Raising the White Flag

Since we'd trekked a bit off our trail for cousin time, and we'd left Goldsboro a bit later than we'd hoped for,  we opted to detour from our initial landing spot of West Virginia, and settle for just plain old Virginia.  We found our tent to be, very thankfully, waterproof.   We grabbed our umbrellas and headed into town.  

Historic Richmond has an amazing Civil War museum right next to a National Historic Site.   Treadwell Iron Works were a Confederate iron factory with So much history.  The kids learned about water power,

Civil War economic shifts,

And period clothing.  There was a surgeons kit that made me very thankful for v progress that has been made in my field in the last hundred fifty years.

We toured the battleground at Richmond where there are cannons poised in the fields were the Union and Confederate armies would have met.  It was a rainy day, and the roar of the thunder, if you closed your eyes, was actually the firing of the cannon as troops met near the end of the war.

With only an hour and a half to the west being one of the most historic points of the Civil War, we trudged over to Appomattox.

A Union soldier told the children about his loneliness on the road, and introduced him to his pet stick Joe. Joe did very well with his trick of "sit and stay".

We toured the McLean house where Lee and Grant met. It was here at this desk that the Confederation and the Union begin the healing process of becoming the great United States of America.

It was an honor and a privilege to see the original surrender paperwork on display for the 150th Year celebration. I literally almost cried.  The Appomattox area closed at 5, which worked well for our schedule as we could go ahead and begin our drive into West Virginia

Some Beach, Somewhere...but specifically Pensacola, FL

Leaving Baton Rough.  456 miles down, ??? to go!

We continued our adventure to the east with a stop in Pensacola, FL.

Back in the day, I was stationed at NATTC Pensacola for AT-O A-school.  It was a weird time in my life, but with fun in the sun, beach volleyball, and sand, sand, and more sand!

We pulled through P'cola, through Gulf Breeze, and over the bridge to Santa Rosa Island.  We walked the boardwalk, ate a yummy dinner with the salt breeze cooling us.  We put our toes in the sand and looked forward to tomorrow.

  We found our camp site at Ft. Pickens National Park, right on Santa Rosa Island.  After we set up the tent, we went to watch the sunset over one of the cannon stations, but missed the event.

Tomorrow is another day.

We got up early.  Like, stupid early.  5:30.  I checked my phone and found that sunrise over Ft. Pickens was at 5:50.  Kayleigh and I put three sleepy headed, pajama clad kiddos in the car and drove a quarter of a mile to another cannon bastile.  We were just in time.

Since we were up, and swimsuits were in the car, we opted to take the beach while it was cool and we had the place to ourselves.

The kids, of course, were excited!

I left my camera in my purse (sandy, wet cameras tend to not work as well), so you'll just have to take my word that we had a BLAST!  First, we chased ghost crabs across the beach into the surf.  Then, we covered Gannon in sand and gave him a mermaid tail.  Then, we watched dolphins (YES, HOLY GEEZ, WE SAW DOLPHINS) swim 100 yards behind us.  

By 0800, we were all swam out, and ventured to Ft. Pickens.

Ft. Pickens was both a Revolutionary and Civil War Fort, used to protect the Bay of Pensacola.  It was one of 4 forts in the bay, and a beautiful historic site.

The kids (and I) were amazed that the cannon holder is made of OAK.  Wood.  Crazy. 

This room was filled with gun powder!

Looking out on a series of tunnels that were used to run supply loads.

Prison.  They're lucky I let them out... ;-)

We had a fantastic time, the kids earned their Jr. Ranger badges.  It was hot, we'd started early, so we loaded the car, and Annika was asleep before we'd left the island.  

 We headed North to.........