East Coast Trip Day 12: Pool Time and Tie Dye

Today was another relaxing, go at your own pace kind of day. It was just what we all needed.

Our big plans for the day were to take the kids to the pool and to a tie dye drop-in class.

Kerrie and I decided to read Looking for Alaska by John Greene on this trip. While the kids played in the pool, we laid in the sun and began reading.

The kids like the Mountain Peak Pool more than the Woodstone Leisure Pool we went to the first day. MPP has a diving board, and the kids decided to have a cannonball contest. Kerrie and I were asked to judge who had the best cannonball; the biggest splash being the winner.

Alora was up first. 

Adam second.

Third, Kylin.

Last, Andrew.

Alora and Adam then had a cannonball-off.

Who do you think won?

Back at our units, the girls asked Grandma Hoffman to do cross stitch with them.

 Alora is working on a napping kitten.

 Kylin is working on a tiger.

Alora is a little-bit-here, little-bit-there stitcher. Kylin has spent more time working on hers' and is beginning to see the tiger come together. I love that the girls have taken an interest in cross stitch.

The tie dye class was in the Ski Lodge on the mountain. We saw two woodchucks on the slope on our way into the building. There was a big debate as to whether they were beavers or ground hogs. The tie dye leader said they were woodchucks. Tourists = 0, Woodchucks = 1

Kerrie and I decided to tie dye windsocks and the rest of the group made t-shirts.

They could choose to make one spiral or two. I'm not even going to pretend to know who made two versus one.

My windsock ended up looking like a poodle. The gal helping us dye our items promised not to turn me in for dyeing my dog. Whew! That was a close one. ;)

Unbeknownst to us, the items have to stay in the bags for 1 or more weeks. Since we fly home in 3 days, Kerrie is taking ours home with her and will mail them to us later. I didn't think it would be worth the risk of squishing wet, dyed items in our suitcases. No fun, I know.

The rest of the evening was low key. Some of us worked on a puzzle, some of us watched tv, some of us read, and some of us caught up on a few things for work. Janice made pizza for dinner, which was yummy!

A pretty good thunderstorm came in tonight. We opened the door to listen to the rain fall for a bit. Once the door was closed, Alora said, "Ohhh, we can't hear the rain now." She is definitely a Pacific Northwestern girl.

Tomorrow should be another low key day. Our big plans are to take the kids to ride go-karts and perhaps fit in 9 holes of golf (for those of us playing our first game ever).

East Coast Trip Day 11: Canopy Tour

Today's activity...Canopy Tour! I have to be honest, I thought this might be the activity the girls were resistant to but they surprised me and were very excited to do it.

We arrived early to sign waivers and get weighed (gulp). Thankfully, they didn't show us the weights. ;)

Our group was small, only 6 people. They usually take 8 at a time but we liked that our group would be smaller. This meant we would go through the tour a little faster, too.

Waiting to for our guides to get us geared up.

Adventure girls!

It didn't take very long to get our gear on. We wore waist harnesses, helmets, leather gloves and had some lines and trolleys.

Once we were ready, it was up the conveyer belt to the top of the hill.

At the top, we did some practice maneuvers: a zipline to practice knees up and breaking, climbing a cargo net, and crossing a "wire bridge" (I can't remember what they called it).

Kylin getting hooked up for her practice zipline.

My Mountaineer Girls after their first zipline experience.

We spent the better part of two hours in the trees. Tom really liked being in the trees. He was swinging, bouncing, leaning and laughing the whole time. By the second obstacle, Katy and Cody (our guides), were on to him and made sure to tell him when he couldn't do those things.

Meet Katy and Cody

That is one happy girl! She just did the second zipline.

Swing or walk the plank...which would you do? Mind you, you're 30 feet above the ground.

There were 4 ziplines. The longest measuring 450 feet. We ended up on a platform 50 feet above the ground. 

 How would you get down?

 The view was beautiful though. Here's how we got down....

 Once I was on the ground, I had a chance to see just how high the platform really was.

We made it down!

We had a good laugh at Alora's facial expression when we looked at this picture. :)

This was by far one of our favorite activities of the vacation. I am so glad my family did this with me. We will talk about this for years to come.

East Coast Trip Day 10: Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Another early day today. The alarm went off at 5:30am so we could get ready and drive three hours to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

This is post our Starbucks stop. :)

 Virginia has a tourism slogan, "Virginia is for Lovers." I saw this sign as we passed one of the rest areas along I-64.

We arrived at Busch Gardens around 10:45am. Kerrie's family met us in the parking lot, then we boarded the tram and headed to the park. We printed our tickets last night so we were able to go right to the gates.

There's too many of us to all look at the camera at the same time it seems. ;)

Welcome to...

...The prettiest theme park in America. Or, something like that. I don't remember exactly what the signs around the park said.

The park is divided into different countries: England, Scotland, Ireland, France, New France, Germany and Italy.

You enter the park in England!

We headed to Scotland right away to ride The Loch Ness Monster. Kerrie and I loved this roller coaster as kids. As we made our way there, we spotted Clydesdales and I had to get a picture for Alora.

"Rollercoaster Selfie," as we waited in line to ride The Loch Ness Monster, our first ride of the day.

Hello Griffon and Alpengeist. We'll be meeting you shortly! Take a look at the video of Griffon below.

"We're going on that?" The Mach Tower took us 240 feet in the air and let us plunge to our death the bottom.

The ring with white around the top and red (the seats) on it, rises to the top and drops the riders to the ground. Good times, good times.

Next up, Alpengeist. You guys aren't really dressed for skiing...

Adam, Kylin, Tom and Kerrie brave the cold!

Griffon line groupie. I've decided if there is more than one person in the picture, it should be a groupie. Those are Alora's hands helping Andrew smile so nicely.

The Griffon seats 30 riders above the track. It suspends riders over the edge of the first, highest and steepest drop. Just enough time to think about how stupid it was to get on the ride in the first place. Just kidding! Kerrie and I were able to ride in the front row = Thrill Ride Perfection! That's what you saw in the video above.

At one point, we took it down a notch and snapped a picture with some childhood friends. Bert really liked Andrew's JMU shirt. :)

This was the first time we used the amusement park railroad and skyrides to get from place to place. It was a brilliant plan and saved our feet from a lot of extraneous walking.

We loved the name of the train we rode. :) Kerrie and Todd lived 30 minutes from Aberdeen, Scotland while Tom grew up in Aberdeen, WA. Tom and I also loved seeing the engineers driving the trains and thought it would be a great retirement job for his dad who was an Amtrak Engineer.

The train ride gave us some time...and a Mama-razzi with time on her hands is bound to...

We're going on a train ride!

Yup, take pictures!

Serious.

Funny faces.

Our prettiest faces.

Who let her on? ;)

After lunch, we let the four younger kids go off on their own. Avery wanted to stay with the adults.

Rhine River Cruise

The Rhine River had a bunch of turtles and Asian Carp swimming around.

At 6:00pm, we went to the Celtic Fyre show. It was FANTASTIC! It had been drizzling on and off all day. When we exited the theater, it was full on raining. We went on one more ride with the Barneys then they were ready to head to Todd's brothers' house for the night. We stayed at the park a little longer.

Playing in the rain? You bet! We're from Washington!

We decided to ride Verbolten one more time. It was raining pretty hard at this point and we got S.O.A.K.E.D. to say the least. The rain drops felt like we were getting hit in the face with pebbles during the outside portions of the ride. That was our last ride.

Making our way to the exit, Alora had one last request. If you look closely, you will see the puddles in The Land of Dragons. Alora loved that the eggs were empty and eagerly jumped in for a picture.

It was a long, wet ride back to Massanutten, but we made it back around 11:30pm. I think today is one that girls will remember for a very, very long time.

East Coast Trip Day 9: Wine Tour

Tom, Janice and I signed up to take the Wine Tasting and Vineyard Tour. It was an all day tour and boy was it fun!

Riding in style on a luxury Blue Ridge Coach.

On the drive, Greg told us a bunch of history about the wineries and wine industry in Virginia. It was fascinating to listen to. 

Greg, our guide...sorry he's blurry.

We went to Prince Michel Winery first. They greeted us with a glass of Pinot Grigio and hot hors d'oeuvres.  

Prince Michel Winery

Brad, the wine maker, took us on a tour of the winery. This is the pressing room. 

 This machine can press 20,000 pounds of grapes in three hours...or something like that. :)

 A view into the "tank room." The wine is held in these stainless steel tanks.

 This machine is able to separate the grapes from the stems at a very rapid rate.

 Who's thirsty? Every box is a case of wine. That's A LOT of wine!

 This is the dessert wine in an "onion" bottle.

 We did get to see the bottling process.

 This automated machine packs the cases.

Here they come...

Picking up 2 dozen bottles at once...

Lining up with the cases...

In they go.

Did you know that wines are actually packed in cases upside down? This is done to keep the wine in contact with the cork, which keeps it from drying out and allowing air to seep in the bottle. 

 We tasted 10 wines at Prince Michel. Each taste was a swallow or two. The owls on the tables were for pouring out any wines you didn't care for or want to finish drinking. I poured out most of the reds. I just don't care for them...still.

There was some time to shop. We picked up a few bottles of wine and some Peach Bellini mix. Tom spotted this wine rack that we loved. Maybe one day. :)

 Prince Michel Vineyard and Winery

 They have the neatest sculptures out front. They wine glasses are filled with these pieces of metal that spin in the wind. The top of the wine glass also spins. I really like them.

 Our luxury coach for the day. It reminded me of band trips in high school.

 Barboursville Vineyards--the setting of this vineyard was incredible!

 The main house with the name.

 Governor James Barbour, for whom the vineyard is named.

 The plans of the original building on the property. This building was designed by Thomas Jefferson himself. Sadly, it burned down on Christmas Day in the 1880's.

 The tasting room.

 The wine shop.

 Exactly what the sign says.

 Drawings of the original building.

 Barrels stored in the Octagon room with crystal stoppers (I think they called them bongs.)

 The barrels are about 4 deep throughout the room.

 Janice listening to Frank give the tour at Barboursville Vineyards.

 More wine!

 Frank, our tour guide.

 This vineyard does not use an automated packing machine. All of their wine is boxed by hand.

 The ruins of the original building are still on the property. Look for the 4 chimneys in the background.

 The vineyard is 220-acres, yet they still have to purchase 10% of their grapes from other farms to meet their production demands each year. They average 500,000 bottles sold per year. It is 1% of the production their sister vineyards in Italy make per year.

 We tasted another 9 or so wines here. None of us cared for them as much as the wines at Prince Michel but the experience and scenery were great.

 Another look toward the ruins.

 I love this man!

 The planters had these beautiful plants in them. I have no idea what they are, but I liked the triangular leaves.

 They also had heart shaped leaved plants.

 The tour bus arrived back at Massanutten around 5:30 pm. We made kielbasa shish kabobs and baked macaroni and cheese for dinner. It was delicious! The kids liked being able to make their own kabobs. Dad grilled them so they had a yummy smokey taste.

Janice loves to do cross stitch. The girls have been watching what she is doing and she asked them if they'd like to learn how.  When I was a little girl, Janice taught me how to cross stitch. It is fun to see the next generation learn how to do it also. She took the girls to town and they each picked out a kit.

 First things first, you must sort the thread and make sure you know which color is which.

It took them a while to get the thread sorted. Tomorrow, they will have to double check it in natural light. It may have to wait one more day though, because tomorrow, we are heading out early for Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virgina...three hours away!