Introduction
Since 2021, we’ve considered visiting Assateague Island to see the wild ponies, but it hasn’t worked out. We decided to go for 2-3 days this summer after Shelly finished camp and before my PD days. As the saying goes, man plans and God laughs! First of all, Shelly got sick and was going to have to miss her last day of camp. On Saturday night, 2 days before we were planning to leave, we checked the weather in Assateague and it predicted rain. With the sudden extra time, Sam jokingly said, “we should just go to New River Gorge in West Virginia.” I didn’t take it as a joke and immediately began looking into it. It was 8 hours away, but the newest National Park looked beautiful! I was very tempted to go and after a few more minutes of researching, I turned to Sam and said “Let’s do it!” At 10 PM he went to Wegmans to get some groceries and I began packing everyone’s clothes. By midnight we were packed and had a basic idea of what our first day would look like. We woke up early the next morning, packed the car and after a quick stop at 7-11, we were on the way by 9 AM. This was definitely our most spontaneous adventure yet! (Note: New River Gorge / West Virginia has a ton of cool activities to offer, including a bridge climb and white water rafting. However, since we were traveling with kids ages 6, 5, and 2, we were limited in the types of activities that we could do.)
Day 1: Pennsylvania
Our kids have gotten used to longish car rides, but we still needed to break up the nearly 8 hour drive to New River Gorge. The first stop was Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was packed and it took us nearly 2 hours just to park and view the chocolate factory!
In our quest to hit more national monuments (and visit historical sites of course), we stopped at the Flight 93 National Memorial. There we learned about the 9/11 attacks and saw the site of the Flight 93 plane crash. Flight 93 was special because the passengers onboard revolted against the terrorist and forced them to crash in a field instead of a government building. It was a very moving site. After driving all day, we spent the night in West Virginia.
Day 2: New River Gorge National Park
We spent the morning exploring the viewpoints and walking paths of the national park, including the Bridge Lookout, Fayette Station Road and Grandview Overlook. The kids also started earning their newest Junior Ranger badges.
Our next stop was the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine tour. We rode through a vintage coal mine for a 35 minute tour and viewed the surrounding coal camp buildings. We enjoyed the buildings, but honestly, the kids were too young for the mine tour and were very disruptive to the other guests. We couldn’t even leave, since we were trapped underground!
We ended the day at the beautiful Endless Wall Trail. It was a bit muddy after the rain, but we all enjoyed it!
Day 3: West Virginia & Virginia
We started the day at Ace Adventure Water Park, a water park situated on a river in West Virginia. It had giant inflatable obstacle course like activities in the middle of the river. The highlight of the day was getting blobbed by Sam, although in hindsight, I do NOT recommend!! (Note: Walmart was a huge help this trip as we used it for food supplies and other random things that we forgot, including towels for the water park.)
After an action packed morning, we continued the day at Sandstone Falls, our final stop in New River Gorge.
I’ve been wanting to stop at the next stop – Natural Bridge State Park – for some time. Originally we had planned to do it the next day, but since we like to pack everything in, we squeezed it into Tuesday! It was so cool to see the 200 foot tall natural bridge and we enjoyed the walk/hike in the park.
Day 4: Virginia
We spent the morning driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway before heading to other historical national monuments in the afternoon. At Booker T Washington NM, we learned about Booker T Washington, a former slave who eventually became a civil rights activist and played a major role in the founding of the NAACP. We saw a recreation of the type of cabin he would have lived in and the plantation he would have worked out. Our last stop of the day was the Appomattox Court House National Historical Site, where the Civil War ended. Fun fact – Appomattox Court House is the name of the village where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S Grant. It is NOT a real court house of law!! I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t know this until we visited! It was cool to see the room in real life that I had seen in so many paintings. We took the free tour that the NPS offers and learned more about the Civil War and the surrender.
Day 5: Virginia
Man plans, God laughs. We intended to have a half day on the last day because we wanted to make it back to Deal in time for our friends’ siblings’ wedding. We spent the morning at Great Falls Park, a park with absolutely magnificent waterfalls. As luck would have it, we spent most of the day in traffic, due to a hazardous chemical spill on the highway. Despite the spontaneity, or perhaps because of it, this was an amazing trip and left us with many memories!
