Carolina Cousins

The next morning we said goodbye to our condo and headed out on the road to North Carolina.

The city of Charlotte, North Carolina had princess tiaras on all of their street signs so we told Charlotte it was because she was a princess. She didn't really believe us.

After stopping to have lunch with an old friend, we arrived in Fletcher at our cousin's house. The girls were in the pool, so Wyatt and Noah got their trunks on and jumped in too.

It was a busy table at dinner that night.

The kids all loved playing together and ended up staying up past 11pm talking and giggling.

The next morning, we helped them collect eggs from their chickens.

We played outside.

And inside.

And shared a tasty treat.

The kids bonded really fast with their cousins. Charlotte even cried when I told her we had to leave the next day. They told me for weeks that they wanted to move to North Carolina. On his birthday, Wyatt had me tell Emily that he was now six "just like her". Hopefully we get to see them again soon.

Another day of travelling brought us to Louisville. We had dinner at our favorite Louisville restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory.

And Lastly, a Bit of History

I was excited that we were traveling through Louisville because it meant I could check another president off my presidential bucket list. Zachary Taylor, our 12th president, was buried in Louisville in none other than Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. He wasn't hard to find as it wasn't a very large cemetery.

The house he grew up in was just around the corner and still used as a residential property.

In our travels to find Zachary, we accidentally stumbled upon an historical property called Locust Grove. Delightfully (to me only probably), we discovered that one of my favorite historical figures, George Rogers Clark, resided there for a time and it was also the "unofficial" start of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

We arrived too late on Friday to visit the house, but swung back on Saturday morning after breakfast. It was an exceptionally beautiful day.

We did a short tour of the house, which has been restored to the time when George stayed there. The wooden banister was very impressive and original, so of course Wyatt tried to gnaw on it.

 

The kids were pretty well behaved and our tour guide even mentioned how good they were being. If we had had a bit more time, we could have visited the cemetery where George was buried, but I guess we'll save that for our next trip through Louisville.

 And so we began the final leg of our journey home.

We did stop briefly at another historical site on the way home so we could stretch our legs: The Tippecanoe Battlefield.

I tried to get a nice picture of Wyatt for his preschool cubby, but he just loves to make it difficult for me.

The other two wanted some pictures too.

 

Another successful family vacation in the books 🙌