fall color drive

One of my favorite things about where we live is the easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the beautiful fall colors.

We pulled off the parkway at Waterrock Knob to play and have a picnic lunch.

The girls had fun running around (and posing for pictures) while the boys unloaded the van.

- Picnic lunch with the Gaubs -

After lunch, Ellie and Hannah played in the fog-- I have no idea what game they were playing, but they were completely entertained.

They ran, and ran, and ran, and then picked flowers (weeds!), and ran some more!

- the Albaeck sweethearts -

It's been so nice having my sister and her sweet family live closer to us so that we can get together more often!

- the Albaeck girls -

- beautiful fall color -

The fog started to lift and we were able to see the colors just starting to change down in the valleys.

The highest point on the parkway at the Richland Balsam Overlook.

While the adults enjoyed the views, the highlight of the drive for the kids was driving through all of the tunnels!

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road trip day four: white sands national monument

We have such a great time at White Sands National Monument every year that we made it a point to drive that way again.

June 14, 2017 - White Sands NM - State #8 - 1774 miles

Digging in the sand.

After four days in the car, the kids- especially Ellie- were excited to have freedom to run around.

Fun in the sun.

Unlike the past two years where Ellie was apprehensive of being in the sand, this year, she was excited to run and play in it.

So much sand!

Unlike beach sand, the gypsum crystals at White Sands are really cool to the touch.  The kids had so much fun playing with it!

We took the sunset stroll offered by the NPS and learned about the geology and ecology of the park while watching the sun go down.

The kids had fun climbing on the dunes as we strolled through the park.

"Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing" - Dr Seuss

Two sweet girls.

The sun setting over the San Andres Mountains.

-Christopher-

-Lexie-

-Ben-

-Ellie-

-the Albaeck sweethearts-

Goodnight, White Sands!

After roaming the dunes for four hours, we made our way to Caliche's Frozen Custard in Alamogordo  to have ice cream for a late dinner!  We also HAD to try their "spicy dog" which is covered in green chile relish and honey dill mustard-- very good!!

gatlinburg and great smoky mountain national park

For something fun and festive, we headed up to Gatlinburg for the night to show Grandma and Grandpa the sights.  We stopped at Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack in Asheville for a delicious Tennessee-style hot chicken lunch on the drive up.

After we checked in to our hotel we walked around the streets of Gatlinburg, enjoying all of the Christmas decorations and after dinner, we relaxed by the fire at our hotel with hot chocolate and cookies.  Ellie only screamed while she was sitting on the hearth-- she much preferred sitting on the floor or the couch!

We bought tickets for the Gatlinburg Trolley "Ride of Lights" to see the Christmas lights around town.  We drove over to the aquarium to park and walked around that end of Gatlinburg for a bit while we waited for our tour.

Christmas lights in Gatlinburg.

After our tour, it was back to the hotel and straight to bed-- after taking some pictures on the empty streets of town.

In the morning we introduced Grandma and Grandpa to our favorite Gatlinburg breakfast at Crockett's Breakfast Camp!

The Little Country Church-- one of the smallest churches in the United States.

We took the scenic drive home through Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

There was some construction (and clean up from the massive wildfires from the week before) and the slowdowns allowed us to really enjoy the fresh snow on the sides of the road.

We stopped at Newfound Gap to enjoy the views before heading into North Carolina and back home.

road trip day twenty three: channel islands national park

On our quest to visit all of the National Parks, we decided to head to Channel Islands National Park on our trip this year.  Little Miss Attitude and Truck Grandpa, ready to board the boat at Oxnard Harbor!

We did a wildlife cruise through Island Packers, and while it didn't land on any of the islands, we did get to cruise along the coast of Anacapa Island.  On our way out there we even came across a shark(!) about fifteen feet away from the boat.  The photographer guy on board said he thought it was a mako shark-- glad we were on a boat and not swimming!!

It's about an hour out to the islands and it was CHOPPY!!  Jacob and I got stuck on the lower level with Ellie for the ride out and we got a bit wet and bounced around for most of the ride.  Once it calmed down a bit, we made it upstairs to sit with the rest of our group.

Lots of birds!

The park's most recognizable landmark, Arch Rock, and Anacapa Island.

On our way back to Oxnard we finally saw a couple of dolphins!

Playful dolphins :)

After a couple of minutes, those couple of dolphins turned into a pod of about fifty dolphins and they were very playful!  We had fun on our trip out to the Channel Islands and would love to do it again when we have the time (and money $$$) to actually land and explore.