Preparing For The Drive…

While we have no idea where the time has gone, we are now finding ourselves scrambling to get everything together for our family vacation. The last time that we took such a long vacation was nearly three years ago so there are a lot of things that have changed since then. Things are completely different now that we have our son as in the past packing for vacation was never a real issue. Looking at the piles of stuff that needs to be packed, it is amazing to think that we will be able to fit it all in the car. I don’t think we have packed this much stuff since we left for Israel.

For the first time since I started with my current company, I am taking an extended period of time off away from work. Even when our son was born, I was out of the office but still working remotely. With the exception of a few phone calls and emails that I am most certainly going to have to take, I am staying far away from the world of work. It’s not like I am going to have the time to take care of things as our schedule is pretty full. Here are just a few of the things that we are going to be doing and places we are going to visit while in Virginia:

• Family Reunion
• Natural Bridge
• Caverns at Natural Bridge
• Eagle Rock
• Fincastle
• Various Family Cemeteries
• Roanoke
• Dixie Caverns
• Bear Mountain
• Monacan Museum
• Lynchburg
• Lexington
• Colonial Williamsburg
• Richmond

This is a trip that I have been looking forward to for years. This is the first reunion that I have been able to attend since 1987 and I have learned a lot about the family since that time. It is a trip 28 and 250 years in the making and I am excited to see everything again with new eyes and also to introduce my wife and my son to where our family comes from.

Obviously, this is just the short list but not a bad schedule for the week. This is what we plan on doing and seeing… that could easily change and we may see more or less depending on how the week progresses. And, as you have come to expect, I will be taking plenty of pictures and writing about our adventures in the southern commonwealth.  

I am open to suggestions of places that I may have overlooked so, if you know of any in the western part of Virginia (especially along Skyline Drive) I welcome them. While we may have a good schedule for the extended vacation, I really don’t want to stick to a hard schedule. This is a time for us to relax and spend time with family.