The Zhao Family

So we've been camping three weekends in a row and its been very fun! This time we went to the Pocomoke City area to camp at Jane's Island and completed more park quests in Assateague Island. We went with the Wilson family and their friends, Baskin family. This area is unique in a sense that since it's close to the bay area, we were able to see people catch crabs and see the wild horses on Assateague Island. Also the kids spent more time on the beach and really enjoying the ocean waves crashing at them while they're supposed to find 'natural letters' to make a four letter word. So this quest was very relaxing and enjoyable at the beach.

Clayton wanted to pitch his own tent so he brought it, pitched it, and also put it back in the bag when were done-all by himself.

You think dragonflies are fast; but they're no match for SS! Using his net, he was able to catch a dragonfly! 

This Trail of Change will always be memorable! The quest for this one is to read how as the elevation changes by 20-30 feet that the types of trees and surroundings change. However what the kids remember most was that there were so many mosquitoes buzzing and biting the family that this one mile hike was the fastest hike we've done! and Abbey end up being the winner of the most mosquito bites on her knuckles and face-places where she didn't put on bug spray!

We were able to complete four quests with the other families, then Abbey checked that there's Sandy Point quest we can do on the way home. I am glad we did. The quest was pretty cool and at the end the ranger was very nice and even offered to take photos of our family. And when she found out that we are park questers, she was ecstatic!

Since this was a 3 1/2 hour drive home, the kids normally would be sleeping but after eating some yummy dried mangoes, they were super hyper. We usually play some games like naming places starting with the alphabet, then this time Abbey thought of naming the alphabet that is memorable from this trip, and here's the list:

A-Assateague

We went through another crazy weekend! We were supposed to be leaving for camping on Friday night but SS had a summer violin camp recital starting at 6pm. There was no way we can get to the 3 1/2 hour drive to Virginia Beach camp site by 11pm, we haven't even had dinner nor pack yet. 

This week was ridiculously crazy busy. Abbey booked the two boys to have summer music camps at two different places two different times for their two different instruments. Clayton's camp was for 8am in DC Woodrow Wilson High School, which is a nightmare since she is taking the same highway where everyone takes to go to work in the mornings. Then around lunchtime she take Brennan to another school Sligo Middle School which is 20 minutes out of the way to drop him off at this Sax camp. She goes back to SS school and takes him home when he is finished at 3p. Shortly after coming home, she would take SS and FF to swimming lessons at 4:30pm. Da would pick up CC after work at 5pm, eat in the car, and go straight to meet the rest of the family at the pool so CC can have his swim lesson at 6pm. We would stay at the pool until they close at 8p, come home for dinner and redo the the next day. That was the entire five days of craziness!!!

This is SS at his recital which was last day of camp. 

Since we didn't make it to camp site on Friday night, we left Saturday morning. After the recital, we went home to eat and pack some of the stuff in the van because Da wanted to wake up at 5am and leave by 5:30. Well that didn't happen, the kids didn't wake up until 6ish and after everything, we didn't get on the road until 7:30am. Well that was a really bad choice, the supposed 3 1/2 hour drive turned into a 6-7 hour drive and we didn't get to the camp site until 3ish. There was very heavy traffic and cars were just sitting on the highway and yet there was no accidents at all

Well there was an incident along the way. During the long drive there, we were about to enter into a tunnel but of course there was a long line backed up going into the tunnel. FF said she really need to use the bathroom. So I drove off route into a small community to look for a bathroom for her. I pulled into a garage and upon entering I heard a sound, checked for speed bump but didn't think anything more. Then when I reached the top of the ramp I heard a really loud scraping sound! I totally forgot that I had a car carrier on my roof!!! And it was scraping against the I-beam of the garage!! I immediately put the van in reverse, well that did even more damage!!! So I told Abbey to get out of the van so she can direct me to make a u turn between the two I-beams to turn around and get out of the garage. After getting out of the garage, the top of the carrier had scraped off many places leaving several big holes, however the screws held on and it was still drivable! When we got close to the camp site, there was a local hardware store so I can get very strong tape to tape it.

The campsite was beautiful! It was surrounded by low hanging trees and pine trees. After we setup the tent, the just sit back and relax and didn't even go to the beach, which was only 5 mins away walking. I jumped on top of the van and used the Gorilla tape I bought to tape up all the scraped up area of the carrier.

Gladly the carrier was a really good deal from Craigslist. The seller listed for $25, which other people are listing well over $100. After he listed for 15 mins, I told him I was going to buy it. It was in really great shape, no holes, damages, or anything. When I told the seller I don't have change, he told me to just pay him $20. SCORE!!! Imagine if I bought the carrier brand new (brand new ones costs over $200) and I scraped off the top and had to tape it up. That would hurt really bad. So now, the carrier will always be remembered from this trip.

One of the reasons I purchased the carrier is so we can put the bikes in the van while put all the sleeping gear, tent and clothes on top. When packing, it really worked out well. The carrier is very large and can carried a lot of stuff. So we managed to have a great trip with biking at Virginia Beach with our neighbors.

We biked more than SEVEN miles from our camp site to the other side of the beach where the boardwalk was. We biked through a wooded park and the scenery was just beautiful. It took us 1 hr and 25 mins to bike the 7 miles and FF didn't complain once! She was awesome! In fact she still had lots of energy left to play at the beach! While playing there, the moms were tired and didn't want to bike back since they were very tired. So I biked back to the campsite with the other dad, and it only took us 40 minutes to back back.

At night, we walked the boardwalk and found a place to have dinner. After not agreeing to many places, we end up eating at this pizza place. The food was very yummy and sitting outside with in the warm air and all the people walking and driving by, it was a really great night.

The next day was not so good. It started to rain at 5am, stopped for a bit and started again at 7am and didn't stop until 11am. It was steady medium rain and so our tent was not holding up well. Water was getting in the corners wetting the foam beds and blankets. We had to move everything around to keep as much stuff dry as possible. I had to use a shirt to wring out probably like five gallons of water out of the tent. We checked the weather and was forecasted to rain later in the afternoon and the next day. Since it was cloudy, it didn't dry up any of our stuff inside the tent and I felt we shouldn't sleep on wet bedding for another night. So we were supposed to camp for three days and cut it short to one day. We left Sunday around 5:30pm after the kids went to the beach to play for an hour or so. The drive home was less than 3 1/2 hours, which is the exact time when there's not traffic. Nonetheless, we did have a great time!