The Rocc Flock: Wild and Wonderful

Summer 2023 is officially coming to an end. It was a great summer with a wonderful mix of relaxation/adventures/getting stuff down around the house. One last adventures took us to the beautiful state of West Virginia. Here we go!

This was our first big adventure with the "Red Dragon". We found it so much easier to travel when you only have to throw things in the back of the truck.

We spent 26 total hours in this truck during our adventure. Luckily we all enjoy each other's company!!

License plate game as back in action! We got down to just 5 missing states!!

Cam was excited to see this street!

Our first stop was the Capitol Building in Harrisburg. The twins missed out on this school field trip so we decided to take them!

President Teddy Roosevelt had visited this building and is quoted as saying it was "the handsomest state capitol I have ever seen." We agree!

We visited the Senate Library. We were allowed to open up these little lockers which held book after book full of all of the laws ever created in the state!

Patiently waiting for our tour...

We were told all about the special aspects of the building. We thought this was pretty impressive - a quote from William Penn wrapped around the entire middle section of the building and the quote was created with mosaic tiles!

We were then taken through a small door which revealed this!

This is the Senate side of the capitol building.

We were then taken into the Supreme Court room.

The artist who was hired to create all of this artwork was Violet Oakley. She was in her 20s when she was hired to do this job during a time when women weren't allowed to vote! We thought the following piece was very interesting -- can you figure out the letters hidden in the art??

Onward to the Representative side!

Even the thermostat is fancy!

Quick pitstop for our first brewery -- and some Mastermind!

Next stop was Pittsburgh to visit Bryan, Jamie, Thor and Stormie!

Lovely dip in their pool....

....awesome wing bar....

....and seeing how awesome Bryan is at Minecraft made for a great visit!

On the road again. I LOVE maps and tried to show the twins where we were heading.....

We made it!!

First stop in West Virginia was Morgantown to check out West Virginia University. We were lucky enough to have arrived on a Saturday Family Day. We were totally wearing the wrong colors but we tried to blend in with the Mountaineer fans!

We got settled into our first home for the night and then took a quick ride on a local rail trail.

Riding along the Monongahela River!

We always stop for a good playground!

The next day we checked out the West Virginia Botanical Gardens. Such a pretty spot!

Entering the Secret Garden!

Onward to the Butterfly Garden!

Glad to see Grandma Stanton was with us.

We discovered "Hammock Heaven". Most of us had a relaxing time in the hammocks....

One member struggled!

Loved this spot!

Twins got to work!

Cam's creation!

Allie's creation!

A wonderful spot for fairies to live!

We then headed to Cooper's Rock which is a State Park in WV.

Allie was dying of thirst so Cam and I tried to help her find a good leaf to drink rainwater off of....

Entering Rock City!

We made it to Cooper's Rock!

Love traveling with this guy.

Onward!

Luckily none of these were spotted today....you'll have to wait until later to hear about our run-in with a venomous snake!

I really wanted to see a SHACK during this adventure...we all thought this was a pretty good one!

Cam loves to climb.

Allie loves to create.

On the road again the next day to head further south into West Virginia. We stopped at the West Virginia Wildlife Center. This was not on the initial plan (Allie spotted a brochure for it in a Visitor's Center) but we're glad we stopped!

So amazing to see these beautiful animals so up close.

A sleeping Mountain Lion!

The kids enjoyed taking pictures...I love seeing the pictures they take!

Onward to our next destination -- Summersville!

The kiddos did great with all of the moving and grooving we did on this trip!

We can see why this state is called Wild and Wonderful!

First stop was the Summersville Lake Lighthouse.

We had a lot of steps to climb to get to the top!

We made it!

YES!!! Love how this lighthouse came to be!

Time to check out the lake. This is Long Point -- more on this beautiful spot later!

The town of Gad was flooded back in the early 1960s to create a reservoir and dam. Usually the dam is named after the town it replaced but that would mean it would be called "Gad Dam". Therefore, it's been named after the town of Summersville instead!

Time to move into our cabin.....and have a lovely appetizer of the famed "Pepperoni Roll" of West Virginia!

Time to check out the New River Gorge National Park. This is the newest additions to the nations' National Parks!

We stumbled upon Hawks Nest State Park and decided to take a ride in their jet boat.

Our driver, Rick, took us up the New River in order to get a closer look at the New River Gorge Bridge.

The last section of the ride was the most exciting -- he took us right up these rapids - there's the bridge!

It was not time to see the bridge in a completely different way.....

It had begun to rain...like really rain...as we were awaiting to be strapped into safety gear to walk across the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the United States. I think their faces says it all!

The Bridge Walk goes on....rain or shine!

Smiling at this point...this would be totally fine, right?!?!

Off we went. I was the caboose of the Rocc Flock and if I'm being totally honest -- I did not enjoy this. I kept having visions of the bridge falling apart or one of us falling over the edge.

Cameron was totally fine -- being his usual "cool as a cucumber" even while walking 876 feet above ground on narrow catwalk.

Allie said at one point, "I hate this." If I wasn't trying to be a positive and calm parent at this point, I would have totally agreed with her!

As mentioned....cool as a cucumber.

As mentioned...narrow catwalk.

Our tour guide, Maddie, had no fear. She was not clipped in and chose to sit on the edge of the railing while she taught us about the bridge. I couldn't even look at her because she was scaring me so much!

Almost there!!!

So in the end, we all made it across just fine. Come to find out, Michael was the most scared out of all of us. He pointed out his death grip on the railing which you can clearly see with this family picture. I think Cameron is the only one truly smiling.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center to get our passports stamped.

And then hopped back in the Red Dragon to check out a local waterfall. Shout out to Michael who did all of the driving for the trip!

Cascade Falls!

It looked like a cascade of chocolate milk due to all of the recent rain.

Quick stop at a local brewery for dinner....

PEPPERONI ROLLS!

Love the name of this brewery!

Quick stop at a playground right by the river.

As we were driving to find ice cream for dessert, we spotted this beautiful overlook. Out of the truck we ran!

WE LOVE WEST VIRGINIA!!!

And finally made it to our dessert stop. Fat Eddie's came highly recommended!

And it did NOT disappoint!

Allie made the best choice with their S'Mores Storm!

We spotted this very faint rainbow on the way back to our cabin...it was a picture perfect day!

Onto Summersville Lake! We rented a little speedboat for the day so we could zip around the lake. We decided to swim over to the most picturesque spot in the lake - Long Point!

Mommy was nominated to be the first person to make the plunge. It was still a little bit chilly!

Cameron decided to come along for the adventure!

Daddy stayed with the boat -- Allie opted to watch at first.

We made it!

Allie made it!

I swam back to the boat so Michael could head over to Long Point. The trickiest part was handling who would be on the boat when!

Here he comes!

Allie's turn to jump!

GOING!

GONE!

Next up - Michael!

Here he comes!

JUMP!

So high!

Ready.....

SPLASH!

Once we all had the chance to jump off the boulder, we decided to find a place to fish for a bit.

As we were getting ready to leave the marina, one of the employees told us the lake is really hard to catch fish out of. He said he's never seen someone who rented a boat come back and say they caught a fish. That was a bit disappointing but we were still going to try!

No luck here -- but we found a little spot to anchor the boat and swim to shore. After swimming the fishing poles and nets to shore (you're welcome!) Cameron successfully caught a fish!!! Unfortunately, this fishing trip quickly came to an end when Michael and Cameron discovered they had been standing right next to a Copperhead!!! Here is the part of our adventure when we really did see a venomous snake. Allie and I did not see the snake but rather saw the boys walking quickly towards us and Cameron saying, "Back to the safety of the boat!" It was time to move on!

By that time, the sun had come out and we decided to explore the other part of the lake to see if there were a few more spots we could swim and jump off rocks.

Cam and I checked out this spot....

Rounding this corner was pretty spectacular....

We stopped and watch a guy climbing the rocks for a bit.

One final jump!!!

We then drove to Oak Hill for our final home of the trip. Michael had kept this destination a secret from everyone and we were super excited. Some guesses we made were that we were staying in a treehouse, an igloo, the house had an indoor pool....none of these were correct though. We were staying in....

This place was SO much fun. We met the owners (who were very nice) and they completely designed the entire idea. We were so impressed!

They had game pieces if we wanted to play Monopoly or Candy Land -- unfortunately we didn't have enough time!

And then.....we discovered the Escape Room!! Thanks to Michael's "Escape Garage" the kids were really excited to give this one a try.

The scenario we were given was this was a submarine that had clues hidden inside that would guide us to the map to find the treasure.

We were VERY confused at first!

But then a few lucky discoveries led us on our way!

We found the map!!! Almost there!

What's behind this door??!?!?

We found it!!

SO MUCH FUN!

Our final day in West Virginia took us on a white water rafting trip on the New River. Due to me being slightly terrified that we were all going to fall out during the adventure and be swept into the gorge, I opted to not take my phone with me. So no pictures -- but truly one final amazing adventure to close out our trip through the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia.

Back to the game house to play a few more games.....and then pack. :(

We had a pretty long ride home on Friday so we decided to stop at the Luray Caverns in Virginia.

They were AMAZING!

Can you tell what's going on here? It's called the "Dream Pool".

This stalactite actually broke off of the ceiling during an earthquake. How crazy!!

They named the structure behind the twins the "Redwood".

This is the Great Stalacpipe Organ which was invented by Leland W. Sprinkle in 1954 and is considered the world's largest instrument according to the Guiness World Record book. He had tested stalactites all over the cavern and inserted rubber mallets that would gently strike the rocks at certain times. The furthest one was placed 3 and 1/2 acres away from the organ! So neat!