SkyPark Adventures!

Tag: spring break

  • Spring break 2022

    For Spring break we went to Culpeper to hang out with family and celebrate an early Parker birthday where he turned 1 years old. We departed Sunday morning and went to an indoor water park at Massanutten. While waiting for me to get lunch, Parker got in line for the Flow-Rider and ripped it up!

    There were some slides that went out of the park and wound around the outside of the building and then exited back inside – super cool! Skylar and I got a bit cold, but luckily they had a massive hot tub, aka warm tub, that could fit about 50 people where we could warm up.

    After our day at the water park we went to the most ghetto Air-BNB I’ve ever visited. It was supposed to be a guest house and ended up being a garage next to a no-so-great house. I didn’t feel too bad because the previous week I had the kids give me their input on where they wanted to stay and they chose what we thought was a nice place over a traditional hotel (this choice will come back to haunt them as I now choose off-the-beaten-tracks for all our stays – see Dutch Wonderland post July 2022). The pool table was about half the size of a standard pool table and you couldn’t hit the balls from one corner because it was too close to the wall.

    There was a sign that said there was only 9 minutes of hot water, so each of us had to take a 3 minute shower. The stone wall with fireplace was actually stone wall-paper. The picture of the fence that went around the firepit ended just out of view so you couldn’t see there was a bank on one side and a barn falling down on the other side. Lovely!

    Regardless, we laughed at the whole situation and it ended up being the most memorable part of the vacation. Skylar and Parker enjoyed making fire in the fire pit, and we all slept well despite the accommodations.

    We left our Air-bnb and went to Lexington to visit with Nana and Poppa D. We had a most delicious dinner at the mountain. Parker and Skylar took the floating dock out for a spin. Parker commented that ‘everyone in your family is a good cook’. Lots of yummy steak, corn, and potatoes on this trip!

    The next day we got a personal tour of VMI via Jean and her husband including a trip to the gun museum and some goodies from the gift shop.

    We returned back to Nova and met up with Ryland for a bike tour of the city. We visited the major landmarks near Ryland’s house and then got ice cream. I was in the process of coming down with a cold and the trip uphill about killed me. Nothing a little ice cream can’t fix!

  • Puerto Rico video

  • Day 7 – Del Morro

    Our last couple days were spent in Del Morro. I didn’t love Del Morro – it seemed like it has past it’s heydey maybe 10 years ago.

    The kids loved the pool – honestly, we could have vacationed 10 miles down the road – as long the hotel had a nice pool they would be in heaven.

    We visited the Princess Anne walkway on Sat. and saw street vendors and locals playing dominos. It felt a little like I would imagine Cuba.

    Upon exiting the car, Parker grabbed an empty gallon water jug and it became his ‘scuba floaty’ for the next couple days.

    The beach was teaming with life at Del Mar – we found a hermit crab, lots of bright green seaweed, conch shells, clams, etc.

  • Day 6 – Condado

    Saturday we left the countryside of Luquillo and went into the ‘new’ city part of San Juan into a part called Condado. Our hotel and this part of the city was upscale with restaurants, well-to-do Puerto Ricans, and expensive cars.

    BTW – even though it is a US territory, apparently they don’t have the equivalent to the DMV in PR. We would see cars on the interstate missing mirrors, smashed in front windows, wrecked rear ends with no working lights or bumpers, etc.

    Parkers favorite thing at Condado was stealing plastic cups and taking them into the pool to play with. The staff probably removed 20 plastic cups from the pool after we left…

    Skylar was our ‘foodie’ on this trip. She loved the food tour and wanted to try coconut water at LaConcha. It wasn’t very sweet – sort of salty with a slight hint of coconut. I don’t think the coconut was ripe 🙁

  • Day 5 – Fort Tour

    Day 5 was Good Friday – lots of stuff was closed, so we did a Fort Tour. Unbelievable the amount of human capital that went into making these things. It only took them 400 years to finish it.

    The Forts kept PR in Spanish hands for that long, until the US shelled the pajeezus out of them in 1898.

  • Day Four – food tour

    On Thursday we went to Old San Juan for a food tour. It was one of the few times we had something other than fried xyz, you fill in the blank. Although for our main meal, we made Mofongo – mashed fried plantains mixed with butter and garlic.

    Like much of the Caribbean, rum is the alcohol of choice. Puerto Rico had the best rums I had ever experienced.

    We also had some sort of spice – this red sauce that was hot but didn’t linger in your mouth. Very unique – might have been Sofrito. Of course we ate it on some sort of fried thing.

    Old San Juan is surrounded by a fort wall that is 16 feet thick and a couple hundred feet high. The buildings are colorful and sometimes reminiscent of New Orleans.

    They have these bizarre cat-dragon statues throughout the city – apparently making fun of the cities stray cat problem.

  • Puerto Rico Mountain Cave

    Day two we went to visit Puerto Rico’s caves. It was an almost 2-hour car ride and by the time we got there we were hungry so we stopped by a local diner for lunch.

    FYI – in the countryside of Puerto Rico there is only 1 food option: fried food or more fried food. Typically chicken, plantains, and a starch of some sort covered in butter and garlic.

    The cave that we visited was at the top of a mountain and the view was breath-taking although a little bit scary. One wrong step and there was nothing to prevent you from going right out the end and plunging several thousand feet.

  • El Yunque waterfall / hike

    After waterfall numero uno we continued on to waterfall dos. It was a .8 mile long hike that the kids ran almost the entire way in and out. Needless to say we took naps every afternoon 🙂

    It was also Puerto Rico’s spring break, so waterfall dos was actually a bit crowded with both tourists and locals.

    Waterfall numero dos we could actually swim in – check out the pics:

  • El Yunque Rain Forest

    Our first day in Puerto Rico we got up early to visit the El Yunque rain forest. The visitors center wasn’t that interesting other than a giant beetle that we found and played with.

    We pulled off and hiked a short distance to see a waterfall up close – all the while listening to Susan excitedly say, “Put your hand here, step there, go slow, are you ok, step there, left foot here, right foot here, Parker, Skylar, Parker…”

  • Loquillo beach

    Phone shots of our first day at Loquillo beach. There was a natural reef that broke the waves, and the water was like being at a lake – 2-6 inch waves 🙂