obx: part 2

The follow up post as promised:

The Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. If you have kids who are old enough and the least bit interested in history or mechanics or engineering, this was a pretty cool place. They built a replica of the original flying machine for the 100th anniversary of flight and had a little talk in this building. There was also a wall dedicated to people instrumental in flight which was extremely interesting.
Outside there was a "camp" identical to the one the Wrights had while they were experimenting. One of them was a photographer so they had plenty of pictures of the whole experience.
One of the things I found fascinating was a comment by Wilbur or Orville that he was so dedicated to learning how to fly that he was willing to die to learn how. And here we are, over 100 years later, reaping untold benefits from his work. :) I'd hate to be driving out to Oregon or California or wherever every time.

I love the East Coast. All the water and bridges, etc. 

This tunnel somewhere in Virginia was the cause of a traffic hold up but still fun. We must be nerdy in our household to be interested in tunnels but anyhoo...

We stayed at a super nice hotel in Williamsburg. We had our own kitchen and washer and dryer. :) There was also a little playground outside by the pools which the kids enjoyed.

Pool fun. 

I realized that there are very few pictures of just Jeremy and I around so I had my mother-in-law snap a quick one for us before going into colonial Williamsburg.

This picture is typical Madeira - waiting in line for tickets to Williamsburg.

 "Storming the Governor's Palace" was going on right as we got to Williamsburg. I was in Williamsburg around 10 years ago and thought it was cool then. This time around I thought it was even more so. There was so much political disturbance and big changes coming to the colonies. I blame my dad but I kinda like politics and so all the discussions reminded me of what's going on today and thinking about what it will take today to refresh the "tree of liberty".

 All the workers in CW are real artisans. This is the cooper.

Taking a bath after a sweaty day outside in our sweet jacuzzi tub.

 We swung through Ohio on the way home and we spotted this fawn as we were pulling into Corb & Jess's place. I was pretty excited and then let down as I noticed it was pretty tame...turns out it was the neighbor's pet that wandered away. :) Ah well, it was still cute.

 Our gracious hosts.

 Jess invited Grandma over for lunch so I wanted to get a picture of her with our family.

 Picking wild blackberries in the rain before we headed home.

Blackberry teeth!
Vacationing and driving, for sure, with 3 young kids is exhausting at times. But I'm glad we made the effort.
After all, where else could we get a picture like this? :) Thanks for taking the picture (as usual!), Mom.

Unless I'm super ambitious (unlikely!), I'm done with Christmas pictures for another year. Woot, woot!