Family Summer Vacation 2011

Our summer vacation was really a big field trip!

Points of Interest Visited:
Creation Museum outside Cinncianti, OH
Colonial Williamsburg, VA
Yorktown, VA
Jamestown, VA
Naval Museum, Norfolk, VA
Toured USS Battleship Wisconsin
Experienced the loud thunder of the Air Force jets taking off and landing in Virginia Beach
Walking/Driving tour of Washington, DC
Drove though the underwater tunnel in Norfolk

States traveled through:Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania,and District of Columbia

Courses covered on our big field trip:
Bible, Science, Government, History, Social Studies, Math, Accounting, Geography, Architecture, Arts, Music, Logic, Home Economics, and life skills

Life Lessons Learned:
People should strap their suitcases down tighter to the roof of their cars so...people like us down get hit with them when an SUV in front of us runs them over and kicks them up into our car. Instant Heart attack! $1200 damage to our car.
Even if you check the brakes before you go, and throughout your trip, you may still end up with a brake problem in the mountains/hills. Our calipers hung up and eroded our brakes right out. We had to have new calipers, brake pads, and rotors installed on the rear of our car in PA, on a Sat. afternoon, at the tune of $625.
Don't leave your camera sitting on the toilet paper dispenser in the bathroom at Colonial Williamsburg, even if your three year old daughter is counting down the seconds until she will open the stall door way before you will be prepared for that to happen. Don't trust old people, families, foreigners, or bathroom attendants to do the right thing-to turn in an item lost, so the family of the lost item can have returned to them their property. The security office where we had to go to file a claim was quite the walking hike to get to and was a fruitless effort! Priceless pictures from our first several days were lost. It made me cry! Cost of new camera: $200.
Staying on Budget is critical and you should have a cushion to work with just in case. Our unexpected trip costs:$2000.00.

Learning to navigate a busy schedule with a 3 year old was mastered by the end of the trip. Learning how to make history fun for a 13 year old who hates history was also mastered by the end of the trip. We survived tribulation - hahahaha.

Overall, we had a great time. We are thankful we had the opportunity, for the means to cover the unexpected costs, and for the safety we enjoyed during the journey.