Our good friend Karen lives in Ithaca with her husband and daughter, born only a few weeks after Maggie. We haven’t seen them since their wedding, so we spent a few glorious days catching up and seeing the glories of Ithaca. My only “knowledge” of Ithaca prior to this was the Ithaca is Gorges bumper sticker that I saw with some frequency in college and in places east. I always enjoyed the play on words, but never got around to visiting. After only a few hours there, Sarah and I both agreed that it would be high on the list of places where we might happily live. (You know, in case we have to flee Saint Paul in the night.) It felt like a bit of a wonderland, with dramatic vistas and sparkling waterfalls around every turn.

This was our first time meeting Lila, and the kids had a blast together. We tried letting them all sleep together in a big pile of blankets in Lila’s room, but it became quickly apparent that sleep would never happen. So they were separated, to some tears and ultimatums (from Griffin, a la, “I’m never going to sleep again!”). They wreaked their revenge, however, by sleeping poorly and waking us up multiple times each night. On the first night, for example, Griffin came padding into our room and asked where Maggie was. I got up to verify that she was in the blankets next to him, but indeed she was missing. I searched the room, checked Lila’s room, checked the bathroom, and started to get nervous. Got Sarah up and she checked downstairs while I double-checked everywhere. I even looked behind the couch in the room where they were sleeping. No Maggie. Finally got Karen up too, just in case Maggie had gone into the master bedroom by accident. No luck. Beginning to imagine her out wandering among the gorges in the dark. Sarah cries out from the kids’ room, and I see her pulling Maggie out from beneath the couch where she had been invisibly wedged. Fun times.

The most important element of the trip, from Maggie’s perspective, was the discovery that Lila also has a rainbow dress—the very same rainbow dress that has been Maggie’s favorite since Sarah bought it last month.

gorges group

attempting to catch fish

caught fish

bowling team

bath dye fun

the rainbow dresses

On Thursday we left North Carolina and headed into Virginia. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop with the iconic Virginia slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers.” (It’s hard for me to believe that this 1969 campaign wasn’t referencing the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, but a quick on-line investigation wasn’t conclusive. If anyone has good sources on this, I’m interested in learning more about it.)

We stopped in the early afternoon at Hungry Mother State Park; it came recommended as a family-friendly spot not far from the highway. It’s a great park with trails, swimming, boating, and lots of other fun activities. Definitely aimed at families, there are plenty of things intended specifically for kids. We loved, for example, a nature scavenger hunt brochure that had Griffin and Maggie hunting for mushrooms, wildflowers, and other features of the region. We had nothing but positive interactions with park staff and a super-friendly ranger.

Two down-sides for us, that don’t reflect on the park at all:

1. Hot and humid—it was tough getting to sleep with all of us in a steamy tent together. We ended up taking off the rain fly even though there was a decent chance of rain. Even so, the tent was uncomfortable. So between the thunderstorm in Illinois and the heat in Virginia, we’ve not done well with sleep while camping yet.
2. Aggressive wasps—Sarah was stung on Friday morning outside the tent. Then Maggie and I were both stung (Maggie twice!) crossing a bridge by the lake. In a totally bizarre turn of events, Griffin was stung in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday—this is more stings in 24 hours than I’ve dealt with in my entire life. Fortunately, none of us have allergies to stings yet.