OK, I'm going to finish out our summer trip. After DC, we drove to Williamsburg, VA. In the morning, the kids enjoyed the outdoor pool at the motel.
After that we went to Colonial Williamsburg and walked around. It was very hot, and the kids didn't really want to be there. So we basically walked up one street and down the other. You can pay a lot of money to go inside some of the shops and learn more, but we didn't do that. It probably would have been interesting, but it still would have been hot, and we probably wouldn't have stayed long.
From Williamsburg we drove to Jamestown and took the ferry across the river, which put us in North Carolina, and we drove down to Elizabethtown, where we spent the night.
In the morning, we went to Kitty Hawk along the Outer Banks. There was a large memorial on a hill. We were surprised to find the hill covered with grass, since all the pictures from the time showed sand dunes. We found out that the sand dunes had been grassed over, and also trees planted in the surrounding area, as a protection against erosion of the sand dunes from wind. There is a small visitors center with an accurate, flight-worthy (but never flown) model of the Wright Flyer. There are also markers for where the final, longest flights occurred.
Next we went across the street to the beach. I've always thought of the east coast beaches as not being very interesting. I seem to vaguely remember an east coast beach (not positive where) from when my family took a vacation back east when I was a teenager, and wasn't impressed. When Rebecca and I went to Florida last year, the waves were non-existent. However, this beach trip was fun. I think the waves were slightly smaller than in California, but they were still plenty large enough for jumping in. We flew kites (mostly me) since, hey, it's Kitty Hawk, you have to fly something.
After Kitty Hawk, we drove to Raleigh to see Andrew and Maren and their family. The next day Rebecca, Jessica, Katie, and Matthew drove to see Rebecca's aunt Geraldine that lives in NC, and Andrew took Brent, Josh, and I to his work. It was fun to see some of the artwork Andrew works on. It seems like a fun environment to work in. He showed us the motion capture cameras that they use for creating realistic movements in the video games. And the kids (his and ours) spent most of their time playing Little Big Planet.
Later that afternoon we all went over to Andrew and Maren's friends, the Judds. Andrew and I rode around in the kayaks, and we all went for a ride on their dock, which also doubles as a boat. It was quite hot and humid. We tried playing badminton, and were extremely sweaty after a few minutes.
On Sunday we went to church with them (just Sacrament meeting). They really have a small church. I went to find a bathroom and found that the door on the side of the chapel led outside.
After Sacrament, we drove to Andrews, NC, which is where Rebecca's mom was born. We didn't know where exactly she was born, so we just got to see what the country looked like. It was very pretty, though it was night by the time we got there, so we missed some of the view. These next pictures were taken in front of the hotel in Andrews, NC. The kids are holding stuffed animals that Rebecca's Aunt Geraldine gave them.
The next morning we took the scenic route into Tennessee, as a more direct, but probably less scenic, route was closed. We spent the whole day driving until we got to a hotel that night, just outside of St. Louis.
By this time, our kids (and to some degree Rebecca and I) were getting worn out. We had originally planned to head up to see Independance, MO, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and Winter Quarters, but decided instead to head home. From Cherryvale, we drove to Denver, spent the night, and got home the next day.
