The Tucker Girls' Great Northern Adventure: pics

Showing posts with label pics. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Rock City, GA

I don't remember the name of the waterfall, but straight ahead is Lover's Leap. On a clear day you're supposed to be able to see 7 states from that vantage point.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This was taken from a walk-out along the edge of a road. It doesn't do justice to how VAST everything is. The weather was gorgeous, as you can see.

We entered the Smokies on the tail end of a particularly nasty storm. Everything was grey and wet. These were by far the tallest mountains we encountered, and spent most of the drive through them on the way to Cherokee, NC gawking up like tourists in NYC. This pic was taken through the windshield. :)

Boalsburg, PA: People's Choice Arts Festival

This arts festival was held on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum. This is where Val got the fresh brewed ice tea she blogged about. MMMmmm....

Our home away from home

This is Mary's front porch, with all of our children (including Mary's 2-legged and 4-legged children) draped about. She has a beautiful, historic Victorian along the main drag of town - in fact, we arrived about 4 hours after their 4th of July parade went right past their house!

State College, PA: Festival of the Arts

Banners hanging above the very considerable crowd. Lots of people, and LOTS of heat!

Hershey Park, PA

Mac & I are in one of the Skyview cars, and J, K, and T are in the one ahead of us. The ride goes through 2 roller coaster tracks.

Sitting just outside Penn State University's Beaver Stadium waiting for it to get dark enough to start the fireworks.

Bellefonte, PA: park

The view across the river from where the grown-ups sat, waiting for the kids to wear themsevles out.

Gettysburg, PA

As seen from the top of the observation tower we happend upon completely by accident, as we were trying to find something else and traffic was HORRID. We decided we didn't really want to go to that place after all, and hey, what's this over here?

Gettysburg, PA: Civil War cavalry battle reenactment

It was awesome! The pics of Bella's participation in the children's reenactment are FABULOUS!

The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Bubba wasn't sure about this whole "tunnel under the fish tank" thing. Val says this is her Greek pose. :)

Mt. Trashmore

The view down from the top of Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach, VA. The stage was set up for a 4th of July festival. I'm really glad we went - it was a beautiful day, and we WEREN'T in the Swaggon!

Sneak Peek

I'm going to post some of the camera pics to give you a sample of what you can see in the albums. Be on the lookout!

The Intrepid Explorers:

Jen: older sister, mother to Mac; trip planner extraodinaire; fearless, cool, calm and collected; most likely to capably keep the children in line while Val flips out. Expedition job: driver or navigator. Assigned seat: driver or shotgun.

Val: younger (but not youngest) sister, mother to Bella and Bubba, hater of left-turns and interstate driving, prone to child-like excitement, most likely to make inane and impossible threats to the children that they will disregard. Expedition job: driver or navigator. Assigned seat: driver or shotgun.

Mac: son of Jen, almost 11-year old, impending middle schooler; lover of toilet and body humor; only child and requirer of space; good-hearted, kind and helpful (if not ocassionally sullen); most likely to disgust and offend with bodily emissions. Assigned seat: The Poop Deck.

Bella: daughter of Val, 8-year old soon-to-be third grader; incessant talker, sporadic listener; brother torturer extraordinaire; sweet and kind; most likely to require the most restroom stops AND to wait too long to notify of her need for a restroom stop (thereby most likely to be using the restroom on the side of the interstate). Assigned seat: Notgun.

Bubba: son of Val, a 2-year old charming terror; cute yet demanding; opinionated to the max; lover of cartoons; hater of pants; most likely to cry until he throws up. Assigned seat: The Bubba Seat.

Glossary of Terms:

Bubba Seat, The: Seat with an occupant so notorious it has been named for him, this is where toddler Bubba will ride. All precautions have been taken in an attempt to keep Bubba comfortable and happy, lest he scream for the 20-something hours we will be on the road.

Driver's Seat: The throne, the helm of the swaggon. A mighty burden.

Notgun: the seat behind Shotgun. Notgun's occupant will also be called upon to assist with Bubba care and upkeep. Assigned to Bella.

Poop Deck, The: the very back seat of the swaggon, this seat is also named in honor of its' assigned occupant, the charming Mac. This seat was given to Mac in an attempt to 1.) keep his gaseous emissions far away from the rest of us, and 2.) to give him space (however limited) from the other children.

Shotgun: the seat next to the driver. the shotgun rider must help navigate, open sodas or bags of chips and arrange media for the driver, and run the charging station for the multiple devices in the Swaggon. Also within view and an arm's reach of the Bubba seat, therefore placing the Shotgun occupant in charge of Bubba. Also a mighty burden.

Swaggon: Our rented minivan. The name is blatantly stolen from the Toyota ad campaign ('swagger wagon') when we thought we were getting a Toyota. We have taken their name and made it our own. Even though we will be driving a KIA, our presence makes it a Swaggon.

The Tucker Girls' Great Northern Adventure

Getting closer!