Adventurous Leila

Hi everyone, we are camped in Virginia with our family for a little over a week, we travel a lot together. Their names are Tom, my uncle, Delmara my aunt and their three kids, Juliette, Noah and Elijah. They also have a dog Marley, he is a one year old golden lab and so cute!  Our spot is right next to Elkhorn Lake and really pretty but also scary because there is a grave right next to us. One night while we were sitting around the camp fire my Uncle Tom told us scary stories about our spot and the grave. Even though I know it was make believe I went to bed freaked out and was on edge at night the rest of our stay lol. I still really liked our spot because there is so many fun places for me and my cousins to play. We have been playing hide and seek tag and having fires pretty much every night. 

One day we decided to ride our bikes over to the water. When we first got to the lake Marley Jumped off the boat dock and got all wet, it was hilarious because there was a sign saying no swimming right next to the dock. We found a small trail leading us to a creek that fed into the lake. My cousins and I played in the water and caught a ton of salamanders. We stacked rocks up along the water and made them a little home. Once the sun was starting to set we decided to ride back to camp to have dinner.

The next day we drove into town and went to a dairy farm. It was so awesome because I got to bottle feed the baby cows! After the babies were fed we were allowed to go into the factory where they milk all the cows. It was really cool to see the whole process and watch Landon learn where milk comes from but it looked painful and I’m so happy I’m not a cow. They had a small shop so we went in and bought some fresh goodies to support their local farm and we even went to their creamery and got some ice cream. My mom and I shared the salted Caramel chocolate chunk, my dad got java chip and butter pecan and Landon got cookies and cream. It was so yummy and overall we had such a great time exploring their farm, I recommend 5 star!

Shenandoah National Park was only about a hour from where we camped so we did a day trip to check out the park.  As always our first stop was the visitors center to learn about the park and get a Jr. Ranger packet for all us kids. From there we headed to the trail head that happened to have a big grassy area with tables so we ate lunch before getting on the hike. It was supposed to be a quick easy hike to the falls but we think the sign lied because it ended up being close to 6 miles round trip. It’s a good thing we ate first because we all would have been hangry. Overall the hike was worth it because the waterfalls were beautiful and bright blue. We stopped at the bottom and played in the pool of water for about an hour before heading back. We had planned to do a few hikes but after that one we were all tired and ready for dinner. Tom and my dad grilled in the park while us kids played with all the miniature outdoor games. We ended the evening with a delicious meal before heading back to camp.

That wraps up our time in our first spot of Virginia, stay tuned for part two to come.