Robertsons & Daughters: West Virginia Vacation

Our family vacation this year was going to be a trip to Banff National Park in Canada. Of course that was canceled, cough cough thanks COVID. We planned a new trip to West Virginia and it did not disappoint! Since Deb and Lois were going to be with us in Virginia in a couple days after West Virginia, I asked them if they wanted to tag along. We enjoyed having them with us, but in the future I want to have our family vacations to be just our family. We had a lot of fun cousin and family time this summer, but we also needed time to ourselves as well. Note to self!

We got platform tents at a camping/resort place called Adventures on the Gorge. Lois and kids and Deb and her family were in the one next door.

Nighttime scriputres.

Oh and on the drive to West Virginia we stopped at Steak N' Shake. They were offering free fries. No purchase necessary. I didn't want to ask for salt or ketchup. Salt would have made a world of difference, but they were still pretty good. Fries are my favorite food!

Meanwhile at home, Lee packed up the suburban with our bikes and camping gear to head to West Virginia. It was so nice that he could bring all that stuff. I had a huge pile waiting for him in the kitchen plus extra things I thought of texted to him on a list. I wish we didn't have to have two vehicles there, but that's how it worked out. We met up at the campsite Saturday night.

Sunday we had our own church services at the campground. Later we drove to a waterfall and then to some smaller waterfalls. So pretty there.

Totally looks like Clark is in front of a blue screen. So weird!

My kids love making mini fires. Which I don't recommend...

The place we stayed had an awesome view right at their resort of the New River and the gorge.

Cicada fun. The kids liked putting a cicada on different people.

We split up the meals and each took turns. Deb had really fun food. For breakfast Monday morning we had eggs, hashbrowns and ham. I have one pudgy pie maker and she has about 4. It was fun making breakfast over the fire.

The best part about camping? Sitting, visiting and eating around the fire.

Adventures on the Gorge also has....adventures! They do rappelling, rafting, kayaking and zip lining courses. I wanted to do their long zip lines but everyone has to weigh 90 pounds. Elden weighed 85. There was no way he was going to gain 5 pounds in a just a few days. I picked a ropes course with mini zip lines that everyone could do, ages 4+. It was really fun! I am looking forward to going next summer on the big zip lines and doing whitewater rafting.

We learned terms like tweezle. There was another term in ziplining, but I can't remember. We started out with buddies, but later Lee and I and our kids went off on our own which was fun. Since I was with Rhett in the beginning I couldn't do all the courses--there were 5. My kids got to do all of them, well the ones that wanted to. Lee and I did a couple at the end together which was really fun. Sadly we didn't get good pictures of Shanna and Haley on the course, just far away ones.

We loved the zip line course! It was so awesome. Again, can't wait to go back. We went to the pool that afternoon. I had no idea there was a pool at Adventures on the Gorge till I was already there. It was a nice pool too. I'm glad they were open, even with COVID going on.

That night for dinner Deb did pizza with with pudgie pie makers. So yummy!

Near the pool area there are some shops and a restaurant I think, plus a really cool overlook for the gorge and the New River. Just this little break in the trees. They have chair set up so you can go and sit and also enjoy the sunset.

Cal I guess was in stoic mode for some pictures.

The next morning on Tuesday we did a bike ride then a little hike on Long Point Trail. It was really fun on the trail as you walked through rhododendron trees that formed a sort of tunnel. Then after walking on a little path past the trees all of the sudden it opened up wide to an almost 360° view of the New River and the gorge.

The kids had fun finding little pools of stagnant water with frog tadpoles.

After the hike we went over to another viewpoint and visitor center area, but didn't stay long as the viewpoint wasn't that great.

That afternoon we did a hike with everyone on the Endless Wall Trail. I wish we would have taken everyone on Long Point Trail because of the awesome view. Endless Wall had some fun views as well, so it was still a fun hike.

Snake rock...

We hit up the pool again that evening. Blake found more frogs!

On Wednesday we took off early that morning and headed about an hour away to Sutton Lake in West Virginia. There we rented a double decker pontoon. It had two slides, a grill and a restroom. Sadly we couldn't pull a tube or anything with the boat. To make up for that there were rocks along the water's edge that the kids could climb and jump off. They had fun scaling and jumping and exploring the shore line.

We did grilled chicken, watermelon and chips and salsa for lunch on the ship.

Lee and I have a new task...finding a place that has mountain biking, a motorsport friend lake and snow skiing all within a half hour of each other. I know of a place in Idado, Tamarack Resort, but we need to find that place out here! I saw this sign about an hour from Sutton Lake. One thing that was nice about Sutton Lake is that it wasn't developed at all. But that is also something I really like about Smith Mountain Lake--all the houses and amenities. It's fun riding on the boat, looking at the houses.