Journal #4 – Thursday, June 19

 

Thursday – Today after breakfast we headed out to travel to Natural Bridge which was about 2 hours away. When we got there, we went down into the woods to see the Natural Bridge, which as the name says, is a bridge that was formed naturally by rock. Of course, we know that it was really formed SUPERNATURALLY by God probably during the flood! After we took a number of pictures of the amazing bridge we continued on a walk in the woods. We soon came upon an Monacan Indian village display in the woods, and I found my future home (hahahahaha…gotta see the pictures!) We continued on in the woods, saw some snakes on the ledge, and ended up at a waterfall at the end of the trail. However, the water in the creek was rather low so the waterfall wasn’t really that terrific. We headed back to the Natural Bridge, took a few more pictures, and then headed back to the main building. Andy and Alayna took the steps up to the building, but Dad, Mom, and I took the bus  When we all got back to the building we went to the cafe for lunch. I had a cheese steak which was actually really good. It was flat bread, steak, cheese, peppers and onions toasted in the oven and then topped with lettuce, tomato and mayonaise…yum!! I also had a Mountain Dew and chips (which Dad and Andy ended up eating for me!) I am sure you all find this so interesting! After browsing around the gift shop and taking pictures with a rather large stuffed bear to see how tall we are (gotta see the pictures!) we headed out. Our next stop was the Virginia Safari. Was that ever an experience! It is over 180 acres of land filled with camels, emus, ostriches, deer, llamas, antelope, pot-bellied pigs, zebras, bison, wildebeest and I am sure I am missing a few animals (or just don’t know the names of them!) You drive along and they are just roaming around free. Well, many people buy food for the animals and feed them along the way. We didn’t buy any food…but the animals didn’t know this (at least not right away!) The animals come right up to the windows of the car and just stare at you with those sad eyes to see if you are going to give them anything. We definitely put our windows up fast when the camels and llamas approached. These animals know that when the window is down that means you have food for them. Unfortunately we had to disappoint many animals, but there were plenty of other cars feeding them! After we finished the “safari drive” we headed into the “safari village” which was basically like a mini zoo. Let’s see, we saw monkeys, flamingos, turtles, tigers, kangaroos, birds, goats (baby goats!), and giraffes. Andy, Alayna and I got to feed a giraffe! That was fun! You bought a handful of food, held your hand out straight, and the giraffe just ate out your hand. Their tongues feel just like sand paper! We also got to pet a baby kangaroo, better known as a joey, of course  After we were done in the village, we headed out. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for supper. When we got back to the hotel, we rested for a bit, and then played some rousing games of Dutch Blitz, which Alayna won hands down. *sigh* We then headed next door to Tastee Freez for some ice cream. This is the place we had tried last night but it had been closed. After we finished our ice cream, we decided to be snoops and go across the street to the fancy inn to see what we could see. We got a glimpse of the inside front room. It looked pretty fancy! We got a picture in front of it to appear like we belonged there (hahahaha) When we got back to the hotel, we had yet another rousing game of Yahtzee. And guess who won tonight?! MEEEEEEEEE!! Tonight I actually got 2 Yahtzees  That made my night  After the game was over, we started packing up. We are leaving tomorrow morning. We will be heading to Grandma’s house again and spending Friday and Saturday there. So basically our official vacation is nearly over. That is just soooo sad! It has definitely been a fun week together as a family  Lots of laughs and TONS of pictures to prove we had fun.