Blog – Page 5 – Nic of Time

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge – 10/29/2022

Knowing we wanted to do something today but not having any plans in place, we finally decided around 11 am to head down to the Outer Banks to visit Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is known for bears and red wolves. Visitors can drive approximately 15 miles through the refuge in hopes to spot one or more. This was our second trip to the refuge. The first time was a weekend trip with the kids about 2 years ago and we saw a total of 3 bears.

We began our visit at the visitor center (which was closed on our previous trip due to COVID). I was able to get my National Park Cancellation stamp as well as a lapel pin for our pin board.

The visitor center had a lot of information about the wildlife refuge and of course Taylor had to stop for a picture.

We really wanted to get some pictures of leaves with fall colors but unfortunately the leaves had already gone past peak. We were able to find a few that were still flowing with color.

We drove around for a couple of hours and did not see any bears or wolves. I really did feel I saw an alligator at one point but by the time we were able to find a spot to turn around and get back to where I spotted it, whatever I saw was gone. I am still going to go with that it was an alligator.

During our drive around the refuge we did find wolf and bear tracks.

Visitors to the refuge are allowed to drive around until a 1/2 hour after sunset.

At this point in our drive, the sun had begun to set, and we didn’t think we were going to see any bears but then we came across a vehicle stopped on the side of the road and typically when you are in a place looking for animals, seeing someone stopped is a positive sign. Well sure enough it was a bear. The bear was walking across the field next to where we parked and then it looked like it was settling down for the night.

We happened to look over to the field on the other side and saw another bear walking by. This bear was very close to where we were parked.

We had a fantastic trip to the refuge and very happy we saw the 2 bears and it completely made the trip.

For dinner we ate at Basnight’s Lone Cedar Cafe. This is a restaurant Blake likes to eat at because they have a lot of duck decoys inside. We had a fantastic meal and of course Taylor stole the show. She was dancing and saying high to everyone.

We had such a fun day!

The Virginia Zoo 10/09/2022 (Norfolk, VA)

For Christmas Bama got the kids tickets to The Virginia Zoo and we finally had the chance to go and couldn’t have asked for better weather!

The kids didn’t know we were going to the Zoo until we pulled into the parking lot and they were so excited.

The first thing they did when we got in was touch the moving globe.

We went to the right and came upon a large snake structure to play on. The kids wanted to keep playing and didn’t want to leave. Taylor was unsure at first of the snake but then decided it was safe to play on.

Ethan doing his snake slide

Once we convinced the kids to leave the snake, we made our way to the porcupine. This porcupine was huge!

We found the Prairie Dog exhibit which ended up being a prairie kid exhibit.

Before heading to the petting area we found a bison. Blake, Bama and I are not too fond of Bison after being in Yellowstone. They are however beautiful.

The petting area was great, you could only get into the pen where the goats are. This is perfect for me because I LOVE GOATS!!! Guest are even able to brush the goats.

We washed our hands after leaving the goat pen and then made our way to the reptile and amphibian section of the zoo. We loved seeing all of the snakes, frogs, iguanas, turtles, etc.

While waiting for Blake and Bama to finish up in the reptile area, Taylor found a Peacock and wanted her picture taken.

The kids went crazy over the Bald Eagle.

We came to the best animal exhibit ever. The Human Cage!! We put the kids in the cage but had to eventually let them out.

Anything the kids found that they were allowed to climb on, the climbed on it.

The Meerkats were out and very active.

We only got to see a male lion on this trip to the zoo and he was asleep, living his best life.

The kids love to climb on anything that they can.

At first it was hard to see the Rhinos but then we were able to get a closer look at them.

We got to see the new baby Giraffe Tisa (Swahililand for nine). Tisa was born 9/9/2022 and was her mother’s 9th calf. We thought the name was cleaver. The baby was adorable and so big!

We had to take a picture of Blake next to the Stanley Crane sign because of his mustache being named Stanley.

We kept exploring and checking out may of the other animals.

Austin had on a tiger shirt and wanted to get a picture by the Tiger.

The kids never miss a chance to stop for a photo op.

The next animal exhibit which was my favorite was the Red Panda. We stayed here for awhile because he was so adorable.

I had to take a picture of the Siamang. He had his face pressed up against the glass watching the human exhibit as we “humans” watch him. It was pretty funny.

Before leaving the zoo we stopped by the gift shop. All of the kids got to pick out a lapel pin to add to their pin boards and I got an ornament to add to our adventure Christmas Tree. I collect ornaments from places we visit, in hopes one day we have 1 Christmas Tree dedicated to all of our adventures. Austin wanted to start collecting pressed pennies and I was super excited that he wanted to do this because this is something that I did as a kids and still like to do. I gave him all of the ones I have collected throughout the years and we have almost 4 books full. We got the 4 pressed pennies that the zoo had and we got a new book to put them in.

I snapped a picture of the kids as we were leaving the zoo. I was going to take this picture as we were going in but the shadows and sun didn’t line up how I wanted it. This time of day was great.

We had an awesome trip to the zoo and hope to be back soon.

We drove to VA Beach after we left the zoo to go to one of the best pizza places (at least in my opinion) Dough Boys. I have been going to Dough Boys since I was in middle school. It has always been a favorite and always brings back fun memories. We ordered their amazing cheese bread, pepperoni pizza and a pizza Rex (meat pizza). We almost finished everything and only had a couple of slices to take home.

Such a fantastic day trip!

Hocus Pocus 2 Movie Night 10/7/2022

The kids have been really wanting to do an all out movie night and wanted to watch Hocus Pocus 2 as their movie night. I decided to do what I do best and go all out for them. A co worker of mine told me about these caldrons at Walmart for $0.98 that are perfect for popcorn. While in the Halloween aisle in Walmart getting the caldrons, I found Halloween cups with straws also for $0.98. These were perfect for the Boyland’s soda I purchased for them to enjoy with the movie.

I made movie tickets along with popcorn, candy and soda vouchers for them to use during the movie night. (Thank you Canva)!

As soon as the kids found out about movie night, it was pure excitement!

We quickly had dinner and the kids got into the PJs while I set up for the movie night.

I hung up the movie poster I printed off and got the popcorn maker going. I love our popcorn maker, it is small, which is great for storage, easy to use and clean.

Taylor really enjoyed watching the popcorn popping out of the pot!

The concession stand is set up and ready to be dismantled by 6 kids!

Each kid got their own ticket to hand to Blake to enter the movie and food/drink vouchers to give to me pick out what they wanted to snack on. The drink flavors included: Root Beer, Sherly Temple and Black Cherry Soda. Boylan’s has delicious soda and makes movie night extra special.

Everyone lined up and “patiently” waited their turn to get their snacks.

Everyone piled into the playroom and enjoyed the movie. Taylor ended up being a party pooper and fell asleep halfway through.

Such a fun movie night!

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Liberty Mills Farm – 10/8/2022

Named as the Country’s Largest Corn Maze, we knew we had to check it out. Every time we go to a pumpkin patch, the kids always ask if they have a corn maze and they get excited every time. Uncle Ty sent me a link to this corn maze and I knew instantly I had to look into it and get the kids there. We went on the perfect day, blue skies, decent temperature, just perfect!

The kids had no idea we were going to the maze, they only knew we were going to the mountains and would not be hiking. When we pulled up, they still had no idea other than it looked like a pumpkin patch with pretty scenery. Of course the first question they asked when we arrived was if they had a corn maze. I said, oh yes they certainly do.

I booked the tickets online and after we parked, we walked to the barn area to check in. Ticket prices for the entire day are great for this type of experience.

Ticket Prices:

GENERAL WEEKEND ADMISSION (Daytime Friday/Saturday/Sunday): $15 per person

FLASHLIGHT MAZE ADMISSION: $16 per person

ALL DAY SATURDAY PASS: $20 per person

WEEKDAY ADMISSION (Mon/Wed/Thurs): $10 per person

We reached the tent at the entrance to the maze and received our maps.

The maze area is divided into 4 mazes that span over 34 acres. The first maze is the Story Maze (Yellow), the second maze is the Trivia maze (red), third maze is the punch card maze (blue) and the last maze is the mystery maze (no map for this maze).

We decided to do the story maze first since it was the smallest of the 4 mazes and it would give us a feel of what to expect. This maze followed the story of Corny the Combine. It was a really cute story and the kids loved taking turns reading the story aloud.

I took some pictures of the maze layout, morning glories and the kids in the first maze.

We did the trivia maze next and we all agreed between trying to find the trivia questions and answering the questions, this was the hardest of the 3 mazes we were able to do.

Here is a sample of the questions.

I can honestly admit, I did have to check Google for quite a few of the answers (this is when we actually had a little cell service). Overall it was fun finding the questions and solving the crossword puzzle with the answers.

From the letters in the crossword puzzle, we had to unscramble them to find out the puzzle theme.

The last maze we had time for was the punch card maze. This maze was a lot of fun because you basically had to go in 1 direction to get to the next part but you cannot leave one space untraveled because you never know where the next punch will be located.

After about an hour we found the last punch for the maze and this brought about a celebration.

During the punch card maze we did find the entrance to the mystery maze but unfortunately we didn’t have time to do this maze as we did not sign up for the flashlight maze and we had to finish up by 6pm. We know for next time that we should start with this maze or arrive as soon as they open and stay through the flashlight maze.

Once we finished the mazes we went back to the barn area to ride the hayride. The hayride is included with purchase of the maze ticket. This is also the easiest way to get to the pumpkin patch. The hayride drops you off at the pumpkin patch and will pick you and your pumpkins back up vs. having to lug them back to the tent to pay.

This hayride was a lot of fun and could carry a lot of people.

The views from the hayride are spectacular.

Another awesome feature of the farm is their playground. The kids had so much fun and would have stayed for hours if they could. We also enjoyed it.

Outside view of the maze at sunset.

One the drive home, we were able to capture a few pictures of the full moon.

I did record the mazes on my AllTrails Map and got pretty neat results.

Check out some of our videos on YouTube of our farm adventures.

This video is my favorite. Taylor was very excited while running through the tunnel that she hit her head when she came out. I wish I kept recording but I stopped because I thought she got her but she stood up and laughed and said “bonked head”

Taylor’s head hit

Corn tunnel

Roller Slide

Haybale ump

The Fray – Busch Gardens Williamsburg

kanvas-7ebcbde3-c438-403d-80ec-b9e3f5b1916d

The Fray Busch Gardens Williamsburg

7/9/2022 – A day of 3 strikes and you’re out……

After the gym I came home and asked Blake if he wanted to do something. Being a nasty day out we didn’t really know what to do but figured we would get hiking stuff loaded in the car along with a change of clothes in case we got soaked from the rain. I sent a text to Blake’s mom to see if she would like to join us. About 20 minutes later we picked her up and started our journey.

We decided while driving up towards the Charlottesville area to make our 4th attempt to go across the James River via Hatton’s Ferry.

If you are unfamiliar with Hatton’s Ferry, it is the last Poled Ferry in operation in the United States.

https://www.visitcharlottesville.org/directory/the-hatton-ferry/

I checked out the Facebook page and it said that the water was too low this morning but being that we didn’t arrive until 2 and it had been raining all day we figured it was worth the shot. Well…..attempt 4 was unsuccessful. The captains were not there when we arrived. We looked around the area, took in the river. Taylor dipped her feet in as well. We saw a lot of people tubing in the river as well.

Taylor loved playing in the river and kept asking to go back but we wanted to attempt other things since the ferry was closed.

Next up was an attempt at the LOTUS Light of Truth Universal Shrine. This is something Blake found on Google Maps a few years ago and from the pictures seems absolutely beautiful. We also love to learn new things and wanted to see what it is all about. Well another strike…..once we arrived, we saw a sign that said it was temporarily closed. We saw someone walking up and they let us know that it has been closed since the pandemic began but they do still have programs that we could sign up for and we would be let past the gate after signing up. This is something we will look into one day.

Home

Lotus

Blake’s moms brought her book called Virginia Historical Markers and found that we were right near the Geographical Center of Virginia. Unfortunately the actual center of Virginia is located on private property but we did find the historical marker (sort of a strike).

I identified a couple of flowers near the historical marker using the PictureThis app.

Our next stop I made sure to call ahead to ensure their hours. I didn’t want to take anymore chances this time. We couldn’t go to the mountains without stopping by a winery. We chose Hardware Hills Vineyard. This is one we passed on our way to Hatton’s Ferry. This is also one we have never been to before.

https://www.hardwarehills.com

The winery offers flights, glasses and bottles. We chose to do 2 flights so we could sample more of their wines. Each flight contained 4 wines and cost $17. A lot pricier than other wineries and it didn’t include a glass but it was okay. Their wines were all pretty tasty.

While we were doing our tasting, Taylor was doing what she loves to do and was running around in the rain. She was soaked by the time we were done and was loving every minute of it.

I did find some really neat wine facts at the Vineyard

We were going to stop at a restaurant for dinner but decided to swing by Arbys for a quick meal to get Taylor in bed at a decent hour.

Our day didn’t go as planned but we didn’t really have anything planned to begin with so we just went with the flow of the day and it was a great day!

Green Bank Observatory – 6/5/2022

The Green Bank Observatory is located in none other than Green Bank, WV. The location of the Telescope and surrounding area is within the National Radio Quiet Zone. Meaning no cell service for MILES………..Oh the horror for the wolfpack!

This would be our second trip to the Observatory. The first trip we were short on time and did not get to participate in the bus tour around the grounds to see all of the telescopes. Our first trip was also prior to COVID and now COVID protocols are in place at facility. Each guest has to wear a mask to enter the facility and also be vaccinated (however, we were not asked our vaccination status). Mask were also available on site in both adult and children sizes, very helpful for us because I no longer keep mask in my car.

When we arrived, we did not know prior to going that you had to buy tickets in advance. I got on my phone and tried to purchase tickets but I was not having any luck at all….hmmmm…no cell service DUH! Blake got all the kids out of the car and they all had a snack and I walked up to the front of the building to see if I could purchase a ticket and they have a computer located outside the building to purchase tickets. Less than 5 minutes later, we were all inside the facility getting ready for our bus tour.

Ticket Prices:

Science Center Exhibit Hall – $5/person (5 and under free)
Bus Tour – $10/person (5 and under free and includes the Exhibit Hall)

Right inside is Coin funnel. Austin has never seen one before, so I gave him a few pennies to use.

We had everyone go to the bathroom prior to the tour because there is nowhere to go when we are on the bus.

We all met in an auditorium prior to boarding the bus for a short documentary on the facility and to learn information from the tour guide about the area and what they do. We were also told a few different funny stories about locals in the area. Being that it is a radio quiet zone, one of the local residents let their grass get too tall around their electric fence and it set off a tone to the facility of radio interference. The facility has a truck that goes out to investigate and came across the residence and cut their grass for them. (Personally I would do this all the time haha). Another resident had the battery malfunction in their toothbrush and the truck brought them a new toothbrush.

During the bus tour, we had to put anything we had with us with that contained a battery in a box (Key fob, cell phone, fitbit, etc.). Batteries from anything can interfere with the radio signals and mess up the function of the telescopes. We were not able to take pictures during the tour because, well no cell phones.

Once back from the tour, we go back into the facility and play in the Science Center. The Science Center is an interactive discovery area with many exhibits. The kids and us adults have a great time with all of the exhibits learning all about space and the telescopes. I took pictures of almost all of the exhibits. If you are not able to take a visit to the Observatory, hopefully you can learn a thing or two from the pictues.

Once we were finished with the exhibits, I took the kids to the gift shop and they got to get a couple of things. The gift shop was fairly inexpensive and the kids chose science experiments for their items. I got everyone Lapel Pins to add to their pin boards.

Outside of the facility, is one of the first radio telescopes that was built by Grote Reber next to his mothers house in Wheaton, IL.

We then drove to the observation platform for the Green Bank Telescope.

Whispering Spruce Trail/ Spruce Knob – 6/5/2022

Trail

Name: Whispering Spruce Trail
Distance: 0.67 miles
Elevation Gain: 16 Feet
Terrain: Crushed gravel
Weather: 62 degrees and sunny
Duration: 27:51

Whispering Spruce Trail on Spruce Knob takes visitors to the West Virginia Highpoint. A benchmark sits below the observation tower indicating the official highpoint.

The observation tower is fun to climb for the amazing mountain views.

Blake and I wanted to see how much of the trail that Taylor would be able to hike herself, being that it is a shorter, flat trail. With that being said, the other kids ran ahead and climbed the tower before we got there.

Such a big difference between this visit vs. our visit from December when it was 17 degrees and covered with snow and ice.

I love to stop and look at all of the flowers that grow along the hiking trails. Blake introduced me to a new app Called PictureThis. The app is used for identifying plants and flower.

Along the trail there are many signs that tell visitors about the area and surrounding forest. Unfortunately some of the signs had a bad glare from the sun.

Whispering Spruce trail is a very serene hike with beautiful views along the entire route.

Ethan and Nick each found a hidden painted rocks and they took them with us to hide on our next family trip and see how far the rocks will travel.

Taylor finished the trail on her own and only needed to be carried for a small amount of it. Way to go Taylor!!

Smoke Hole Caverns – 6/4/2022

We stayed at the Smoke Hole Caverns, so it only made sense to check out the caverns. The Caverns are located next to West Virginia’s largest gift shop. The kids were very excited to see the gift shop and we actually left without buying anything but the cavern tickets.

History

Smoke hole got its name from the Seneca Indians. The Seneca Indians would use the caverns to smoke their meat. This created clouds of smoke that would move into the valley and it would look like a “smoke hole”

The cavern was also used as a bunker and to store ammunition.

Later on, early settlers and immigrants would use the cavern to make corn whisky after the Civil War. The cavern has a cold stream that runs through it and it was an ideal spot for moonshine.

Cavern Tour

We have done many caverns and I would always recommend wearing a sweatshirt or light jacket. While they are not uncomfortable, the temperature stays in the mid 50s. I would also recommend wearing tennis shoes as the floors were pretty muddy.

The tours run Monday through Sunday from 10am-4pm, with the exception of Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Tours begin every 30 minutes.

Tour Rates:

Adults: $17.00
Senior Citizens/Military Personnel: $15.50
Children (Ages 5 thru 12 Years of Age): $12.00
Children (Ages 4 & Under): FREE

The tour lasted around 45 minutes and we walked about 2/3 of a mile. A lot of the floor was slick due to water and there were a lot of stairs but nothing unmanageable.

Tours are guided.

Our Cavern Tour Experience

We had an awesome tour guide (although I cannot remember her name), very knowledgeable and made the tour fun and educational.

The cavern has water that runs through it. Color light have been placed near them to make it “Rainbow Falls”.

Due to people touching some of the rock formations, this has left them inactive and they will no longer continue to grow.

The cavern does have a “fish tank”. These fish are provided lights and oxygen 24/7. If fish or other critters were to reside in other parts of the water throughout the cavern they would be blind within a few days. (Same for humans).