Fort Whaley 2017

We arrived at Fort Whaley after a short drive from Cherrystone, we left around 11:15 and arrived around 2:27. We were starving so Mckenzie and I went to the camp store and ordered a pizza while Jp and Paul set up the trailer. we came back and ate pizza. After we all finished eating I took a trip tp Walmart because lets face it our trip wouldn't be complete without at least one trip to Walmart. JP came with me and apparently didn't tell his father because after being gone for about 30 minutes he called me wondering if her was with me. I'm pretty sure we were there for like 8 hours before we finally left and went back to the trailer. When we got back JP and Kenzie went to the pond to catch minnows with their little nets.

We were at a different site this year in the woods because for some reason the campground made our favorite camp site into a cabin site. I was really happy with the site though, it's in the woods and has plenty of space and shade. After JP and Mckenzie went net fishing we all went to the pool and played  with thier new diving rings. We also saw a momma bird sitting on a nest of three eggs out in the open in the mulch. We sat at the table closest to her and every time we would get up to walk around she would puff her feathers and yell at us until we sat back down. After swimming JP, Paul, and Mckenzie went on a trick bike ramp and JP fell off it, he was fine and was now done with the bike ramp however Paul and Mckenzie.  stayed on and had fun. I went back to the camper to make dinner and Paul and the kids went to the camp store.  After we all finished dinner the kids stayed in the back room and watched Lego Batman while Paul watched a movie in the living room and I started blogging. When the movie was over JP and Kenzie came out and I showed them pictures from the blog. Mckenzie liked it so much that she took over and wrote a couple sentences for me.

Tuesday was July 4th and we had every intention of going to the boardwalk and playing games at the arcade and hanging out for a while. The drive to ocean city from the campground is about 20 min and when we got there inlet parking was 30 dollars and some of the private places we sometimes park was 50 so we changed our minds and just went for a drive. We stopped at 67th street and played golf at the indoor course, I won. Then we drove to the Delaware line and stopped at the library because the kids wanted to look at the books...lol.  Unfortunately we didn't take into consideration that it was a federal holiday and they weren't open so we drove back to the campground.

Wednesday we woke up and had breakfast and set off for a day of fun, first stop, the Salisbury Zoo. The kids and me go on a trip alone in April and stay in a hotel in ocean city that has a indoor pool. One day I took them to the Salisbury Zoo Paul was in turkey and they said the next time they went to Ocean City they were going to take dad to the zoo, so we did. Its a very small zoo that is free to all. They have some local animals and some exotic ones as well and on one side of the zoo they have a large playground for the kids. After that we went to the water park for a couple of hours to cool off where the kids enjoyed the lazy river and some slides. We went straight to the boardwalk from there and finally got to do the arcade as promised to the kids. We gave the both 20 dollars in quarters and said when it's gone your done. As predicted JP flew through his and Kenzie took her time she was nice enough to give JP a couple dollars and she won him a couple little toys to. When all the quarters were gone they used their tickets to earn a bunch of little toys and a comb knife lol. A busy day turned to a busy night, we bought some ocean city shirts for the kids and myself and we all had ice cream except for JP, he wanted a coke. Then we did something even I have never done, rode the tram from the inlet to the the end of the boardwalk and back. My parents never would have spent money to ride on the tram when we had 2 legs that worked just fine. Even Paul admitted to only riding on it once when he was a kid and only because his mother was tired of walking. After the ride we finally went back to the trailer and went to bed.

Thursday I had to leave around 1 to go to a wedding so I made the 3 hour drive back to Baltimore and I didn't get back into Ocean City until 2:30 am Friday. During the time that I was gone Paul took the kids back to the arcade and on the OC rocket and out for dinner.

Saturday we woke up around 8am and took our bikes to the boardwalk and rode from the inlet to the end I think it was about 4 miles all together. Your only allowed bikes on the Ocean city boardwalk from like 2 am to 11am during the peak season, Paul wanted to get breakfast so he gave me and both kids heart attacks and took us out on the main rd, and since they didn't have anywhere to park the bikes we went right back to the boardwalk and drove the truck there instead. after that we went back to the trailer for a little while and just hung out. At 4 we headed back to ocean city to go on a pirate ship ride called the DUCKANEER. OMG this boat ride was so fun, they take you out and tell you a story of a pirate trying to search for treasure and they never found it. Then they give everyone a pirate tattoo (adults included) a uni-brow and facial hair of some kind with a face crayon. The a guy in a little dingy comes and squirts everyone with water and they have water cannons attached to the ship so you can defend the ship. If you are trying not to get wet the pirate on board throws a bucket of water on you. It was so fun and the kids and the adults had such a good time. At the end they let the kids grab and big hand full of treasure ie. plastic gold coins, bracelets, and rubber eye balls, and everyone gets an eye patch.

After we got off the ship we got changed in the truck and headed to the beach and stayed for a while. They had some kind of swimming race going on while we were there all the life guards had these surf boards and they all sat about a 100 yards out and waited for the swimmers to enter. The whole thing went by pretty fast and before we knew it they were gone swimming toward the end of the board walk.

Sunday it was back to reality and we had to bring our trip to an end. It's always nice to get away but after 20 days of not being home it's kind of nice to be home for a little while.

Cherrystone 2017

We arrived at Cherrystone after a short 3 hour drive from the OBX we only stopped once for gas and arrived around 3pm.

After we got the camper set up I made burgers and gravy for dinner and we let the kids play on the 3 new bounce pillow till 10pm before calling them back home.

I was so nice out that night we decided to play a quick round of exploding kittens outside. As usual the game ended, along with the night, after JP cried because he didn't win. 

 Tuesday, morning we finished setting up the camper and we let the kids go back to the bounce pillow where they met up with some friends they met the night before. I really don't like them being away from the trailer that long Paul doesn't really car e but I'm the mom thats always concerned with the "what if ". What if they fall or bleed or fall and bleed.... The stayed with their friends most of the day until their friend went to the pool. Mckenzie comes to me and say mom can we go to the pool with our friend I think I actually laughed in her face before I told her not a chance. My kids are now 9 and 7 like I'm going to let some random person watched them in a pool, yeah right not happening. Besides Mrs Ann and Mr Lee were on their way to the campground and we needed to wait for them to give them the car pass. Before they arrived I went to the laundry room and washed a load of towels. I will say the laundry room at Cherrystone is quite spacious however they have no A/C so it's hot as hell in there. They have 2 large washers and 4 larger driers 16 washers and 14 driers. After they arrived we sat around for a little bit while the kids continued to bug us about going to the pool. finally Mr Lee took them to the pool and Paul followed shortly after and Mrs Ann and I took the opportunity to go to the grocery store and get some things. When we came back the men were back at the camper but of course the kids were no where to be found. I cooked the spaghetti that Mrs Ann brought and we all had dinner after we found the kids and wouldn't you imagine as soon as they were done eating back to the bounce pillow they went. I went back to the laundry room and did laundry it was cool and I was the only one there.


Wednesday we hung out at the camper for a little while after I made chip beef gravy for breakfast. Then I took JP to check out how much the chicken necks were and we went the camp store while taking a bike ride around the campground. After we got back me and the kids went for a bike ride and got some chicken necks and some ice cream from the cafe. Paul and the inlaws met up with us and we took the kids to paddle boats and back to the bait shop just because. we sat around just being lazy most of the day and then went crabbing and didn't catch anything lol. A couple people felt sorry for us and gave us like 5 crabs and I steamed them up for JP and I.  After that the kids stayed at the bounce pillow with their new friend Evan who is also from Md him and his family live in Odenton. Paul and Mr Lee played a rousing game of washers Paul making sure to keep a good eye on him because he has a tendency of cheating when you not looking. He pretty much cheats at everything if you don't watch him good enough lol. Paul got some fire wood, finally, and we had some smores and ended the night around midnight. 

The next morning everyone was up pretty early mostly because someone was running in and out of the trailer and the door kept clicking shut. I took JP to a local Dr office because he had swimmers ear and we went to the grocery store to get my mother inlaw an ice cream cake and a card. We all went to a local pharmacy to have lunch.... yes you read that right. It's like right out of the 60s or something. one third dinner one third pharmacy one third  novelty store, but nonetheless the have pretty good food and I got JPs ear drops while we were there anyway so win. After lunch we went in to Cape Charles and looked around, Kenzie and I did some art appreciation and Paul bought the kids boogie boards at the hardware store. We came back and went to the pool, poor JP had to wear an ear plug and I apparently broke his ear when I tried to put it in so he salked for a little bit before putting it in himself. After that we went back to the camper and ate dinner had some cake and sat outside for a while. The inlaws will be leaving in the morning and My brother is coming down for the weekend. 

Friday Mr Lee and Mrs Ann left around 10:30 and Bernie arrived not long after that. As soon as Bernie got there he went straight to the cafe to get lunch. After that we went to the pool for a little while and then we went crabbing just for fun. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and we went home with nothing and didn't even mind. That night we got to talking to our neighbors and we sat out there talking to them on their site till about 12:30 am. The kids went in to their camper and played and watched a movie and we just sat around outside telling stories and getting to know each other. This, I will say is one of my favorite things about camping, meeting new people and hitting it off, even if you never talk to them or see them again, it's nice to hear how other people live their lives and the places they love to camp.

Our neighbors are from New Jersey and this is only their second season with their travel trailer. April and Zeke have 12 and 9 year old girls and a 3 year old boy, Maloria and Corley and Mack. They are really very nice, they had her parents there with them but they had rented a trailer in the park. The parents brought a snowball machine and that what drew us over and like I said we started talking and didn't realize by the time we looked at the clock it was past midnight.

Saturday we went to the pool and Mckenzie met up with the 9 year old daughter from next store and they stayed at the pool for a while. When they left for lunch Kenzie asked to go with them and have lunch with them I said yes. Our daughters went to the snack bar and got a little pizza and an ice cream that Corley bought her. I only know this because I was there getting a soft crab sandwich with Bernie and Kenz came up and said they ordered ice cream and didn't have enough money to pay for it and needed 4 dollars.... I gave her the 3 I had and told both girls that I hope they learned a lesson about ordering something before they knew they had enough to pay for it. Kenzie spent most of her day with Corley while JP and  Bernie did some things around the campground together. That night we invited the nieghbors over and watched Moana on the blow up screen and had popcorn.


Sunday we went to the pool and that night April and Zeke and the kids came over and I introduced them to the pizza sandwich, apparently it's Zekes new favorite camping food.

Monday it was time to leave, we exchanged number with Zeke and Amy and left to go to Fort Whaley in Ocean City. We left at 11:15 and didn't stop.

OBX KOA 2017

The first camping trip of the year can be a frustrating one and we go right into a 20 day long trip so getting everything right can present with some anxiety. We will be staying in the Outer banks for 6 nights going Tuesday leaving for Cherrystone Monday then we leave Cherrystone Monday and head to ocean city until Sunday.

We had everything packed and ready to go Tuesday morning we were able to keep the trailer at my inlaws over night so we could  turn on the refrigerator and load up the food. All we had to do was pack some last minute things and apparently wash the trailer and truck... not sure why, and get on the road. Should have been about a 6 hour drive and it turned out to be pretty close we left around 1130 and got there after stopping for lunch and a bathroom break in Williamsburg around 6. After we get to our site Paul started getting it set up and we discovered that our brand new wheel chocks that weren't even dirty yet must have blew out of the back of the truck because they weren't there now so that was a great start to our trip and that day the blows just kept coming. I forgot to pack the beach chairs and the beach cart and for anyone who has kids at the beach you know theres more toys and such then you can carry. I also apparently took the kids tooth brushes out of the camper so that was a trip to the camp store and paid the premium price for the last 2 on the shelf. Later that night after I took the kids to the pool Mckenzie shut JPs thumb in the door of the RV and a latched all the way closed on it. Luckily it just looked really unpleasant and bled for a little while but no major damage. After that we decided to just send everyone to bed and call it a night.

Wednesday a family made there own little scavenger hunt around the campground with painted rocks. They gave us a little piece of paper with all the locations and yuo had to go all over the campground to find these panted rocks. Some were easy other we didn't find but it kept all of us busy for a little while anyway. The rest of the day was spent at the pool I found water proof UNO cards at Target before we left and we played UNO and swam. Paul and I took some beer in a cooler and put it in our Tervis cups ad sat and drank while the kids swam in to pool with the random friends they made that day. I got in the hot tub for a little bit and relaxed until some random kids jumped in. Later that night we took a bike ride across the street to the dairy queen and had some ice cream.

Thursday the AC stopped working again, luckily we had an extra unit installed in the back room for the kids because it was so hot in there last year. so we put the dog and the rabbit back there to keep cool while Paul attempted to fix it. It was really windy out and we had to put the easy up down so it wouldn't break and while doing so the AC cover flew of the top of the trailer and when JP ran to go grab it he slid on the gravel and scraped his whole leg up and was bleeding, poor guy, so that was another wound I had to take care of. Since the hardware store was like 30 miles away we decided to wait until the next day when we were going into town anyway and get the part we needed to once again fix the problem. While Paul was messing with that I took the kids to the beach to do some ghost crab catching and Paul met up with us not long after we stated. We had a really great time as usual until JP lost a flip flop in the ocean and when Paul ran in to grab it Paul lost his instead. That night we were able to use the back AC unit and a couple of well placed fans to cool the trailer down since the temperature drops at night.

Friday we decided it would be a good day to go to the aquarium since we had to go to ACE anyway, it's a pretty small aquarium but we like it. They rehabilitate sea turtles there and you can see them through little windows in the tanks. This year they had all the tanks full, one larger turtle got hit with a boat propeller and you could see the chunk that got cut out of his shell from it.

Another one also got hit by a boat and he was to weak to even swim so they had the water in his tank low enough so he just sat on the bottom. They have a touch tank there to with sting rays and a little shark and another one with a bunch of baby horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs. We all got keychains at the little store and then we went to our favorite dinner spot called the Outerbanks brewery and got a growler of homemade root beer.

Saturday we went to a wild life refuge and went on a hike out to a looking post. They had a little scavenger hunt for us to do while we walked and we were able to find everything on there but the river otter. I'm telling you if I saw an otter of any kind in the wild I would never leave that place haha. I lover otters I think they are the cutest animals alive. We didn't see much wild life but we did see the biggest blue crabs I have ever seen in my life, they looked to be about 12 inches tip to tip. Other then birds the only other animals we saw were turtles, lots of turtles in a little pond right at the start of the hike.

Sunday was a beach day, it took some convincing with the kids because they wanted to go to the pool again but we finally got out there around 3 and it was really nice. The water was high so they kids could go out pretty far without me freaking out. It was over cast so the sun wasn't beating down on us the whole time and Paul brought an umbrella and this little beach tent he bought so we had it made. I think we stayed till about 6 the kids had fun playing in the sand and catching sand crabs. Paul took them out a little ways and taught them how to body surf I even got in the water for a little while and got terrible sunburn even with SPF 50 on.

Monday it was time to leave for Cherrystone I set the alarm for 9am and got up and started to get the rest of the stuff put away so we could actually get our of there on time... haha yeah right. Paul woke up and I got the kids up after we got everything ready our poor nieghbor couldn't get his bedroom side in so Pual tried to help him for a little while and after a quick trip to the camp store to get a magnet, which they didn't have we were on the rd only an hour and a half past time check out time lol.