Fun Family Day

It was so gorgeous Saturday that we planned a fun family day. Erin had the early soccer game and was done by 10:30. Tom has been talking about visiting a working flour mill that's about an hour away. We went to the mill about 6 or 7 years ago and hadn't been back since. I decided if we were going to drive out to the mill we should make a day of it and do some geocaching. So I printed off the caches, loaded up the caching backpack, grabbed some new batteries for the GPS and we headed off right after soccer.

The kids enjoy the caching. It usually brings us to some cool and new places. This mill is over in the Valley with some gorgeous views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Erin and Jeff really enjoyed the mill. They got to explore outside and see the sluice and the huge wheel. Inside there is a little shop but the kids could see some of the workings there as well. The owner still operates the mill....with water power, but not when the store is open because it gets too dusty.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hitting a series of history caches that were located near historic markers in the county. We even ran into the owner of one of the caches and we chatted with him for a while. He was very nice and pointed us in the right direction for a cache that we'd not been able to find earlier in the day.

We headed back to one more cache. With the few tips from the owner I was finally able to spot it. As we approached it from a different direction we saw a small historic park nearby. This one also had a small mill. The kids really wanted to stop there before heading home. So we went down there and they hopped out of the van and started running around and exploring all the little buildings. It was very cool. It reminded me a little of myself when I was a little girl running around the "battlefield" at Concord and Lexington. Not sure I really grasped what was surrounding me, but I found it very cool. The kids were the same way. They loved the mill building and could see more of how it worked inside. There was an agricultural workshop that they also thought was neat.

The last thing we did was follow a path to the mill pond. Erin especially liked the little walk. We saw some ducks and learned about the habitat surrounding the mill pond.

At one of the stops, the kids got a hold of my camera. Of course I discovered some "fantastic shots" worth sharing when I got home.





On the way home we stopped for some BBQ at a place just across the mountain on 33. We stopped once last year and really liked it. Erin was even willing to try the kids BBQ platter.

Of course we had to deal with the general whining that comes with a long day. And the fighting in the back seat never seems to end some times. But all in all we had a really fun day exploring another area of our cool state of Virginia.