I wanted to spend our first Christmas at home, but with our son in the military and his kids in North Carolina, we all decided to spend the holidays there. We also needed to spend time with our daughter in NYC. All these logistics could have caused mountains of stress and worry…instead, we found adventure!
We started in NYC with a trip to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes! It was amazing!!!! It even had this cool 3D portion.
After the Spectacular, we visited the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and had lunch next to the skating rink (we’ll be back to go skating…the price at Christmas time was off the chain!!!!).
Y’all know we love food, and this meal was great! We wandered New York after dinner…I ask you, is there any place in the world more magical than NY at Christmas?!
After saying goodbye to Don Manuel’s mini-me, we started our drive south towards North Carolina. We made it to the top of Virginia before we needed to sleep. Upon waking, we heard my son had made it to Charlotte…and had been up all night with the stomach flu. Um…I love my kid, but not enough to get the stomach flu! And that’s when our adventures began!
You know we love to Poke-hunt. Those Poke-stops can really take you to some interesting things you would never see. For instance, at our gas stop, we followed a Poke-stop to a giant Johnny Appleseed statue. Here’s me grabbing Johnny’s “seeds.”
We saw multiple signs for Luray Caverns, and decided the best way to avoid the stomach flu was to be late and avoid Patient Zero…so detour to Luray! We stopped for gas and saw the General Lee from The Duke’s of Hazard, but it was white! It was called the “Ghost General Lee.” What the heck?! As we were heading out to Luray, it passed us and pulled into Cooter’s Garage. I kid you not. Now, I was raised on the Duke’s of Hazard, so I said to Don Manuel, “you bet your butt we’re stopping there on our way back!” Anyway…I digress…back to Luray.
Luray Caverns are AMAZEBALLS!
There is an underground “lake” so still that it casts a perfect reflection. The stalactites and stalagmites are gorgeous. It takes 150 years to grow one inch! And check out this rock penis I found!
Yeah, I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old boy…but, come on! That’s a rock penis!
We definitely would like to revisit Luray again! Now…off to Cooter’s! Where we spotted the Ghost General Lee again! And, Don Manuel had his photo taken in the General Lee.
As we looked around, Don Manuel was like, “I have never bought anything with a confederate flag on it, but I kinda want to get something for Gary.” We grabbed a pennant for him, and when we were checking out, the clerk all casual says, “Did you know Luke Duke is signing autographs out in the garage?” What??? Tom Wopat chillin’ out in the garage?! Yup. You bet your butt we went out there and had him sign Gary’s pennant and a poster for us. Cool dude.
We had lollygagged so much we were hungry, so we grabbed some great southern food at Daisy Duke’s Cafe!
It was definitely time to get our wheels on the road. Charlotte here we come!
The holidays were nice. We went to the movies a couple times and saw Aquaman and Mortal Engines…definitely recommend both! We went swimming…we both think this should be a new Christmas tradition:
After opening presents on Christmas morning, we didn’t have much to do for the rest of the day. We were going to go Poke-hunting…but as we were headed out, we turned right instead of left and went to Myrtle Beach, SC! Because, honestly, sometimes a random roadtrip with the love of your life is the only way to spend Christmas. We dipped our toes in the ocean and found an all-you-can-eat seafood and steak buffet to eat at!
We can eat!
All-in-all it was a beautiful first Christmas together. It wasn’t what I thought I wanted or how I imagined our first Christmas…it was better.