First stop, Blacksburg, VA! Home of the Va Tech Hokies! The kids made "tents" in the minivan for the car ride (about 4 1/2 hours).
We got into Blacksburg pretty late, but the sun was still shining, so we took a quick driving tour of the campus after checking in at the hotel. The kids had control of the cameras and took a ton of pictures. Here's just a small sampling:
That evening, we had dinner at BackStreet Pizza! Still there after all these years!
Followed by walking around downtown:
The next morning it was raining, but we weren't going to let that get us down:
The rain let up, and we toured the campus. I showed the kids my freshman year dorm, Lane Stadium up close, Pamplin Business College, etc. We ended up seeing a ton of the campus. Here's some cool pics:
That evening we drove to Charlottesville... where it POURED on us along the way. So glad we brought the bikes. :( But, we had a great dinner that evening downtown Charlottesville.
And the next day Chrissie and I jogged around the campus in the morning, followed by a walking tour of the UVA campus with the kids. The kids thought the tour was very cool, and loved all the secret society symbols around the campus.
Followed by lunch at Bodo's Bagles!!!
The next morning we took a tour of Monticello, Jefferson's home.
I was surprised how much the kids enjoyed it actually. But once again, mother nature stepped in just as we were exploring Jefferson's gardens and it dumped on us. However, here's Chase discovering one of the strangest vegetables I've ever seen!
So, in the pouring rain we left Charlottesville and headed to Williamsburg for a nice dinner. The next morning we headed over to Water Country USA for some fun in the sun... errrrr... fun in the overcast skies!!!
Here's a video of me going down one of the water slides in first person POV. You have to wait through the first 20 seconds before I take off.
The next day we headed to Busch Gardens!!! Yay!!!!
Catey finally started going on the roller coasters, and she really loved it. So, we made her go on the Tower of Fear (or whatever it's called). It takes you way up in the air, and then you freefall. She hated it... here she is being nervous about going up. When we got back down she was VERY mad at me. I won't show you the pictures Chrissie got of the after math. :)
but, she soon got over it, and was going back on all the roller coasters!
I think Catey and Chase really enjoyed the day... and because it was overcast all day, it wasn't very hot!!! Which was a big worry going in late August!
The next morning we got up and drove to Va Beach for the final leg of our trip. Two days of fun in the sun (yes it was finally sunny).
We also went for a bike ride along the boardwalk every day.
It was actually very cool. They were having a surf, skate, bmx competition while we were there. Here's a pretty cool vid of some of the guys doing tricks.
The next morning, Sunday, we woke up and started the long trek home. There was a big accident getting out of Va Beach, and it poured on us almost the whole car ride home. What should be a 3 1/2 hour drive took us 6 hours... ugh!!!! But, in all, I thought this was a great vacation. We hit Blacksburg, Charlottesville, Williamsbug, and Va Beach from Saturday to Saturday. Definitely worth a repeat in a few years when the kids get into high school (we'll have to get some other families to go with us at that age though). Hope you enjoyed it! -Dave