It's been a very long, busy week here for all of us. Instead of a summer vacation this year, we decided to go in May. My mom was at a conference in D.C and offered for us to come stay with her, and so we added that in, helping offset the cost of a weeks worth of hotel rooms. We had an awesome time, and got back safe and sound last night. I've unpacked in record time, and I figured I'd try my best to get to the blog today.
We left around 11 am last Sunday. There was a lot of traffic (it took almost four hours to get to Jacksonville, yuck!), and we had to drive into the night. Peyton had taken along the very last Harry Potter book, and when it started to get dark, Asa whipped out a book light and announced "I thought that might happen, so I came prepared!" He's gotten so much better at being organized and prepared. He even thought of something I didn't.
We got to the hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, around 9 pm Sunday night. It was just a normal room at a Hampton Inn, but it was a nice stay.
They did have an indoor pool, luckily enough open until 10, so the boys got to swim out some energy. They had been really good and patient in the car.
When we woke up Monday morning, we were greeted by an ugly, dark, cloudy Charlotte sky. We knew it was coming, with the bad storms approaching the east coast, but we still weren't happy to see it. Making the best of it though, we didn't let it deter us from our plans.
We tried to book hotels with free breakfast. When you times it by 5, even the cheapest of breakfasts can get expensive. We had waffles, eggs, sausage, and breakfast pastries. The boys even took some fruit to go.
The reason we went through Charlotte (not just for our next stop), was so I could check another stadium off my list. I had so hoped to also get the Redskins, and the Ravens too, but I knew we'd never be able to fit in all our vacation plans. It was just a little too ambitious for the time we were gone, and the stadiums became casualties of that. But, I did get the Panthers stadium (even if it was under construction).
We drove in the yucky cold, rainy, dreary weather for about three and a half hours.
Peyton, who had been reading the Deathly Hallows the whole day before, finished the Harry Potter series. Here he is on the last page. He LOVED the books, and was so sad it was over. We've been watching the movies as he finishes the books, so hopefully we can get to the Deathly Hallows part 1 and part 2 this week.
Around 11:30, we arrived at Appomattox. We learned a lot of information there. For those of you who don't know, Appomattox Court House, Virginia is where General Lee surrendered to Grant to end the Civil War in 1865. Today, it's a National Park. The whole complex consists of some fields, some buildings, the Courthouse, and the McLean House.
Our first stop was the Courthouse. The surrender did not happen at the Courthouse building. Why then do we say the Civil War ended at Appomattox Court House? Well, because the county was (and still is) Appomattox. And in the 1800's, the county seat's would be called (that county) Court House (two words, not to be confused with the Courthouse building-- which is one word). So, the name of the town was Appomattox Court House. The actual Courthouse building houses all kinds of displays and information. We found the map that moved as a recording spoke about the events leading up to the surrender particularly helpful.
Then we headed over to the McLean house, where the actual surrender took place. We brought along our Lee and Grant finger puppets to re-enact the event.
This is the actual room in the McLean house that the surrender took place. Lee was at the big white desk, when Grant came in, they pulled up that little brown desk and a chair for him.
There are a handful of other buildings around the Courthouse and the McLean house, all giving you a good picture of what it was like in 1865.
Due to construction (which seemed to be a theme of our vacation), we couldn't walk on the front porch of the McLean house, but we did get to go in, and walk out the back.
After walking around the outbuildings and the fields, we headed out just as it started to pour down rain.
We packed most of our lunches. I think we had PB & J 6 out of our 8 lunches (and my kids never complained). Originally, I had plans of a lovely picnic lunch at Appomattox, but the rain kept us from that and we drove as we ate instead.
We made our way about an hour and a half away to Richmond, Virginia. Our first stop here was Hollywood Cemetery. It's like the Arlington of the Civil War for confederate soldiers. This is a monument at the cemetery for the confederate soldiers. (Notice the rain drops, we were powering through.)
General Pickett (as in Pickett's Charge) is also buried there.
Despite the steady rain, we visited the Gettysburg section of confederate soldiers. They even have little confederate flags by their headstones.
Not only are two presidents buried at Hollywood Cemetery, but so is Jefferson Davis (the President of the Confederacy)
Weather he actually counts as a President for Peyton to visit the grave to or not, he's checked him off his list anyway.
I'm sure had it not been raining and dreary, we would have had a good view of Richmond. Instead this is what we got.
It was a little bit of a walk to get to Presidential Circle.
When we got there, we found John Tyler's grave. He was the 10th President of the United States. But, interestingly enough, he was never elected into that office. He became President after William Henry Harrison died, only one month after he was elected (he caught pneumonia at his inauguration)
Just behind Tyler's grave (which was pretty understated compared to some we've seen), is our 5th President, James Monroe. What we found interesting here, he has that very ornate cage around his tomb, but his wife has a little stone in the ground right next to it (you can see it there in the picture).
Due to the rain, and lack of parking (plus the admission price) we just drove by the Confederate White House. I also had envisioned walking down Monument Avenue to see all the monuments from prominent figures of the Confederates during the Civil War, but we had to settle for driving by and 'oooo-ing and awe-ing' from the car. The Stonewall Jackson one was particularly impressive.
We got to our hotel around dinner time. It was another Hampton Inn, but we had what they called 'the best room in the hotel'. It was huge, and had a little mini kitchen. It was nice to have after spending the day in the car.
Also worth noting: When we were at Appomattox, I wanted to get the boys all their very own National Park Passports. Thanks to my husband for not complaining about spending $27 for the books. I wish I had gotten them sooner, but at least they have them now. They got put to good use this trip too. For those of you who don't know, you get to stamp them every time you visit a National Park. Each park has their own stamp (some have a bonus one too), but the simplest one just has the date and the place on it.
I did really good with food this trip. Eating out that much would have totally blown our budget. I cooked all kinds of stuff we then froze and it acted as an ice pack in the cooler as it thawed. We had maid rites, bbq chicken sandwiches, chili, and tacos. We also brought along a little travel slow cooker. It worked out really well. Monday night was Taco Night.
After dinner, we had another indoor pool to let the boys get out some energy.
They also had a free drink station, so we took advantage and all had Hot Chocolate to warm up. (It was not only rainy, but chilly too!)
We ordered some nacho's for a snack from the Buffalo Wild Wings across the street, and then got ready to watch a movie. We always bring along the laptop and cords to hook it up to the TV so we have night-time entertainment to help the kids wind down on vacation. We hadn't had time to watch Night at the Museum (to get the boys excited for the Smithsonian Museums!), so we brought that along and viewed the first one on Monday night in Richmond.
Along with our room, we had a pull out couch, so everyone had a nice bed to sleep on. It was so nice, I have to remember to review the hotel. At $100 for the night (including free breakfast with made to order omelets the next morning), it was a great find.
Next Up: Willimington & Jamestowne
No comments:
Post a Comment