road trip to virginia

 We road tripped to Virginia last Wednesday through Sunday and visited Charlottesville and Williamsburg. The weather was gorgeous! There was lots of history, exploration, beautiful gardens and dining out. We even ran into two families from home we knew!  Of course there is a  ton missing from these photos like the downtown of Charlottesville, the Maplewood cemetery that was across the street from where we were staying!, the winery, Williamsburg and all the craftspeople in Historic Williamsburg.
I think I was so excited to be outdoors so much in Spring that my brain focused mostly on the flowers.

1) Monticello

2) College of William and Mary

3) College of William and Mary

4) Monticello

5) Monticello

6) Monticello

7) Monticello

 8) Monticello

9) Monticello

10) Monticello

11) Monticello

12) Monticello

13) Monticello

14) College of William and Mary

15) Colonial Williamsburg

16) Colonial Williamsburg

17) Colonial Williamsburg

18) Colonial Williamsburg

19) Colonial Williamsburg

cape cod

Some highlights from our trip to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.

Peter Papp Oriental Rugs at Polly Hill Arbortum and Flying Horses Carousel in Martha's Vineyard.

Seeing fudge being made.

Visiting a pottery shop.

The beach- walking out to sandbars, catching baby crabs and sand dollars, building in the sand, seeing the skies ever changing colors, low tide and high tides.

A 10 mile bicycle ride

Spending time with cousins, visiting an antiques shop, playing miniature golf and going to a favorite general store.

Newport

A stop in Rhode Island on the way home from our vacation in Cape Cod on Saturday to tour a few Newport Mansions. We visited the Breakers and Rosecliff. Very impressive and so different from each other.
The kids loved it ( I was surprised) especially listening to the audio tour as we walked around. Definitely a highlight from the trip.

Cape Cod Part 1

Some photos of the vacation home we stayed at for a week.

So you may have guessed that the house the children are playing in front of from a few posts back was the house we stayed in. I blogged a few times from there and it was the first time I've done it away from home. I used blogsy. A few quirks with the photos getting cut off but otherwise it worked out okay.

The white house is what the children called our vacation rental ( so grand! ) and the house is situated in Orleans. We were a little more then 3/4 of a mile from the bay. I know this because it was my jogging route that I did almost every day. I would run to the bay and back. I don't run outside normally so I didn't go quite as far as I do on the treadmill in the air conditioned gym. Though different from what I am used to it was nice to run along a pretty street and one day I was joined by a tiny yellow bird flying alongside me.

The bay is where we hung out a lot because it is such a great beach for kids and warmer then the ocean. When the tide moves out there is a huge stretch of wet sand and pools of water to play in and you can walk a long way out before getting to the water. In these pools of water are fish and crabs for the kids to catch (and let go) in their nets and Matty even caught a eel one day. The wet sand makes a perfect place to build castles and moats and molded sea animals.

The home was a old home (not sure what year it was built) and it had an addition. We had plenty of room to stretch out and a great outdoor space to play around in.