Back From Family Road Trip Vacation

Posted by Home Morgage | Personal Finance | Monday 22 June 2009 10:18 pm

Our family vacation, which started last Saturday, finally concluded this past Sunday at 7:00 PM. Before I give you a brief overview of our vacation, I’d like to say thank you to the five guest authors by highlighting a recent article from each of their blogs:

Doing it like strippers do by Keith of Be Wealthy Get Happy
Exercise on the Cheap – Frugal Workouts for You and Your Spouse by Kyle of Suburban Dollar
Dealing With Annual Expenses by Alan Schram of Saving For Serenity
3 Important Savings Goals to Include in Your Budget Plan by Michelle Studer who writes for the BudgetPulse blog
The Best Indicator Of The Economy’s Future by Saj Karsan of Barel Karsan

Thank you to all the guest authors for all your help!

Vacation Highlights

Now let’s go to the day-by-day vacation overview.

Day 1 – Thai Temple and Visiting An Old Friend

The first stop was a brief visit to Wat Mongkoltepmunee in Bensalem, PA to celebrate my sister’s birthday and the grand opening of the new prayer hall.

Wat Mongkoltepmunee in Bensalem, PA

I also took the opportunity to visit my best friend from high school who now lives in Germantown, PA.

Day 2 – BBQ at Great Falls National Park

On Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and drove on the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway from Alexandria, VA to Great Falls National Park for an afternoon barbecue.

Great Falls Park

Day 3 – Shopping at Potomac Mills

This was probably the low light of the vacation me, but this one was for the ladies. Here’s a link to the Potomac Mills Outlet.

Day 4 – Train Ride at Burke Lake Park

We were actually on our way to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, but it was a lot more crowded than we thought and everyone was hungry. So we went to lunch in Annandale, VA and later drove to Burke Lake Park instead.

Burke Lake Park

This is a really cool park with train ride and carousel for kids, with a lot of things for the whole family to enjoy. I actually learned about Disc Golf for the first time!

Day 5 – Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and Colonial Williamsburg

On Wednesday, we headed to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel for fish and chips lunch and the scenery (of course). After lunch, we went back north to Colonial Williamsburg and walked along the Duke of Gloucester Street.

Colonial Williamsburg

We’re also lucky enough to catch The General Reviews the Troops, an reenactment of General George Washington addresses the citizens of Williamsburg in preparation for the Siege of Yorktown.

Day 6 – The Williamsburg Winery

This was probably one of the most relaxing days on the trip. We had lunch outside at the Gabriel Archer Tavern and enjoyed our light lunch with wines. After lunch, we took a 45 minutes tour of the winery and sampled 7 different types of wines. I even get to keep the wine glass — definitely worth the $8!

Williamsburg Winery

Day 7 – Luray Caverns and The Skyline Drive

Luray Caverns was by far the most spectacular thing I witnessed during this trip. The stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations were fantastic. Here’s a photo of the Lake of Dreams.

Luray Lake of Dreams

After Luray Caverns, we took the scenic Skyline Drive, which is part of the Shenandoah National Park, toward our hotel in Harrisonburg, VA.

Day 8 – Dark Hollow Falls and Skyland

After a short debate whether to go south to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello or go back north, we decided to back track through Skyline Drive and stopped at the Dark Hollow Falls. We hiked about 1.2 miles down the trail to see the fall and back up. The most challenging part was carrying my 27 lbs son down and back up again — definitely got my exercise for the day!

Dark Hollow Falls

Since we weren’t going to make it out of the park until much later, we decided to stop at the Skyland Lodge for dinner and was lucky enough to catch the beginning of a live band performance.

All told, we traveled almost 1,500 miles and had a lot of fun — definitely a memorable trip for the entire family. If you haven’t taken a vacation lately, you should take a few days off. Even a short trip with a low budget can be fun and enjoyable for the whole family.