Family Road Trip

The kids usually spend 1-2 weeks every summer with their grandparents in Ohio/Michigan. We decided that we would take a week to drive them up there and do some sightseeing along the way.

Day one we spent driving from Florida to Franklin, North Carolina. It was about a nine hour drive to the mountains. Once we got there, the weather was perfect, nice and cool, and the views were beautiful.

Day two we went mining for gems. There are several ways that people can mine. You can actually go out in the mountain, get a bucket of dirt, bring it back, run it through the water and hope that you get something. You continue this until you do get something. Now our children, like most, want that instant gratification so we opted for the enriched buckets that you will produce results. We bought two 2 1/2 gallon buckets of dirt and started panning away. Here's how you do it: 1. Put a scoop of dirt in the strainer (container with small holes) 2. Put the strainer in the running water and wash the dirt away.

3. Determine which rocks are gems and which are just rocks. Luckily, there was an expert there to help us with this. It's very hard to figure out what is a rock and what is a gem. Rocks go into the throw away bins and gems on the tray. Continue to do this until the dirt is gone.

The kids loved this and both got a quart size ziploc bags of gems, ranging from quartz to emeralds and rubies.

Joo holding up citrine that she found.

Min holding up amethyst he found

The mine that we went to had a special for tourmaline. They would polish and cut a one carat piece for a ring or necklace included with the purchase of our buckets. It's really neat to see a black rock that you found be turned into a pretty green gem.

After mining, we toured the mountains a bit then headed towards Tennessee.

Min loved climbing on the rocks.

We took this really beautiful scenic route that followed a river for most of the way. This river was used in the summer Olympics that were in Atlanta for the whitewater kayaking events. We stopped at the visitor center and watched all of the whitewater rafters running the rapids. We saw a couple of people get flipped out of the raft and the rescuers trying to pull them back in.

Day three was spent at Lookout Mountain in Tennessee and Georgia. We went to Ruby Falls, which is an underground cavern system that has a huge waterfall.

We also went to Rock City, which is an outcropping of large rock formations that a family made into a park with walking trails over the rocks and in between the rocks. It was a really neat park. When you get to the top of the mountain, you can see seven states.

Day four was spent at King's Island, an amusement park in Mason (close to Cincinnati) Ohio. They have the best kids' area of all the parks that we have been too. Min and Joo love that park. I love the food in that park. Cheese fries and elephant ears, yum!!! We left the camera at the hotel that day (we had just been there the previous August and had taken a bunch of pictures then), but we did buy a great family picture of us going down the hill on one of the water rides there.

Day five we drove to Columbus to see our good friend, and my former college roommate, Mrs. Jones and to stock up on our buckeye gear for the upcoming college football season. We also had to show the kids Ohio Stadium! Go Bucks!!
Min took this picture of us in front of Mike Nugent's Buckeye tree in Buckeye Grove. Every Ohio State player that is an All-American gets a Buckeye tree planted in the grove in his honor.

Day six was supposed to be spent at Kelley's Island in Lake Erie but the weather didn't cooperate and it rained so we went to Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, Ohio instead. This was a fort that was used in the War of 1812.

We had a great family road trip, the kids were well behaved in the car and they got to see and do things that were new to them.

Day seven the kids were with Grandma Sue and Papa, and Mr. Cash and I were on our way to visit several historical sites on the way back home. More on that later. . .