Saturday, July 31, 2010

Baxter our newest driver

Baxter is driving us up to Tina's to swim last Wednesday. He is a pretty good driver.  He and Grandpa picked up Noah yesterday in Leonardtown.  He'll be glad when he can go alone so he can be more relaxed without anyone telling him to slow down, use your brake and so forth.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Two Old Crows

Remember our Two Old Crows last year????  Well lets start at the first.

Just bare ground

Then we decided on a grass plant in front of it.
 Hmmmm where did we go????????


We lost our hats but we're still there.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Football

The boys came over all excited about their football attire.  They are both going to try out football this year.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

3rd Day

We were up and gone from the Natural Bridge Hotel by 8 am.  We ate breakfast at a Burger King and then on we went to the Cyrus McCormick Farm.

This was of interest to Sid and me because of the farming we have done in the past.

Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper in 1831, which harvested wheat five times faster with much less effort than a man with a scythe or sickle.  This revolutionized agriculture and led to greater mechanization and greatly increased productivity by American farmers.
The 634-acre farm, called Walnut Grove by the McCormick family, is now an agricultural research station operated by Virginia Tech.

















The next stop was Thomas Jefferson Monticello.  Another hot day.  We rode the shuttle bus up to the house and had about 1 1/2 hours to site see before we could tour the house.  These are the gardens.  McKay wondered why there were so many different vegetables and so much of them, but it takes a lot to feed 200 slaves and the household.


This is a garden pavilion where Jefferson would go out and read in the winter time.  Below are the vineyards, berries and fruit trees.



Resting in the heat.  There wasn't much shade.

Jefferson had a unique flower garden. It was in the back and formed a circle with a huge lawn inside the circle. It is called the west lawn with the flower walk.


I didn't get to take a lot of pictures of the flowers.  I started to feel a little sick and had to find a restroom and then I just went and sat at the front of the house and waited for our tour group.





This was quite the tree.  The picture doesn't do justice to it.  We rode the shuttle back down the hill and went through some museums and then watched a film about Thomas Jefferson that was very good.
We were back in Waldorf by 7 pm and home at 7:30.  It was a very enjoyable week-end.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Day two

Lincoln and Tina went to Buena Vista to pick up McKay, back to the Hotel where we ate a great breakfast and then back to Lexington for medications.  Sorry if this is a little long.  There are more pictures than narrative.



On our way back from Lexington, I asked Lincoln if we could stop and see foamhenge.  It was interesting.








It was quite the climb because this was on a hill top.  It was just starting to get warm.
 This is where we started our long trek to the bridge. 



I love huge trees and this is just one on our way down the path to the bottom.



From the bottom of the path to the top at Lace Falls  it was 1000 yds that we did in hundred degrees, but we did it leisurely taking lots of stops.


The other side of the bridge







Most of the path was in the shade and there was this wall that was cool to sit on and there were benches also to sit on.  This is one time I was drinking water and sweating ( I don't usually sweat, but it was hot).

When we finished the hike, we ate at the gift shop and then went downstairs to the toy museum and then to the wax museum.





After the museum Sid, Lincoln and McKay went through the caverns and Tina and waited for them.

We went back to Lexington and ate at the Tong Dynasty.  It was really good.  It reminded me of the New York Buffet here in California. The sweet waitress couldn't speak very good English but she wanted to take our pictures.
Then back to the Hotel for more games and a good nights sleep.