Month: October 2016

Beach Bummer

Beach Bummer

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Hey Guys!! So…we stayed a week in Virginia Beach. A whole week to soak up all of the…errr….rain? Yup, it rained pretty much the entire week we were there. But! The show trip must go on!

On the way to Virginia Beach we had a first for us. We drove the RV through a tunnel that went under the water! It was kind of a long tunnel…and I’m not gonna lie…about half way through the tunnel I started worrying about what would happen if the tunnel sprung a leak. And then I started thinking about how if we were on the Walking Dead show, there would be tons of walkers in the tunnel. And right when panic started to make me get a little twitchy I saw the light at the end of the tunnel (literally) and we were exiting. I’m not sure I want to do another underwater tunnel with the RV again anytime soon.

You are looking at the only time we saw sun while in the VA Beach area. This is the Cape Henry lighthouse which is located on an active military base. I’m laughing as I write this because we didn’t realize we were going to an active base. Total planning fail on my part. So, when we pulled up and had to have our car searched and there were some pretty strict rules as to where we could and could not go/take pics…well, it was a new experience! And to be honest…we all thought it was pretty cool! Everyone we interacted with was very nice and polite and we never got the feeling that we were intruding or anything. The whole experience was positive.

We stayed at a place called Holiday Tav-L-Park. This is the kind of site I thought we would end up getting. This is really a pretty basic, no frills kind of site. Pretty standard.

This is what we got. This was our site. We laughed about the difference. Kind of funny what $30 more per night will get you…grass, concrete, and cable. This RV park was huge! It had four pools, mini-golf, and various playgrounds. We would actually stay there again and if we ever make it back to the VA Beach area we probably will. The lack of grass didn’t bother us and we never watch cable anyway. The only thing we didn’t care for was the noise of all the aircrafts flying overhead at all hours of the day…and night.

One of my HP friends lives in VA Beach and we got to meet up with her and her kiddos for dinner one night! *waves at friend* We had a great time meeting face-to-face for the first time while enjoying some tasty Mexican food! One of the neatest things about our #easternloop2016 has been seeing so many of my HP/FB friends. Our kiddos have been switching numbers and staying in touch too!

We did make it to the famous Neptune statue on VA Beach! The rain held off long enough for us to snap a picture and take a look at the beach! We weren’t able to have a beach day during this stay but we did get to walk around the boardwalk area a little and look in some of the shops.

Virginia gave us a rainbow on our last night there. We really enjoyed our time in Virginia and will definitely try to visit the state again!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop

#keepingitreal

America’s Historic Triangle

America’s Historic Triangle

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Located in Virginia: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown are known as America’s Historic Triangle. We spent two weeks here, but really only scratched the surface of what there is to see and do.

We started at the Yorktown Battlefield where we learned about the final major battle of the American Revolution. The boys loved it! They got to hear a canon being fired not once, but several times during our visit. You know how boys are with big guns…the couldn’t get enough of it.

If you head into the Visitor Center, you can see the Witness Cannon they have on display. What’s a Witness Cannon? It’s a cannon that was actually at the battle. It’s genuine. You need to say that last part in your best Southern accent. Really drawl it out and add a few syllables. You can even see where a cannonball hit the Witness Cannon.

We love the battlefield auto tours so we grabbed one in the Visitor Center and headed out to see the battlefield. There were a few other families out doing the tour, but not many. We basically had the place to ourselves. Which for us was great…we could take our time at each stop and talk about what we’d learned on the auto tour.

The countryside in Virginia is beautiful! But Guys, some of these roads weren’t made for RVs. We were on a few that left us a little…puckery…if you know what I mean. We really enjoyed our time in Virginia. It was nice to get back to some Southern hospitality after being away from it for so long.

Historic Jamestown was next on our list. This is the site of America’s first permanent English settlement. You don’t really get to see anything that was actually there. The ruins are all buried to keep them protected. But, the NPS has built a few structures to give guests an idea of what it might have looked like. It was neat to be there…but I think next time we’ll check out the Jamestown Settlement, which is the State Park version of the one we went to.

The last place we went was Williamsburg. We had some good friends fly all the way from Texas to Virginia to visit with us and they went with us to Jamestown and Williamsburg.

We toured the Governor’s Palace where we got to see how the king’s representative lived. It was kind of weird talking about kings and their direct influence of America for the boys.

The whole house was impressive, but I liked the entrance the best. Check out all of those weapons! All of the weapons were on display not only to show wealth and to intimidate, but also to keep them in easy reach when needed. Can you imagine having to keep all of those polished and cleaned?

All of the bright colors surprised me. We were so used to seeing faded or muted colors in all of the State Capital Buildings, so the vivid colors were unexpected. The photo above was in the ballroom. The rug would be rolled up and stored to the side anytime dancing happened.

I’m happy to report none of us got lost in the maze! It was close…I’m soooo bad at these things…but we all made it out unscathed.

Some of my favorite things about Williamsburg were all of the artisans. We got to roam around and poke our heads into the many wonderful period era shops. Most of the historic interpreters did a good job of staying in character without making it weird or awkward.

Nicholas and Alex were kind enough to demonstrate the pillory for us. I may or may not have taken my time getting this picture to give them a little taste of what that punishment would be like. ha!

One of the highlights of the whole two weeks was the tour through the capitol building at Williamsburg. Our tour guide was amazing! She was knowledgeable, entertaining and came across as genuinely passionate. If all history lessons were as good as hers, I would’ve done so much better in school.

We had to check out the jail. The one above was a bit morbid with the coffin in it. See the steps on the right side of the picture? That’s the toilet. We all decided we’d rather not have to stay in those accommodations.

We were close to Richmond, VA so we took the opportunity to check out the VA State Capitol Building. The VA State Capitol Building had a nice surprise. From the outside you can’t see the dome…but, surprise! There’s a dome!

We had a great time in Williamsburg. We will definitely be back to visit VA again.

See y’all down the road!!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup 2 Wives Pizzeria

Pizza Roundup 2 Wives Pizzeria

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For my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you a pizza post from 2 Wives pizzeria in New London, Connecticut.

2 Wives is a really good pizzeria with tasty pizza, and the crust is like bread sticks!

The service there was good and the staff were nice, even better, they have a great selection and dairy free cheese. We don’t see dairy free cheese often.

The décor was ok and the bathrooms were clean so in all that, I give 2 Wives Pizzeria a 5 star review.

See ya next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Washington DC

Washington DC

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Hey Guys!! We spent one week in the DC area and it wasn’t nearly long enough at all. We had four very crazy, very full, very looonngggg days where we ventured into the DC area and we still didn’t get everything on our list done.

We somehow managed to snag tickets for the White House tour. We heard we were one of only five Texas families since February 2016 that’s been approved. And…we went on my birthday!

We got to look through some of the rooms that I’m pretty sure aren’t really used much anymore. Several of the rooms had a color theme. Can you guess the name of the room the bottom right picture? There were Secret Servicemen everywhere. Most of them were super nice and full of all kinds of info. We asked them all the questions we could think to ask. From how many colors of green were in the Green Room to how heavy the chandeliers are in the top right photo above. They patiently answered everything.

Caught this view out of one of the White House windows. Not bad, right?

I’m pretty sure they set this up as a photo opp…but it’s a good one.

And check out this piano! Gorgeous!!! I can’t tell you anything about it other than it was sitting in a room at the White House.

The very first thing we did in the area was visit the zoo. Nicholas is panda crazy and has been looking forward to seeing a real, live panda in person all summer. He was in heaven! We met an old friend of ours and her family at the zoo. *waves at Kiki & family* We got to catch up while the kids all watched the animals. It was a fun day!

We stayed at an RV park not too far from DC. They have an orientation about how to get around the area. It was super helpful. We used the two maps in the top left picture the whole time. Thankfully, we were able to utilize the Metro system and never had to actually drive our vehicle into the DC area. One of the experiences we missed out on in NYC was the subway system. The boys were curious about it and wanted to ride it, but the ones we needed were broken while we were there so we just didn’t get to do it. But while we were in DC we got to ride the Metro often. The first ride was pretty exciting for the boys.

We found a few foodies… You can see the Banana Fosters Shake in the right picture. It was fantastic! So so good!! And we found a great little hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran place. It too was just fantastic!! You can see the pupusas we got in the left picture.

We hit all of the memorials that we could. This is the WWII Memorial. We had to snag a picture by the Texas post.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial. We actually got a decent picture of the boys here without tons of other people in the shot. I think there were roughly a thousand or so people there at the same time we were trying to get the Junior Ranger stuff done. I don’t think I’m exaggerating that number…it was crazy busy.

Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial and the Iwo Jima Memorial

The Washington Monument was closed while we were there. Something to do with the elevators. We still enjoyed seeing it from afar.

We found the National Cathedral and it was gorgeous. We didn’t have a chance to go inside but we loved all of the angles and spires around the outside of it!

We made it to the Arlington National Cemetery. It’s a lovely place full of quiet reverence. We spent several hours here walking around and taking it in. The boys had some JR Rangering to do here and we all learned a lot from going through the book.

 We watched the changing of the guard before we left. It changed us all. You can’t watch something like that and not be changed. The boys still bring it up in conversation every so often.

We made time to see the Maryland State House!

The dome was ok…nothing special…but we did find some pretty stained glass!

I think we found the reddest room in the world. If it’s not official it should be. The walls were red velvet, the floor was red, the wood had a red hue to it…there was a lot of red in that room.

The Maryland State House is where George Washington resigned from the military. There was a neat little museum on the first floor that gave information about that day and what happened. The area around the building was pretty neat too! We enjoyed this one!

We somehow managed to get in a tour of the Nation’s Capitol Building! We wanted a complete set…but didn’t make it to the Pentagon.

Did you know that if you contact your State Rep that they will set up a private tour for you so you don’t have to wait in the long lines? And you get to go into the tunnels that connect the Capitol Complex. It was pretty cool to see a part of the Capitol that not everyone gets to see. The boys thought we were super cool that day.

I want y’all to know I got in trouble taking this picture. Apparently, you’re not supposed to stop in the center of the room and lay your phone down on the ground while you’re at the Nation’s Capitol. I thought for a minute I was going to get kicked out. I made sure to snap the picture before getting up though. I mean, I was already there…and in trouble…might as well get the shot, right?! And…that shot was worth it. What a gorgeous dome!

 Each state gets to have two statues in the building. So…there are statues sitting everywhere. To be honest, it was kind of a weirdly laid out room that felt cluttered. Someone needs to organize it. Our tour guide showed us the Whispering Spot where John Quincy Adams used to have his desk in the room. We stood over this spot and our guide stood way over across the room and whispered. And we heard him like he was standing right beside us! It was the coolest thing!

This is the old Senate Chambers. It used to have wooden floors. Notice the spittoon? They were everywhere! According to our guide all of the Senators used to chew tobacco and instead of using the spittoons they would just spit on the floor. It became so gross that if you dropped anything at all you just left it. And instead of stopping or using the spittoons they would just rip out the wooden floor every so often and replace it. Talk about a waste of money. Sheesh. Can you even imagine the smell this room most have had??? Bleh!!! So gross!!

We found a few pretties…Not too many since it was late in the season. But, there were a few flowers still hanging on.

We walked a lot in the four days we were in DC. Sometimes it pays to be the littlest…Nicholas appreciated the piggy-back rides when his feet started to protest the amount of miles we were walking. And we walked so so many miles during our DC visit.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Pizza Roundup Dans Place

Pizza Roundup Dans Place

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For my fellow pizza lovers, I have another pizza post for you.

Today’s post is about Dan’s Place in Rhode Island.

Dan’s Place has tasty pizza that they’ll do half-n-half for you and

they also have sandwiches and burgers but, I will be honest, don’t get the Chinese Szechuan sauce. It tastes like sweet corn syrup.

They have calzones on the menu as well. Those looked really good!

The staff were all nice. There were a few problems with our order but our waiter fixed them all immediately with no trouble. The restrooms were clean.

This place gets a 4 stars review from me.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Foodies, Friends, and Forts

Foodies, Friends, and Forts

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We stayed in South New Jersey for a week so we could see the Delaware State Capitol Building. We struggled with connectivity here too.

The Delaware State Capitol Building looks more like a building you might find on a small University campus somewhere. It’s very small and sparsely decorated. It didn’t take us long to stroll through the entire building.

Right across the street from the Capitol Building is this really cool Compass Rose. It took us longer to look at this than it did the building itself.

 The plan was to visit Fort Delaware, but when we got to the ferry crossing we discovered Fort Mott. We also discovered that we’d just missed the ferry and would have to wait an hour or so for the next one. Bummer. So, we strolled around Fort Mott. It’s a pretty neat fort. There were some great info signs and some great views…but it was super hot and the boys were starting to make some noise about eating so we left before we got to see Fort Delaware.

The best thing about this stay was meeting up with my friend Nicole and her family for some burgers! *waves at Nicole* Nicole and I have been Facebook friends for over ten years, but we’d never met face-to-face. It was so fun to finally get to sit and chat with her!!

We had some great burgers at a place called Burger 21. And…I found my new ice cream obsession. Crème Brûlée Shake.

So. Stinkin’. Good!!

We also found a really good Mexican place! We were so shocked! Y’all know we’ve been to our fare share of unfortunate Mexican restaurants. We really don’t even try them anymore, but we were wanting something spicy so we threw caution to the wind and tried one. We were not disappointed!

See y’all down the road!!

#easterloop2016