Our 2nd mini trip was to Westmoreland County, Virginia, only an hour and half from our house, about 40 miles east of Fredericksburg. We stayed in a cabin in Westmoreland State Park. Here are some of the highlights.
We went to a berry farm Monday morning that had a whole bunch of goats. One of the little ones was roaming free. Ellie followed it EVERYWHERE. She would pet the goat and the goat would walk away from her, but that didn't stop Ellie from doing her best to keep up with it. She'd pet it and it would walk away, and then she'd catch up to it and pet it and it would walk away and so on. It was so cute.
The state park had a big Olympic-sized pool. We had a wonderful time playing in the pool. A little girl named Maddie quickly engaged Ellie in a splash out, which Ellie loved since she loved to be splashed - even getting splashed in the face doesn't bother her, she just loves it.
The cabin itself was pretty rustic. It had heating and air conditioning, which was great. But it was obvious that it was built sometime in the 1930s when the actual park was built. It had two bedrooms - one with a double bed, the other with two twin beds. The first night we slept in the double bed and Ellie was in the other room. But it was a very, very uncomfortable night. Not only is a double bed close quarters, exacerbated by the fact that I am a full 7 months pregnant, but the mattress was incredibly squishy and bouncy. It was one of those beds that sinks down towards the middle and makes noise with every move you make. So the next night, we did an Ozzie and Harriet and slept in the room with twin beds instead. It was much better, even if we weren't in the same bed.
I don't know where the people of Westmoreland County get their food. We searched for over an hour on Monday to find a grocery store and a place to eat lunch. It was almost a lost cause. We finally found one gas station that had a Subway in it, which provided lunch. And on a complete fluke, we went to check out the birthplace of James Monroe, which was a few miles off the main highway. The birthplace itself was underwhelming (just an obelisk and a plaque), but we did drive by a tiny market place where we stopped to get groceries. Seriously, how does anyone eat there? I just don't know.
Tuesday morning we went to the birthplace of George Washington. The National Park Service has a good set up there. The actual house burned while Washington was still alive and was never rebuilt. But they have preserved the foundation and built a "memorial house". Ellie especially loved the farm animals - her favorite was the pig. She would have stayed there all day if we hadn't had dragged her from it.
That's pretty much it. It was a slower paced trip as opposed to our trip to Hershey. But we liked it that way. We spent a lot of time just relaxing at the cabin. We might even consider coming back if we could guarantee that we could find some place to eat...
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