Wow, another amazing day! I can’t believe we started in Washington, DC, drove through Shenandoah National Park, and ended in Roseland. It feels like today was a week long! Below is what happened today.
Lastnight, we had the air conditioner blowing directly on our bed. I discovered this morning that Tavis barely slept because he was hot and cold all night long.
We got up at 7:00am and with a little bit of persistence, we got the kids out of bed. We went down for our included breakfast at 7:30. They had a decent selection of fruit, cereal, eggs, sausages, and much more. Although none of us are breakfast people, we filled our stomachs for the well needed energy.
We were back up at the room by 8:15 and packed our bags while we waited for 8:30 when we could book same day tickets to the Smithsonian museum. The more I g was sold out so this was our only opportunity. Surprisingly, we were able to get 5 tickets for the 10:00am entrance!
By 9:00am, with our bags packed, we left them in the room and started walking toward the Lincoln Memorial. We made our way past the White House to the Reflection Pool. The Lincoln Memorial was all the way at the end of it. It was so hot already and we all had sweat dripping off us. We finally arrived by 9:30 and it was way more impressive than I imagined. Photos don’t do it justice. We stayed and admired the view for 15 minutes.
Next, we made our way to the Korean War Memorial which was extremely impressive in a completely different way. The names of those lost was sad. Over a million UN soldiers lost their lives.
From there we made our way to a round about to call an uber to take us to the Museum. Just before Tavis called it, Addison saw a statue that he wanted to walk to. We ended up all the way back behind the Lincoln Memorial and the statue wasn’t even worthy of a photo. We ended up walking all the way back to the spot to call the Uber and it was now 10:15 and I may have been a little panicked.
Our Uber came quick and we made it to the Air and Space Museum by 10:30am. It was neat walking past all the people in line and having them scan our passes and and we walked right in. I can’t believe there was no fee for the tickets! It was incredible!!!
When we walked in the museum was huge. We were in awe of the planes in the sky and the number of rooms in the building. We agreed that if we got split up we would meet at the front entrance at 12:30. Naturally we all dispersed. Tavis, Ayva, and I sort of stuck together but the boys we didn’t see at all. I have no idea how but at noon all 5 of us just ran I to each other at the Need for Speed display. It was crazy!!!!
We all went to the gift shop together and the boys all got a shirt before we started back to the hotel at 12:30. After 10 minutes of walking it became clear that we were not going to make it back in time for our 1:00pm checkout. Tavis called another Uber and we were at the hotel by 12;45. By the time we collected our bags from the room, went the bathroom and filled our water bottles it was exactly 1:00pm.
We all walked to the car together and I was so relieved to see the car untouched exactly as we left it. Not going to lie, I was nervous! In the end, Washington DC was amazing. We did not feel unsafe at any point during our visit (other than the scared lady as we arrived). This was definitely a place we could have spent more time. It really was like a modern day Ancient Greece. The buildings are huge and have a very similar feel.
Once we loaded everything in the car we started driving toward Front Station Entrance which was the gateway to the skyline drive through Shenandoah National Park. We made a quick stop at Walmart north of Gainesville. It was just off the highway and easy to navigate to and from. We bought sandwich meat, cheeses, buns, crackers, apples, Oreos, and discounted raspberry donuts. Ayva also got a cool shirt, I got shorts, and Tavis got some sun screen.
We drove through the town of Front Royal before going to the entrance. I commented on the cheap gas prices a few times but our driver thought we had lots of fuel. We arrived at the park entrance just before 3;45pm and paid $30 for a pass which is good for 7 days. We stopped at the Visitor Centre. We met Grayson who gave us tons of information. I told him we had 120 miles of fuel and he didn’t think we would make it through since the park is 105 miles and then you have to drive to a station. He suggested we take a detour part way through.
We left equipped with a map, booklet, and about 7 pages of hikes to check out. They were super nice and had some great conversations about bear experiences.
It was after 4:00pm before we started our journey through the National Park. At first we stopped at every pullout. The views were beautiful! We spent some time arguing over where to stop but in the end we decided to do a 90 minute hike at mile 50 to a waterfall. We made lots of stops before then and have a ridiculous amount of photos.
At 5:20 we stopped at a pullout with huge boulders. Naturally Addison was at the top before I even got out of the car! We got some photos and carried on.
We stopped at one pullout with some guys and some huge equipment that we thought might have been cameras. Ari discovered they were actually in a ham radio competition. Even Canadians were participating in it. They were really nice but we had to carry on.
When we got to the half way mark our car still said we had 110 miles to employ so an executive decision was made to power on and not stop for fuel. I was not totally comfortable with the decision but I kept quiet.
By 6:15 we arrived at our hike to Dark Hollow Falls. We saw lots of people just coming up. They were out of breathe and said it was steep, but beautiful and about 75 minutes. We were excited for the challenge as we headed on our way.
Only 19 minutes later we arrived at a tiny waterfall with lots of people around. We couldn’t believe this was “the waterfall”. I put down my water bottle and I heard people gasping. When I looked up Addison was on top of a huge boulder about the size of the waterfall🤦♀️. Ari also went up but stumbled and skinned his leg part way up. Addison had climbed down and the next time I looked he was standing above the waterfall. He walked all the way around and met us back on the other side. We were there a total of 10 minutes before we made our way back to the car.
We arrived back to car just 39 minutes after leaving the parking lot. We discovered (or maybe remembered) that most people don’t hike at the same speed we do. It was close to 7:00 though and we still had 2 hours ahead of us.
A few minutes down the road we stopped at another lookout to make sandwiches. The view was spectacular. We ate our sandwiches and Ari went to have a chat with a guy who was also eating his dinner. We had a minivan and lots of gear. It turns out he had driven from Vancouver. Yep, he even pulled the door down and showed us his BC license plate. Apparently he is from Melbourne and flew to Vancouver 3 months ago, bought the van and has been touring the US ever since going from one music festival to the next. He has been everywhere from Louisiana, California, Yellowstone, and is aiming for New York by August 19. He plays the mandolin and even took it out and played some Eddie Veddar songs for us. His name is Noah James and we exchanged numbers. We told him he could reach out if he plans to go back to Vancouver. We had such an amazing conversation with him.
Done we were back in the car and we stopped a bit later to watch the sunset. We got some amazing photos. Then we stopped at the next o e for more photos. We repeated that until the sun was down at 8:30pm.
At 9:00pm we were all sad to be leaving the park. It was an amazing drive that we all loved and we are so glad we did it. It was pitch black when we left and we saw a few deer on the road but no bears.
When we left the park we made our way to Waynesboro for fuel. When we pulled into the gas station we had 130miles left on the tank… so maybe it might not be accurate 🤔. I didn’t have to stress.
After leaving the gas station we made our way to the Airbnb. The road was very windy and dark and Tavis wasn’t even doing the speed limit. It was a lot of fun though and we were all on high alert for wildlife. We didn’t see anything g other than a few dead squirrels. Our eta was 9:51pm.
It was a bit difficult to find the house in the dark. After going to the wrong house we eventually found where we were supposed to be. It was super cute but when we got in… 😳😳😳 The rooms were huge and the place was impressive the kids have the upstairs suite with their own bathroom, a kind bed and a queen. Tavis and I are on the bottom suite with a king bed, couch, 2 dressers, huge ensuite, huge walk in closet and enough room to dance!
Addison immediately found the record player and put on some music. We started the showering routine and everyone was excited to settle in for their 2 night stay. There is no full kitchen or laundry but the cute farm house guest suites on 10 acres make up for that! what a beautiful place to call our temporary home.
Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking but we have yet to determine where.