A Quick Trip to Skyline Drive, Virginia

In November we did a little trip down to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  We arrived at the Skyline Drive Campground only to discover it had closed three days before. You can imagine our disappointment about not being able to set up camp.  It was already dark so we didn't have many options; 1. pitch the camp in the parking lot or 2. just sleep in the van, which is the option that we chose. So after some huffing and puffing (mostly on Daddy's part) and much laughing (mostly us girls) we rearranged the van seats to comfortably sleep Daddy and Mommy and 7 of us kids (Joshua had to work). Our live-in photographer (that would be Mommy) didn't get many pictures, but what she did get I hope you enjoy.

Elainah, Lillia, Me, Joy, David, and Daddy

The main reason for going was to hike, so we did a short hike down to a 100 ft. fall.

Joy, David, and I

For lunch we stopped at a pavillion for campers and the Appalachian trail hikers.  
We built a fire to warm up by and roast our hotdogs.

Beside the place where we were eating lunch they had a bear trap for the uninvited guest.            

That was pretty neat to see.

Daddy, David, Lillia, Joy, and I decided to do a little hiking on the Appalachian Trail.                      
Lillia and I saw a black bear!

While we were looking at our bear (that we didn't get a picture of) Mommy and the rest of the crew were watching another black bear that had just crossed the road in front of them right after they dropped us off!

There were so many beautiful lookout spots.

Although we had planned to stay two nights, someone (I won't mention names) didn't want to stay another night in the van with a foot in their face all night.  After a wonderful day on skyline drive, we did a little detour and met up with the Johnson's for dinner in Baltimore.  It was the perfect ending to our little trip.

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