Hello 2015

We started this year in North Carolina.  We decided taking a family vacation during the Christmas holidays creates more memories for us than buying gifts.  This year we decided to go to South and North Carolina.  We learned a lot about the history of our country during the slave times and also during the civil war.  We visited beautiful plantations, kayaked in an estuary, toured some of the battle ships, and toured Ft. Sumter while we were in South Carolina.  In North Carolina we spent the first day driving through Smoky National park and the second day at National Whitewater Center.  We ended our trip with a NBA basketball game, Hornets vs. Cavaliers.  It was a wonderful trip.  It's always great spending time with family learning, experiencing, and having fun.

While kayaking in the estuary we were hoping to see some dolphins, but that was not the case this day. We did get to see a lot of birds and a lot of oysters.  It was very interesting listening to our tour guide explain how the ecosystem works in this area.

We went to Patriots Point and toured two battle ships and a submarine.  It was crazy to see how big the battle ships were.  All of us agreed we would not want to live on a submarine.

One of the plantations we went to was Middleton Place.  Here they had a barn area where the kids got to milk a cow, watch how pottery was made, and see how they made barrels.  They had beautiful stables that they kept very clean.  I told Jeff I want a plantation some day.  Of course you would have to be able to hire a lot of people to help with all the work. 

All of the trees had moss on them.  It made it look so beautiful even in the winter.

Charles Towne Landing was one of the first ports in that area.  We got to see an old ship they would have used and also what happened to the people who did things wrong.

We took some time out to play one of their old time games.  It was a lot of fun.

Someone offered to take a picture at Great Smoky National Park so we could all be in it, unfortunately he cut off Justin's head.

We enjoyed a hike to Rainbow Falls, unfortunately we ran out of day light so we did not make it to the falls.  The path was wet and muddy, but it was so fun to be in the beautiful mountains hiking.

We went to Discovery Place during our last day in North Carolina.  It is always fun to see the different exhibits at science museums.  Everyone enjoyed laying on the bed of needles.