Virginia is {notsomuch} for Lovers

When our friends John and Katie moved across the country a few years ago, I tried to be happy for them. John had finally gotten his dream job, and they bought a beautiful house in their little mountain town near his new company.

They were following their dreams and going where God led them and – oh, never mind. All that’s true, but I was SAD!

We threw them a going away party in our backyard, we had one last Bible study together and I gave Katie a little goodbye present. But it wasn’t enough.

And their occasional trips home to visit family weren’t enough, either. (Mainly because, while we are close friends, we are not, in fact, family. And apparently family has dibs on out-of-state visitors. I was not consulted.)

So, a year after they moved, Mark and I – childless and carefree at that point – hopped in our car and drove 15 hours to see them. It was then that we discovered Virginia’s bizarre state motto: Virginia is for lovers.

{That’s weird, right? Tell me I’m not the only one who finds that . . . strange.}

I don’t really know what that means. But a few years and two children (one of ours, one of theirs) later, our second trip to visit John and Katie wasn’t exactly a trip down lovers’ lane.

Mainly because we slept in two twin beds. And took turns driving while the other one slept. And split up for a bike ride and a cupcake store visit (Go ahead – guess who did what.), as well as drove separately to our last night touristy getaway.

But even though this was most definitely not a romantic couple’s adventure, it was absolutely a great family vacation. Here are my favorite parts:

1. Yinglings: Our friends are awesome. We love them and miss them. Seeing them was the whole point of our 14-hour (each way, in case you’re wondering) trip. And it was totally worth it. We laughed – and we laughed some more. We caught up and told stories and compared crazy kids and families and gave advice and shared tips and sympathized and empathized. And just had a darned good time in general.

2. Portable DVD player: Seriously. Why do we not own one of these? Oh yeah, because I know that if we did, it would be in use every single second we were in the car. We borrowed our friend’s DVD player, and for the hours Annalyn was awake in the car (we drove overnight), It Was Awesome. Love.

3. Cupcake bakery: One day, Mark decided to go to a nearby town and ride his mountain bike down a mountain. Literally. The good news is that he survived without an injury (a miracle of great proportions, and no, I’m not exaggerating one bit). The other good news is that this freed up Katie, Annalyn and me to visit Babycakes, a cupcakery. A cupcakery! Is that not the cutest word EVER?

4. Stocking up on Mary Kay: Katie is an awesome Mary Kay consultant. You know – the kind who works hard enough to get a free car? Yeah, that’s her. Mark is obsessed with learning about her business. For a while, he kept telling me that I should sell Mary Kay. Now that I’ve convinced him that makeup – while lovely – is not really my THING, I’m wondering if maybe HE should sell it! Anyway, while we were there, I saved us some shipping costs and stocked up on my favorite lipstick and mascara and tried a new toner.

5. Turkey cookies: Katie’s been a work-at-home mom for much longer than me (easy to do, considering this vacation took place the week after I quit my job). It was interesting to watch how she does things. One of my favorite observations was that planning a fun activity doesn’t have to be complicated. The first night we were at her house, Katie baked some sugar cookies. Then the next day, she got out icing and candy corn, and the kids made the cookies into turkeys. Granted, that’s more of a Thanksgiving treat than a Halloween one, but it didn’t stop any of us from eating those turkeys!

6. Mountains: I love them. No, the Smokies are not the Rockies. But I love mountains. The end. (Okay, not the end. Because I do have to say that I found it totally bizarre that at the highest scenic spot in the park or the state or the something, there was no fence. No guardrail next to the sidewalk. Just a steep drop and certain death. So I take it back. That’s not bizarre. It’s really scary. Now…the end.)

7. Aquarium: On Friday, we all drove into Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg to spend the night. After our death-defying (see above) drive into the mountains on Saturday morning, we visited the Ripley’s Aquarium. Even though it was pricey (Mark walked straight from the ticket booth to me and handed me the receipt without a word – but I’m pretty sure I know what he was saying.) and we went during Annalyn’s normal naptime, we had a blast! The aquarium was full of SO many different animals and activities. It was definitely worth the ticket price and something I’d recommend to anyone visiting the area.

8. Scrapbook store: For the second trip in a row, Katie and I planned to scrapbook and did not. But even though I didn’t put my paper cutter and tape tabs to work while we were visiting, we did manage to make it to a scrapbooking super store. Wait. Let me clarify: a scrapbooking super CLEARANCE store. Everything in the large, packed store was on sale and was then 50% off in addition to the previous markdowns! I was strategic and focused on letters. I bought about 10 packs of letter stickers, four packs of letter rub-ons and two boxes of chipboard letters for $22. No offense to Hobby Lobby, but THAT’s the kind of sale I’m talking about!

9. Swimming: The best part of our hotel in Pigeon Forge was not the breakfast buffet or the flat-screen TV. It was the indoor swimming pool! Never mind the forever long wait for Mark and John to arrive with my swimsuit and Annalyn’s floaties. Once they got there and we got in the pool, it was a blast. Annalyn had such a good time, and we had fun watching her have fun.

10. Time to relax and procrastinate: I’ve been honest about the anxiety I’ve felt about quitting my job. And so I won’t deny it: putting off this jump into the unknown for one more week was kind of nice.

After leaving our house two hours later than we’d hoped on Tuesday, we actually left Tennessee a bit early on Saturday. We pulled into our driveway around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, and I’m pretty sure we’ve never been so glad to crawl into our bed. Even Annalyn went right back to sleep and didn’t make a peep for almost five hours.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I’m glad we went. The mountains were beautiful, all the activities and adventures were fun, and most importantly, the family time and reunion with friends was amazing.

Have you taken a vacation this year? What’s the best trip you’ve taken recently?

This post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda.com.

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