Day 1 Friday 18th November
Andy managed to get the Friday before our Thanksgiving road trip off work, so we decided to make the most of it and leave early. After getting packed and the car seats into the car it was about midday when we finally got on the road and we headed west out along the Pike, then down 84 to Hartford. We got all the way to Waterbury CT before we stopped for a late lunch. We just chose a McDonalds so we didn't have to worry about the kids, then hopped straight back on the road and headed for New York State. We crossed the Hudson River at Newburgh NY and headed down the Interstate. Looking at the route ahead I decided that Chester NY would be a good place to stay overnight so we drove there arriving around 4pm....only to find that the hotel was all booked out. So I called the next Holiday Inn only to find the same thing, a final call to the Hampden Inn confirmed that everything in the area ws all booked out and we were in trouble so we got back on the interstate and headed south again into Pennsylvania. We went all the way down to Haskell PA and finally found a place for the night. The first thing we did was check out the pool, it was a bit cool but we decided we had to do it anyway, the spa at least was nice and warm. Dinner that night we decided on a Thai place called Dee's. Good food but terrible service. Luckily we had gotten in early so we weren't too bad off but there was another family who came in half way through our meal and ended up walking out 15 mins later when no one had taken their order yet...But as I said the food was good. Tom Yum Gung, mussels, spring rolls, Larb and Stir fried Scallops. (Kids were a little on the restless side, with Josh trying his best to tip water and food allover the table. He and I had to take a little walk outside to calm down.- A)
Day 2 Saturday 19th Nov
Breakfast in the Hotel and on the road by about 9:30am. Another day of driving. Across Pennsylvania down through Maryland, West Virginia and into Virginia. At lunch time we were just near Harrisburg so we decided to stop at Hershey. We went straight to the Chocolate Factory and Lexie wanted to go straight to the ride, fun for all. (The ride we are talking about is the one that explains how chocolate is made. And when you get to the end of it you get a little sample of Reese's, or Kisses or whatever else they are making that day - A).
Lunch was a salad which was really good and hot dogs for the kids, another ride and a stop at the on-site Hershey store to stock up on chocolates and we were back on the road towards Front Royal VA.
Over night at Front Royal at the Holiday Inn outside town. Drove into town to the Royal Oak Tavern for dinner. Good Pub Grub - Shrimp Po'Boy and crab cake sandwich to share, plus mozerella sticks and chicken wings for appetisers. (Food was REALLY good - A).
Day3 Sun 20th Nov
Breakfast at Houlihans, a restaurant attached to the hotel (no breakfast included) Lexie learnt the joys of crispy bacon dipped in maple syrup. Stopped at tourist info center for some maps then headed to Skyline Drive. Unfortunately it was overcast, but at least it wasn't raining. Views could have been amazing if it were clear.
Most of the rest areas were closed but were still able to stop at all overlooks. Stopped at Skyland and got out to stretch our legs, ate a cookie on the patio even though it was quite cool outside.
Just after Skyland we saw the first wildlife of the trip a White Tail deer. There were quite a few of them for a stretch in the middle of the park around. (The kids got very excited seeing them - A)
Finished the trail at around 2pm and stopped at the visitor center, found out that there were a lot of vineyards nearby so decided that would be fun. First vineyard was Vertias. A bit pretensious, (not even the Hunter Valley could compete with their pretensiousness, and it was further exacerbated by a guy who arrived after us, made a big thing about the fact that he'd ridden up here on his Triumph motorcycle, and then proceeded to talk to the winemaker about the joys of Californian wine. I mean, c'mon....other places make wine too and they do it better than Cali. Think Oregon for Pinot Noir. I also swore I would never do this as Mum and Dad did it to my brother and I, but I had no choice...I told the kids that if they didn't calm down at the vineyard, we would be coming back again to do more winetasting tomorrow. I then took them outside and we ran around "hiding from Mummy". - A) We only bought one bottle of wine there. Then headed for the Blue Mountain Brewery. Had a nice seating area so sat and had an early dinner and a sampler of their beers. One more vinevard called "Flying Fox" after dinner......
...then to Waynesboro to find accomodation. Another Holiday Inn express, another pool then bed.
Day4 Mon 21st Nov
Breakfast in hotel and on the road by 9am.
Headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway. First stop was Wig-Wam falls at Yankee Horse Ridge. There was a reconstruction of an old logging railroad and both kids got a thrill from walking on the train tracks then spent an inordinate amount of time throwing anything that they could find into the river/falls. But hey at least they had fun.
The next stop was at James River where we got to walk along a cool bridge attached at the underside of the main bridge (again throwing things into the river was just so much fun).
The reflections in the James river were absoletuely stunning. We crossed the river and walked over to some old locks, had fun plaing Pooh sticks. (Kids LOVED Pooh-Sticks, and then Lexie invented a game called Pooh Rocks which just involved dropping rocks into the water. At least I think that's what the rules involved.- A)
We jumped off the Blue Ridge Parkway to find lunch and headed towards Natural Bridge, but unfortunatley there was nothing there except the bridge which you have to pay to see, so we continued on, but couldn't find anything, (You used to be able to see it from the road nearby, but recently a large fence has been installed forcing you to pay the admission charge to go and see it. Can anyone say "profiteering"? - A).
We finally ended up buying lunch at a Burger King attached to a sevice station at Buchanan (I felt a bit wierd in there as everyone else was in hunting gear) then going to the park by the river to eat.
(The picture is deceiving here. I may look like I am little tired in the photo, but it's a "food coma". The food and the location were great. - A). We continued down the highway past Roanoke to Christiansburg where we stopped for afernoon tea at Dairy Queen before headed to Dublin overnight. Hotel was another Holiday Inn Exprests with a pool. Dinner was at a mexican restaurant, had a few issues trying to find it and almost had to go with seond choice but finally found it at the end of a strip mall. (Can I just say "Stoopid GPS!" She (as in the GPS lady) got all her street numbers wrong. She directed us off into the boonies before we turned her off and came back to find the restaurant. The restaurant was actually in the back of a large mall.- A)Stopped into Walmart after dinner for some fruit and cheese for in the car.
Day5 - Tue 22nd Nov - Lexie's Birthday
Left Dublin and headed down 81, across 77 into North Carolina, then back onto the Blue Ridge at Deep Gap. Jumped off to see the Blowing Rock at Blowing Rock, but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating. All overcast again and generally unpleasant. (Hey! I liked it. - A)
I let Lexie have a turn with my camera and actually ended up with some pictures of me, shes not a bad photographer.
And of course Josh had to have a go too...
Josh is having issues staying on his feet, he keeps falling over and is in the wars with a cut on his foot and gravel rash all down his face. (The cut on his foot was because he refused to wear shoes and cut his foot on a gravel rock. I thought it was glass originally but we were lucky there. The gravel rash happened at Blowing Rock. He was running on gravel, and tripped and fell -A). We bought lunch at a little Deli in the town of Blowing Rock and took it to the park in the middle of town. Started raining just as we were finishing up so headed across the road to the fudgery/ice cream place for some yummies. Back onto the Parkway in the afternoon. Across Linn Cove Viaduct, a bit anticlimatctic. Then onto Grandfather Mountain. Was clear when were were down the bottom so decided to go ahead but by the time we got half way up the mountain we were fogged in. Was a fantastic drive of hairpin turns one after the other. Walked across the swinging bridge at the top but couldn't see past the end of your nose,
Did some rock climbing out into the wilderness but couldn't go far.
Back on the parkway we were going to go see Linville falls but it was over a mile walk each way which we didn't think the kids would do )plus they were both asleep) so continued down to Little Switzerland. BIG dissapointment. about 4 houses and looked nothing like switzerland! Down off the mountain to Marion. overnight at a country Comfort. A lot older than our other hotels but cheaper. Still had a pool so got a swim. Lexies Birthday dinner was at Fatz. she got a free piece of Pie after dinner, yum.
Day 6 Wed 23rd Nov
Back onto the Blue ridge parkway at Buck creek gap, the road up to the parkway was very small and windy. Drove down the parkway to Asheville. Had heard much about this place but was again dissapointed, was much bigger than expected (and colder) spent ages trying to find somewhere to eat and ended up at the Brew Pub. Decided to Forgo the rest of the parkway and headed towards Spartanburg. Overnight at Spartanburg in another Holiday Inn, dinner at Red Lobster and a trip to Walmart after for Thanksgiving supplies.
Day 7 Thurs 24th Nov - Thanksgiving
Drove sriagh down the highway towards Savannah GA. Stopped into Newberry which was a really cute litle town. Had an old Opera House which was very impressive but looked much newer than it was. Down to Columbia to see yet another state house. Was a very nice city. Next stop was Orangeburg, There was supposed to be a good park there and we programmed the GPS accordingly, only to find our self in some dodgy back street with no park in sight. Tried driving around for a while but then gave up and and went into a Walgreens to ask directions. Found the park and set ourselves up for Thanksgiving lunch, left over cheesy bread from last night, deli turkey, cherry tomatoes and babybel cheese. Finished off with the fudge and chocolate it wasn't too bad, we've certainly had worse!
back on the road, through the back country of South Carolina, not overly inspiring country side, still too many trees to have a good view and no other features to the landscape.
Onto 95 then one more detour down the 462 before heading into Savannah. We'd booked this hotel, the, holiday Inn Downtown, in advance and went straight there - unfortunately the pool here is outdoor so too cold for swimming so we went for a walk through town. Very nice little town, lots of little squares and beautiful columned houses.
One of the few places that was open was the Candy store so went in for a browse, Josh was enchaned by the train running around on the ceiling. Ended up at a brew pub (Moon river brewing co.)again (anyone see a pattern forming here) and had an early dinner of appetiser and tried some of the good beers, what a great Thanksgiving dinner.
Day 8 - Friday 25th Nov
Decided to start the day with a carriage ride around Savannah to get our bearings. Walked down along the river front and into the really touristy part and found ourselves a carriage.
It was a really great little tour, explaing a lot of the old houses, some of the ghost stories, showed us the Forrest Gump sites etc.
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| Cool Store |
Josh of course fell asleep half way through and slept through it but hey at least he was quiet, and he still says he enjoyed himself.
Walked slowly back to our hotel
to pick up our car then headed out towards Tybee Island. We stopped at a little place called the Crab Shack, very tacky but so cool.
the table had a hole in the middle with a bin underneath so all shells went straight in etc.
So after lots of Shrimp was consumed, we went out to check out their aligator swamp, there were tonned of them but they were tiny, and they were all pretty lazy too, could only find one that was actually moving.
Tybee Island was a quite nice little place, Drove down to the main street and found a parking spot then headed for the beach, we walked out to the end of the pier but the kids were too excited to get to the beach so we headed straight down, Too bad it was so windy otherwise it would have been beautuful on the beach It didn't seem to bother the kids though, they both ended up soggy wet.
Walking back to the car we found a beach side swing and spent a relaxing half hour swinging and collecting shells.
Dinner back in Savannah was at the Huey's New Orlean Cafe where I tried my first Crawfish Etouffe which was sooo good. The riverside area was packed after dinner and was a very nice stroll back to the hotel.
Day 9 - Sat 26th Nov
Packed up and left Savannah headed towards Beaufort, our first stop for the day was a laundromat, very badly organised the only hotels that we stayed in without laundy facilities were on the days when we needed to do washing so instead we got to spend a couple of hours sitting in a laundromat.. Thankfully there was another little girl there so Lexie made friends with her and Josh went to Dunkin with Daddy so it wasn't too bad.
We then headed towards Beaufort, found a Subway to pick up lunch and then down to the waterfront park for lunch and a play in the playground. It was another beautiful old town and we had a nice walk after lunch before heading towards Charleston. Another prebooked hotel in the center of town, the Mills House, it was very nice, though only double beds and quite a small room, but the location more than made up for that, and the balcony! For dinner we had planned to go to a place called Jestine's Kitchen, but when we got there, jut after 6pm it was already full and had a line so we went back down the road to a place called Sticky Fingers and had some good BBQ. I had Ribs, Bill had the full, ribs, brisket and smoked Turkey, we even made the kids try ribs though they wern't too thrilled about that.
Day 10 - Sun 27th Nov
We had a full day in Charleston today so we decided to start with a walk around some of the older areas, so following a walking tour from the AAA book we started out. What a great walk and what a great city, unfortunately Josh decided to throw my camera on the ground before we got going so all my photos from that day are fuzzy.
My favourite was trying to peak around the privacy doors to see the porchs down the side of the single houses (only one room wide) they had a porch running along the side looking out over the gardens, there was then a real door from the porch onto the main street to provide some privacy. It reminded me a lot of Spain with the hidden courtyards etc. We ended up down at the Battery and then headed back up into the main district. The kids had been pretty good about walking but were really starting to rebel (we hadn't bought the stoller or carrier so it was either walk or be on our shoulders) and get stroppy so we decided to do a carriage ride to give them a rest. After checking all the carriage companies we found one that was just about to leave and hopped on. Where you go on your tour is decided by lottery system to make it fair to all tour operators but unfortunately that meant that we ended up on the tour going around the area we had walked that morning. Thankfully he was a great tour guide and added some things that we hadn't heard yet and did a bit more than where we got to this morning. For Lunch we headed to A.W Shucks for some more fantastic seafood then we decided to go for a harbour cruise to see a differnt side of the city. Unfortunately the docks were quite a way away and the kids wern't very enthusiastic about walking all the way so we ended up carrying them a lot of the way. The boat trip was great though, we got out to Fort Sumpter and Fort Multurie as well as getting a great view of the city.
and the lower deck was deserted so we let the kids run wild whilst we had a rest. After the cruise we had to walk back to the city, thankfully there was a park along the way so we made a deal with the kids, play for a while then you have to walk happily all the way home, it worked nicely and we got home tired but happy. For dinner we headed back up to Jestine's and this time got in, I finally tried Shrimp and Grits which was good, but the corn fritters were better! Yum! Spent the evening sitting on our balcony enjoying the warm evening whilst the kids were in bed, watching the horse drawn carriages go past - this was my favourite.
Day 11 - Monday 28th Nov
Since Breakfast wasn't included at this hotel we decided to try a local restaurant Toast, I got peach french toast which was good but not what I expected, it was almost a cake! Today we decided to head out to the plantations around Charleston, first stop Drayton Hall.
For an unfurnished house we wern't too sure about the $16/person price tag but we got talked into it, but after seeing it up close we decided it wasn't really worth it and got our money back and just looked around the grounds
We then headed to Middleton Place. Again no big hosue like I was hoping for but the gardens at this place were fantastic. so imacculately kept.
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| The reflecting Pool |
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| The Octagonal Garden |
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| The secret gardens |
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| Butterfly Lakes |
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| Mill Pond |
Walked around the fort then back along the beach where Lexie and Josh saw their first blue bottle. I could not believe the reaction from Lexie, she seriously flipped! was screaming to be taken off the beach absolutely hysterical! I hope we can get her out of that.
We headed back into Charleston. Dinner was at the Charleston Crab House, Mmmm more seafood. It started pouring with rain during dinner but thankfully eased off for us to walk home. The roads however were entirely flooded so we had to take a few detours so as not to cross the road.
Day 12 - Tue 29 Nov
We went back to Tost for breakfast again and today I had the Eggs Meeting street, seriously the best meal of the trip. A fried green tomato topped with a delicious crab cake, a poached egg on top and a remmoulade sauce which was to die for. Yum yum yum! We heded out of the city heading north. First stop was Georgetown, the outskirts were pretty terrible full of factories but there were some seriously beautiful residences and a nice downtown area. We headed towards the ocean and up to Myrtle beach. I'm still not sure what I feel about this place. Andy referred to it as what Surfers Paradise will grow up to be which is pretty good. We both agreed that there was a small part of us that was going wouldn't it be cool to stay here and try it out, and the rest just screaming "no get me out of here"! One thing we did notiec though was a distince lack of places to eat to we continued on past north Myrtle beach adn found a fudruckers for a hamburger. A bit further north we found another winery to vist, the silver coast winery. They had a lot of really nice wines and we ended up bying a whole case. Got cought talking to some locals and didn't end up getting to Wilmington till almost 5pm so we headed for the pool then bought a pizza to eat in the room for some down time.
Day 13 - Wed 30th Nov
After a quick tour around Wilmington we headed to Jacksonville, then onto New Bern. I really liked this little town. There was the goveners Palace, the birth place of Pepsi Cola and lots of cool buildings. Also a great park right along the waterfront which I miss so much in some of these towns. Lunch was at Washington, the first town to be named for George. We found a little Cafe, a beautiful old building and had soup and salad. We would have walked along the waterfront but it was howling a gale. We then headed back to the coast at the outerbanks, Again I was dissapointed by the drive along the outerbanks as they make the roads so you can't see anything of the beach or water, just sand dunes. You really have to get out and walk to see anything. We stayed overnight at Nags Head at a hotel right on the beach.
Dinner was at a Pirate themed restaurant where Lexie and Josh got Jolly Roger tatoos.
Day 14 - Thurs 1 Dec
Up the outerbanks towards Norfolk VA. We skirted the city and headed for Williamsburg. A recreation of an 18th century colonial town. I was really impressed with this place.
My favourite was all the trades people. At certain houses there were tradesmen actually working as if it were the 18th century so we got to go and see a lady spin her cotton then weave it into cloth, the shoemaker was actually making a pair of shoes, the wigmake his wigs. A lady was at work at the silversmith, it was so well done and didn't feel staged at all. I really wish we had had more time to explore. we stopped for lunch in the new section of town then went back to exploring, the old Gaol was fun, Josh loved sitting on the "Thrones" but lexie freaked out again and ran outside.
Maybe this had something to do with it.
Finally we caught the bus back to our car and got back on the road.
We tool the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which was very cool. They really like their bridge/tunnel combinations in this part of the world, they start building a brige then half way across they put in a tunnel so that the ships can get through, then you come back up and continue along the bridge. The Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel is the biggest one, two tunnels and 20 miles. It was really quite amazing (as was the restaurant at the begining of the first tunnel, I mean really a restaurant and gift shop in the middle of a bridge).
Day 15 Fri 2nd Dec
On the road early, we drove up through Virginia, through Delaware with a short stop in the capitol Dover and into New Jersey. Lunch at Applebees outside Dover. Overnight at Avenel New Jersey. Pizza in the room again
Day16 Sat 3rd Dec
Another driving Day, through New Jersey into New york and then Connecticut, Lunch at Denny's at Southington home by 3pm.
