Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

We are in Pipestem State Park in WV now. The closest city is Hinton, which takes about 5 minutes to drive thru. We all had a good nights sleep and are ready to start exploring. We don’t get great cell coverage here so updates might be a little slow.

Virginia Air & Space Center, Hampton VA

We visited the Virginia Air & Space Center today. It was Air Force week and the admissions were free! The kids got to try out some Air Force gear and flight suits, even mom got into it!

The bed of nails, first time they ever laid still. :)

The Air Force was here showing off there equipment.

Jamestown Settlement, Virginia

We visited the Jamestown Settlement today. It was a great learning opportunity for the kids. We visited the Powhatan Indian village and learned how they made tools, weapons and how they farmed and built their homes. We moved to the Jamestown fort and learned how to made fishing nets, dug out canoes, metal working, carpentry and farming. Then we visited the 3 ships the settlers came over on.Powhatan Village

Jamestown Fort

Newport News Park, Virginia

Our friends recommended stopping at Newport News Park, it’s one of the largest municipal parks in the country. We ended up with a really good site on the lake. There is a nice playground, hiking and biking. They have paddle boats and canoes for rent also.

Updating and packing up!

We’re packing up and getting ready to head to Newport News County Park. It’s only about 15 miles from here. Of course it’s starting to rain again. We’ll be in Newport News till the 20th then we are heading to West Virginia. We’re planning on going to the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton while we are here.

We updated some of our pictures on Flickr also this morning, here they are:

Va Beach Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_staffordjr/sets/72157616769603247/

John Kerr Dam:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_staffordjr/sets/72157616373163915/

Franklin D Roosevelt State Park:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_staffordjr/sets/72157616463356918/

Holiday Travel Park - Virginia Beach, Virginia

We are staying here in the Holiday Travel Park in Virginia Beach. It’s a good base location to visit family and friends. It’s still raining every other day it seems. April showers I guess bring Stafford’s? :) Here is a look around the campground, this is resort camping not rural country camping like we prefer.

One of the 4 playgrounds, they also have 4 pools, but they are not open yet.

Putt-Putt golf

Drift wood arch

This laundry room had a really cool theme and paint job! We’ve found the more entertaining the laundry room the faster it makes the time go by.

The campground hosted an Easter egg hunt and hay ride. The kids had fun and found plenty of candy!

Hay Ride

Here is my dad (Sr.), Me (Jr.) and little Robbie (the III). We just came back from Davenport’s Barber shop in Ocean View. Hubert has been cutting Stafford hair for 4 decades!

Here’s my mom, Jane and Jordyn.

This campground is located next to Oceana Naval Air Station, so we get a free air show everyday! Little Robbie loves it, Jordyn's not to thrilled about all the noise. We tell her it’s a small price to pay for freedom!

Kerr Dam Reservoir, Boydton, Virginia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates this 50,000 acre reservoir and an additional 50,000 acres of surrounding land. In the 1950's, Kerr Reservoir, also called Buggs Island Lake, was constructed primarily to provide for flood control and hydropower generation. The 900 miles of wooded shoreline stretch across three counties in Virginia and three in North Carolina. Five campgrounds are operated by the Corps of Engineers, seven by the North Carolina State Parks and two by the Virginia State Parks.

There is a small grave yard from the Land family near the campground, with a confederate soldier. The Land family’s daughter was 9 years old when she passed and the chapel for named after her.

This is our campsite in area B at the North Bend Campground.

The new view out the dining room /class room window.

Here are some of the other campsite, at least half are on the water.

Here is one of the swimming areas

Having lunch at the lake.