Hiking and Dinosaurs

Our train ride ended around 11pm when we arrived at the Greenville station. The boys both had to be woken up...we scooped them up and waited for a taxi to pick us up and bring us to the hotel in Greenville. I had NEVER ridden in a taxi cab...but it too, was kind of on the list of things to do one day. Not that I have a deep desire to ride in one, but it's just one of those things that I SHOULD have done by now. Anyway, I was pleased to see it was a standard yellow taxi cab.

We settled into our hotel pretty quickly and then fell asleep. Of course, Jason and I both commented, that we felt the rocking sensation of the train even while in our still bed.

The next morning, when we woke up, we looked out our window to see what Greenville looked like. And this is what we saw out the hotel window.



We stayed in Greenville long enough to get some wheels and fill our bellies. Then off to the mountains we went! This part of our plan was not mapped out. We had some options. Either go to some waterfalls (that I knew of as a kid) right off the road in the Brevard/Highlands areas...or take a hike to a waterfall that Jason read about. Or, just enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway west of Asheville. Regardless, the plan was to eventually make our way to Asheville for the night.

It was a quick drive to the mountainous part of North Carolina from Greenville. We had decided that we'd do Gorges State Park and hike to the Rainbow Falls. The Leapsters I bought for the boys had a camera accessory that I also purchased, thinking it would be fun for the boys to take pictures/videos on our trip! However, I had planned not to pull out the surprise Leapsters until we desperately needed them (like on the 14 hour train ride). The boys were doing great...so I hesitated even pulling them out. But we decided to go ahead and let them have them to take pictures while on our hike. It, however, may have been a mistake. I gave them to them just prior to reaching the mountains. Once we got into the seriously hilly/hairpin roads of the mountains, James said he didn't feel good. About 3 minutes later, Jack said, "my tummy hurts too." We pulled over on the side of the road (literally about 1 mile from the trailhead) to get the boys out of the car incase they were going to throw up (I thought maybe it was something they had eaten). We soon realized though, that BOTH boys were suffering from car sickness!!! They had been intensely looking down at their Leapsters and the non-stop twisting and turning on the roads just did them in! After a minute we got them back in the car, drove the 1 mile to the trailhead, explaining to them what car sickness is, and had two recovered boys a few minutes later.

The trail we were taking was a 1.5 mile hike to the waterfall. A 3 mile hike total. A bit ambitious with two little boys, but the day was beautiful, the trees were splashes of color everywhere, and the air was clean and crisp. We thought we'd attempt it at least. It wasn't until after the hike that Jason told me the trail was labeled as "strenuous." I'm glad I didn't know that ahead of time though, because I would have been hesitant to go with the boys, but turns out it really wasn't THAT strenuous. Just the last few hundred feet or so had a steep incline.

The hike was GREAT! The boys LOVED every minute of it. They stopped every few feet with a new find...acorns, bright leaves, rocks, sticks, squirrels, etc. We had creeks with logs to cross, trails leading to riversides, rock ledges to look out on, and ultimately the big beautiful waterfall at the end.








The hike took longer than we thought it would...we were well passed lunch time and were all ready for some grub! We lucked out and stopped at a place overlooking Toxaway Falls. The food and service was superb!

After lunch, we were Asheville bound. Jason had read about an art exhibit called Dinokinetics right on the outside circle of Asheville. We were going to be traveling towards downtown Asheville to our hotel, but thought if we were passing by the museum, we mine as well stop. The artist had created skeletal replicas of dinosaurs out of recycled metal. However, they were uniquely bound to allow flexibility. Cables were attached at joints and were programmed to move in various ways using a controller. So, the dinosaurs could be manipulated by the person viewing the art. We thought the boys would get a big kick out of seeing these dinosaurs. It closed at 5pm...but we were able to make it there by 4:30pm (which was the perfect amount of time to see the exhibit).





After viewing the Dinokinetic art, we got a bite to eat and then settled into our Asheville hotel downtown. We had not schedule our one full day in Asheville the following day. But were a little discouraged about the 70 % chance of rain we were supposed to get. We were sure we'd find something fun to do the next day though. And we did! More to come in the next blog!

The Train Ride

If you've never ridden on a train, I'd say DO IT! Our experience on the train was one of the highlights of our trip!

We arrived in Covington Friday night to get our pets situated for the week at Mimi and Poppy's house. We had to be at the train station in Slidell, Louisiana (the second stop on the New Orleans to New York Amtrak train) at 7:30am for an 8am departure. I have to admit, I woke up a bunch the night before...like a kid before Christmas morning!

Our brother-in-law, Jeff drove us to the station. We had no idea what to expect when we arrived. We figured the station would be small. Not only was it small....it was tiny! But kind of quaint, in a way.


Slidell, LA Amtrak Station


Inside the train station

The boys were SO EXCITED to see the train pull up to the train station! There we were, standing outside with our luggage, waiting for the train. Felt like a step back in time...when people traveled by train all of the time!



Mixed in with ALL of my excitement, was a bit of reservation...because this wasn't just a little two hour train ride. This was a 14 HOUR train ride! Yes, to get from Slidell, LA to Greenville, SC was a 14 hour train ride. Because of the length of the trip, we thought it was appropriate to reserve sleeper cars for our trip. The train wasn't going to arrive in Greenville until 11pm (eastern). So, we thought we'd be more comfortable in two sleeper cars, each having two beds. Not only that, when you reserve a sleeper car, your meals in the dining car are included. Perfect!

Once we got into the train and got our things put away, we were ready to explore along with the boys. Each sleeper car had two chairs facing each other along the window. The chairs then push down to make a bed. The other bed is at the ceiling and can be lowered when ready to use. I have to admit, the "rooms" were smaller than I imagined, but completely doable. Each room had a potty seat in it and a sink with a faucet. There was a little table that could be folded out between the two chairs with a checkers board marked onto it. Our rooms were directly across from each other, so the boys could easily walk back and forth. And if there was something cool out of one side of the train, we'd all go to that side to get a peak. It was really the perfect set up!

I think one of the more surprising aspects of the train ride was how great the dining car experience was! We really had low expectations, but it was probably our favorite part of the ride. Sitting at a dining table, on a train, watching America pass through the windows...and the food was actually pretty good! It was a chance to chat with other train-goers. We thought it was interesting that about 90% of the people we met were also first-time train-goers also out for the experience of a good 'ole train ride!



I thought the excitement of the train would wear off within the first 3 hours or so...but honestly, it was the fastest 14 hours of traveling I've ever experienced! Between, going to the dining cars for meals, "playing" in the sleeper cars, and visiting our neighbors, we had a blast! I had anticipated having to bust out the laptop to play a movie or two for the boys. I also had purchased Leapsters for the boys for our trip (to pull out at any given moment we needed some help to get them through the trip). I'm pleasantly surprised that neither the Leapster or the movies were needed on the train ride! How 'bout that?!?



In Atlanta, the train stopped for about 30 minutes, allowing us to get out and walk around at the station. It was such a beautiful weather day for our train ride...couldn't have asked for a nicer day!




Later that evening we got the beds all set up and all laid down for a little bit of sleep before we arrived in Greenville. It took a while for the boys to settle down into sleep, because of the excitement of it, but they did finally fall asleep.




I'd give our train ride experience two thumbs up!

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles...

..is the theme of our recent adventure across the southeast. Many people have asked how we came up with such a trip...and to be honest, it was quite simple. We had a list of things we wanted to do and we just connected the dots. Jason and I have never ridden on a train before. Therefore, we've been anxious to take a train ride somewhere/anywhere! We have also had a love affair with Asheville, NC. We've read so much about it and have been wanting to go ideally when the fall foliage is at it's best. I grew up visiting the mountains of NC and have always enjoyed hiking those mountains and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. A few weeks ago, we also got inspired by Jon Stewart to attend the Rally To Restore Sanity. I wasn't sold on going to a rally in Washington DC with two small children, but Jason insisted it would be fun. With that being a goal, and some of our other lingering desires, we set aside 10 days to make the best of our experience. We seriously started talking about it late one night, and by 1am in the morning, we had made 90% of our reservations. We first thought we were going to rent an RV to get to our destinations (Asheville and DC). But after time, we decided a train ride could perfectly fit into this plan, therefore knocking it off our bucket list! However, a train there and back, we thought, may have been too much. So, we decided on a one-way train ride as close to Asheville as possible. We also had to consider our pets. So, to make the trip work, we needed help from our family back in LA. Jason's parents willingly helped us by watching our pets. However, this meant we needed to start our great adventure, not from Pensacola, but from Covington, LA so we could drop the pets off first. So, the train was scheduled from Slidell, LA to Greenville, SC. We figured we would rent a car from Greenville and drive to Asheville, stopping along the way wherever our hearts desired. We allowed ourselves one full day, two night in Asheville. From Asheville, we planned to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway for as long as we could take the slow speeds and twisty roads, working our way to Virginia. We didn't book a hotel for that night because we didn't know where our drive would bring us by the time we were ready to get out of the car (we figured somewhere near Roanoke though). The next day would lead us to the Washington DC area. We planned to return the car on that day...so anything that couldn't be accessed by the Metro, would be visited that day before turning in the car. The last 4 days of the trip we planned on depending solely on the Metro...so we had to find a reasonably priced hotel on or near a Metro station. At first we thought we'd rent a car and drive the WHOLE way back to Pensacola...but then we realized we'd be without our car we brought to Louisiana...and without our pets. Luckily we found very good airfare on Southwest from BWI to MSY (New Orleans). The next few weeks were spent filling in as many blanks as possible. We also read stories to the boys about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and Lincoln Memorial. I printed out coloring pages of the monuments around DC for the boys to color on the train. Who knew learning could be SO FUN! :) As I get organized with the pictures, I'll post on the blog about our trip!

Student Of The Month

I'm so proud of Jack. He was chosen as the kindergarten Student Of The Month for October. He's working so hard in school. He's been reading more and more books...and is even reading night time stories to James now! His first report card came home and had great remarks from top to bottom! Proud Mom!

What My Kids Said-August 2010

-I was a bit frustrated with the way the day was going...and Jack sensed it. He knew when approaching me, he'd better choose his words wisely to get what he wanted. He said, "Mom, can I ever so kindly watch a t.v. show?"

-James was looking at Jason's eyebrows as Jason was putting him to bed. He said, "why don't I have eye brows?" (I guess he never noticed them because they're blond). Jason said, "you do!" and guided his fingers to James' eyebrows so he could feel them. James, surprised by the realization, asked, "can I go see my eyebrows in the mirror?" Jason brought him to the mirror... he proudly admired his eyebrows. A while later he was out of his bed again. Jason asked what he was doing out of bed. He said, "just looking at my eyebrows."

-James asked, "when I get married can I get a ring?" Jason said, "yep, and you can pick the color too...so, if you want a purple ring, you can have a purple ring." James, "I want a Garfield ring!"

-Jack said his tummy hurt. He came out of his room, walked up to Jason, and said, "when you're in my room WITH me, I feel two inches better."

-James started stacking pillows in the living room and said very excitedly, "I'm building a PUBLIX!" (you think he knows how excited Mommy is that they're building a Publix down the road!?)

-James informed me when I came in from my run, "Jacks still sleeping. He's growing. But that's OKAY Mom." (he recalls me "not wanting" them to grow up).

-As James rounds the corner very fast, with a large upside down bin in his hands, and a kitty running from him, I asked, "what are you doing?" He said, "oh, just tryin' to catch a kitty!"

-As we're all in the same room in Covington, lights out, about to fall asleep, the boys start saying goodnight to everyone. James said, "goodnight Mom, goodnight Jack, goodnight dad, goodnight Jamesy...that's me, I'm Jamsey!"

-James asked when I picked him up from his 1st day of school, "did you have a good day when you dropped me off at school?"

A COLORFUL Craft

With a bucket full of broken crayons, I took advantage of those scraggly pieces and turned it into a craft for the boys. I saw how to make your own crayons with old crayons in a magazine somewhere. Jack helped peel all the paper off and separate the broken crayons by color. Then we preheated the oven to 275 degrees. We lined the mini muffin pan with muffin liners then placed the broken crayons in the muffin pan. We plopped them in the oven for 10 minutes, and wha-la! Peanut butter cup crayons! Jack's very quote as we took them out of the wrappers, "Oh, they turned into to peanut butter cups!" Fun project! We even did a second batch of swirl colors! :)

James Is A PRESCHOOLER!

The day has finally come that James gets to be a preschooler. For two years he's begged to be able to stay at preschool when I dropped Jack off. You would have thought he would have been a bit more excited. But, my little James was cautiously excited and bit reserved about being at school without Mom, Dad, or brother Jack. He begged for Jason and I to stay with him as we dropped him off in his classroom. But he didn't cry as we separated his clenched arms around our legs. And when I picked him up he was ALL smiles! He talked ALL about his day and his teachers gave him a great report for his first day! I'm so proud of you James!