November 1 - Monday
Chip and Tina took a vacation day but their kids had to go to school.  We divided up.  Sandra and Tina went to Easton to do work on Tina's genealogy, do a little shopping and have lunch.  Bill and Chip and the Wade kids went to St. Michaels to the Maritime Museum.  The kids went up in a lighthouse and explored the many boats.  They learned about the different boats that have worked on Chesapeake Bay over the years to harvest its riches of crabs and oysters.

November 2 - Tuesday (Election Day)
Maryland schools were closed for election day so the kids all got to play together. Sandra and Bill had mailed their absentee ballots several days ago. Tina watched all the kids while Bill and Sandra enjoyed a delicious and kid-free lunch at the Suicide Bridge Restaurant.  Later in the afternoon, Bill and Alex drove to Delaware to get an oil filter for the generator. We all enjoyed visiting on our last evening together.

November 3 - Wednesday
Today we left Maryland and headed for our nation's capitol.  We will spend a few days in the DC area visiting museums, historical places, and government buildings.  We searched on the internet for a campground close to DC and still open in November.  We ended up at a very pleasant county park in Reston, VA.  Everyone knows about the National Parks and State Parks but several times on this trip we have stumbled across county or municipal parks that have been real gems. We're enjoying weather in the high 60's. That's warmer than 3 years ago when we came to DC around this time of year and Bill ran the Marine Corp marathon with his sister, Molly. 

November 4 - Thursday
The weather forecast predicts rain all day so we head toward the museums in DC. We originally intended to go to the Children's Museum but it was permanently closed since a new one is being built. The weather was awful. The traffic was awful.  The Smithsonian Museum of American History was wonderful.  Laura's handicapped parking pass got us a free spot right in front of the museum.  Inside we learned about the history of transportation, the American industrial revolution, American presidents, American first ladies, information technology, and more. The first and most moving object we saw when we entered the museum was the flag that was hung from the Pentagon the day after September 11. A few of the other fascinating artifacts included many of the first ladies ball gowns, the top hat President Lincoln wore the night he was shot, Deep Blue Chess Computer, and Julia Child's kitchen!  The girls enjoyed activities in the Hands on Science Center. One experiment was to determine if a flag was made of wool or cotton. They looked at the flag under a microscope, took threads off with tweezers, and burned it to smell it. The blue on the flag was wool and the white star was cotton.  We spent the whole afternoon there. It was still raining out when we left and the DC traffic was even worse on the way home since it was rush hour. 

November 5 - Friday
True to the weather forecast, the day dawned clear, cool, and very windy.  We headed out to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.  When we got there, the local school and charter buses were lined up down the street.  The place was packed with school groups.  On the advice of one of the staff, we did everything else on the grounds but the house tour while we waited for the lines to get shorter.  We learned how the house changed over time from its original one story farm house to today's familiar structure. Many years after Washington's death when the private owners (George Washington had no direct descendents) decided to sell, neither the Federal Government  nor the Commonwealth of Virginia wanted to buy the run down house. Instead the Mount Vernon's Ladies' Association purchased and restored the home. You go girls! There were cows and sheep. A woman was demonstrating spinning wool into yarn using a spinning wheel.  She also spun some cotton into yarn and showed us some flax whose fibers could be used to make linen.

After Mount Vernon, we went to Arlington National Cemetery where we visited the Women in Military Service  Memorial.  We then took the kids to their great grandparents graves.  Sandra's paternal grandparents both served in the military  - her grandfather in WWI and her grandmother as a WAC in WWII  - and are both buried at Arlington.

November 6 - Saturday
Sandra has designated today as memorial day. We started this sunny Saturday at Theodore Roosevelt Island. It seemed an appropriate memorial to a president who loved the outdoors.  You have to walk across a footbridge and through the woods to get to the memorial plaza where there is a statue and fountains.  From there, we proceeded to visit many of the memorials and monuments in DC itself.

We went to the well known Jefferson Memorial.  We had lunch next to the tidal basin across from the Jefferson Memorial.  After lunch, we went to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.  It is in four sections, with each section dedicated too one of his terms in office.  Also in each section is a water cascade and pools which Laura liked.  There was a sculpture of men in a breadline, a sculpture of a man listening to an FDR fireside chat on the radio, and in the last section a sculpture of his wife Eleanor, who was the first US delegate to the United Nations. 

Since we had a good parking spot, we walked from the FDR Memorial to the Korean War Memorial.  Here there are sculptures of 19 men marching up a hill toward an American flag.  When the 19 men are reflected in the granite wall along the side, there are 38 soldiers, representing the 38th parallel in Korea that separates North and South Korea.

Next we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial.  Though impractical, it should be a requirement to visit the Gettysburg battlefields a few days before visiting the Lincoln Memorial (like we did).  The words to the Gettysburg Address are engraved on one side of the Memorial.  Having just been in Gettysburg and learned about the battle there made it much more meaningful.

From the Lincoln Memorial, we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  The names of the over 58,000 men who are missing or dead are inscribed in panels that form a long wall.  There were various tributes left along the wall including flowers, notes, a pack of cigarettes, and a pair of army boots.  There are also 2 sculptures, one of 3 young soldiers, and one depicting the women who were in the armed services and served in Vietnam. 

We ended our tour with a brief loop around the mall where we saw the new World War II Memorial and enjoyed viewing the Washington Memorial bathed in colors of the setting sun. The girls worked hard and nearly completed their junior ranger books that cover these well known memorials as well as include some lesser known sites that surround the area.  

November 7 - Sunday
What a gorgeous day! It was warm and sunny so we decided it would be a wonderful day for the National Zoo. After a leisurely start, we arrived at the zoo and set off to view the great cats. We enjoyed seeing the snoozing lions and pacing tigers. We also saw numerous other animals such as elephants, giant pandas, camels, cheetahs, reptiles, and primates.  

The buildings at the zoo close by 4:30 in the winter so we decided to head back downtown to the monuments to enjoy the illuminated views. We parked next to the new National World War II Memorial. We walked around the monument and remembered our relatives who served as well as Sandra's uncle, Julian M. Boswell, who died fighting in France. We said a silent thank you to all the Americans who contributed to the war effort at home or abroad.  There is an online registry. Anyone who was killed should be automatically listed and anyone else can be included in the registry. 

Becca asked the ranger there a couple questions in order to finish the last lines in the 18 page junior ranger books and we headed over to the station next to the Washington Monument for the girls to get their badges. That station also had stamps for all the memorials in the mall area so the girls collected ones they had missed. The ranger complemented them on the thorough work they had done. Great job girls!

November 8 - Monday
It is our last day in Washington DC.  We decided to leave a few places unvisited so we will have a good excuse to return.  We came 3 years ago and it would seem about right to come every third year as the kids get older and can experience the Capitol in different ways.

We returned to the Smithsonian Museum of American History to do more hands on science experiments.  As luck would have it, the hands on science room is closed on Mondays.  Instead we visited the pop culture section and an exhibit on science in America which had a great video on recombinant DNA which the girls watched and seemed to understand in spite of the complexity of the subject.

After lunch we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  Our rock collecting seems pretty pathetic compared to the specimens there.  In spite of our comparatively meager collection, we did find that as a result of our rock hounding, we understood some of the geology behind the minerals that we had tried to collect and learned even more from the museum exhibits.  We certainly had a much greater appreciation for the mineral exhibits than we had 3 years ago. 

We then did a quick stop at the White House to take a picture of Rebecca's future residence! We joked that if Laura sits on the Supreme Court and Alex gets elected to the Senate, we can cover all three branches of the Federal government.  

November 9 - Tuesday
A park ranger at the National Mall told us to check out Great Falls National Park on the Potomac River not far from our campground in Reston.  We thought we could go there this morning and still get back to the campground and make their 12:00 o'clock checkout time.  When we got to the visitor center at the falls, Laura wanted to do the junior ranger program.  By the time we finished the junior ranger program, picked up some groceries, and got the RV ready to go, it was after 3:00 pm.  No one at the campground seemed to care very much (it is a pretty slow time of year) so we left for our next campground in Front Royal, about 65 miles west.

Great Falls is a waterfall in the Potomac River where there is a 77 foot drop in the river.  In the late 18th century, George Washington got together a group of investors to build a canal and lock system around the falls to allow boats to carry goods up and down river past the falls.  Since Virginia and Maryland are divided by the Potomac, it was also a model of interstate cooperation.  The remnants of the canal and lock system are part of the park. The display of Jr. Ranger badges at the visitor center seem to have inspired to girls to continue completing programs. 

The campground, Skyline Ranch Resort, in Front Royal has full hookups, a laundry, and a modem line for hooking up to the internet so we should be very comfortable here for the next few days as we explore the area. 

November 10 - Wednesday
There was a frost on the ground this morning and the thermometer read 27 when we woke up.  However it was sunny and eventually warmed up to the 50's. We set out for Skyline Drive with plans to pick up Jr. Ranger books and drive two-thirds of it. At the entrance station we discovered that all the visitor centers were closed today but the one closest to us would be open tomorrow (winter schedule). The road also closes on the northern and southern portions at 5 p.m. to discourage poachers since it is deer season. We decided to alter our plans and head over to Ft. Seybert, WV so Sandra could check out a location where some of her ancestors lived and died in a conflict with the Shawnee Indians during the French and Indian War. We continued on through the park, saw many deer and stopped at several overlooks to admire the wide vistas. Bill and Becca got out at one overlook and hiked two miles down the Appalachian Trail to be picked up where the trail crosses the road again further south. We exited Skyline Drive at Thornton Gap. We saw a car stopped to take a picture at the sign and decided to do the same. Bill took a group picture of the Korean visitors with their camera and in return, the man handed him a lovely pagoda bookmark with his thanks. Next we stopped at the Park Headquarters on the way to Luray, VA and managed to pick up the Jr. Ranger books. 

After lunch at the Southern Kitchen (a recommendation from Sandra's Roadfood book) in New Market, we headed for Fort Seybert.  There was a sign beside the road designating the spot of the Indian siege in 1758 (during the French and Indian War 1754-1762) and a cemetery just up the road  but in both places were No Trespassing signs.  A local farmer had told us that a Mr. Conrad owned the land.  We knocked on doors up and down the street trying to find Mr. Conrad and get permission to look around.  Eventually, we found someone home who told us where Mr. Conrad lived (we had already knocked on that door).  He also told us that a local group does a re-enactment of the siege every September (the siege in 1758 was in April) where they rebuild the blockhouses of the old fort and burn them down just as the Indians did.  Bill thinks it would be great sport to return in September and participate in the re-enactment. We suspect that Sandra's ancestors that were killed in the siege may be buried in the cemetery there but were unable to confirm it.

We continued up the back country road to Moorefield, WV and then took 55 back to the interstate and our campground.

November 11 - Thursday (Veteran's Day)
The weather forecast for today was for it to be cloudy all day.  Instead, it turned out to be a gorgeous day.  Bill took the kids to the playground and then back to Shenandoah National Park in the morning while Sandra attacked the book and memento collection in the RV.  While we were in the DC area we were having too much fun to deal with things like housecleaning.  In the park, Bill and the kids went to the visitor center and watched a movie about Shenandoah National Park.  Then they went on a one mile hike in Fox Hollow across the street from the visitor center.  The junior ranger program here requires the kids to attend 2 ranger led programs which is hard to do this time of year when the visitor centers are closed several days per week on a reduced off season schedule.   Hopefully, they will be able to finish up tomorrow.

In the afternoon, Alex napped, Sandra surfed the net for genealogy information at the adult lounge, and the girls read books and played.  The north section of the park nearest us closes at 5:00 pm from Nov. to Jan. to reduce deer poaching so we went back to Skyline Drive about 4:00 to look for wildlife.  We saw a lot of white tailed deer but no bears.  Shenandoah National Park has the highest concentration of black bears in the east.  When we were here a couple years ago, we saw two.  

After the park closed, we went into the town of Front Royal to pick up some supplies, groceries, and videos at Blockbuster since the bad weather that was supposed to get here today may be here tomorrow.

November 12 - Friday
It rained all last night and into the morning. We had a leisurely morning before heading out to the next Shenandoah Park visitor center.  The visitor center that we were told we had to go to so the girls could finish their junior ranger program was  50 miles from the north entrance.  50 miles along a road with normally gorgeous views, in pea soup fog with large animals in abundance along the road.  We managed to avoid having a white tail deer hood ornament.  

The program that the girls were supposed to attend was a video presentation at the Byrd Visitor Center.  Unfortunately, after the 50 mile drive we discovered that the visitor center had lost its electricity a few hours earlier.  No electricity, no video, no junior ranger completion.  The rangers were understanding and allowed the girls an alternative way to complete the requirement and they got their very nice patches.

November 13 - Saturday
Today we day tripped in the car to the Civil War battlefields of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and Antietem, Maryland.  Harpers Ferry is at the merge of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers and was a very important place until it got wrecked in the civil war.  It was a location served both by early canal systems and some of the earliest railroads.  Even before that, it was the location of the army's armory and arsenal as well as a gun manufacturing facility.  Lewis and Clark went to Harper's Ferry to get the supplies they needed before heading west in 1803.  In 1859, John Brown, a radical abolitionist, seized the armory and arsenal with the hopes of arming slaves to fight for their freedom.  The slave uprising didn't happen, and John Brown was caught, tried, and hanged.  Historians still debate whether he lost or in fact achieved his goal when the increased tensions between the North and South after his hanging led to the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves.

With water power, iron ore, limestone, and wood for charcoal and gunstocks in abundance nearby, Harpers Ferry was the perfect place to manufacture guns.  As the industrial revolution came to America, Harpers Ferry was at the forefront, using water power to run the machines that made gun stocks and barrels.  Harper's Ferry changed hands 8 times during the civil war and its industry was destroyed in the process. A flood in 1870 further assured its decline.

Harper's Ferry, West Virginia is also roughly the half way point on the Appalachian Trail and the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Club.  Unfortunately, since it is Saturday and the off season for hiking, their offices were closed today.

Next we went to the Antietam Battlefield, about 20 miles from Harpers Ferry. Gettysburg was the bloodiest 3 day battle in the Civil War and Antietam was the bloodiest 1 day battle. Over 23,000 were killed or injured in the one day fight there.  We didn't have enough time left in the day to really learn about Antietam but we did stop at the Visitor Center and tour part of the battlefields.

November 14 - Sunday
We extended our stay in Front Royal for an extra day so we could return to Antietam and explore it more thoroughly.  The girls completed their junior ranger programs at Antietam (now they each have over 25 junior ranger badges).  We watched the video at the visitor center and drove the auto tour route through the battlefields.  

The northern military leaders seem to have really made some questionable decisions here.  They spent the better part of the day trying to take a bridge over a river whose water is only waist deep.  If they had waded across in the morning, they could have  cut off the escape route for the rest of Lee's army. The Union forces eventually did take the bridge in only an hour after their commander, a teetotaler, agreed to give the troops back their whiskey if they were successful.  Unfortunately, due to the wasted time, shortly after they took the bridge, Confederate reinforcements arrived.  Following the battle, Union General McClellan did not pursue Lee's Confederate Army (who they outnumbered by more than 2 to 1) across the Potomac.  Either the bridge decision or the pursuit decision could have possibly shortened the war by about 3 years.  Lincoln later replaced McClellan due to his lack of aggressiveness in battle - with Burnside!

In the mid-Atlantic States, just north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, there are Civil War battlefields are  everywhere.  In the Confederate States, people still identify themselves as "Southern".  In West Virginia several years ago, while doing genealogy research, we barely started talking to a man before he pulled out his "Sons of the Confederacy" membership card and showed us an old photo of a house that was struck by a cannonball.  Growing up in New England, the Civil War seemed much further from people's consciousness.  However, as you tour the battlefields and learn the history, you can see many monuments to the soldiers from the New England states and read of their involvement.  Bill has at least 2 ancestors from Connecticut and Maine who fought in the Civil War.  Ironically, Sandra's ancestor from Tennessee, also fought for the Union Army.

November 15 - Monday
Usually moving consumes the bulk of a day by the time you disconnect, move, check in, and reconnect.  Today we weren't going far and managed to get to Staunton from Front Royal in time to still day trip to Charlottesville and visit Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello.  Sandra and Bill had been there before but wanted to return and show it to the kids. We toured the home, grounds, gardens and grave sites. The garden shop was closing for the season today and Bill and Laura made the final purchase of 2004 from it.  We are now the proud owners of a Venus Flytrap plant. Bill suggested we name it "Aphrobitey". The girls were thrilled to feed it tiny pieces of beef and watch its traps close on the food.  For dinner we went to Mrs. Rowe's, a long time home style restaurant in Staunton. Then we briefly toured the historic downtown which includes Mary Baldwin College and President Woodrow Wilson's birthplace and presidential library. 

Alex has begun to combine different pieces of the trip in a rather comical way.  In the past few weeks we have been to President George Washington's  Mount Vernon and President Thomas Jefferson's  Monticello.  We also drove by the White House in Washington DC and told Alex that President George W. Bush lives there.  Throughout the trip we have visited various people with kid toys at their houses that Alex has played with. Now, Alex is insisting that he wants to "visit  George W. Bush at his building that looks like a white house and play with all his toys". Does anyone have any really good  Republican connections?

November 16 - Tuesday
Sandra spent today doing genealogy research in the area.  She has a branch of the family that was in this area and has never had the chance to explore here before.  She drove to Franklin, WV, a quaint town filled with lovely turn of the last century homes. She stopped by the Chamber of Commerce and bought some books - gravestone inscriptions and a book on the Rodger Dyer family. She then went to the library which had a room filled with genealogy and local history information and spent most of the day there. Bill and the kids stayed at the campground and did schoolwork, the playground, and Nickelodeon since cable TV in included with the camping fee.

November 17 - Wednesday
We moved the RV south to a Jellystone campground near Natural Bridge, VA in the morning.  Then we made a very long day trip in the car to the National Radio Telescope Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. Radio astronomy was first developed by an individual, Grote Reber (Bruce - any relation?), who built his own telescope in his backyard in Wheaton, Illinois to test the theory of some AT&T engineers that the interference on the phone lines was from outer space radio waves. That original telescope is displayed on the grounds. The National Science Foundation runs the observatory. The visitor center contains excellent hands on exhibits about radio waves, space, and the observatory's newest telescope, the Green Bank Telescope or GBT. We had one of the free tours all to ourselves. Our guide, Dave, did a fantastic job explaining the way radio astronomy works and answering our questions. He discussed the issues of man made radio wave interference on their work. The girls loved the demonstration using liquid nitrogen and a balloon to illustrate how cold temperatures surrounding the receivers help minimize distortions. He then drove us around the grounds and gave descriptions of each of the eight telescopes on the property. The most used and most impressive one is the new Green Bank Telescope which was completed in 2000. This telescope includes impressive statistics  - weight 17 million pounds, 4 acres of 2000 individual panels arranged in a dish, 2200 motors to keep the panels in laser alignment, and it's taller than the Statue of Liberty. We then drove into historic Lewisburg, WV and enjoyed dinner in a lovely restaurant, Food & Friends, in the center of town before heading home for the night. Toward the end of dinner, Alex so entertained the waitress with his chatter and self-appointed nickname that she treated him to a whole bag of gummie bears to share with his sisters for dessert.

November 18 - Thursday
This morning, we found a dirt Forest Service road not far from our campground that ends up on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  From there, we meandered north on the parkway and enjoyed the views of the mountains and valleys.  We were heading for an old gristmill in Raphine, VA that is still in operation called Wade's Mills.  The mill wasn't operating today but we did buy some fresh ground grits and cornmeal and walk through it and see the inner workings. Driving toward Lexington on I-81 we were astonished by the huge numbers of Virginia Tech fans heading south. We assumed and then confirmed later that there must be a football game tonight.

Heading south back towards the campground we stopped in Lexington to explore.  At the visitor center, a friendly lady recommended visiting the Lee Chapel and Museum a few blocks away at Washington and Lee University.  Robert E. Lee became president of the college shortly after the Civil War ended.  He is buried in a crypt below the chapel with his wife and some other family members.  His horse, Traveller, is buried just outside the chapel.  Lee's office was in the basement of the chapel.  Lee's wife was a descendent of Martha  Washington. She had many items from their Arlington home (that was later seized by the union and is now Arlington National Cemetery) such as an early portrait of George Washington that she donated to the University. Washington's name is part of the college name since he had given money to it.  According to the school's history, it was actually begun in 1749 by one of Sandra's ancestors, a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Robert Alexander.  She had read something to that effect during her online genealogy research but confirmed it today at the college library with the help of Lisa in the Special Collection section.  We wonder if the kids could get more financial aid from that fact.

November 19 - Friday
For breakfast this morning, we enjoyed the special waffle mix of flour, cornmeal, and buckwheat that we bought yesterday from Wade's Mill. Sandra then went back to the library at Washington & Lee for the morning while Bill held down the fort and the girls did school work.  Later in the afternoon, Bill's sister, Molly, and her husband, Bob, arrived at the campground on their way a few miles up the road to their friends' house where they'll be spending the weekend. Alex was napping so Bill and the girls went with Molly for the evening.  Molly's friends, Karen and James have a wonderful lodge in the woods next to the National Forest.  While the girls were playing in the stream behind the lodge, Karen tossed pieces of bread into the stream.  After a few tosses, a large brook trout rose to the surface to eat the bread, splashing the girls in the process. They also had lots of games and the girls look forward to a return visit tomorrow.  

November 20 - Saturday
We returned to James and Karen's lodge to meet up with everyone for a hike.  The rain persisted so we chose a local hike to a waterfall. Sandra stayed at the lodge with Laura and Alex where they played games. Molly found a cool orange salamander with yellow spots and Becca carried it back to show Laura.  After the hike we returned briefly to the RV for fresh clothes, lunch, and Alex's naptime. We then meet up with everyone for dinner cooked over the stone barbeque pit. 

November 21 - Sunday
Today we left Virginia and headed for Great Smokey Mountain National Park on the Tennessee side.  It was perfect driving weather for a long haul - overcast but no rain. We restocked on both food and fuel on the way. We decided to camp inside the national park to escape the pervasive commercial tackiness just beyond the park borders.  There were more people than we expected in the campground.  Many people must have taken Thanksgiving week off to go camping.  We have to dry camp here but it's only for two nights. Our choice to be closer to nature was rewarded by a large group of deer wandering through our site. We  had dinner and then relaxed around the campfire before heading in for a relatively early night.

November 22 - Monday
Today we explored Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  In the morning, the girls woke up early and treated us by making everything in the front of the RV as neat and tidy as possible! Then we set off and got their junior ranger badges at the visitor center in Cades Cove near our campground before lunch.  It is mating season for the white tail deer.  We saw many bucks today.  We have seen dozens of white tail deer on our trip, but very few bucks. A couple had very large racks.  

After lunch at the RV, we decided to drive to Gatlinburg since the car was low on gas. We then did one of the scenic auto tour loops that originates near the center of town. After we came back into town and stopped briefly at the visitor's center to get directions to the library. The folks there were among the friendliest on our trip so far.  We did a quick visit to the library, candy shop, and Arrowroot fine craft store. Around dusk, we drove from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge to see the lights that line the streets. These towns have many attractions designed to separate tourists from their dollars. Never have we seen so many pancake houses and themed mini golf places in one area. There was even a salt and pepper shaker museum.    

Although it was dark and foggy, we decided to drive to Clingman's Dome anyway.  We were rewarded with watching 2 bears on the road up while it was still light enough to see them and a red fox in the headlights at the top.  We also added our 33rd state to our trip list by briefly crossing the border into North Carolina where half the park is located.

November 23 - Tuesday
It rained all night long. In the morning we went to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Oak Ridge was one of the sites that worked on the Manhattan Project and there are still plants there today involved in various nuclear energy and defense department activities. The attractive displays were also very informative. From there we drove to Calhoun, Georgia where we will spend several days and Thanksgiving with our friends the Brannons who we visited at the beginning of our trip. There is still foliage to be viewed this far south.

November 24 - Wednesday
Sandra helped to get ready for Thanksgiving. The kids went shopping at the nearby Dollar General and had a blast playing with their selections. 

November 25 - Thursday, Thanksgiving
Ate too much! Had a wonderful time visiting with the extended Brannon clan. Enjoyed turkey, ham and all the fixings.

November 26 - Friday
Although Sandra looked through all the early bird sale specials, none tempted her enough to wake up at 5:00 am and join the start of the holiday shopping frenzy. So we relaxed all morning, the adults reading and the kids wallowing in cable TV and then went out in the afternoon to see "The Incredibles" at the movies. Everyone enjoyed it. We also stopped at the outlet mall in quest of holiday outfits for the kids.

November 27 - Saturday
Sandra and Karen took the girls shopping to find some holiday tops and instead wound up buying different outfits. Laura choose a black velour two-piece set accented by colorful packages and blue feather fringe on the sleeves. Rebecca got a classic styled velour red dress. We plan to get their hair done and do pictures next week. We tried to find shoes too but no luck. Karen then took the girls to see "The Polar Express".

November 28 - Sunday
We all went to Farmville United Methodist Church.  The current pastor there had served at this church earlier in his career.  The bishop coaxed him out of retirement and assured him that all the people that didn't like him when he preached there 30 years ago were now dead. (grin) We received a very warm welcome from everyone and enjoyed his sermon about being ready for Christ's return. He peppered both the main and the children's sermon with many humorous anecdotes. When he asked our son his name as we left church, he was answered with "Alex Bushwack". He also asked Alex if he was married. Alex paused a moment in thought before answering "no".

Bill and Sandra had a date night.  We headed toward Atlanta and ran into a wall of traffic returning home at the end of Thanksgiving weekend so we turned around and had Mexican food in Cartersville.

November 29 - Monday
Sandra went to Chattanooga to do genealogy research.  Bill drove to the mountains and hiked Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

November 30 - Tuesday
Today is pottery day. Kathy took the girls as well as Sandra, Jessie, Paula, and her daughter Halley, and their relative Bailey to a paint your own pottery place. Everyone had fun selecting a piece and painting it. They then stopped for ice cream before returning.