Carolina to DC via Virginia Beach, Shenadoah, and Gettysburg!

Wow...what a whirlwind and wonderful last few days. We have been COMPLETELY blessed this trip to watch everything work out so smoothly. We've hit one bout of traffic and one small injury, but beyond that, everyone seems to be repelled by us on the road and everywhere else. It's been nice. So, where were we?

Day 7: Destination: Virginia Beach, Virginia! Our hope was to drive along the coast and see lighthouses, the Atlantic, and go on a ferry. Reality spoke differently, and we ended up on a side road the whole way up! Didn't really care for the terrain that much, and we were pretty bored! But, we finally arrived in Virginia Beach. Once again, no traffic stopped us from arriving on time. We were greeted by a new friend neither of us had ever met before. A hot meal awaited us, a warm bed greeted us, a sunrise over the ocean and a morning run on the boardwalk were most excellent, and we were so blessed by Daphne, her hospitality and heart for the Lord! If only we could have stayed there a little longer!!!

Day 8: Shenandoah National Park. We weren't really sure what to expect out of Shenandoah. It was July 3rd and there were people everywhere getting ready to celebrate teh 4th of July. Off we took on the long and windy road up to the national park. We were greeting outside by a sign saying the campground of choice was full. After finding out there was only 1 campground that had any possibilities of vacancies, we took off up the mountain. They were right, only about 10 of 170 spots were left. But, once again, we were taken care of and had a place to sleep. There wasn't anything to do at this campground. It was rather chilly and cloudy outside, which made some great photo ops. What a better way to spend the afternoon. About 5:00, we went into the campground store and found a book that listed 2 hikes in the area. So, we took off down the trail to the waterfall. It proved to be a beautiful hike and waterfall at the end. Another great photo op! The moment wasn't destroyed when Ark slipped and dislocated her shoulder. It could have been so much worse if it hadn't popped back in again! Once again, we were very grateful for His care over us and Ark is just fine!

Day 9: Destination: Gettyburg, PA! It was a dream of Ark's to spend the 4th of July in Gettyburg, the anniversary of the bloodiest battle on American soil. Once again, we stayed with people who opened their home to us so graciously! The afternoon was spent at the Gettysburg battle reenactment. We were disappointed to see that no one fell during the battle. Ark commented that it was the battle with the fewest casualties since no one died. We enjoyed a private tour of the battlefield and the town later that night with the Andersons. Thank you Fred and Roberta. We couldn't have felt more welcome at your home.

Day 10: Destination: Ashburn, VA. Our morning worship service was at Covenant Life Church in Gaitherburg, VA. It was awesome to hear Joshua Harris preach, and we were thankful for a late church service. We relaxed in a park in the afternoon, and then joined Mike and Hilary for an evening church service. We are so thankful for another wonderful place to stay.

Day 11: Washington, DC. Our day, though not as productive as we had hoped, was quite fun and random. We spent hours at the Air and Space Museum and saw our fill of airplanes and mock space shuttles for a very long time. Then, we headed to the Library of Congress, where we started a tour. After 20 or so minutes, we decided to ditch the tour to go get library cards and actually use the Reading Rooms instead of just observing them. We are now the proud owners of Library of Congress Reading Cards. Hopefully, we'll get to use them tomorrow. We'll see...since we also want to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the American History Museum, the Capitol and the White House tomorrow. Guess we're not going to get to sleep in tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out how much of this list we accomplish.