All About the Girls

 August 20 - 25, 2022

Powhatan, Virginia

We're on the road early Saturday morning, anxious to see those grands south of Richmond, Virginia. It's just 126 miles south, then west across Chesapeake Bay - but with bridges, tunnels, toll booths, traffic slowdowns, and road construction, it's five hours later when we pull off another narrow country road into Cozy Acres RV Park. 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is impressive, and the bay is the longest span of water we've crossed driving the motorhome.

And then they break things up a bit by dropping the road under the water - twice!  

The tunnel is two feet wide, five feet tall, traffic in both directions three inches apart, surrounded on all sides by that big bay, with signs to keep your speed up!

At the campground we have 50 amp FHUs on a level gravel site in the trees, I'm not expecting satellite here. The spaces aren't large, but are staggered nicely to give a feel of more room and more privacy. No park WiFi, but again our MiFi has fair signal. 

About three hours into our drive Reese and Penelope's dad Travis calls to say the girls both woke up with stuffy noses :-(((. They're getting them tested and will let us know. At this point unless they have the plague we're going to see them!!

An hour after our arrival we get the "all-clear!" and are out the door to go see family. We visit for a bit at their pretty home in a new development on the edge of the forest. We wrap up our first day with margaritas and tasty Mexican vittles - and best of all, sweet grands.

Penelope is such a happy girl.

Reese cuddles and giggles with Mommy.

Penelope and her PopPop

Joy

Sunday is cooler with rain, and our breakfast with Travis and Reese becomes brunch when the eateries are packed. Waiting with family doesn't seem as long :-)

Two-year-old Reese impresses us with her coloring!

Richmond has several nice museums and Reese is a fan of the Science Museum so we spend the afternoon exploring. I agree with Reese, it's a fun place!

Bill and Travis check out the wind room - they bail at 81 mph. It says it goes up to 251 mph but that doesn't seem safe!

Tiny moon rock - still intrigues me that there are pieces of the moon here on Earth.

A large curved wall of water bottles with changing light colors, a screen with plastic usage and water consumptions facts, and music that makes the lights dance - a very fun visual.

Reese races the pink shark - and wins!!

Real time counts of internet usage - the emails are flipping 10M per second!

Physics fascinates me, but I understand very little of it. Higgs Super Collider pictured - doesn't answer any questions, but it's very cool!

Now the joy of tubes of sparkly glitter water on a spinning board - that I totally understand!!

Reese, Nawma and Tessa figuring out the pedal exhibit - nothing in the instructions make your legs long enough to reach.

Behind me is Mommy using the large rope and lever to lift Reese, Daddy and Penelope in an iron cage - she's strong!

Reese has all the moves!

The experiment is to see how small you make yourself, but of course bright pink changing squares is much more fun to dance in!

The whole shark experience area is well done, but the multi-screen movie room is the best!!

Reese is as captivated as Daddy and PopPop

Awwwwe

Beautiful Emily saves my sad selfie attempt - at least with the mask you're not looking up my nose!

Reese building a castle. I'm delighted that she loves the apron I got her in the UP. 

Penelope showing Nawma how things work.

COVID has brought us many changes - this may be my favorite. A real hands-free door in all the restrooms.

Having five of the six sons, and all the grands, in one area of SoCal sounds great - seems you could see all of them and have more time together. The reality has never worked that way for us. Too many different work and school schedules usually meant one or two short visits with each, and maybe a gathering of a few of them on an afternoon. Not only are we excited for the opportunities Travis and Emily are enjoying by moving to Virginia, but selfishly we're most excited to be able to visit with just them and the girls. Hanging out at their home with no schedule pressures (Travis gets off at 3 and Em works from the house) for five days is wonderful! 

When the princess says you're a unicorn - you're a unicorn!

Tessa makes sure no one forgets who's the best girl.

Our last day :-((((( Tessa finally gets groomed, which takes the whole morning, we get caught up on laundry, and then meet the family for early dinner and fun. 

And just like that our time here is over, and it's time to continue west. As it always does with family, it went by too, too fast.