road trip part 1

We welcomed Washington with enthusiasm and energy. The smell of the city's turned-up soil and the sight of budding trees thrilled me to no end. We spent two days touring and exploring the U.S. capitol and learned about their fascinating history. 

The Lincoln Monument

Capitol Hill

The museums in Washington are incredible. There was almost too much to take in with their

details and facts, hands on learning, and films. We toured through the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. All of these museums are FREE! They just require time because there is so much!

After Washington we headed down to the bottom of South Carolina. We had rented a small villa on Hilton Head Island and looked forward to biking, sun, and exploring. However...
A few weeks previous we had bought a Sprinter vehicle for work. With passenger seats, this van turned out to be excellent for travelling. We had enough room to move around and stand and best of all we could fit all of our belongings. We sat up high in the sprinter making it perfect for sight seeing. Just as Adam and I were giving each other a high five for this brilliant way of travelling, Adam lost steering power. We managed to coast into a hotel and ended up staying put for the night. Early Saturday morning Adam had the sprinter towed to a mechanics and much to our dismay the parts for the sprinter would not be in until the following week. While Adam waited for the mechanics to look at the van, I was stuck in a small hotel room with five boys and the room grew smaller by the hour. It was a day that I never want to redo. Finally after sitting in the lobby for an hour with five non-sitting boys (we got kicked out of our room after 2:00) Adam arrived with a rental van. We were finally on our way again.

One of the things Hilton Head Island is known for is the biking. The paved trails are surrounded by giant, moss covered trees. Board walks and bridges over swamps added to our enjoyment. We had fun looking for alligators, counting turtles, and watching the frogs jump into the ponds.

Discovering a hobby farm created lots of excitement.

Some of my family stayed close by in a condo and it was fun to meet up with them. My uncle Ted and aunt Heidi had a heated pool where they were staying and they kindly invited us to join them. This turned out to be a good thing. In the villa where we were staying there were people living above us and this caused me much stress with our carefree, loud, country boys. The boys woke up early every morning and we spent the first hour saying, "shhh...be quiet, lower your voices." We would hit the biking trails as soon as possible in the mornings. During the  afternoons we would find something different to do and swimming was enjoyed by all.

We heard comment after comment about our boys.

"Are all of these boys yours?"  became the question of the week.

When we answered "yes" usually there would be a rather long pause. This at times became awkward, because I wasn't sure if I should apologize! But most people loved it and wished us the very best. They told us to enjoy these years because they fly by.

One man surprised when he told us that he had six boys. They survived by sending the boys into the basement and throwing raw meat down! After spending an enjoyable week on Hilton Head Island, we headed off towards home with a stop in enchanting Charleston. Those pictures are still to come.