Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

After we returned home from camp, I had almost a week in Pittsburgh before I headed out again for a girl’s trip with my sister Brenda and sister’s in law, Carol and Val. We have started an annual winery and shopping trip. This is the second year for the girl’s trip and we went closer to Val’s home since she had to travel the most last year. We decided to rent a cabin near Lewisburg, PA. Since Val was familiar with the area, she had a list of wineries, antique stores and artist shops to visit.

Unfortunately, the Canadian wildfires brought thick smoke over most of Pennsylvania on Friday which prevented us from spending much time outside. The cabin we rented was very nice and it would have been nice to enjoy the evening with wine around a campfire but who wanted to smell more smoke! So we went out to eat, picked up some snacks and breakfast food and then settled in with some wine and a movie.

Luckily, it rained a bit over night which reduced the smoke from the wildfires. In a light rain, we headed out late morning for some wine tasting and shopping. The area had quite a few antique shops, pottery stores and gift shops with wares from local artisans in addition to a few wineries. After the rain stopped, we were able to enjoy some wine tasting on the patio’s at a couple of wineries before stopping at a huge antique store with multiple vendors. This place was so large that I lost the group for awhile.

it smelled better on Saturday but was still smoky.

When we went full time in the RV, I had gotten rid of most of my nice glasses and wine rack so I needed to buy replacements. I had a specific idea of what I wanted and thought I could find it at an antique store. Well, I never found the exact wine glasses or wine rack I wanted but I did find a very cool rock's glass set with a glass ice bucket that fits perfectly in my dining room. A week later, Carol and John found a perfect wine rack in a thrift store for $2. Definitely a deal! Now my bar area in the dining room is setup and looks great.

My dining room with the wine rack and ice bucket/glasses.

The other’s found some good buys at the antique store and we all bought some wine at the wineries. So of course, we sampled some that evening back at the cabin and enjoyed another movie. After some more shopping on Sunday, we had lunch and then headed home. Another successful girl’s trip in the books. We were all thinking that we need to take a little longer trip next year and have the guys come too. We will see what next year brings.

A few weeks later, my brother Randy suggested a weekend at Kalyumet Campground and a family picnic in Cook Forest. This is the campground where we were seasonal campers for years as our girls were growing up. We love the Cook Forest area, so we definitely said yes. We booked rooms at the campground instead of staying in the van so we would have a little more space. We probably won’t do that again because the rooms were not in the best shape any more. I think the new owners don’t take care of this campground like the previous owners did.

We started the weekend meeting Randy and Val on Saturday at Deer Creek Winery for lunch. After a good lunch and some wine, we headed over to the campground. Unfortunately our friends that still seasonal camp at this campground were not there that weekend. Even though they weren’t there, they said we could use their site and firewood. We picked up pizza for dinner at the campground and enjoyed an evening around the campfire with Randy and Val. A few of our old neighbors from the campground were in for the weekend and stopped by to catch up.

We had our family gathering in Cook Forest State Park on Sunday. Brenda, Carl, and Nick as well as John, Carol and Matthew joined us for the day. We found a couple of picnic tables available along the river so we had a great spot and view for our picnic. During the day, we watched people enjoying floating down the river, had a terrific meal, played some outdoor games, and then had a hike in the park. After everyone left, Tim and I joined friends for dinner at the Forest Nook and then headed back to the campground for another campfire. I have to say, you can’t beat an evening sitting around a campfire. So relaxing!

I didn’t really have another trip planned but guess what, I ended up on another girl’s trip. Tim and I wanted to be able to travel in the van together when we head south to Florida for the winter. We will leave the car in Pittsburgh but wanted to have the truck in Florida. So I decided to take a trip to Florida to move the truck down there. I asked my sister about going with me sometime in September and then we would fly home. As we were kicking around the best time to go, my cousin Patty called and asked if I wanted to go to Florida with her and my cousin Shirley to visit and celebrate Aunt Tish’s 94th with her. Since her birthday is September 1st, they wanted to go down the week before and leave the day after her birthday. We decided to go at the same time and then we could ride home with them.

Brenda and I left a day earlier than Patty and Shirley so we could visit a couple of national parks on our way south. Our route took us past the entrance to the newest national park, New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia so that was our first stop. We had both been there quite a few years ago before it was a national park. I wanted a stop to get a stamp in my Passport book and see if they had made any changes. The visitor’s center was definitely much nicer and the views from the balcony were fantastic. We were able to take a short hike out to another great view of the bridge and I think you could see the river below much better than before. We didn’t take any other hikes or take the scenic drive through the park, mainly because we wanted to get further south before stopping for our first night. After a picnic lunch in the park, we hit the road and ended up getting close to Charlotte before stopping. I think Tim and I will have to stop here another time and spend more time in the park.

That set us up to have plenty of time to visit Congaree National Park the next morning. We didn’t know what to expect at Congaree and just knew it was a swampy area. With the heat, we wanted to hike in the morning before the heat and bugs got too bad. It ended up being a nice day and even though it was hot, there was so much shade that we were comfortable and felt we could do the loop trail hike through the park. There wasn’t much water in the swampy area so the bugs were not too bad.

This park contains the largest ancient forest and growth of extremely tall trees in Eastern North America. This is a fairly new national park and was initially a national monument. We were both pleasantly surprised with the park and spent more time than we initially planned.

the loop trail is primarily a raised boardwalk since much of the area is flooded throughout the year. Luckily for us, it was dry when we were there so we didn’t have to worry about irritating bugs.

After our visit and picnic lunch, we got back on the road and traveled to Georgia before we stopped for the night. The next day, we drove into Florida and stopped by the campground to check on our RV before heading to the house we rented for the week. Patty and Shirley weren’t arriving until around 3 PM so we had plenty of time for me to swap out the DampRid’s in the RV and visit with our friends Jen and Gary. Afterwards, we headed to the house to meet up with Patty and Shirley.

I had to get my picture with Forrest Gump in the Georgia welcome center

It was a very hot week in Florida with rain storms most afternoons so we tried to get out in the mornings, then prep food and visit with Aunt Tish in the afternoon. We went to Fort Island Beach one morning with hopes of enjoying a beach before it got too hot. Unfortunately, the beach was not in the best shape. They still haven’t repaired it much from the hurricane damage from almost 2 years ago. This time, there was quite a bit of stinky seaweed washed up on the beach; probably from all of the recent rain storms. We only stayed about an hour and then enjoyed some shopping in Crystal River. On another day, Brenda and I visited a local park in Crystal River with a small beach area on the river itself. That beach was a little nicer but very small.

all those piles are the seaweed on the beach

no seaweed at the park in crystal river but not much of a beach

Oh well, even though we didn’t enjoy the beach, we made sure to enjoy the pool at the house. That came in handy for morning swims and evening cool offs after a busy day. We spent most of our time with Aunt Tish visiting or helping her with some work around the house. We made sure to prepare lots of meals for her and stocked her freezer completely full. Hopefully she enjoys what we made and it lasts her for awhile.

The week went by quickly and before we knew it, it was Aunt Tish’s birthday and then we had to head home. We enjoyed the day with her on her birthday especially the delicious cake we got at Publix. The ride home was long but quick. We left early in the morning on September 2 and were back in Pittsburgh early afternoon on September 3. Tim and I have spent the rest of September in Pittsburgh enjoying family and friends. I think we may have to do another local trip in October before we head back south. More on that in the next post.

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Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

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