So, Let's Begin...

Okay, so we're finally ready to begin the process of catching up on the blog.  It appears that we should be home for a while now...granted, I get a new boss tomorrow we think, and he may change things!  Anyway, we left for Salem back on Easter Sunday and spent two weeks there.  So, since we were there through the weekend, we thought we would see a bunch of the touristy stuff.  Our first stop on that Saturday was the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.  Amber and I had thought about stopping many times before since there's a sign for it while traveling on I-81.  We actually decided to do it once.  We got off the highway, and shortly thereafter was a sign saying, "National D-Day Memorial: 27 miles."  So, that was too far.  We got back on the interstate and continued to Greenville.  Anyway, since we were in the vicinity this time, we decided to do it.

The memorial is in Bedford because it had the highest number of soldiers per capita killed on D-Day.  It's relatively new.  George W. Bush was there for the grand opening.  We arrived in the morning after a nice drive on a beautiful day!  It was somewhat cool, and the redbuds were in full bloom.  The mountains in the background just made the area breathtaking.  God is awesome!

The place was a solemn reminder of what so many had done on that day.  Amber and I had the privilege of going to Normandy when visiting France before Ethan was born.  It was sobering to see so many lives lost in order to preserve our freedoms. 

The Eisenhower memorial was pretty amazing in that above his head was a mosaic of the map of the invasion.

After visiting the memorial, we grabbed some lunch and then began a trek to visit a drive-through safari.  We crossed the Peaks of Otter along the Blue Ridge Parkway and wiggled our way over to Lexington.  It was a fun road, for me anyway.  I love wiggly roads through the mountains; Amber on the other hand, gets carsick.  Anyway, we arrived at the safari.  I had some anxiety about how we were going to sit to allow the kids to feed the animals while keeping keeping them protected.  In the end, Amber drove, Ethan and Micah sat/stood in the front passenger seat, and I held Verity in the middle row of the minivan, with the side door open!  It was quite the adventure and in the end definitely surpassed expectations!  I had debated whether to buy food to attract the animals.  We did buy food, and that was definitely the right decision.  The ostrich met us just inside the gate and was more than happy to come up and peck at Ethan's bucket of food.

Some animals were a bit skittish, but many were willing to come right up and help themselves to the food.

Some animals you were told NOT to feed.  One such animal was the buffalo.  The last thing you wanted was a buffalo sticking its head through your window to get your food...as these people found out!

That was a no-no.  You were also told not to feed zebras or watusi.  I'm not sure why the zebras were bad, but it was immediately clear why you shouldn't feed the watusi.  I had never seen a watusi before, but one wrong move and those horns could really hurt!

One of the last animals to feed was a two-humped camel.  I had no idea how big this animal was until it stuck its head through the window!  It grabbed Ethan's bucket of food, pulled it out of the car, tilted his head back, downed the food, and threw the bucket on the ground next to dozens of other buckets taken from unsuspecting motorists!  I was busy protecting Ethan, so I didn't get a picture of him in the car.  Here he is afterward, though, with his pile of buckets.

Once the safari part was over, we still had a zoo to walk through.  ...and it really wasn't a bad zoo!  They had some great areas where you could get right up next to birds and other animals.  The boys were able to feed a giraffe, and everyone (even Verity) got to pet a kangaroo!

Then it was back to the hotel. It was honestly a great day seeing lots of fun / interesting / historical stuff. There was something for everyone!