Eastern Shore Adventure

It's been a little while since the kids went camping with daddy, so since Caroline could use some peace and quite, I took the kids on a little excursion. I skipped out of my paramedic class early (it was just patient assessment...I've been doing that as an Als provider on the street for over a year now anyway) on Wednesday, did a little internet research for a campground, packed up our stuff and off we went.

Oh yeah, by the way, we are now proud minivan owners!! Both Caroline and I swore off minivans when we first got married, suvs are so much cooler, but lately Caroline has been all about getting one. The dilemma is that they are not cool, but are so darn practical. We got a used one of course, its a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country with all the options. It has power closing doors, removable (leather) seats, DVD, VHS, all that fancy stuff. Kelsy and JJ love it, too. JJ asks most mornings if we are going in the minivan today. He also points out minivans everywhere we go, he was completely clueless of them prior to our getting one.

So I found Cherrystone "Family Camping Resort" not too far on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Ever heard of a family camping resort? I hadn't. Its the kind that doesn't have any loose branches lying around to build a fire with...something requisite if you want to say you're camping. Luckily I planned ahead and packed some of the branches I've removed from our oak trees over the last couple of years, only problem was kindling. Amazingly, even as an Eagle scout and a fireman (ie, pyromaniac) I was unable to start a fire with big logs. No prob, we just hoped in the utilitarian minivan and about a mile up the road found a wooded area with plenty of smaller branches for kindling....bonfire here we come!

If you look closely in the picture, you will see the camper/trailers in the back ground. The "resort" has like 300 campsites, over half are for rvs many of which they have on site for rental. How convenient, you can camp in a pull-behind trailer with out pulling it behind your vehicle!



The resort was on a lot of waterfront with boats to rent and all. The kids were thrilled to be camping at the beach!




The main reason we paid $17 to drive on a bridge (the cost of the CBBT), other than my kids loving the big bridge and the two tunnels, was to go to a railroad museum I saw a while ago when we went to do a service project after the father-son camp out. In case you didn't know, JJ is a train/railroad nut...his favorite toy-Thomas, books at the library-all about trains. The kid loves trains. Luckily his sister has fun reading about, watching, and playing with trains. The museum is very tiny with a total of 6 rail cars and no engines. JJ was disappointed at that. He will actually tell you they did not have trains there, they just had train cars!


We got to go in two cabooses, a sleeping car (the bar section at the tail end), and a dining car. The museum is located in a very small town on the Eastern shore of Va. In fact, 2 or 3 of the cars are still privately owned, refurbished with private funds, and maintained by the owner. He is a grown up train collector that graduated from toys/models to real train cars. I guess the guy just did not have any sections of railway at home to store the cars, so he parked them at the museum. Even without any engines there, it was neat to see rail cars dating back to the 1910s.