A Splash of Life: "Heritage" Tour

My mom decided she wanted to take us on a "heritage tour" from my childhood - and hers. It had been a LONG time since I had gone back to West Virginia, where I was born, and I don't think I had ever been as an adult, so it was fun to go see it and remember some of my childhood.

The girls and I were going to drive up, but she was going to fly into Lexington, KY. So the girls and I took a few days to get up there, having some fun travels along the way.

First stop - somewhere in Georgia for a night rest.

No humidity means the wild hair is tame on this one. 

When did she grow up so much?! 

The next day, we stopped off in Chattanooga to see a friend from college that I hadn't seen in YEARS.

Oh, Caroline - always such a ray of sunshine! lol

But then we went on the Carousel and all was right with the world again. lol

Then we picked my mom up at the Lexington airport and headed over to The Ark Encounter.

Not going to lie, it's was a rough day with Caroline. So I didn't get to enjoy much of it, but it's was pretty cool to see what they think the inside of the ark was set up like.

Day 2 -
We went exploring Carter Caves State Park, which is still in KY, just a little closer to the OH/WV borders. 
The girls were in their element! They loved the hiking (even Caroline did all the walking!), climbing on rocks, finding caves, slipping in mud. We only did 2 super tiny trails (which took us about an hour each because of all the exploring), then we took a group tour and went inside an active cave (I got to see little bats!)

That poop under this "cave" was crazy. lol

Day 3 - 

Another trail in Carter Caves

It's such a beautiful park.   @ Carter Caves State Resort Park

This rock was a little on the scary side for me to see the girls over there lol

Then we stopped off at a picnic table by the stream. 

Probably could have spent all day in the stream. My mom showed the girls how she used to catch Crawdads and salamanders in the stream as a kid. They became pros at it! 

Today we went to New River Gorge. One day we'll come back and take the girls white water rafting down the river.

What's funny is that when we walked outside to go to the car, it was actually COLD. We were so excited! lol

The next day, we headed over to Huntington. We stayed with my mom's childhood best friend. She has a tennis court next her house and the girls were up and ready to play by 8:00. lol

and climbing trees. Because that's what we do best. lol

Then my mom took us on a tour of Huntington, from my childhood (and hers).

This is the house that I lived in when I was born. It's such a classic house for that time frame. I actually kind of like it.

This is where I got in an accident. I was playing hide and seek with my cousins, and I hid in my mom's car...I hit the car into neutral, and the car went rolling down the walls. I was hiding under the driver's dashboard, so I got a little bumped up.

Then she took us to Marshall University. Her grandfather used to be a big-deal professor there. And I don't know if you have ever seen We Are Marshall, the movie, but it's kind of a big deal in that town.