Delaware: A trip to the first state Day 2

On Day 2 our first stop was the Hagley Museum and Library After walking through the Visitors Center and learning the history of gun powder the kids were excited to learn more. We were actually going to see historic DuPont powder yards on the banks of the Brandywine River. It was a nice walk through nature to get to the next exhibit on the way we saw a turtle, which made Duke really happy. We enjoyed a demonstration of how the men would use water power to power their machines. The machines were used to make specialized tools for making gun powder. Duke and I happened upon a video on the 3rd floor of the Visitors Center about the DuPont company making bullet proof vests.The rest of the kids and Dad had fun looking at things through microscopes and pretending to drive Jeff Gordon’s race car. We only had time to take in a little bit of what the Hagley Museum has to offer. The kids were getting hungry and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get a quick bite to eat.

  

After lunch and a short drive we arrived at the Delaware Children’s Museum. I am a pretty big fan of children’s museum because the kids are allowed to touch pretty much everything. We have a few kiddos that are hands on and this is the best place for them. We stopped in the art room first to make sure the creations would have plenty of time to dry before we had to leave. A clothes pin with a piece of string dipped in paint. Who would have thought that would makes things a little cleaner and more fun. After that they climbed up and down the huge structure that all children museums seem to have. I can’t tell you how many times they did it but lots. There were several exhibits and I am pretty sure we so them all but I will only tell you about the favorites. EConnect aka Water Works is just about every kids favorite. That see how fast or if we can overflow it. There was also a neat thing the kids could you to make it rain and spin a tornado. Not sure what kids fascination is with water but it’s great.  Near that area is a fun booth where you can stand in a tornado. Well kinda, it’s a wind machine but totally fun. I can only imagine what my hair would have looked like if I hadn’t had it tied back. We also enjoyed a race on the DCM Speedway. The kids were sure they could pass me. It had been a long time since I had been on a Roller Racer. Boy, was I sore later 😉 It brought back good memories of PE in elementary school of races and such.

It was a great day of indoor and outdoor fun. Two of the kids top 5 things we did during our trip. After the Children’s Museum we stopped at Friendly’s for dinner. Friendly’s has become one of my favorite places to eat. I love being able to build my (very picky) burger. The other reason of course is the ice cream 😀 While we were eating dinner it was raining buckets. After everyone finished eating we raced to the car and headed to the hotel.   I can say for sure we had no trouble getting the kids to bed that night.

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Delaware: A trip to the first state Day 1

This year we choose Delaware as our vacation destination. I was sold on the idea once I saw there was a beach. Being Floridian born, I love the beach. Last year, we visited 2 beaches in Maine. Neither compared to any beach I had ever been to. So I compiled a least of fun and interesting attractions. I selected some fun as well as educational attractions. My husband took that list and broke it into days. The spontaneous person in me always gets a little sad when it feels like he is over planning. On the other hand his planning means he books hotels in advance and gets to know the local area via Google maps.  Once we had everything planned and packed, we couldn’t wait to head out on our newest adventure.

Day1:The drive from DC to Wilmington, Delaware wasn’t too bad. During the first part of the 2 hours in the car we listened to Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims. If you haven’t read or listened to the book yet, you should. At some points during the story we were all laughing. The history, fun facts, and silly antics kept at least the 3 girls and I entertained.  It was fun sitting in the back with the girls as Grandpa was with us until lunch time. We left around 7:30am to arrive at the Delaware Museum of Natural History when it opened. We were there before the doors opened and explored the grounds near the entrance. The kids enjoyed crawling on the bronze statues of a turtle, a deer, and a few others. I think we were all just glad to be out of the car. We were the first patrons as the museum employee opened the doors. The kids were very excited to explore a place they had never been before. At the front desk one of the employees, told the girls to keep an eye out for the pictures of Dude, the Museum cat  through out the museum and promised a prize.One part of the museum is made up of birds(not a bad thing). There is another room  with misc animals and a really big Dung beetle rolling a ball of dung. There is also a trail outside to explore. The kids loved running through the woods. Pippi took pictures of Dude that they found through the museum to show to the museum employee. As Pippi shared the pictures, the four oldest got really excited as they were handed a Delaware Museum of Natural History tattoo. As we ended our visit at the museum I could tell this was going to be a good trip.

We were all hungry and glad we had planned to meet George’s Aunt and Uncle at a diner close by. (we love diners) We had a wonderful meal at The Hollywood Grill. It was one of the best restaurants we would eat at during our trip. The kids enjoyed chatting with their Great Aunt and their Great was very proud about the progress the girls have been making in Tae Kwon Do. As we said our final goodbyes, the kids made sure to give lots of hugs and tell Grandpa they would miss him. It was nice having Grandpa visit. The kids enjoy how much love and attention he gives them.

Our next stop was the Brandywine Zoo. The parking wasn’t easy to understand but it worked out. We made our way to the gates hoping to spend at least a few hours exploring. We were in for a surprise. The zoo is really small, one of the smallest we had ever been to. The kids petted the goats and watched the tiger play in the water. The kids were hot and there really weren’t very many animals to look at.We bought snow cones to prolong the time before heading to the hotel.

I won’t make a comment about every hotel we stay at but this one well it made me laugh. When my husband booked our room he just researched good and bad reviews and how close it was to attractions we planned to visit. This hotel just happened to be right next to the local airport. It wasn’t noisy or anything. It’s funny because most ppl avoid the hotel by the airport. It was a pretty nice hotel really and the staff were very friendly.

We ended our day with a trip to a local park. Battery Park was a great stop. It had lots of playground equipment. There were lots of kids and  quick friends were made. After the kids had played for a while we decided to take a walk. There was a firefighter throwing a ball into the water for his dog. The kids haven’t seen some of the cooler things that dogs can do so they watched for a long time. Right before we were about to head back the nice firefighter offered to let the kids take a turn throwing the ball. Seeing each of them light up as they threw the ball was great.