Camping & Tubing in West Virginia

We received a tent as a wedding present three years ago,  we bought sleeping bags before we attended our friends wedding two years ago but have not used anything since.  We decided to put a camping trip together in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia they also are known for tubing in the river near by as well.   A friend told me about a place where they went last year River Riders, so we thought we would give it a try.  It's a very popular place that does a lot of business.  I'm not sure we will go back there again, it was not organized very well which for their size was disappointing. We also rented a campsite through them, it was right on the water which was nice but was also across the street from railroad tracks that were very busy day and night!  All in all it was a great time getting together with friends and enjoying life in the outdoors away from our comfort zone.

Some of the tents

Bobby chopping up firewood

Our view of the river

We ate and drank a lot!

                        We did a little bit of fishing and Bobby caught a good size catfish but threw it back.

Making smores!! One of my favorite parts about camping. 

The tubing bus, once we got dropped off we had to wait 45 minutes to get our tubes because they didn't have the deluxe ones blown up, again why we were frustrated with this company. Once we finally got them it was a nice float down the river.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Norfolk Wedding

We were in Norfolk for the weekend one of Bobby's fraternity brothers got married.  It was jam packed full of things we had planned.  Friday we started out our drive and had to make a pit stop at the Williamsburg Outlet Mall, we found some great deals of course!! Bobby found a pair of running tennis shoes at Nike for $30 so I told him to get 2 pairs since he goes through them every couple of months. What a great deal!!

Then we met up with my good friend Shelly for dinner who I have known since 7th grade.  We met when our fathers were stationed in Idaho together and this was only the 2nd time I had seen her since we both moved away 15 years ago.  She is engaged and just had a baby girl 3 months ago, we were able to meet both of them, and she was able to Bobby for the first time.  We found out their wedding is in October so we will be making another trip to the VA Beach area.

Saturday the wedding was outside at the Norfolk Botanical Garden it was a beautiful site for a wedding! The weather was incredibly hot with no wind or shade so we were all extremely famished during the ceremony.  They had the reception at Vintage Kitchen which was a nice restaurant we had all to our selves.  Everyone had a great time and was a nice reunion with some of Bobby's college fraternity buddies and wives.

                                                     Bride and Groom at the ceremony

                                           Yummy cupcakes!


                                           Bobby's fraternity brothers

                                            Shannon & Matt Smith
                                      

Mike & Heather Jones

TK & Sarah Dean

                                                 Elizabeth & Tom Bush

                                              Danny & Sarah Opsut (brother and sister in law)

                                               us



Sunday was fathers day so we woke up and drove back home to make dinner for Bobby's dad, it was nice for his parents, brothers family and us to all be together.

New York

I was just in New York City over this past weekend visiting my friends Samar and Andrew.  It had been 6 years since the last time I was up there visiting another friend.   I took the Bolt Bus from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in NYC.  It is a very inexpensive way to travel.  Since I have been to NY before I only really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and go to this pastry shop a girlfriend from high school works for called Momofuku Milk Bar .

Friday night we went out for dinner at Baker Street Pub which was where the movie Cocktail was filmed.  After dinner we went back to their apartment and changed then headed out to the bars with some of their friends.

Saturday we had tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  If you are wanting to visit those places I would suggest as soon as you find out the dates your coming to NY you look on line and get your tickets because they sell out far in advance.  It was a great experience reading about how the Statue was built and the renovations that have been done to keep her Liberty looking so well.

View of Manhattan from Liberty Island

Ellis Island was also a great addition to the trip seeing where the immigrants came in and how they went about checking them in. Samar tried to find Andrews grandfather in the registry but we didn't have enough information to get very far.

                                              Registry Room

After our ferry ride back to Battery Park we went to the Momofuku Milk Bar to get some sweet treats.  I tried two different cookies, compost and cornflake-marshmallow they were delicious!
For dinner we went to a great comfort food place called S'MAC they serve 10 different varieties of Macaroni and Cheese in four different sizes, it was heaven!!!

My trip was short but jam packed fun and hopefully will be going back the end of July to celebrate Samar's 30th birthday.