Tuesday from the road

Greeting from the weary (just kidding) travelers! This post may be a bit lengthy, and I apologize for that. I actually just tried to put in the highlights and spare you the boring details! So here you go. Best point - all three kids are still alive. Yes folks, we have not lost anyone, or given anyone away.....yet. Although, Finley is pushing her luck.

So it is Tuesday here on the road. We have been to Jacksonville Florida, Charleston South Carolina, Raleigh North Carolina and landed in Williamsburg Virginia today. We are moving it! We are in Williamsburg until Thursday morning, so a little break from the car.

Things are going pretty well so far. The hardest thing is about 2 days before we left West Palm Beach the hydrolics in our trunk went out, so now one of us has to hold the trunk up every time we have to unload the car. Not so fun, but not terrible. We have a good system in place so it isn't that bad.

Sunday we got up and did laundry at my sister in law Teen's house and then went to my other sister-in-law Carrie's house for lunch. We visited until around 1pm and then when it was time for the babies naps, we jumped in the car and started our drive to South Carolina. It was a 4 hour drive to South Carolina. The babies slept for about 1 ½ hours of that. Not much, but at least something. They always have a hard time sleeping in the car. But we drove the whole 4 hours without a stop and that was nice. We got to Charleston around 5:30. The hotel was a Double Tree suites. It was really beautiful and we had a one bedroom suite which was perfect. It had a separate bedroom and living area, and a little kitchen. Nice and big for the 5 of us. We got settled and left to have dinner at a restaurant called Sticky Fingers. It is a rib joint. It was very kid friendly and within walking distance from our hotel. We stayed on Market Street so we were right in the heart of Historic Charleston. It was pretty cool. After dinner the kids played around for a bit and then we got them settled for bed. There were two big beds in the bedroom of the hotel room, so Arlington slept in that room with us and the babies were in their pack and plays in the other room. Worked out well. Everyone was asleep by 9pm, which is late for our kids, but on vacation it was the best we could do!

Monday we got up and had breakfast after we checked out of the hotel. I had some food for the kids, so they had that while we were getting ready. Then we moved the car and walked to breakfast at a cute little coffee house near by. After that, we walked the open market of Market Street, where there were a lot of vendors selling their goods. I bought a hand made woven basket that the “low country” is known for. It was neat to watch these folks make the baskets. Very talented. We just bought a small one, as they are very expensive, but I just wanted something unique to the area. We took the kids down to Battery Park and let them run around for a long time. They loved it! They were having so much fun- the didn't want to leave. Battery Park was down near the water. We had to walk pretty far from Market Street to get there. I was glad we had the strollers for the little ones. Although Finley walked most of the way there – she loves to be independent. We walked past a lot of beautiful houses and historic buildings a long the way. They also have horse and buggy tours you can take so the kids would get so excited when they would see one go by. It was a fun morning. We had lunch at a little cafe we past on our way back to our car and that was fun. Everyone was pretty well behaved. After that it was nearly 1 pm, so we jumped in the car and started our drive to Raleigh North Carolina. Nothing really planned for there, just a stopping point. Cainan was asleep in about 5 minutes after we started out and Finley wasn't far behind him. We had about 4 ½ hours today – further than I thought, but even with one stop, we made it by 4 ½ hours. We decided to just get McDonalds around dinner time for the kids to eat in the car for the last leg of the trip.

We got to the hotel around 5:30pm and were settled and all ready to take the kids to the pool to burn off some energy. We got dressed, walked to the pool, and it was closed. Bummer! It was being repaired, so we couldn't swim. So that kind of stunk. We are at a Wyndam this time. It is nice, but not nearly as nice as the last room. But we are dealing. Everyone was asleep by 9pm again Monday night. We are mostly having to fight Finley to sleep. She isn't fussing – she just wanted to play. She is so bad.
This morning we got up and ate some breakfast and headed over to the University of North Carolina's campus. Mat has friends there from his lab he worked in when we were livign in San Diego. A few people from that lab in San Diego recently relocated to Chapel Hill, so we had a nice visit with them. The campus is huge and the kids had a great time running around and visiting. We had lunch there on campus before heading out and on to Virginia. We left for our car ride around 1:30, and within 5 minutes of the ride, all three kids were asleep! They were tired. It was peaceful in our car until 3pm, which was great. We got to Williamsburg, Virginia at 5pm this evening. Once we were settled in our room (We are staying at a 4 points Sheraton this time – very nice) we went and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We never do that, but we were determined to do some swimming tonight! So after dinner we came back to the room and got dressed and headed for the pool. Cainan still remains terrified of the water, so that is always a challenge. But we keep taking him – we don't want him to be afraid. The girls had fun. We stayed about 45 minutes then came back to the room. Just a quick swim for something different to do before bed.

Tomorrow we are spending the day in Williamsburg. Mat and I have been here before when we lived in Baltimore. Then Thursday we head off to Baltimore. Tomorrow is also the closing day on our house. Closing is supposed to be at 4:30 – lets hope all issues are resolved and the close happens tomorrow. We shall see!

BTW - two days ago we went over "Pee Pee River". This is not a joke. Why would you name a river that?

So that is the trip so far. I would be lying if I said it was going “swimmingly”. Both of the babies have colds that they picked up from daycare those three days I sent them. Figures. I could have called that one, but hoping we were going to be lucky. Cainan, I think, has conjunctivitis, but it is too early to tell. We are just keeping an eye on them. The colds seem to be minor and no fevers, so I am just pumping them full of orange juice and keeping the air conditioning off in the rooms to try and help with their stuffiness. Poor things. Not a fun way to travel. Believe it or not, Cainan is actually worse than Finley this time.
It is also more like a marathon than a vacation. With three kids 5 and under, we are just trying to survive at this point! They get cranky and bored easily. I mostly have to keep feeding them to keep them happy! But again, that is minimal. Today was the best car day by far. We hope to have more like that one!

Also, we are having a slight issue with the new house. It is septic related again. The sellers had to fix a pipe to bring the septic tank up to code. But they did it cheaply, and according to the town codes, it is not complete. There is something else they need to do, and it is kind of costly. They are saying no. They can't really say no, but they are trying. Our closing lawyer and their lawyer and duking it out right now. We are refusing to close on Wednesday unless this is resolved. The sellers will be in a bind if that happens because they need the proceeds from the sell of this house to buy their new one. So they don't have much of a choice unless they want to be stuck with two mortgages and not close on their new house. Hmmmm. Let me think – put a little more money (probably around $1500) to fix the septic, OR lose out on the sale of my house and not get my new house because of it. Is there really a choice here? Anyway, because we are on the road, we are letting our agent and lawyers handle it, but I am still losing sleep over the whole thing. Tomorrow is the last day they have to fix it, or no deal. It would be a real shame if it came to that, but it is the principal. Their septic tank is not up to code. We cannot take the house knowing that. End of story.

So anyway, there are a ton of pictures, but the internet connection here is not very good so it isn't loading properly. So what I will do it work on it and either post the pictures tomorrow or Thursday.