Our Super Trip – Day #1

We just returned from an awesome trip because it lasted for 11 days – 6 of which were at the beach. On the other 5 days, we visited and traveled from one place to another. We listened to the boys say, “I’m bored!” or “What state are we in?” or “Ohio.  Indiana. Missouri,” or “I want to go back to the beach!!!!!!”  The third statement was about the license plate game. The Wee One loves that game!  🙂  We also listened to books on tape, such as Drizzle, Encyclopedia  Brown, and the Henry Winkler Hank Zipper series. Most of all, we made memories we will cherish.

Day 1 was the travel day to Charlottesville, VA (Check out my post about why we chose that city). We wanted to leave by 6 am to be able to do a tour of Monticello. The official start time was 6:05, so that was a good start to the trip. We hit fog when we hit southeastern Ohio to West Virginia. In fact, the Imaginative One said the bridge that separated Ohio from West Virginia was like a tunnel, not a bridge.

We made an excellent time during that leg of the trip. We got to Monticello (our first stop) by 2 pm. The Imaginative One loved Monticello. His favorite parts were where they kept the ice, Jefferson’s reading apparatus that held up to 5 books, the dumbwaiter, and the polygraph machine. Hubby and I were impressed with Jefferson’s bed in the wall, the closet at the end, and the closet above the bed that had air holes, so there was ventilation. We were also impressed with his front parlor, where he greeted guests. The clock was amazing, and the maps were interesting. The Wee One took away from the whole experience that Jefferson liked to read.

After we left Monticello, we went and checked into the hotel. Hubby needed a nap, and the boys were very loud, and squirrely so I took them swimming while their dad took a nap. Once we were done swimming, we got ready and went down to the University of Virginia rotunda to do a virtual cache (geocaching – Google it).

While at the rotunda, we got a hold of my sister so she could take a picture of us at the virtual cache. The boys thought sticking their behinds out at the camera would be funny. I don’t know if she captured that or not.

After taking pictures at the University of Virginia rotunda, we went to the Pedestrian Mall and met up with Jo. We were late because of Hubby’s geocaching and because we got turned around at one point. We found the Hawaii license plates in the parking lot where we parked. To read about our adventures at the Pedestrian Mall, visit this blog entry.

Click on the Thomas Jefferson Statue to see pictures from our first day on the Super Trip.