busch Gardens again and were very glad to have gone the day before...when lines were shorter and the weather was nicer. :) Still, it was a good day.

To start, we revisited some of the boys' favorite rides.

(That first picture, though, is of the Griffon roller coaster. Nathan and I rode it yesterday. I wanted to show y'all that vertical drop. Seriously. Oy. ;) Noah wasn't at all interested and the younger two weren't tall enough, lol. Have I mentioned how lovely it is having a preteen who can supervise younger brothers so that we could do some rides on our own?)

And Nathan and Asher tried one of the rides we didn't hit yesterday...the Mach Tower...a 240 foot vertical drop. Um, Asher didn't really enjoy that. But he was a trooper and was proud of himself for trying it.

Then, because Nathan had taken the younger two yesterday while Noah and I stayed dry (not being as appropriately dressed for it), I ended up on both water rides with all three boys despite the cooler temperatures. Having already hit most things, though, we'd come better prepared and brought dry clothes for after. ;)

Of course, the dry clothes were pretty much moot when the skies opened up and made Busch Gardens a park where every ride's a water ride, lol. I was able to find a couple of kid-sized ponchos for Asher and Micah (adult sizes were sold out). Meanwhile, Nathan and Asher opted to go on one last coaster, making it on the last car before the ride closed temporarily due to weather.

Asher would like you to know that riding a coaster in the rain hurts, as the water pelting your face stings. :)

After that, we joined the throngs of people leaving the park in the downpour. We made it to our van and back to the hotel to get dry and warm. And I was pretty proud of myself for nabbing the hotel's only working guest laundry dryer before everyone else made a run on it. ;)

We did dinner at the local Italian restaurant we'd found a couple days ago (yum!!) then retired for the night. Whew.

Day 9

Based on the weather forecast, we changed up our plans a bit and headed for Busch Gardens for a truly beautiful day.

We got there at opening and stayed until closing time, rode a great many rides, discovered that Micah is not actually fond of big coasters (though he rode more than one), enjoyed the Family Dryer after Nathan and the younger two opted for some water rides (awesome!), and basically had a lovely day.

Day 8 (part 2)

Sorry. Too many pictures. ;) Here are the ones from Nauticus...

Day 8

The first picture up above is the beach house we stayed at. Nothing fancy but the privacy, laundry and additional bathroom were much appreciated for a couple days, especially given the amounts of sand we dealt with. ;)

After checking out in the morning, we headed back to Kitty Hawk Kites so Asher could exchange his kite purchase from the day before (having decided that Noah's selection made more sense and was worth the slightly higher cost). (This is not surprising, as Noah had researched kites online the night before and asked the store clerk a number of questions, lol.)

Two kites in hand (Micah chose not to spend his money though is at present sitting and looking up prices online, lol), we headed across the road to Jockey's Ridge State Park to climb the sand dunes and fly stunt kites for an hour or so. We learned that sand makes a great landing surface for those just learning to fly kites...that sand is also really hot...that Micah makes a great "pit crew" for helping adjust kites for take off...and that kites are cool. ;)

Following that, we reluctantly headed north again and did a whirlwind bit at Nauticus in Norfolk, VA. We toured the USS Wisconsin, the naval museum and the science aquarium. We didn't have enough time. ;) As we were leaving, Noah and Asher noticed that the front of the battleship looked like a fishy face. :)

After that, we drove to our next hotel in Williamsburg...continued brushing off the sand from the morning...and had a delicious dinner at a nearby local restaurant.