Separate But Equally Fun

Thankfully, we had front-loaded most of the planned stops/activities into the first part of the trip, and left free time at the end. This worked well (I think) because given our usual propensity not to be "boxed in" on any vacation, we were pretty worn out from scheduled activities by the end of our day at Colonial Williamsburg. We had a few things that we knew we wanted to fit in, but because we only had 3 days left, it was looking a little crowded and that was causing a little, ahem, tension. We made a good decision: we went our separate ways for most of Thursday and everyone had more time to relax. Mom and I and Delaney and Sara rolled down the windows and enjoyed the beautiful, sunny 70-degree day by hitting the many outlet malls and Yankee Candle Flagship store. The Yankee store was really entertainment in a very, very large store, and the girls got to make their own candle, eat some chocolate-covered popcorn, watch the "snow" come down in the year-round Christmas section, and peruse the toy shop while I picked out some great new votive candle scents (lemonade! yum!). Alas, I have no pictures of shopping. : )

Dad, Eric, Leah, Jesse and Levi headed south to Norfolk, the Nauticus Museum, and the Wisconsin Battleship tour. Other than the traffic on the way back, they had a great day and said the museum was really hands-on and worth the trip. Eric remembers his dad taking him on a real battleship when he was a young boy and had been looking forward to doing the same with his kids for a long time.