To the Outer Banks, via Gettysburg- Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024

      We're on our way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Julie really wanted to go to Disney on our February break this year, of course, but it didn't seem like that was in the cards this time.  When we ruled out Disney, Julie suggested Virginia Beach, since it wasn't that far away, and we know it isn't that expensive off-season.  We've done a lot in that area before though, so Scott suggested we go a little bit further.  We started to look at things to see in the Outer Banks, and we were intrigued.  Anna's previous trip there with Noah's family probably helped whet our appetite for the place.

     We each were off a day early this time because Abby had to go to Children's Hospital for dental work.  Since she's so young, they put her under general anesthesia, and we were both at the hospital for the procedure.   Mommy was relieved to learn that Abby wouldn't be awake when they gave her the IV, and when they placed the mask over her face she had a choice of scents for it.  Abby chose watermelon.   She got multiple caps including both white and metallic ones.  The procedure took about 2 hours, and then there was about an hour and a half of recovery time.   That part was hard because she was groggy, of course, and just wanted to cuddle.  She cuddled with Mommy for most of the rest of the day.  Anyway, we're adding this story here to help explain why we got a late start today.  Abby woke up fussy and complaining of various aches.  We had the car rental scheduled for a pick up at 8:00 am, but we decided we had to play it slow and see if Abby would be able to travel later in the day.

     Last year, we actually made arrangements to go to Arizona during this time, but several factors made us wonder if we should.  The last straw was when the airlines changed the flight we had booked to a very inconvenient time.  Because of that, several months ago, we cancelled the flights and car rental that we had for Phoenix.  As Scott was checking today's car rental info in the app on Julie's phone, notifications popped up about our Phoenix reservations.  Julie had to spend a while wrestling her way through the automated answering to confirm that our Phoenix plans were in fact cancelled.

     We finally got the car about 11:00.  By that time, Abby seemed ready to go.  We left about noon, taking our time as we went.   We stopped many times along the way because of the four-year old.    We stopped at what has become our usual stop at the Pennsylvania Visitor Center at the Tioga Reservoir and Dam.  Today, Abby got her picture there with "Larry" the elk.  (We know he was an Elk because we checked his membership card.)  Eventually, it became clear that we probably shouldn't push on to Virginia tonight like we had hoped, but we had started three hours later than we had planned.   We decided to try dinner in Gettysburg at any of several places we like to visit.   As we neared Gettysburg, we decided it might be best if we just stayed here for the night too.  We got a room at one of our favorite hotels on Steinwehr Avenue and ordered pizza and wings for a pick-up from Tommy's Pizza drive-thru window, nearby.  We made sure before we booked the room that their indoor pool was in fact operating.   After a meal in our room, Abby was ready for a swim with Mommy.  We hope to get an earlier start tomorrow.