Going on a Bear Hunt: Camping in Shenandoah

So the weekend before the Fourth of July we finally made it out to camp in Shenandoah National Park. We have never been able to get reservations before, but decided to just wing it and try a first come first serve site.  Apparently they actually have a lot of these sites that are not reservable.  The night we arrived the area had a thunderstorm and flash flood warning in effect, so the campground was pretty open.  We realize we're a little crazy for that.  But I felt like we'd have some good luck weather wise.

We headed to the nearest campground from the North, which is the Mathews Arm Campground located about 20 miles inside the park.  Needing a close bathroom for the pregnant lady and almost potty trained two year old, we picked a spot in the C loop immediately opposite the bathroom.  And the water spigot.  Apparently, Theo's favorite thing to do when camping is filling any water needs at the spigot.  

And even though we knew to expect rain, the weather was some of the best June weather we could ask for.  We planned to tour an underground cave and do inside activities on the rainy day and enjoy perfect hiking weather of about 65° on the sunny beautiful day.  Some of our favorite parts of our trip were:

Campfire:  Theodore was in charge of the s'more making, while Elijah kept up a cheering section for Brian as he tried to make fires with damp wood.  

Cavern:  There are several options for caverns around the Shenandoah area. We stumbled across a group-on just a couple days before our trip, so we definitely went with that one. We only paid for one ticket for all four of us.  The Shenandoah Caverns were the first time either boys had been to an underground cavern. The one hour tour was just about perfect for them, though I was terrified they would touch some of the structures which is against the law.  They are famous for their "bacon-like" features that were pictured in National Geographic years ago, and have popcorn walls as well.  Elijah pretended to eat most of the cave.  The location also had some other random exhibits including old animated store windows and a huge barn filled with parade floats.  It was odd, but the boys liked just about everything they saw.  Their soda fountain restaurant was also surprisingly cheap and good for a tourist place, though it was pretty packed with minimal staff.

Chip Factory:  While I normally have to stay away from potato chips because I have absolutely no self-control in regards to them, being pregnant is a pretty good excuse to have a few chances to snack on some.  We kept seeing signs for the Route 11 Chip factory and had to stop by since it was right beside the caverns.  They weren't frying during our visit, but if they had been you can view it all from the retail shop windows.  As it was, it was neat seeing all the machines used.  We sampled just about every variety they have and each left with a (small) bag in hand.

Ice Cream:  We don't consider ourselves on vacation if we don't have ice cream.  We found a good place on Lurray's charming Main Street called Stephan's Sugar Shack and each enjoyed a cone of their Hershey ice cream (except Eli, who still doesn't realize he missed ice cream while napping).

Hiking:  While I was pretty nervous to set out on a big hike with me being 32 weeks along, and Elijah still being accustomed to being carried occasionally or having a stroller to jump in and out of, I had faith we could accomplish one last big hike before the baby comes.  Since it was right off our campground, and should be beautiful after two nights of rain, we chose to hike to the tallest waterfall in Shenandoah, Overlook Falls.  We found the trailhead for Mathews Arm Trail at the back of the group camping sites, and took off.  It indicated we were 2.0 miles to the falls.  Eventually, we turned onto the Tuscarora/Overall Run Trail and continued downward to the falls.  The boys had a great time re-enacting "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" (that book never gets old in our house) as we sludged through mud (just a little), climbed over logs (none really covered the path), and carefully danced across rocks over a brook (that actually did cover the trail at one point).  We found just about every color of mushroom possible as Theo is very interested in them.  Elijah was excited for all the "eggs" he found (Brian called them gulls) while Theodore made sure to tell everyone about a bear sighting one of the other hikers mentioned to us at the beginning of the trail.  We, however, did not see one this day.

Eventually we came upon a pretty large waterfall, but not a 93 footer, so we kept going.  The last 0.5 miles of the trail were the steepest but led to a huge payoff as the view at the top was gorgeous.  And then you turn and see a beautiful waterfall!  The dog and I were fairly nervous one of the boys would fall off the cliffs surrounding this area, but luckily we got in a few photos and just enjoyed the cooling rushing winds as we rested all in one piece.  We made it from the trailhead to Overlook Falls in about two hours.  Despite stopping to snack on our way back UP the trail (and Brian carrying both boys at the steepest parts) we actually made it back to the campground quicker. Overall, we spent about four hours out there.

Views:  Being up on a skyline ridge, the whole 100+ miles of Shenandoah National Park offer wonderful views of the surrounding area.  Except when it's foggy and rainy and you can't see much.  But during the sunny parts of our visit we enjoyed pulling off and wondering around some of the different scenic overlooks.  At one point in the drive, we actually saw our first black bear as one crossed the road right in front of us.  We were much happier to see it while in the car than if we had been on foot.

More Ice Cream:  We ended our visit with a stop at the Apple House in Front Royal for some soft serve ice cream and a taste of their apple cider donuts.  Elijah slept through the stop again, even with a train passing right by us as we waited on the ice cream.  It was a good ending to a slightly exhausting, but great trip together with our two boys.  

New State Visited: Vermont (and New Hampshire) Road Trip

Our equinox has been at the shop lately.  It needs some routine 125,000 mile maintenance.  We have driven that thing a lot.  Which I think is the perfect segue into this catch-up post from a few months ago.  

So, going back about three months ago to August, we took a summer trip around New Hampshire and Vermont.  On our list of states to visit (Brian has about 10 left, I have 17 left, and the boys have 32 and 34 left), Vermont has remained unvisited despite going close by several times. When Brian had a conference scheduled in Massachusetts, we decided it would be the perfect chance to explore (I won't say vacation, as road trips with two kids under five are never vacations) Vermont and New Hampshire.

Even though these are very popular fall and even winter destinations, it was still pretty packed up there in the summer time.  And it felt like fall.  It was pretty chilly out the whole time. 

Here's a recap:
Before we left Massachusettes, we checked out a few places near the conference site.  One was the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield, MA.  This neat little gem is located between a library and several other museums, which must make it a favorite spot for locals with little ones.   For my boys, who are all Seuss lovers or are in the making to be one, the larger than life size sculptures were pretty awesome.  You can find sculptures of Dr. Seuss, the Cat in the Hat, Horton, Thing One, Thing Two, Sally, Thidwick, the Grinch, Max, the Lorax, and Yertle.

Keeping with the theme of children's literature, our other stop in Massachusetts was the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.  This is a fairly new museum, opened in 2002, celebrating the art of picture books, especially that of Eric Carle.  The admission price is a little steep ($22.50 for a family of four) for a quick visit, but I'd bet it's a good idea to get a membership if you live nearby, as they seem to have many special events.  There wasn't anything special going on when we visited, but the adults enjoyed the gallery exhibits, and the kids enjoyed exploring the library and creating in the art lab.  Theo also liked the Hungry Caterpillar themed scavenger hunt that went throughout the museum.  And I did love the gift shop, which had a huge selection of the best books for children and accessories to go with them.

After we grabbed a picnic lunch at the Atkins Farm Country Market (highly recommended), we finally headed north.  We drove through many interesting little college towns, and had a lot of discussions with Theodore when he learned that there are some colleges only for girls.  He is so funny about his college plans (currently, he's taking Eli and Maci with him) We finally crossed the Vermont state line, and we stopped at a very nice rest area to grab literature for the area.  There were so many maps, brochures, and guides that it was almost overwhelming.  Vermont has a lot of good stuff.  Since we had a reservation for a room in Stowe, we headed that way, enjoying the scenery along the drive.

We next stopped at the flagship store of King Arthur Flour, one of my favorite companies in VT, and I enjoyed shopping, peaking at their bakery, and explaining grinding wheat to Theodore.  And the samples!  We got to try a couple different things and they were delicious.

Eventually we made it to our hotel, in the quaint town of Stowe.  Normally a ski destination, it was still pretty packed for summer and had a festival or two going on.  We stayed at a rustic ski lodge that night.

For our next day in Vermont, we started the morning with a hike down to Bingham Falls at Smuggler's Notch State Park.  Not too strenuous for the boys, but with a big payoff at the half-way point, this was a good destination for our little hikers.

Afterward, we drove a bit throughout the park to check out the mountain views as well.  Stowe is packed full of neat little shops and places to eat, we could have stayed longer, but we headed on down the road.  We started toward the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, stopping at Ziemke Glass Blowing Studio along the way.  I originally did not think it was a great place to stop (two boys and lots of glass) but they loved watching the artist blow glass and Theodore had a million questions about the process.  And they didn't break anything.

Since it was feeling like fall anyway, we stopped by the nearby Cold Hollow Cider Mill and explored their store.  They had some information about how cider was made, and Theodore loved watching their little automatic donut maker.  We purchased a few items (including the donuts) and the boys each got a free frozen cider pop.  We enjoyed our treats while swinging in their rocking picnic tables, which the boys loved as well.  The luncheonette across the way was advertising wine tastings, so I popped in and was delighted to be treated to a Woodchuck cider tasting.  They are one of my favorite cideries, and are apparently located in Vermont!  They don't have a tasting room at their cidery yet, so this was the next best thing and I enjoyed learning about and tasting more of their flavors. 

Next, we headed to Ben & Jerry's factory, and learned a bit about the company, had some ice cream while waiting for our tour, and eventually toured the factory itself ($4 a piece for adults, kids are free).  I'm not a huge B & J fan (I prefer Edy's, frankly) but love seeing the history of iconic brands and seeing who food factories work.  They also had a great playground for the boys to run around and stretch their legs while Brian and I checked out the retired flavors in the flavor graveyard.

 

We then kept on toward the western edge of the state, stopping for supper at a local diner and driving all the way to Burlington.  This was a neat town, just south of Montreal and bordering Lake Champlain.  This location gave it a very unique feel, unlike any other city I've been to.  We spent some time checking out the area, and walking along the lake (in a light rain).

 

We then used some of the boys sleeping time to droie back across the state east to New Hampshire, stopping for the night at a rest stop since we neglected to reserve a room early enough and there was NOTHING available.  Anywhere.  This is kind of typical for us though (we are too fluid in our travels), we're totally okay sleeping in the car if we have to. 

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, with plans to drive up the Mt. Washington Auto Road.  This is the tallest mountain in our half of the US, and is known for having horribly erratic weather.  I almost chickened out, but Brian was confident he could drive up and down the road carefully.  The weather at the peak definitely lived up to it's reputation for our trip.  It was freezing at the top, and we could barely see a thing within the clouds.  We did finally find our way into the museum, toured the exhibits, and got some warm drinks.

Once we were halfway down we could actually see again, so we snapped a quick picture on a pull off.

The White Mountain National Forest that surrounds the mountain was (expectantly) sparsely populated, but once we headed south we began hitting many quaint New England towns along the way.  We passed up some great looking restaurants that were either too packed or not open for lunch, and stopped at McGrath's Tavern for a tasty lunch.  We kept on exploring New Hampshire, making some small stops along the way.  It was beautiful, which views like this right along the road.

Eventually we stopped at Keene, New Hampshire for the night.  Since we had saved money on not staying at a hotel the night before, we splurged for dinner at the Elm City Brewing Company.  We dined al fresco, which is pretty much always preferable with our loud boys, and it was a great meal.  We then swam at the hotel and rested up before the long drive home.

Being in New England, we did drive through as many covered bridges as we could.  This was one of the last, Thompson Bridge.  The boys were fascinated by them.  And, this concluded our adventure.  Definitely a beautiful place to visit in any season.  Maybe one day I'll become a skier and we can get back up there in the winter.