Mt. Trashmore

Since today was pretty cold, I decided to take Landon to Mt. Trashmore. Have you ever heard of such a place? I hadn't until we were driving in on Monday.

It was a large landfill that was converted into a recreational park. Below is an aeriel view of the park. There is a walking/jogging path running the perimeter of the grassy area. You can climb the large mounds in the center which are 60 ft high. Many people were on the top flying kites. There are also a few children's play areas,where we played, and a skate park.

Va Beach

We made it to Va Beach. It rained the entire drive from Williamsburg to the Beach. We're hoping this weather clears, otherwise this week might not be as relaxing as planned. It's looking good, though. By 3 o'clock the rain stopped and the sun started shining.

Our hotel here is a huge upgrade from the $49.95/night Econo Lodge (it did include a very sad continental breakfast). But, of course, this isn't on our dime, where as Williamsburg was, and this also includes a breakfast every morning.

As we pulled up and Andrew was checking us in, I was hoping for a room with an ocean view, so that we could have a balcony. They must have heard me and knew what we went through in Williamsburg. Our room is a suite with a small kitchen, living area, and bedroom area. the living area and bedroom aren't completely separated, but enough that it seems as though Landon is in another room. Not only that, we have a balcony....one large enough for Landon and Daddy to play soccer on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This will be great for me when Landon is napping and I still want to get some sun without the little guy bugging me! Yeah!

Here's the beach. Landon and I already scoped out the playground. That should give us hours of entertainment this week.

Landon and Andrew are out walking on the beach now, giving me a bit of rest. More blogging tomorrow.

Jamestown

After our adventures in Williamsburg, we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit. We decided that we wanted to do something else, but it was getting a little late. We wouldn't be able to get our money's worth at Jamestown Settlement or Yorktown, since they were closing in a short time. We decided to get on the Colonial Parkway and make our way to Historic Jamestown, just to see. We weren't sure what to expect.

When we got there, we were greeted by a sign that said there was a car tour around the island. This tour just took us around where the Settlement was founded. The tour had signs every now and then that told you about the life for the early settlers. Here is the start

At one point on the tour there was a foot path to a beach called Black Point. We decided to walk it and take in the view.

Landon loved splashing in the mud and throwing rocks. Other than that there wasn't much else to see.

The entire tour was about 3 mi around the island. We would have loved to see the settlement, we just didn't have enough time. This will have to do for now.

As we were leaving the island there was a sign for the glass house. I was interested in seeing what that all entailed. We walked down the path near the water. There was an archaeological find of a glassblowing oven and cooling area. I would have taken pictures but it was enclosed in glass building and it was pretty much a bunch of rocks that didn't look like much unless you were there to read the history.

A little further down there was a recreated glass blowing house with someone actually performing the trade.

While we were there, we were able to watch the tradesman make two glass ornaments from start to finish. All the items made here are sold in the souvenir shop.

Even though we didn't see much, we were glad to get some other sites in before we left.

We are now in Va beach...and it's raining. More posts to come.

A Little Bit of Everything

So here are a few more pictures from Williamsburg...

Landon loved the horses. We didn't want to get too close, I overheard the driver telling another admirer that the horses weren't very friendly.


This is right around where we ate lunch. Landon was intrigued by the statue.

Right near the statue is the entrance, or one of the many, to The College of William & Mary. We decided to walk around the campus a bit. It was beautiful and looked like a great environment for college students.

Before we left yesterday, we stopped by the garden. There were some plants and herbs available for sale but I passed since we were not done with our travels this week. I would love to be able to have a garden like the one below, I just have two things working against me:

1. I don't have the space

2. I'm not really the green thumb type

I did almost buy one of these thumb pots. I thought they were a great watering tool, but $38 dollars seemed a little pricey (my hose works just fine).

All you do is place the pot in water, place your thumb over the top, now you have water trapped in the pot. You then can run water over your plants by lifting your thumb.

Colonial Williamsburg

I'll try and keep this post short since the last one was quite long, plus I managed to create 3 separate posts for the pictures we took yesterday! I can't decide which pictures to post, so I try to get them all in. (this indecisiveness might have something to do with the over packing, too!)

It was a gorgeous day, so walking around Williamsburg was great! We started at the Capitol and headed through the streets. We thought about buying passes for tours, but we figured we'd save the money and just admire from the streets. If we had any questions, there were plenty of employees around to ask. It wasn't hard to miss them, they were dressed in period clothing.
You could tour the capitol, but only if you had a pass, so we admired from the outside. Next we headed along the main street, passing merchant shops and trade shops. In order to see some of the trades being performed, a pass was needed. We thought about getting passes again, but opted not too. Also, interspersed in the shops were buildings that looked like homes but were not open to the public. There was a tiny sign that read:
Private Residence
Not open for Public tour
I understand what private residence meant, but who lived there? Did people own the home but not live there. Andrew and I weren't sure if people would actually want tourists constantly on or near their house. Plus, during the hours of 8 am and 10 pm, not vehicles are allowed in the area. How do they get their groceries in the house????? As we toured the area, we saw more and more of these private residences. The houses were absolutely gorgeous, some large, some small, but all has lots of character. A few of these below were private residences.

We kept that question in mind as we passed the magazine and armory...

and the Courthouse across the street.

Then we headed to the Governor's Palace. Here we finally had to ask our question. We stopped one of the employees and asked our question concerning the private residences. She informed us that there are 80 private residences on the premises. The homes are owned by the organization the restore and upkeep the area. The people living in the homes are mostly employees. How cool is that? You live and work right in that area. That's why I would see people come out of the home in period dress, it pretty cool.

Here's one of the private residences. This was a rather large one. We left the woman, who kindly answered our question. No sooner had we left, did more questions come about. Like, how do you get to live in one of the houses? Is there a waiting list? Do you pay rent or get a housing allowance?

After all this, we were quite hungry. There was a sandwich shop that Andrew was dying to eat at. He remembered eating there as a child, so we walked over. Landon and I waited, while Daddy ordered our food. Daddy was in line for over and HOUR!!!!!!! That means I was waiting at the table with Landon. This could have been a disaster, but luckily Landon was napping. When Andrew arrived with the food, I told him that these had better be the best sandwiches ever! They were good, but nothing too special.

I'll post more from yesterday a little later. I have more of Williamsburg and after lunch we headed to Jamestown, so I have a few from there too!

The week begins....

On Friday, we headed to the grandparents house to visit with family. Uncle Tom, Aunt Karla, Josh, Alex, Uncle Larry, and Uncle Tom, all headed north from the VA Beach and surrounding areas. They came up this way for a hockey game, Buffalo Sabres vs. Washington Capitals. They all are Buffalo fans, since that is where the Pecks grew up. Landon and I opted to sit this game out. A night of hockey fun, just wasn't on the menu for us. Instead, we headed to the mall for some shopping. Saturday was a slow start. We had no definite times in which we wanted to leave, which is never a good thing. Andrew broke his phone at the game, so that had to be replaced before we left. Andrew would be lost without his phone. This didn't bother me so much since I spent the morning getting my hair done. I was in much need of a trim and color!

Once those two tasks were taken care of, we still had the task of packing the truck and making sure we had all that we needed, and more! If you don't know us very well, Andrew and I aren't the lightest of packers! You never know what you are going to need, so we pack it all!

Finally, at 2 p.m., we were all loaded in the truck ready for the drive, except that we needed gas. As we pulled in the station, I realized I left my rings on the bathroom sink. Andrew turned us around, I got my rings and a ball cap, that Andrew forgot. So...we were on our way to get gas. We hadn't reached the gas station when I realized I forgot my phone. I guess I couldn't go without mine either. We turned around, got my phone and thought about anything else that we might have forgotten, nothing came to mind. We were off to get gas...again. We made it and headed to Williamsburg. We didn't get there until 4:45. It really wasn't that bad of a drive. Andrew and I actually had an uninterrupted conversation the entire ride while Landon watched a dvd.

We got settled in the hotel room, then we were off to....EAT!!! Andrew was hungry, so that needed to be taken care of before anything else. We were then headed to the visitor center to get some information and maps. We were leaving, when all of a sudden, we realized we didn't have de-de (Landon's lamb blanket). We headed back to the restaurant, no de-de. Andrew and I were stressing out. We have no problem having Landon giving up de-de, just not while we were on vacation. We headed back to the visitor center (why we didn't double check there first? I'm not sure). I ran to the store, which was where Landon and I had been, while daddy got all our needed info, and the store was CLOSED!!!!!!!!!! I saw the workers counting their registers, avoiding eye contact. I'm sure they thought I was some crazy shopper hoping that they would let me buy one last item! Finally I caught the attention of one of them, luckily she saw that I was in distress over something bigger than not getting a souvenir. I told her what I was missing and they had de-de, sitting behind the counter!!!! Crisis diverted!

Now we could head to Williamsburg for a night stroll. Here are a few things we did....

Landon could have stayed at the sheep all evening. We put him on the fence and he was ready to jump to the other side. Instead we let him loose, and he decided to climb the fence to get a better view of the sheep.


We walked along the main street and were greeted by a horse and carriage. Landon loved the horse.

Then daddy and Landon suffered time in the pillory. This is were criminals were placed for humiliation and punishment in front of the public.

We tried Landon first, but he wasn't cooperating. Daddy showed him what to do, and then he was a little more cooperative.

The night ended with the chocolates from the candy store, and we headed back to the hotel. Everyone got ready for bed, but it wasn't that easy. Our night ended much like the day started. Putting an 18 month old to bed in his pack-n-play, while in the same room as us isn't going to be easy. It was still a little early so we all climbed into the King size bed, turned the lights off and relaxed....for about 5 min and Landon was everywhere. Andrew had had enough, placed Landon in the pack-n-play, where he screamed and screamed. We were doing well ignoring it until all the crying made him throw up!!! Lights were back on, and we were cleaning clothes and Landon. Landon won the battle last night, he was in bed with us. Hopefully today, we can wear him out, so he goes down easy.

More adventures today! Pray that today goes much smoother than yesterday!

Spring Break Plans

Next week is SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be more excited. I have been counting down the weeks until now. For some reason, this year has been a tough one to get through. With Landon getting so big and consuming more time and attention, I have found myself falling a little behind in school work. I have been inundated with grading this week, since this is the end of the quarter.

A week away from home and school, with my two favorite boys is just what I need. Quality time as a family with no worries, is going to be nice. It'll be nice to spend our week like this, with no worries of housework or school work in sight.
Our plans for the week aren't super exciting or at a place sunny and warm, but,
we head out Saturday for...

We are spending Saturday through Monday in Colonial Williamsburg. It's supposed to be a nice weekend, so sightseeing will be enjoyable. Both Andrew and I have been to Williamsburg, but not in a long time. It'll be a nice, low key weekend together. This part of the week that we will have everyday together.

Once Monday comes, we head to...

Andrew has a conference that his work is putting on, so Landon and I are tagging along. It would be great if this beach was in a place sunny and warm, but just being at the beach is enough for me. We are staying at a beachfront hotel, hopefully our room has an ocean view, so I can soak up the beach atmosphere. I'm a little sad that Andrew will be spending the daytime working, but Landon and I will have no problem filling our days scoping out the area. We did for two weeks in Hawaii, I think we can handle a week in Va Beach. Plus, we will have the late afternoons and evenings to spend together as a family. I even have an friend from high school living in the area. It'll be a great catching up with her and having Landon run around with her two little boys.

If you hadn't noticed, my blogging increases when I am not working and when much more is going on. Funny how those two go together!!!! I will keep you all posted on everything we do during our trip. Nap times will be a great time for me to blog...or nap myself!