Virginia Vacation July/Aug

We had a great vacation in Roanoke at the end of July and first part of August.  It was good to be in a part of the country that is still green and has water. We miss the view of mountains each morning. The greenest thing out our window here in this drought is the cactus in the greenbelt.

Lot's of fun spent on the sun porch playing with Jane and Karen's old legos.

Roanoke has a lot of trains. Ben was in heaven. We could have gone downtown and watched the trains all week. A visit to the VA Transportation Musuem (train museum) hit the spot.

Q: What could be better than climbing and sitting on trains? A: Sitting on trains and watching trains pass by. The tracks were next to the museum's railyard and while there, the whole family intently watched two very long trains pass by within 30 yards of us. When we walked back to the musuem building through the railyard, Ben got really nervous as he thought maybe the historical (and rusting) trains would start to move. I don't blame him. As an aside, during naps one afternoon we visited the O. Winston Link museum documenting the last decade of steam trains in the region through photography. Definitely a must see.

The Touch-a-Truck event in Roanoke was great despite the heat. Kids could touch, climb, and sit on any seat of every kind of truck, RV, bus, car, or four wheeled vehicle you could imagine. Based on the constant noise, sitting in the driver seat and honking the horn was the favorite of most kids.
Ben liked driving the school bus.

The air conditioned semi-trailor was the adult favorite. It was HOT.

G'pa G (and Ben) had big plans for the foam pit. However, the chaos and depth of the foam easily made for a change in plans.

We headed out one evening to check out the progress in Catawba. We mostly watched, but we were glad to see so much progress at the Bennett construction site.  Maybe next visit it will be all done? 

Raising walls.

Sitting down and trying to stay out of the way and not fall off the second floor.

Showing our city slicker kids where corn and watermelons come from.

When G'pa and G'ma took the kids to a safari park, we headed off to Natural Bridge and the neighboring caverns.

This little guy surpised us on our hike as did several snakes.

Safari Park. Kids, don't try this at home.

Is that Rudolph grandma? (No, grandma did not get runover by a reindeer.)

We went to the local zoo and rode its train. Oh yeah, there were animals there too.

Who doesn't like throwing rocks in the stream? When we got home, Ben expected to find flowing streams in all the parks and playgrounds here. Only in VA, son.

On dad's watch, Mary tripped and crashed her face in a chair in the Roanoke airport. At least it wasn't teeth like her brother.