Eagle to Wilmington. Delivering Meg 10 - 18 July 2011

This trip was somewhat ill-conceived from the start.  Driving to Delaware across the whole country in the heat of summer?  Not so bad in the Mercedes s600 though, smooth, quiet ride and turn up the A/C.  but, what if...the Mercedes had trouble while we are in the Dominican?  Not the best car for Meg perhaps.  Well the Trailblazer will do...not the rig desired by Meg.  So, three in the MINI for forty hours?  As I said, ill-conceived.

We started after Church on Sunday, we planned to drive through the first night.  Meg had so much stuff there wasn't any room for us at all.  Cindy was the only one that could fit in the back seat, forty hours to sleep and read her Kindle.  She had it the best, maybe.  I drove the most time, but Meg took the night shift from midnight until 4am, I dozed sitting up, no room to recline or lean on the window much.  Stiff neck for sure.

But we survived and occasionally had a run at flourishing.  We looked forward to the gas stops, the MINI gets too many miles per gallon, so we had to stop for us sometimes, not for me but for others.  We had a meal or two where we sat in a restaurant and could get up and walk around whenever we wanted. We drove the first day and night to a Day's Inn near Dayton Ohio.  I slept like a log.  We had a fairly short day of 10 hour into Wilmington on Tuesday, driving through the night seems hard but works for us, we were glad to cut a day off the drive.

We had a great visit in Wilmington, the fifteen month old Leah and Andrew were too fun to watch and play with.  Meg got into their routine and is ready to Nanny on.  We visited Longwood Gardens and Rehobath Beach.  I was able to corrupt the diets of Kate and Steve enough to get some Costco ribs and a trip to a Asian fusion restaurant, Jasmine.  The pictures tell the story. 

Gas stop in Nebraska.

Everyone loves to play.

Drew is sure he is a cool dude.

Leah wanted to be sure she wouldn't drown, this is not the day we went to the Beach.

The kids area water features result in very wet Leah.

Drew stayed drier but had lots of splashing too.

Nannyism.

Loading for the Beach.

With Kate, and others, there is always some excitement related to needing a bathroom.

Asian fusion cuisine. 

We are cleaned up for Church.

July Fourth Weekend Camp- Parma Pond 2 Jul-4 July 20011

The Iverson's, Meg, Anna and Shawn, and Cindy and I had a good camp near Parma.  We took the tent trailer, the Roof Top tent and the Iverson's dome tent.  It was hot, so we took restaurant breaks for dinner in Parma and then Nyssa both nights.  Levi had trouble sleeping the first night but everyone else seemed ok.  Mom worked hard on the food which was very good.   The inflatable kayaks, large trampoline float and the Relaxation Station were great, the water was refreshing in the heat.  In the evenings it cooled nicely, so we had two good fires with some stories and treats. 

Our shade shelters were essential.  We tried to keep everyone in sunscreen too.

Carrie and Allison like to paddle, the other Kayak and the relaxation station are in the background.

Meg ran a periodic hair salon during the weekend. 

There are fish in both ponds, we see them jumping.  Only Josh could catch many, he had several small bass.  Allison lost her new jig to a bass and others hooked fish but were unable to land them.

We took the kayaks to the smaller pond to explore.  Both ponds get 7 or 8 feet deep, the larger is about 10 acres, the smaller about 5.  There is a third small slough that we haven't paid much attention to yet. 

At one point Squirt was feeling too left out and decided to swim out to the floating islands and kayaks.  She did fine but decided to turn back about half way to the crowd.  Josh happened to be swimming back to the beach when I took this picture. 

The Relaxation Station.  Best cooler in town.

The smaller pond cooled off the little ones, but they only had one towel, Anna's.  So they had to put up with hugging her to keep from shivering.