St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum

We stopped in the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum on a whim as we walked by. The line was long and it was pricey ($15 for adults and $8 for kids 5-12) but we decided to visit anyway. The theming was great, even in the entrance and gift shop, and it looked to be really well done. And kudos to them for being covid-safe and requiring masks (and doing it in a clever fashion!). The museum was laid out like a pirate ship and had several different rooms with artifacts matching that section of the ship. It was really …

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St. Augustine City

Founded in September 1565 by Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles, St. Augustine is the nation’s oldest city. It’s Spanish heritage is still evident in its architecture, from the Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish Colonial landmark, to the original Ponce de Leon Hotel, a Spanish Renaissance Revival masterpiece. Although best known for its Spanish-style buildings featuring red clay terra cotta and ornate trimmings, the city of St. Augustine has a varied and unique architectural heritage that has been remarkably well preserved. When touring the city, the first architectural landmark you will probably come across is the Old City Gates. After …

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Vilano Beach Fishing Pier

Located across the Tolomato River from Saint Augustine, Vilano Beach is a wonderful place to watch the sunset. We headed over there for dinner and the sunset to end our first evening in Florida, and the sunset did not disappoint. We ate dinner outside at Vilano Grill 180. The food was good but the real excitement of this restaurant was the roaming neighborhood chickens. They wandered along the streets and sidewalks of the area, clucking and being generally loud. They were highly entertaining to the boys, especially when they surprised us all and flew into the trees and hung out …

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St. Augustine Lighthouse

We arrived in St. Augustine a little before 4:00 and wanted to squeeze in an activity on our first day. After quickly checking into the hotel, we headed over to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Since we planned to spend the next day exploring the city on foot, a visit to the lighthouse made perfect sense for our arrival day. Located across the Bridge of Lions about 2 miles from downtown St. Augustine, the lighthouse is more easily reached in a car than on foot. The lighthouse was open until 6:00 so we had about an hour and a half there …

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Hawksnest Zipline

Due to a big project at my work, I’ve had to put in some crazy hours over the past year. So even though covid-19 means we are all home almost all of the time, I haven’t been able to spend as much quality time with my family as I would like to. I decided to take each of the kids on a one-on-one adventure together. My oldest picked ziplining and after researching a few options in the mountains, I decided on Hawksnest. Both of my boys spend at least one week every summer at camp at the Whitewater Center, so …

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Beech Mountain Resort

Last winter we did a long ski weekend with friends in Winterplace, West Virginia. We wanted to do another ski weekend this year with the same friends, and our priority was to find a ski-in/ski-out rental. We liked Winterplace and did have a ski-in/ski-out condo there but it was so tiny that we just couldn’t stay there again with 8 people. We quickly found that there are not a lot of ski-in/ski-out places in NC. The mountains in NC just aren’t that big so there really aren’t a lot of places to put slope-side houses. We opened our search up to …

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Appalachian Ski Mountain

Living in the south, we are not in a Mecca of ski resorts. I grew up skiing in Vermont every winter and in my 20s stepped it up to skiing out west in Utah and Colorado. Neither of those options are quick or easy (or cheap!) from NC so we have to settle for the local ski “hills” when we want to take the kids skiing. Last year we travelled a bit further to spend a weekend in Winterplace, WV, where we both skied and snow tubed. This year we are staying more local, with a day trip to Appalachian …

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Whitewater Center Lights

We are frequent visitors to the Whitewater Center but had never seen their winter lights display before. Our normal holiday lights tradition is to go to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. We had read that the Holidays at the Garden was going to be smaller this year and many of their usual displays and activities were not going to be offered so we decided to forgo the drive to Belmont and try something new this year. The Whitewater Center charges a parking fee ($6) and activity fees if you want to go rafting, zip lining, etc. But the trails and grounds …

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Holts Landing State Park

Located on just over 200 acres of former farmland, Holts Landing State Park in Delaware offers beautiful views of the Indian River Bay. The park offers plenty of recreational opportunities, including crabbing, fishing, boating, kayaking, hiking and camping. After a wonderful Thanksgiving at my in-laws, it was the perfect place to walk off the meal and get some fresh air. Holts Landing State Park has two main hiking trails, each just over a mile long. The Sea Hawk Trail (1.3 miles) is a loop trail that starts in the main parking area and has a boardwalk that crosses the marsh …

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Richmond Walking Highlights

Before heading home from Richmond after my husband’s marathon, we did a brief walking tour of the city. We walked from our hotel to grab some breakfast and then headed down to the riverfront and across the bridge to Brown’s Island. I ran 7 marathons in my younger days and don’t remember ever touring a city the day after, so kudos to my husband for being up for a walking adventure. One of the biggest surprises for us on our walk was the discovery of some amazing street art. As we headed towards the canal, we stumbled upon a large …

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