Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 18-From OC to NC

7/18/10: We wrapped up a fabulous week in Ocean City (year 4!) and headed to North Carolina to see lil’ sis Claudine & some of the Bright family.
The Cape May Ferry was something I’d never tried, even through all the years of driving to the beach house on the Outer Banks, so we figured
we’d give it a try then take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel on the way to North Carolina.
I was surprised at how expensive it is: $62 for our truck and family to take an 85 minute ride across Delaware Bay to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The ride was uneventful, except for Caroline’s wee bit of nausea. We saw a couple of dolphins, a bunch of big ships and then we were there.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel hasn’t changed too much, aside from a whole new north-bound section. When we used to drive it there were only two lanes total. Of course, traffic was probably half what it is now, too. We stopped at the gift shop for my first time ever and then kept on to Norfolk, where we stopped for one last Wawa hoagie (I bought a Hoagie Fest tee shirt!).
We got to Apex in time for Betty Crocker’s, I mean Claudine’s, dinner. Charles seemed pretty darn cool and his girls (15 & 12) were really, really great with Grace & Caroline. Claudine is quite settled and happily working at Cisco. So folks, it looks like the Charles/Clau thing is the real deal! They are doing the big planning, and they sure look cute together.

An awesome Krispy Kreme & OJ breakfast was in store at Great Aunt Hannah’s place in Durham. Cousin Lisa was awesome and skipped out of work for an hour or so to come hang out with us. It was great to see them, catch up on some family news and get lots of pictures. Hannah gave us directions to Maplewood Cemetery and we went to visit Nan and the rest of our departed family members.
Even though it was a cemetery, it was good to go and just say hello and I miss you. A lot. Like tons. There’s something about being in front of a gravestone with your grandmother’s name on it. It’s wrong. It shouldn’t be there. But it’s important anyway.
We drove off, I composed myself, and we drove through the really beautiful North Carolina countryside. Stopped to get 4 quarts of pulled pork bbq along the way at Carolina BBQ! Turned out that the NC BBQ Society had ranked this restaurant as a can’t miss place. Adorable town, too – Statesville.

The Carolina mountains turned into Tennessee mountains and the green rolled on and on…

Summer Road Trip 2010–Days 10-17-Ocean City NJ

7/11/10 - 7/18/10: Whew! What a week! How can a week at the shore be both relaxing and exhausting? Try 7 kids and up to 6 adults! So, this is the fourth installment of the Rush/Mayro summer convention “down the shore,” and it was as awesome as ever. Better, maybe.
It started with Tonya, Jeff, Zachary, Molly, Nina, Owen and Ton’s mom, Heather. That’s their part of the party. Then there’s my mom, Brad, Grace, Caroline and me. And then, our true saving grace this week, Tara, Tonya’s “mother’s helper.” Tara saved our kids’ butts by keeping them occupied and out from underfoot.

The house gets a little more “run down” every year, so we giggled a bit about the state of affairs and set off for the sand and surf. Day one the water was actually pretty warm! Of course, days two through seven were not as warm. Figures. The boardwalk was great. I discovered my new funnel cake place, we ate Johnson’s popcorn, Kohr’s Brothers ice cream, George’s ice cream, Mack & Manco’s pizza, Angelo’s pizza, and Brown’s donuts, rode rides at Wonderland and bought all sorts of stupid stuff. The girls all got fake nails, which Caroline put on her toes (totally the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen!), Zack won multiple free rounds of miniature golf (Grace won one too), Zack, Tonya, Grace & Brad parasailed, I saved two horseshoe crabs that were caught in fishing line and Grace spent hours combing the beach for critters. Brad and I also got to spend an evening at Harrah’s Atlantic City enjoying Straight No Chaser in concert. That was an awesome show.

We ate well, drank moderately and spent a lot of hours on the beach chilling out. Everyone else rode their bikes at least a couple of times. Brad even rode all the way through Atlantic City & back and down to Stone Harbor another day. Tonya and Jeff ran several times and I just shoveled food in my face and got fatter. Tonya and I also caught up on our trash magazines with a couple that had been left there by other renters. I started to listen to the Eat, Pray, Love audio book and decided it might be better on paper. Tara braided the girls’ hair on multiple occasions and Owen ate several pounds of cheese and yogurt. Nina became the tripper, taking over Molly’s place from last year, and I think Zack really wished there was a boy his age there with us. The Mayro family won the new annual baseball game, while Tara took her place as the premier pitcher and Tonya finally learned how to put the bat down before running.

The lifeguards had to spend some time digging their guard stand out of the sand after removing the boat that had been placed on top of the toppled over box. And one day they wore bright orange rain gear – quite ominous for us beach goers. It stormed the night before and we had some lightning strikes on a couple other occasions. Cool, I thought. I got to see one of my college friends, Marshall Ogen, and his family in the midst of the craziness that is Pirate’s Cove and I got some of the best nights sleep I’ve had in ages.

Of course, we’re already planning for next year. What would the summer be without Ocean City, New Jersey?

Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 9–New Paltz

7/9/10 Have you ever rock scrambled? If not, you are totally missing one of the coolest things you can do. Plus, I like to believe it’s a lot of exercise that doesn’t feel annoying and boring like typical exercise.
On day 9 we were in New Paltz, New York where my college roommate, Dawn lives with her husband, Gil, and their kids, Tess (6) & Gray (3). We got in Thursday night rather late, yet somehow Brad and Gil still went for a bike ride Friday morning at 7am. Gil told Brad it was a “flat ride.” Ha ha! Brad discovered that Shawangunk Mountain Range flats aren’t remotely like Katy, Texas flats. They may not have gone up and down and up and down but they did go up – just in a flat way. Apparently they rode a 31 degree slope most of the way. Brad loved it, but had to take a breather at one point. His effort earned him an honorary partial friendship with Gil (this is a big deal. )


We had a great breakfast in the town of New Paltz then Dawn took all of us up to Mohonk Mountain House. OMG, this place was gorgeous. The grounds were well groomed and very, very extensive. There was a huge evergreen maze for the kids to wander, towers scattered here and there, special places for the day hikers (non-hotel guests), a nice lake, boating, carriage rides and other stuff. Other than feeding the fish in the lake, we bypassed most of these trappings and strutted over to the “rock scramble.” What’s a rock scramble? Basically, it’s crawling up, climbing over, crouching under and through humongous boulders and other good-sized rocks to reach a point some kilometers away, in this case a tower way up on a mountain top. I LOVED this.

Grace took off like a bat out of hell (even though she had never, ever, done anything like this) and Caroline, Tess and I scrambled to keep up with her. Dawn and Brad stayed back, moving a little more slowly to help Gray along. Gray was a real trooper, never complaining and often singing the song “I’m a great rock scrambler.” Caroline was a little whiny but she got through and I’m sure if we did it again she’d be fine. I actually think if we had just let Grace go she would have beaten us to the top by several minutes. I need to find a place in Texas that does this! (yeah, right!)

We were sweatier than all get out when we made it to the top and then we had to climb what felt like 300 steps to the top of the tower. Those steps were the killers for me. The rocks were nothing. Once at the top we could see a massive rainstorm coming in across the forests below. Waaaay cool. We managed to speedily move ahead of the rain and didn’t get dumped on until we got to our cars.
Back at Dawn’s we chatted up a storm with Gil, who had finished up his work. The kids played and played and we all had a tough time parting. We stood in the driveway saying goodbye for too long and agreed we would make plans to hit Acadia together next year!

Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 8–Acadia

7/8/10: Today’s the day that we realized we needed more time on Mount Desert Island.

We got up and going pretty early, although it would have been pleasant to hang around the campsite – it was so quiet and peaceful. We wanted to do some souvenir shopping in Bar Harbor, drive up Cadillac Mountain and do the park loop trip. Bar Harbor, however, took up a good bit of our morning. We found a couple of shops we enjoyed, such as a little pottery place. The owner and his wife create almost all the work. Up until this year his mother painted the ornaments and such, but she died recently. I think it’s called Evergreen Pottery. Be sure to check it out if you’re in town.


After shopping we drove around the town a bit, enjoying the scenery along the way. The harbor is quite picturesque and there are some really nice homes/hotels around it. We could have spent more time exploring Bar Harbor alone.

We headed up Cadillac Mountain next. I’m not sure what I expected, but it was a considerably longer trip than I expected. The mountain is about 1500 feet tall and is the first place in the US to feel the sunrise during the winter months. Cool! There were tons of switchbacks and, amazingly, bikers. Like BICYCLISTS. Nutsos. Of course, Brad would LOVE to do it, too.

The top of the mountain, and probably a good bit below the peak, was surrounded in clouds. Or OK, maybe it was just fog. I like to think it was clouds. It looked like it anyway. Once we were at the top we couldn’t see a single thing in the distance. It was kind of like being alone in the middle of a snowstorm or something. It was actually kind of creepy while also cool looking. We did get some decent scenic shots on the way up and down, while we were below the clouds.

By the time we came down from Cadillac Mountain we had to be on our way to see my old roomie and her family in New Paltz, NY. We saved the park loop and further explorations for next summer. So, once again off we went into the wide green yonder.

Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 7- Acadia National Park

Woo hoo! We’re here!
7/7/10: Let’s start with the fact that Mount Desert Island is fairly large as far as islands go – at least compared to my experiences in the Keys and Bermuda anyway. The upper crust resort town of Bar Harbor is on the eastern side of the island with the huge-ish Cadillac Mountain and the College of the Atlantic. The rest of the island is dotted with quaint fishing villages and lots of water. Acadia National Park covers a lot of the island, here and there.

Our clan got there fairly early, stopping by the information center at Thompson’s Island to help us decide our day. The people were very helpful and recommended a restaurant for lobster, a location for tide pools and the Dive In Theater for a boat trip.

We found our campsite in the Seawall campgrounds then made our way to Thurston’s in Bass Harbor for a lobster lunch. Brad and I both got lobsters and I ordered clams & mussels to round out the meal. The girls were unimpressed, and Brad got tired of his lobster pretty quickly. I think we’ve been spoiled by bite-sized crawfish for all these years. I thought the lobster was sweet and tasty but it filled me up REALLY fast. I also had had dreams of super-cheap lobster meals but this lunch cost us over $70 so I was a wee bit disappointed.

From lunch we headed to the tide pools to be found down a nice hiking trail to the water. The girls, particularly Grace, loved looking for all the cool critters. She found sea urchins, some sort of eggs, crabs, periwinkles, barnacles, hermit crabs, and some kids nearby found an eel. The scrambled all over boulders and had a pretty cool time.

The College of the Atlantic was the next stop. Diver Ed and his Dive In Theater leave the dock at the college and there’s a great museum there so we had to check it out. They had a really great guy working the touch tank. He was perfect with the kids, letting them handle just about everything and telling them all sorts of information (this came in handy later!). The exhibits were pretty neat and they had a cute gift shop. Outside the museum there is a huge finback whale skull which really puts the size of a whale into perspective. There’s also a geocache – the only one I’ve done the whole trip.
While we were waiting at the Diver Ed sign outside, a blonde woman walked up and asked me if I went to Buckingham Friends School (I was wearing a sweatshirt). I said yes and we started talking, eventually figuring out that she, Jen Jones and her husband, David Hollenbaugh, had graduated from New Hope-Solebury the year before I did. Being such a tiny school we knew of each other and we started remembering people from our pasts. Oddly enough, Jen, David and their four kids had walked down to the tide pools at the same time we did, and planned to eat at Thurston’s for dinner but had considered it for lunch. Weird! I really wanted to get a picture of the four of us to post on facebook but totally forgot.

On to the Dive In Theater. WOW. If you have kids under 10 this is a must-do for Mount Desert Island. It was a blast for the older kids and adults, too, but I think this boat trip is totally ideal for those kids who would be bored on a long, possibly uneventful, whale-watching trip.

We boarded the Starfish Enterprise (great name – good sign to start with) at the College of the Atlantic. We all had to make name tags and we were introduced to Diver Ed’s Newfoundland dogs, one of whom demonstrated how to wear a life vest. Then as we motored out past the Porcupine islands Ed donned a dry suit and showed the kids how it all worked with the underwater microphone too. The kids pushed him overboard and Captain Evil (his wife?) showed us the camera equipment while Ed collected specimens to bring back onboard. Evil dropped the camera overboard to Ed and he and “Mini Ed” wandered the ocean floor having encounters with lobsters, shrimp, crabs and sea stars, all of which were shown on a big movie screen on the boat. Ed reboarded after a little while and taught the kids all about the creatures he had found while also involving the kids in kissing sea cucumbers and crabs and letting sea stars grab their hair. Grace even got to wear a sea star as an earring, while Caroline got “peed” on by the sea cuke.

All the while we were enjoying the gorgeous scenery. The islands are lush and green and the water is dotted with sailboats and fishing craft. One enormous, 4-masted sail boat came out of the rolling fog right in front of us. Way cool.

There was never a boring moment on this trip. Not one. It was the highlight of this trip to Acadia.
After leaving the Starfish Enterprise we said goodbye to Jen and David and headed at their suggestion to Rosalie’s for pizza. It was yummy and going there allowed us to see a bit of Bar Harbor and realize we’d like to visit it again.

It was off to the campground at this point. Full and exhausted from a long day of fun activities we all passed right out and slept great in our little old tent.

Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 6–Montreal to Maine

Montreal VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

7/6/10: The Rush Clan got up bright and early to head out to Montreal. At a rest stop we met some people who said they were on “River Time” since they were vacationing in the Thousand Islands area along the St. Lawrence River. We briefly considered stopping there after the folks claimed a cruise around the islands would be so much more wonderful than visiting Montreal. I kind of wish we had taken their advice.

Once again we found that that area of Canada is relatively barren. I like lots of big green trees and water. Um. Not much of those along our travel path. And then we got to the city. It was kind of like a rundown Houston: sprawling, brown, kind of boring. The roads and bridges were verging on scary, actually. We made it to Mont Real (I LOVE our GPS) and hiked around a bit, enjoying the park (which was really nice) and the animals (chipmunks and squirrels). The view from the chalet was pretty impressive so we took a bunch of pictures and headed back to the car. Of course the traffic out of the city was horrendous, but at least we were on the way to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park.

Hours of travel through gorgeous mountains got us to Bangor where we stopped for the night. (the beauty was kind of wasted since most of our driving was after sunset)

Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 5–Niagara Falls

7/5/10: Wow! I’m so glad we had the opportunity to take the girls to see such a spectacular sight. We opted to spend our time on the Canadian side so we drove around the northern edge of Lake Erie. Ontario – through this area at least – was kind of boring, but as we drove into the Niagara Falls area everything changed.
The town is really pretty cute. There are tons of bed & breakfasts with extensive flower gardens and the “People Mover” buses are super handy.
We parked at the first big attraction, the “White Water Rapids Walk” and bought the 4 pack. Why not, we figured. We walked the rapids and got an idea of the volume of water that pours over the falls every day. Next we were supposed to head past the falls to see “Nature’s Fury” and take the “Journey Behind the Falls.” We had chosen NOT to tell the girls much about the falls at all. We didn’t want them to have any preconceived notions. However, we couldn’t exactly make it past the falls without the girls noticing there was something major over there so we spent a few minutes with them in total awe of the roaring water and swirls of mist.
“Nature’s Fury” was a movie/interactive experience. It started with an Ice Age-like animated movie that explained the origin of the falls and the changes that have occurred through the eons. It was clearly meant to be for the younger kids but they used “big words” that really could have been simplified so the kids would understand. The movie was the better part of the show. From there we were herded into a room with a 360 degree screen near the top of the walls and a grated floor. I can’t even remember the movie, but I think it was supposed to make you feel like you were flowing with the water. The floor rocked a bit and water poured from the ceiling. It was actually kind of gross, even though we had our “collectible” rain ponchos on.
“Journey Behind the Falls” was OK. We went down an elevator and through some tunnels and peered out to see the water tumbling down in front of us. There was a deck beside the bottom of Horseshoe Falls and we got nice and wet enjoying the pounding water.
At this point we went to TGI Friday’s (we wanted to take the inclined train) for dinner. The prices were easily twice our Houston prices. Argh.
Finally for the really awesome part: the “Maid of the Mist.” We had taken the People Mover back to the truck to drop off the big camera and get the water resistant cameras. As we approached the stop for the boat the bus driver announced that the Maid of the Mist was now closed. Noooooooo!!!!! We jumped off the bus and literally ran across the road and down the ramp. We lucked out! They were just loading the last boat trip for the night. There were few people on the boat with us, and we were all able to stand in the prow – right there practically under the water. Now that was an adventure!

We stayed a little while longer waiting for the lights to come on. Around sunset huge spotlights shine from the Canadian side of the falls illuminating them with a variety of colors. Apparently there is a tour that allows the people in the group to choose and place the colors in the lights. Since the majority of the lights were yellow we think maybe a bunch of boys made the decisions that night.

We wrapped up our day in Niagara Falls and hopped on the road to Rochester, where we stayed the night to get some rest for our trip to Montreal & Acadia.

Summer Road Trip 2010-Day 4 - Michigan

7/4/10: This place, Manitou Beach on Round Lake, is just gorgeous. I woke to the stage whisper of “Rushes, Rushes!” Mike was getting bored, I think, and was checking to see if we were up. I giggled and crawled out of the tent. Before long we were all up and headed out for breakfast. Unfortunately, the restaurant of choice wasn’t open. We tried choice two. Too crowded. It was on to another. Buffet? Great! Empty buffet and just about no service? Not so great. Amazingly, though, we all left full.

Ruth took the kids and Mike, Brad and I went to Sun & Snow Poop Deck to find me a bathing suit, since I had totally forgotten to bring one. We lucked out because they were have a clearance sale in the barn outside and I got 3 bathing suits for $50. Woo hoo!

Back to the lake. Brad and I took the jetski out. He rode rather conservatively, although we got up to 50 miles per hour. Then I switched in. I never managed more than 47 miles per hour, but I made it FUN! Spins and swirls, jumps & bumps. Brad was almost crying. It was so funny!!!! Somehow I think he thought I’d be more mellow. WHATEVER!

The girls have spent a lot of time out on the paddle boat, Brad and Mike are kayakking and Grace has been catching minnows. We’re prepping for the big block party now. The chicken is smoking, the smoked tenderloins are warming, the devil eggs are made and we’re awaiting the cool of the late afternoon (not that it’s hot to ME!).

Summer Road Trip 2010-Day 3–Ohio/Michigan

7/3/10: 8am – rise & shine! What a wonderful, bright morning in Ohio. We continued the great conversation over cinnamon buns outside in the sun. Grace, Caroline and Clark spent what seemed like hours out on the pond trying to catch frogs. They all also enjoyed the golf cart. They road ‘round and ‘round the property. Mason went with them sometimes, and Tiger the cat ran out to enjoy the ride, too.
Reed came home and we got to spend some time with him. Reed is the sweetest boy, hugging and kissing everyone. It seemed that there was nothing he liked more than riding on the golf cart with the kids, so again they rode ‘round and ‘round.

Lisa and Alan grilled a great lunch and we all ate on the humongous screened in porch. We got caught up on the boys’ athletic prowess and Lisa’s teaching. It was hard to leave, as we were all so relaxed but we had already stayed 3 hours later then we had planned! So, off to Michigan we went.

It was only about an hour drive to Round Lake. The perfect house on the lake is so chock full of people it’s almost comical. “Russell Road,” as it’s called, is currently holding Ruth’s grandparents, her parents, Paul & Sarah, her family, Mike & the kids, Julia, Grace and Kennedy, Ruth’s sister, Blythe, her husband, Tyler, and their daughter, India. Ruth’s brother, Clay, is here with his wife, Brie and son Oscer, then there’s us! Oh, and 5 dogs: Loki & Sapho (huskies), Ivan & Lilly, (pugs) and Phil (foxy yorkie). The Rush Clan has a great tent set up in the front yard.

We did some tubing with the pontoon boat (they’re faster than I thought!), paddle boated and kayaaked. We then had amazing grilled fillet mignon and sweet corn before starting the campfire and making s’mores. We shot off a few preliminary fireworks and bedded down for the night in our cool tent.

Summer Road Trip 2010-Day 2

Summer Road Trip VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

7/2/10: Day 2 started from Jackson. Missouri is a beautiful state; we really enjoyed our drive through the rolling, green countryside to St. Louis. We planned it right – I ordered tickets for both the arch and the Lewis & Clark movie and we got there just in time for the 9:20 arch tram ride. We enjoyed the ride in the “egg” to the top of the arch and got to check out a literal bird’s eye view of St. Louis. The Missouri river was really, really high and looked almost menacing from up there. By the time we got back to the bottom of the arch the lines were humongous. We popped right into the 10:30 showing of the Imax film, did a little shopping and we were heading out.

Apparently, St. Louis really puts on one phenomenal Fourth of July show. We couldn’t help but stop to enjoy the aerial practicing of the stunt performers who would be showing their stuff the next day.

We crossed through Indiana, entered Ohio and headed to Aunt Lisa & Uncle Alan’s house in Bowling Green.