We spent a few days with Ma’s friend from college. I spent most of my time hanging out with the kids, Brooke and Zack. Two nights, I had a sleepover with Brooke. It was fun! We spent a lot of the night playing truth or dare. I also played with Zack, and we had lots of fun fencing with sticks. Ma had a lot of fun hanging out with Lisa. Lisa and Dave made delicious vegetarian meals every night, which was awesome. Basically, we had a great time.

Planting with the girl scouts

We spent a few days on a working dairy farm in Amish country near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
  

The first day we got a tour and learned how everything works. We saw the hutches for the calves, and the four barns for cows of different ages. We saw the milking barn where the cows are milked by machines. Ma had fun milking a cow by hand. The next day, we got to bottle feed the calves! Very soon, we learned that calves are very strong. They would pull on the bottle to get more milk, and we would almost be pulled over. When the milk was gone, the calves went crazy, searching all around for more milk. Another day, I got to lead a calf from the barn to the calf pens.

The farm is family farm, the parents and their two sons in their twenties are the only people there. Every day at four am and four pm the cows are milked. Th family also has to manage the cows’ food, grow the hay, and take care of the cows that aren’t giving milk yet. With 160 cows, it is a lot of work!

One cool thing was that there were tons of kittens on the farm. My favorite was a little gray kitten that was very curious. She always kept playing with my hand. By the RV, there were five kittens that were shy but cute. The farmers said that we could take a kitten, but Ma and Pa said, “No!”

While we were there, we got to feed and brush Sunny, their miniature horse. Sunny ate about five carrots, and when we were done brushing him, there was hair everywhere. Soon after we were done, Little Kid and I got to ride in a tractor. Little Kid loved it! After spending time on a farm, I decided that it would be fun to live on a farm for a little bit, but I wouldn’t want to do it the rest of my life because it is too much work.

After DC we drove up to Baltimore to visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins. We stayed with my cousin Tom and his wife Jen, who have a little rural homestead tucked in the bottom of a wooded valley a quarter mile from a major commercial boulevard. They have a huge garden, chickens, a pond filled with supersized frogs, and lots and lots of cats. Needless to say the kids loved staying there, and Big Kid chipped in with the chores by pulling weeds in the garden and painting. On Saturday night Big Kid built a fire and we had a family get together with my aunt and uncle, cousins, and their children. The first words out of my aunt’s mouth when she saw me was “you look like a hippy!” which was understandable given that I haven’t had a haircut in a year. It was great to see everyone again and catch up. The next day the reunion continued at my cousin Sandy’s house where we had more great company and great food.

We began our week in the Capital with a fun visit with cousins in Northern Virginia. We met at Huntley Meadows, a wetland area, where we went for a walk along the boardwalk. Afterwards we went back to their house for a delicious al fresco dinner.

On day two we enjoyed the beautiful DC weather along with thousands and thousands of other tourists. We visited the Memorials, beginning with The Jefferson Memorial. From there we saw the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (love FDR!!), Martin Luther King Memorial, Abraham Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean, Vietnam and World War II war memorials.

Becca, somewhat reluctantly, earned her Junior Ranger badge, and was sworn in at the Lincoln Memorial. Jay, our little Ferdinand, ducked under all the chains protecting lawns, to collect as many dandelions as he could.

On day three we got a late start, and then enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in DC. We parked near the Jefferson Memorial, and had a nice walk to the White House. Unfortunately, we only got to see the President’s House from the outside, as the request we submitted to our Congresswoman to tour the White House was DENIED. No reason was given … but we would like to believe it is because it is high tourist season and all the tours were already filled up …

After cooling down with an ice cream treat, we went to tour the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where half a billion notes are printed each day! Some fun facts: the bills are not actually paper, but rather cotton, with some linen; the average life of a one dollar bill is 5.9 years; and, a bill can withstand 4000 folds on the same crease without tearing.

After our tour, we had a picnic dinner by the Potomac as we waited for the worst of rush hour traffic to pass.

We took the Metro into town on day four. Becca did a fantastic job figuring out our trip. She researched the Metro station closest to our Virginia campground and where we could park for free. She determined which DC station we needed to get off at, and how much our fare would be. She navigated the purchase of our Smart Cards and got us to the train!

Once in town, we visited two fantastic museums, the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.

Despite our starting to feel some big city burn out, we returned to DC on our fifth day. We braved rush hour traffic (yikes!) to arrive early enough to snag tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Our tour was scheduled for noon, so we first had time for a quick visit to the Museum of American History (the 1980 Apple II computer was a big hit!). At the Washington Monument we rode the elevator to the top – 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches (to be precise) – to appreciate the 30-mile view in all directions. Following was a lovely picnic lunch, with views of the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and the Washington Monument. In the afternoon we made a brief return visit to the Air and Space Museum, before returning to the RV for some much needed chilling time.

We began day six, our last day in DC, with a morning around camp. There is another family here, and all the kids had a great time playing together on the playground.

We spent the afternoon at the amazing National Museum of Natural History. So much to see! Some of our favorites were the Live Insect Zoo and the two “Q?rius” areas with lots of hands-on activities. We also met up with a friend of Andy’s who joined us for a short while at the museum and for some icecream and relaxing time on the Mall.

Day seven … time to pack up and head to Maryland ….

We spent about a week in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Our first couple of nights, we were in a spot in the middle of the campground that was okay, but it wasn’t the best. Then one day, Ma was out walking when she saw a cool spot that was right next to the Appalachian Trail. Moving to the new spot took way too long, but our new spot was awesome. We spent our days exploring the Appalachian Trail and other trails in the park, including one that went down to a huge waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful! Another day, Pa found a spring on the Appalachian Trail, and I spent a long time exploring downstream. By the stream, there were tons of green plants and moss. It was so cool.

While we were at Shenandoah, we went to a ranger talk about birds of prey, and the ranger brought a real hawk. The funny part was that sometimes the hawk would try to fly off her hand, and then it would end up hanging upside down from the leash attached to its ankles. The ranger assured us that the hawk did that often, and it wasn’t getting hurt. Still, the hawk upside down looked pretty weird.

Also, one day we drove out of the mountains to see my cousin Tricia, who is in college.  We had a great afternoon hanging out together, eating ice cream.

I was very sad when it was time to leave Shenandoah, but I was also excited to see Washington DC.