Belle Isle State Park, Colonial Williamsburg, DC, and Birthday Party

10/24/09 – Saturday – We went over to Galon & Maggie’s to have lunch with them and Maggie’s Aunt Susie. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Tappahannock, and then stopped at Anna’s Ice Cream Parlor to have dessert. Susie left for home, and we returned to Galon & Maggie’s so Susannah could take her nap. We returned to the RV, and Galon & Maggie brought Susannah over after she woke up so we could keep her for Galon & Maggie to go to Richmond early Sunday morning with their youth group to feed the hungry.

10/25/09- Sunday – Susannah slept real good last night in the RV. She only rolled out of her bed once, but went right back to sleep when Dianne put her back in. She woke up this morning in an excellent mood, and did not seem to mind that Mom and Dad were not around. She ate a good breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. We then all got dressed to meet Galon & Maggie at church at 11:00 AM. Susannah didn’t say a word until she spied Mommy up in the balcony. Once this happened she had to go see her.
After church we returned to the RV for lunch and rest so we could meet Galon & Maggie at their place around 3:30 to attend their church’s fall festival which was held across the street at a church members place. The food was excellent, and we enjoyed the time of fellowship with their friends. Susannah painted a pumpkin with Mom and Grammas’ help. It looked pretty good. Galon & Maggie also took Susannah on the children’s hay ride. She seemed to enjoy it very much. (Picture attached)


10/26/09 - Monday – Today we drove down to Colonial Williamsburg, after a short detour to Deltaville due to a navigational error. Since we were there we stopped at the Deltaville Yacht Center that is owned by Maggie’s Mom and Dad (Lou and Anna Grimm). Lou loaned us his GPS so we could find our way to Colonial Williamsburg. It worked fine, and we arrived there at around 11:30 AM. We chose to just buy a bus ticket to get to the Colonial Williamsburg area and return. We did not go into any of the sites that required tickets. We just walked down the main part of the village and enjoyed the sites, bought an apple turnover, hot-chocolate, and some peanuts. We also found some nice Christmas gifts in the shops along the way. The Capitol of Virginia was moved from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780 during the American Revolution. A picture of the Capitol Building is attached. We stopped to look at the Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. This church has existed since 1674 according to the bulletin we received. However, the plaque on the front of the church shown in the picture attached has 1715 on it. I was not able to get an explanation of why the different dates were shown. We returned to our RV without getting lost despite not being able to get the GPS to work properly. It seemed to think we were about 10 or so miles further down the road than we were so it was giving us directions long before we were able to execute them. Finally Dianne figured out how to turn it off just about the time we arrived back at our campsite.

10/27/09 – Tuesday – Today we went over to Galon & Maggie’s to keep Susannah while Maggie went to the Library she is going to work at to fill out some employment papers. We had a great time with Susannah for about two hours or so. Once Maggie returned home we returned to the RV for the rest of the day.

10/28/09 – Wednesday – Galon, Maggie, and Susannah came over today after Galon returned home from work and we had a cookout of Country Spare Ribs, Baked Beans, Macaroni & Cheese, and everyone but me had Blueberry Pie Dianne baked on Tuesday. I don’t like Blueberries. After supper, and getting Susannah ready for bed and down for the evening we played Dominoes. Galon II Won.

10/29/09 – Thursday – Today we drove from Belle Isle State Park, VA to Arlington, VA to meet with Jenny. She had to fly up for a conference so we met her at the Crystal City Hilton to spend some time with her. We rode the metro into Washington, D.C. to visit the Holocaust Museum. The exhibits have changed since we were last here, but they are still just as disturbing. If any of you are ever in Washington we highly recommend a visit to this museum. After visiting the Museum we went out to a Mexican restaurant in Crystal City. The food was good, but the Salsa was a little spicy for my taste. We returned to the Hilton around 8:00 PM and everyone was tired so we went to bed at about 9:00 PM.

10/30/09 – Friday – We left Jenny around 10:30 A.M. after having breakfast at Ceasar’s Diner. On our return trip to Belle Isle State Park we missed our turn on to HWY 17 off I-95 so we took the scenic route. Dianne did and excellent job navigating us through the county roads to get us back to HWY 17 at Tappahannock. We made it to the RV around 1:30, so we only had about two hours before we had to leave to go to Susannah’s birthday party. I prepared the RV for our departure on Saturday Morning, and washed the outside of the RV while Dianne prepared her dish to take to the party. We arrived at around 3:45 PM only about 15 minutes latter than expected, but still in time to help Galon & Maggie to set up for the party. The party turned out great. All the kids had a ball, and we had a blast watching them. They had a Piñata to burst, Donuts on a ribbon to bob for, pizza, punch, and chemical lights to play with.
After helping clean up after the others left we watched Susannah open her gifts. She was so excited to open them. It was really fun to watch her. After she finished opening her gifts and was put down for the night we left to return to the RV so that we could get off early Saturday morning for our return home.

10-31-09 – Saturday – We drove to Greensboro Campground in Greensboro NC. It is about 288 miles from Belle Isle State Park, VA to here. This is a Good Sam, Passport America, and a KOA campground.