Sunday, July 3

Dear Loyal Brown Girls Followers,

You will be glad to know that we all made it back safely from our harrowing experience today. You would think that a 6 am wake-up call so we could get to church on time would have "protected" us but, no! After Mass we left for Natural Bridge. Our first stop within the park was at the Animal Safari. Many of you may have seen our "I've Been Slobbered" t-shirts, well... we should have worn them today as we were all slobbered, especially Jessica, who endured a bath by a female elk. Jessica says that the tounge was a lot more slobbery than Squirt's and if the side of Aunt Becky's car is any evidence, all the animals have LOTS of slobber. The animals, especially the two humped camels like to steal the buckets of food from us. Katie enjoyed the whole experience so much, she dumped about half a bucket of food on her lap! Between Katie and the animals, we will be picking food pellets out of the car for months...

After the animal safari, we went to Natural Bridge were we visited the Toy Museum (they had a whole corner dedicated to Star Trek Toys!) and the butterfly area, we took some pretty butterfly pictures. Then it was off to Natural Bridge. We walked down 134 steps and around the corner and WOW! There it was, how beautiful. We located the place where George Washington carved his initials when he was a teenager on the bridge. The indian village was next where we were able to see an actual village. It was smoky and fun! We had to get back in our car to drive to the Natural Bridge Caverns. We enjoyed the cool temperature and the strenuous walk but the Luray Caverns from earlier in the week were in Katie's words - EPIC!

Pray for good weather - if it doesn't rain (it is now) then we will be going to an outdoor light show tonight.

Saturday, July 2

Did you ever wonder what the state bird of Virginia is? Well, we can tell you - it is the GNAT! Gnats, Gnats, Gnats and more Gnats followed us everywhere we went on Saturday. We attempted to explore Appomatax - but yikes! The gnats followed us to the point of distraction. We did brave the swarm long enough to go to the courthouse and see the famous desk where Lee signed the document of surrender and walked the road where the soldiers laid down thier arms. After looking in a couple more of the houses we finally had enough and had to leave.

We spent an early evening in Lexington, VA thanks to the best travel agent in the world, did a lot of swimming had a big dinner - and still went to bed late, you gotta love vacation :)

Friday, July 1

Proud to be an American! Today we spent the day in Williamsburg and Yorktown. We met many interesting characters and saw what life was like when America first began. Everyone kept telling us how hard life was then. We tried to grind some corn, watched as Patrick Henry stirred the crowd, listened to local gossip from the woman who was in charge of the house slaves at the Governor's palace and agreed that we are much happier in the present. One funny thing that happened was we found a lens cover for the camera! Loyal Brown Girls followers will remember that last trip we sent the lens cover to our camera to swim with the fishes, somehow the fishes were able to return it to us - Halleluiah!

We arrived at Yorktown with just enough time to watch the final showing of the film that talked about Yorktown's importance in our history. We took a leisurely driving tour of the battlefields including Surrender Field. It was an historic day.

We got back late this evening, took a short swim and agreed that we are all pretty tired. It must have been the blazing sun that took it all out of us :)

Thursday, June 30

History lessons - we started at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We learned all about him and his family as well as his many hobbies and interests. It is amazing that Monticello at one time was almost a small town with 200 inhabitants on the land to keep it all running smoothly.

After Monticello, we went to Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in the United States. Although most of the settlement is gone, there is an active archeological dig going on and they are learning more about the settlement everyday.

After our tours, we returned to our hotel to swim (that is a story in itself!) and to play an exciting game of survival, we did not survive :(. But no worries, there is always tomorrow...

Wednesday, June 29

Skyline Chili - oops, I mean Skyline Drive. We took a beautiful and peaceful drive down the Skyline Drive in the Appalachian Mountians and Shenandoah Valley. We took advantage of many of the turn-outs to take lots of pictures. About a third of the way through the 105 mile drive we veered off to take a short excursion to Luray Caverns. But before we could enter the caverns, we had to conquer the Garden Maze. We divided into teams to determine our maze skills. Aunt Becky and Jessica handily beat team Katie and Aunt Amy. Our detecting skills cannot be beat! It was then off to the caverns where we spent an entertaining hour walking through an active cavern - we even got to listen to a organ made out of formations in the cavern = it was fabulous. Each of us was "dripped" on in the cavern. These drips are called Cave Kisses and are said to bring a year's worth of good luck. We are one lucky group!

After a quick snack and a Slurpee - you have to LOVE Va., we returned to the Skyline Drive to take more pictures and enjoy the sounds of the Shenendoah Valley. On our drive we saw many deer, ground hogs and even a black bear! It is very unusual to spot a Black Bear - our luck continues.

It was then off to Jimmy Johns and swiming to round off a great day.

Tuesday, June 28

Harpers Ferry and the Arboritum

It was a great day - a warm day but a great day! It took us about 4 hours to get to Harper's Ferry today but we took great advantage of the ride to talk about how we are going to spend our 88 million dollars when we win the West Virginia lottery tonight. All of our followers will be glad to know that we will think of you as we start spending...

Harper's Ferry was big fun. We learned all about John Brown and his raid on Harper's Ferry. Even Aunt Amy who was making her second trip to Harper's Ferry learned some new things! We also took time to practice a couple of drills - Aunt Amy showed us how to stop, drop and roll and Katie "supervised" while the rest of us practiced evacuating the car should we need to quickly!

Then it was off to the Arboritum where we were swarmed by gnats! We could not get away from them! It made our visit quite short but we didn't leave before Jessica demonstrated another important drill - how to "pat out" any body part that might get caught on fire!

Then off to the hotel to swim, eat and to bed early - we have a long and exciting adventure planned for tomorrow.

Monday, June 27

An early start with a scrumptious breakfast - but who did we meet but friends of Katie and

Jessica's - right there in our hotel - a small world. Once our tummys were full we left for Cass for a scenic railroad adventure. We sat right up front where we could keep an eye on the conductor, just in case he needed any advice, after all you know, Brown Girls Followers, we come from a long line of railroad engineers so it is in our blood...

As we were enjoying our trip through the wilds of WEst Virginia, we started to see some signs that concerned us - signs that led us to believe, that yes! Big Foot does exist. Don't be afraid, we were on the train so we were able to out run Big Foot.

After our train ride we went in search of aliens at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. There were 20 different telescopes including the SETI telescope. We were looking for intelligent life outside the Milky Way but we did not see any.

It was then back to the hotel for a swim - where we ran across some Lexingtonians - yes, way! It was a day of coincidences.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

Hello Brown Girls' Followers!

We are back for our annual Brown Girls' trip. This year we are exploring the wilds of West Virginia and Virginia. Our trip started out on a lucky streak - we identified 28 state license plates, even Alaska! Found a 7-11 and had a cherry slurpee! Wow, we felt so lucky we stopped before we got to our hotel and bought a lottery ticket. It is up to 88 million. Katie and Jessica decided that we had to split it evenly, oh well, I guess we will survive on 22 million each. It was to the hotel, swiming and then to bed for the Brown Girls - must get our beauty rest for the next day's adventure!