The Epic Vacation, Days 14 and 15

Day 14 – We hustled out the door to go to Sacrament Meeting and then came back to get our stuff and check out of the hotel.  It was an Embassy Suites; by far the best one we’ve stayed at so far, and we all enjoyed it very much.

 
Before leaving Virginia we went to Mt. Vernon.  I seriously could have spent the whole entire day there.  The mansion was great, as always, but I don’t remember enjoying the grounds so much when Jeremiah and I went years ago. 

We saw a lot of stuff that Jeremiah and I missed the first time –  we sat on the porch and looked out over the Potomac, we saw the gardens, the tomb where George and Martha Washington are interred, the slave quarters, the blacksmith shop, and “A Visit with Lady Washington” where an actress dressed up like Lady Washington talked about “herself” and "her" life.  It was so fun!  We also saw a man dressed up as Dr. James Craik, George Washington’s physician and friend.

So I was already thrilled to death but then we saw the new visitor’s center and museum that was not there ten years ago.  We had to just hurry through at that point and it made me so sad to not linger and soak it all in, but what we did get to see was awesome.  I loved it, loved it, loved it.

Even our drive from Mt. Vernon to Manteo was an adventure.  We stopped at a gas station to fuel up and have bathroom breaks and Aiden locked himself in the bathroom.  I don’t know how he locked it, because he said he couldn’t reach to unlock.  I tried to talk him through how to unlock the little sliding lock but he said he couldn’t do it.  So finally I told him to turn over the garbage can and stand on it so that he could get to the lock more easily.  He got out and I got some gloves from the employees at the gas station so that I could clean up the mess.  We had to laugh.

Finally we pulled in at Gramma Donna and Grampa Chuck’s house.  It was almost 10:00 but by the time we visited and got some things in the fridge and made beds and got the kids settled it was nearly midnight when Jeremiah and I finally got to bed.

Day 15 – We got to sleep in.  Hooray!!  Gramma made us sourdough pancakes and we had a leisurely breakfast on the screened porch.  It was time for lunch by the time we finally got ourselves ready to go to the beach.  Instead of taking the time for lunch we grabbed some stuff for peanut butter sandwiches and got out the door.

The kids had so much fun on the beach.  They never asked for lunch, and wouldn’t stop when we asked them if they wanted to eat.  They just wanted to play.  We watched them dive in the waves and play in the sand and we just relaxed.  I loved visiting with Gramma.   She’s a wonderful woman and I feel like she is a kindred spirit.  It’s going to be a great week.

After the beach we came home and got cleaned up, made dinner, relaxed some more… A beautifully lazy day.