July 1, 2011: 4th of July Trip to D.C. and Surrounding Areas

Feeding the goats?? in Virginia!
Highlights from today: (Click here for pictures)
Another good night.  Campbell started stirring around 6 but would just roll over and then turn back around.  I seriously don’t know how people sleep with babies in the bed with them.  Because of baby v, I can’t sleep on my back or tummy so that just leaves me my sides to sleep on.  But I feel like I have to keep an eye on her (probably silly since both eyes are shut while I’m sleeping), I end up just sleeping on one side.  So my side was sore this morning for a bit-and come to think of it, it probably didn’t help that I didn’t even have a pillow!  When Reagan, Anderson and Graham all take pillows off of the bed, it doesn’t leave us too many.  Actually, it only left us one the past two nights-I had it the first night and Robby ended up with it last night.  Pillow or not, we all slept very well and can’t really complain.
Since the McDonalds yesterday was a bit slow, we decided to just drive along our route until we found the next McDonalds.  We saw a sign and exited the interstate but McDonalds must have been miles down the road but we did see a nearby Dunkin Donuts.  The kids were perfectly happy to give up their pancakes for donuts so that is what we had.  I worked on putting ice in the ice chest with help from Campbell while the big 3 went in to pick their donuts. 
Once back in the car, everyone ate their donuts and we pressed on.  We drove for awhile until the kids started going a bit crazy and we needed a stop quickly.  We saw a little roadside attraction and pulled over.  We stopped at Wright’s Market-they sold trinkets, fruits, veggies, jellies, salsa, Adirondack chairs and many other things.  But for us the main even was the bathroom first and then the goats.  Yes, the goats.  They had an interesting set up-people like us give them money to buy feed to feed their own goats.  My Reagan busied herself just picking up the feed off of the ground until Robby decided she looked to pitiful and found some quarters for everyone. 
Once you got the food, you could hand it to the goats or put it in a box and use a pulley type system to take the food to the top of a ramp.  The goats would hurry up the ramp to eat the food-the kids loved this.  They could have stayed there forever.  So Robby is trying to figure out how we could rig this system up from the back deck to feed Belle. 
We then took a few pictures in their chairs and Robby picked out some jalapeño mustard and I grabbed pineapple salsa as my snack.  We were then back on the road and everyone was calm and ready to ride again.  The traffic was pretty heavy since I guess everyone was going to the beach.  But the sights were great-just quaint little towns.  Some where beach towns, some farm areas and swamp lands.
Our plan was to pass through Chinoteague, Virginia and then see the Southern area of Assateague Island.  We hoped to have a picnic and even see the horses-neither really happened.  We drove around looking for picnic tables and didn’t find any-we did see lots and lots of people on a tiny beach but passed it by.  Next stop was the Visitor Center and since they confirmed there were no picnic tables, we decided to eat in the car near a trail we were going to walk on.  The ranger said this trail would be our best bet to see the horses.  We had our lunch and while we were eating, Robby noticed something buzzing outside-mosquitoes  Lots of mosquitoes-lots is an understatement.  He decided that we probably shouldn’t do the 1 mile trail but maybe we could go down the road to a shorter trail and have some relief.
The lighthouse was a nice little walk away but the mosquitoes were still heavy.  We had to keep shouting at the kids-keep moving, keep moving.  But unfortunately the mosquitoes could keep up with us.  And really-someone pushing a double stroller through sand uphill and a large pregnant woman pulling a 2 year old along the trail-of course those mosquitoes could keep up though I am surprised they could bite us since they should have been too busy laughing at us!
Anyway, the kids moved faster than we have ever seen them-we ran up the hill to the lighthouse, lined them up for a picture and then ran back to the car.  The mosquito count was Robby-5, Tara-8, Reagan-6, Anderson-1, Graham-1 (seriously? The boys must not be sweet) and Campbell-6….Since she was in the stroller they were hanging around her.  Robby would try to swat them off but one must have gotten under her shirt because tonight during her shower, I discovered at least 6 more. 
Of course, we weren’t going to get back out of the car on that island and we sped off-I was still holding our lunch trash bags and a dirty diaper and instructing the kids to swat the mosquitoes trapped in the car up towards us so we could shoo them out of the windows.  But we weren’t stopping until we were well away!  We finally stopped and readjusted and put medicine on all of the bites.  It may sound crazy, but it was still alot of fun-mosquito bites and all!  And all was made much better by a few icees. 
The next big event was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  The bridge was crazy long (and it should be for a 12 buck toll) and included 2 different mile long tunnels along the bridge.  It was a pretty impressive structure.  The kids were in awe when they saw a cargo ship going over the water right in front of us and then we went in a tunnel while the boat was above.  We stopped in a gift shop after the second tunnel and walked along the pier for a few minutes. 
It was only a few more miles and we were in Virginia Beach at our hotel.  We unloaded and headed to eat.  We found a Dairy Queen and sat outside to eat our hot dogs and then ice cream.  Campbell was exhausted and just sat in the stroller and had herself a little fit.  Well, she had a fit until I started eating my ice cream and then her fit just turned onto shouts of “more, more.”  Back at the hotel, everyone had showers and then into their sleeping bags they went.  This hotel had a pack n play so Campbell is in her usual hotel spot-the bathroom.  Hopefully, this will be another restful night.   

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