Views of The South Rim, Grand Canyon

We had an absolute wonderful time exploring the South Rim of the Grand Canyon last week.We were told over and over that no photo or description fully covers the magnitude, views and beauty that you see in person. Before heading out we said this is probably a one time trip.  With all we saw, and all we missed seeing we know we will be back, maybe even more than once.We hope you enjoy this video we created on the sights from the South Rim.https://youtu.be/0Lu-znwJgGc

Great Elk Crossing the Road

And this just happened as we were driving along the scenic South Rim of the Grand Canyon. 

Colonial Williamsburg July 4th Weekend Visit

As I mentioned in our Fourth of July post we decided we would be tourists this July 4th weekend since we had no plans and headed to Colonial Williamsburg on the 5th as the weather while overcast and a bit dreary was not the rain they thought might arrive.  This turned out to be a great plan as there were no crowds.  I think many of the tourists did their visits on the 4th and the locals stayed away due to the rain.Around Williamsburg We grabbed lunch at Shelds Tavern and being that it was the 4th of July weekend we had to order the All American Meal :)Around Williamsburg

What a great time we had visiting the sites neither of us had seen in years and relearning much of the history we had forgotten.  It was a reminder that we need to take advantage of where we live more often and get out and see more of these historical sites. 

Our Quiet Fourth

Guy and I decided to skip the whole craziness of traveling on the Fourth of July again and instead stay home and do things around the house, visit with family and if the weather cooperated maybe visit one historical site near the house as we had made a commitment to do this more often.  We discussed a few places and then decided on Williamsburg this time, if the weather cooperated (we live so close no reason to go and be miserable if it was going to be 95-100 degrees ).We started the weekend of with a great breakfast visit with Chris, Mallory and Avery.  That girl, she is so darn cute!  She is now starting to talk become more toddler than baby.  Such a fun age.  She showed me her belly over and over and then told us the Rooster in the kitchen (fake) was a CooCoo, she said this over and over.  Apparently, this is the latest animal in her books that she is fascinated with.  Unfortunately the neighbors who have a rooster were not outside or I would have taken her to see it.It was such a beautiful morning that we decided to take Avery for a short walk and then her first ATV ride on our Polaris.  She loved it!! The noise at first made her jump but after that she went on a short ride with Grandpa and daddy and then a little longer one with me and Mommy. She is going to have so much fun on this as she gets older.  I know Guy can't wait.After the kids left we decided to head over to the new Cabella's that was built in Richmond since Guy needed new shorts and loves his Cabella branded ones. All I can say is we were not impressed.  For all the talk about how great the store/chain is, we didn't like the store.  Prices were a bit higher than Bass Pro and I don't think the stores floor plan flowed all that well.  It's nice to know it is there but I think we will stick with Bass Pro.After hot dogs and corn on the grill we decided to sit on the front porch for a little while when Guy realized the new neighbor had started burning his clearing pile.  He headed up there to watch and later came back and picked me to go see.  This was one large fire, it seemed he had a full acre of the brush he cleared flaming away.We hung out for a bit then headed to bed as we had a early alarm going off as we had decided a 80 degree day in July, even with the threat of rain was as good as it would get and we were heading to Colonial Williamsburg.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Avery's first ATV Ride:

Mattaponi Madness Drag Boat Races

I saw these races advertised on Facebook and since neither Guy or I had ever seen drag boat racing we decided to head over and check them out. What fun it was. First it was a beautiful, sunny, warm June day with little humidity which made sitting on the shore so comfortable and then you add in a great crowd, a gorgeous view of the river and some speed boats and we just had the best time.  We will certainly attend again.

A few videos of the races 

Belle Isle Trip 2016 - Groundhogs 19-Rabbits 12

Guy's knee has been healing so well that we decided we could pack up the camper for our first trip out of 2016 and headed to our favorite, Belle Isle State Park for Memorial Day weekend.   We always seem to head here for our break-in weekend because it is close by, a very small, quiet park along the shores of the Rappahanock where all there is to do is relax.[gallery type="rectangular" size="full" ids="10020,10022,10024,10065,10066,10067,10068,10069,10070,10071,10072,10073"]We arrived early on Thursday and were set-up completely in just under an hour. We headed over to reserve a boat to take out the next day and were disappointed to learn you had to now have a VA boaters license to take out the Jon boats which meant an 8 hour online class which Guy was not possible over the weekend so no boating for us sadly.  it actually messed up our mind set for the weekend as we had planned to boat both days.  Instead we found ourselves with more time on our hands than we needed and so we did a few short hikes (the knee wasn't up to more than that), sat along the waterside and relaxed around the site more than we usually would.  Can't say this was a bad thing, it was actually nice to be able to sit and just talk more and reconnect with no interruptions.Belle Isle must have more Groundhogs than any other state park around, last year as a joke we started counting how many saw and the number was around 32 vs. 15 rabbits, this year we continued our counting and saw 19 vs. 12 rabbits.  This is one of the guys we saw, teaching his little one how to avoid humans by hiding in the high soy fields.We headed out Sunday afternoon to see what was down the main road outside the park(something we hadn't done before) and came across a boat ramp along the Rappahannock River where we were able to watch a sailing regetta/race of some sort.  That I had never seen before and we spent about 40 minutes just watching them race on by.[gallery type="rectangular" columns="2" size="large" ids="10036,10035,10034"] Later Sunday evening I decided to grab my camera and head over to the water to see if I could catch any birds in flight (which was a no go) but out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement and this deer was feeding along the shore of the river. Not a site I have seen there before.  Usually the deer stay far away from the water during the day due to the amount of boats and people around.

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 Overall it was a great way to kickoff the summer season and remind us to always take time for us time and to enjoy the big world we live in.