West Virginia: not wild, just wonderful!

You know you have had a good vacation when a few days later you are ready to go back. We had a great time at Snowshoe, WV. The sites were really cool and the family had a great time together. The cousins (Nathaniel and his cousins Drea, Aidan and Ella) had a blast playing together.

We drove up and the other Smiths drove down from Michigan. As Beth Smith says, their vacation had an explosive start as one of their tires blew and unbeknownst to them needed a locking lug nut to get it off, which was not provided when they bought their car! So, 26 hours (instead of 9!) later they made it to West Virginia.

Finally, we were all there together, all nine of us: Marcia, Steve, Nathaniel, me, Brad, Beth, Drea, Aidan and Ella.

Marcia and her two boys, Steve and Brad

The cousins playing Wii

Ahhh. The view of the mountains from Snowshoe.

After. The peel just comes off

A project Marcia had for the kids to do is make loofas from a plant a friend gave her.

Before (going into very hot water)

Apparently, these are used specifically for making loofas. We used them the rest of the week.

In addition to playing Wii and making loofas, the cousins had fun doing other things as well like playing Nerf and Ping Pong. There was even a round of "Around the World Ping Pong". We also played Soccer on the front porch and had a very silly game of balloon volleyball.

Ping Pong with Marcia and Ella

Nerf!

Balloon Volleyball. We rearranged the sofas to make a "net"

Around the World Ping Pong

Nathaniel decided to use a bigger paddle.

Nathaniel in our not so hot tub. 

Our house was not on the Snowshoe Mountain Resort area, but was a curvy distance away. At the Resort, there were lots of things for us to do.There was a rock climbing wall, a bungee jump on a trampoline, a zip line, a lake, a ski lift, shopping and more! Lots of cool things. I have pictures of everything but me on the bungee jump and zip line. Hopefully, those will be coming soon.

Ski lift

Steve sitting with me. 

Taken from the pond. You can see the ski lift between the trees.

Playing in the creek on the way back from the pond

Aidan climbing the rock wall

Ella looking cool on the water slide

Drea, Ella and Steve on horses.

The cousins giving Nathaniel a helping hand

All seated. 

Off the Snowshoe property, we found cool things to do as well. We went on the Cass Scenic Railway and took a tour of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

On the train

Going around one of many curves

Cousins posing at the stop

It was so neat!

Playing with another exhibit

Playing with one of the exhibits at the NRAO

The main attraction at the NRAO

The NRAO was quite an interesting trip. We weren't allowed to take anything digital past a certain point on the tour, so we had to use the old-fashioned kind of cameras with film! Of course, those were sold in the store at the NRAO, but they still have yet to be developed.






If I could impart on this blog all the cool stuff we saw and did I would, but this was just a small portion. As I said in the beginning, I am ready to go back! Thank you Marcia for the trip!