Sowers Family Vacation 2013 - Part 1

Usually when we Sowers go on a "vacation", it means we all pile into the car and drive 13 hours to my Grandparents (on my Mom's side) house to visit them. It's nice to see them and I love them, but honestly, they live out in the middle of nowhere, no wifi, and not much to do except watch the grass grow and watch my Granddad's cows. 

But this year, my parents planned a real vacation, woohoo! The main reason is because my younger sister is leaving for basic training with the Army in October, so they wanted one last family fun thing. I wasn't that excited about going; The car ride, the fact that I wouldn't talk to Nathan for 7 days, and we were going white water rafting. Fun, as long as your father doesn't share the fact that someone he knows, knew someone who died doing it. Even with all that though, the vacation "must go on". So with some... encouragment ;) to have a good time, we were off!

Every time we make this journey, we set off early in the morning and drive the whole 13 hours. Trust me, we have gotten to be expert travelers. If you ever have to use the restroom before we need gas, you will get the evil eye. This time was different though. We left after church on Sunday, drove 8 hours to Columbia, SC, and stopped over at a hotel. Then the next day we only had about 5 hours to drive. 

The hotel was nice! Two queen beds and a pull out, so no one slept on the floor ;) Oh, and an orange wall always makes me happy! 

The drive on Monday passed by really fast; when you're used to 13 hours, 5 seems easy. =) We got to Pipestem, WV, (the resort/park we were staying at) around 1:30 and had about an hour until we could check into our rooms. Time to explore! Pipestem had so many incredible places. We decided to ride the tram down the mountain into the valley while we waited.

Sister picture! Left to right: Sarah (My second to youngest sister) Me (Can you believe I'm the oldest of the four*) Katheryn (My youngest sister) and Jennifer (The sister right below me). Canyon Rim was the name of the building/area that the tram was at.
*My oldest sister Jaquelyn is married, so I'm the oldest at home.

Tram from the top

Tram from the bottom

Here's our view from inside the tram. It was a liiitttle scary! But lots of fun! Jennifer, Sarah and I rode in one, and my parents and Katheryn rode in another.

Going down!

Say cheese! ;)

Coming up!

This was such a fun cave; we wanted to explore!

Down in the valley there was much to do; a gift shop, a cool river, and a tough trail.

Man, why didn't I bring my fishing pole?? (Not that I have one =P) I could have brought home some trout!

We skipped rocks here and Dad was pretty good. My highest was three =)

Here is that trail I mentioned. It was called the Farley loop and according to the sign it was for experienced hikers. Did that stop us?? Of course not! Boy, they weren't kidding though. Mom only made it about 50 feet (of course she was wearing a skirt and sandals.) until she went back down to wait for us. There were lots of times all 5 of us were on our hands and knees climbing up a steep, slippery slope. But it was so worth it! We reached the top to find a beautiful overlook with a spectacular view. My God is certainly the best artist ever! We actually found out that we hadn't reached the very top, but we were all ready to head back =)

My parents =) Not exactly the ideal hiking outfit mom ;)

Almost there!

 The view from the overlook, awesome!

Only the first day and Pipestem was turning out to be so much fun! Well, I have a ton more pictures and a lot more to say, be on the look out for part two. =) Hope you enjoyed!

(I'd love to hear from you, readers! What has been one of your favorite vacations? Which part of this post did you enjoy most??)

{click to read part 2, part 3, and part 4!}

Until next time...