So in an ambitious effort to see as many cousins, grandparents, swimming pools, woodland creatures, BBQ joints and Eastern states as possible during Chris' protracted vacation time (eBay is much more stingy then Microsoft in this regard) we boarded a plane and headed East.
One more wonderful twist, Eloise (of Great Wolf Lodge and St. Catherine's School fame) has grand parents who happen to live a mere 20 minutes from Anya's Grandparents in South Carolina, so she tagged along for the flight.
Due to our early departure on July 4th we had Eloise sleep over. Which was great until the sounds of girl giggling and a dog trying frantically trying to escape from their room awoke us around midnight. This filled Amy and Chris with dread about flying with them come morning.
As it turned out, both kids were remarkably awesome during travel, especially considering their complete lack of sleep the night before.
Anya and Eloise about to get on the plane at SeaTac. Not bad for 4 hours of sleep.
The girls FINALLY pass out on our 20 minute hop between Charlotte and Greenville.
First night Eloise stayed with Anya at Dondon and Grangie's new place in Boiling Springs. Toads were discovered early on and so the toad hunt commenced.
The girls digging around for toads
Anya with one of many captive toads (I'm sure she caught at least 7)
Here is their naturalist base on the porch, note the "Step 1: Get worms" which was how they were luring toads from their hidy holes.
After a night of fireworks, fireflies, toads, and good food. We all traveled to Lois and Ernie's place for a fantastic lunch and some swimming.
Here we see the girls near the giant vat of green hair dye they had been swimming in all day.
The next day, Dondon loaded up the boat and all the gear to take Anya and Chris fishing.
Fun fact: In the Boiling Springs Walmart there is literally an entire aisle 5 shelves high with ammunition you can impulse buy, but the bait worms? Locked up tight and you have to get a clerk to help you retrieve them.
Anyway the fisher folk piled onto Dondon's boat and had a long hot day of not really catching many fish (Don landed 3, Anya and Chris nary a one). So of course they all decided to go out again near sun down to similar effect. Anya did catch another toad while Don and Chris secured the boat to the trailer, so it wasn't a complete loss.
While we never caught this fish, it was remarkably huge. We guesstimated it at 10 lbs. It was just hanging out on the surface for about 5 minutes.
One of Don's fish being thrown back. One was a walleye which was strange. Not sure if it was this one.
Anya's had enough, but the men folk fish on!
In the end, we caught no fish in the evening, but the sunset over the lake was beautiful.
Next, we headed off to Charlotte to stay with Don and Koby and Alivia, where fireflies were chased, baby birds harassed, and pools swum. We went to Grandma and Grandpa B's place to hang out, and had a nice dinner at a Mexican place with Matt, Heidi, Grandma and Grandpa.
The next morning we were off to Discovery Place (science center) where the critters are all kept safe behind glass from the likes of Anya.
Birds nest located in a folded tarp on a deck chair behind Alivia's house. You can just make out the tips of the 4 eggs in this shot.
Next Day there was one less egg, but one hungry chick.
Anya and Alivia walking hand-in-hand at the park n' ride to go to Discovery Place.
- Alex (Erin's daughter) informed Anya that she monitored a Pokemon-themed Minecraft server. Anya was star-struck.
- Anya was literally laying down on the sidewalk out side of the pizza joint doing something unsupervised. A family walked up and the mom asked Anya where her mommy was (we were just on the other side of the plate glass window) The woman's face was suddenly overrun with a look of complete disgust, she gathered up her children and walked away. We later asked Anya what she was doing and she told us, "Oh, nothing, just feeding bugs to the spiders." And that's the kid in a nut shell.
Here's some more images of the variously harassed creatures and critters who encounter Anya on her march across the Carolinas.
Thumb-sized Cicada in the manicured "forest" near the strip mall were we had pizza with Erin and her family.
True to form, Anya found a stink bug in a small green strip near Alivia's place.
Ostensibly, the whole purpose of this trip was to have a nice family reunion in the mountains around Asheville. The place Amy and Angie chose was completely awesome. Not only were the amenities pretty nice and quaint, with rocking chairs and fans on porches overlooking a beautiful forest, stream and pond, but it had everything a kid, or a troupe of kid-like adults could want.
The was hiking near by, the pond was stocked with trout, there was a game room, and horse shoes, several playgrounds and, (joy of joys!) a water balloon battle fields with special water-balloon sized spigots and complementary balloons.
We were in the woods so there were no cars to worry about, so we dowsed her with deet and sunscreen and let her hunt for critters to her heart's content. Anya was in heaven.
Circling the trout farm in search of fish, or frogs, or salamanders.
A pretty blue dress and a Solo cup is all this girl needs to hunt for salamanders and newts.
See?..
Solo cups also work for catching fireflies. Whenever critters don't run away from her, or die of fright on the spot, Anya yells, "See? They like me!"
This particular varmint (Freddy the squirrel) did like her. It's amazing the effect a little gray matter in addition to a simple spinal cord can have on inter-species relations, especially in the presence of unlimited free peanuts.
An inch worm on the hiking trail during a water break.
Luna moth.
A clutch of tadpoles and polliwogs retrieved from a stagnant fountain.
After two days playing around at the Willow Winds Cabin it was time to say our tearful good-byes to Amy's side of the family and head north to Virginia to see Brian, Tara, Mia, and Cole.
Here we see Anya straddling the double yellow Tennessee/Virginia state line on State Street in Bristol where we stopped for lunch. (Tennessee is on the right, Virginia on the left)
We stayed the night at the Hotel Roanoke. This is a very well-appointed grand hotel from back in the day. Anya said, "Wow, its a castle!"
But most importantly, it had a pool.
The next day we arrived at Mia and Cole's place, and headed for a local play ground. Much fun was had by all.
Anya finally had a mammal to harass, and harass Cooper she did. They even made a Super Cooper movie to celebrate Cooper's prowess and defeating Duckly (the evil).
After much detailed discussion of Harry Potter, and more messing with Cooper, we all headed out to the Museum of Natural History. As per usual, Anya was thrilled by the butterflies so we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get them to land on us.
Here is Anya's first acquisition.
Anya and aunt Tara have matching hair pieces
And no trip to anywhere would be complete without a trip to a pool, so here is the final shot of Anya on vacation: leaping fearlessly into the pool near Mia and Cole's place.
It was a fantastic trip. Anya held it together until we arrived back in Seattle. At that point, she started to cry and say that she missed all her cousins and wanted to go back. Amy currently has it in her mind that she wants to move to Asheville to get closer to all her family. Chris will require some convincing to say the least.
Here is our Travel map so that Anya's future acolytes can re-walk the route as a pilgrimage to her epic voyage of critters, cousins, swimming pools, and BBQ.
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