We were right on schedule to meet our friends Ann and Ryan and they called just as we came over the Ben Franklin bridge to say they were just leaving the hospital. (They are both doctors, nothing to worry

We arrived in Cape May with no plan but we wanted to see the lighthouse and find a dog park. We somehow ended up taking a back road route to the state park and pulled in to find the lighthouse and

This was a big ferry, it had 6 rows for cars (instead of the 4 rows on the previous two) the entire 2nd floor was an observation deck and cafeteria and there was a 3rd deck with more outside seating. We

At 1 am we woke up to a heavy rain. There was lightning in the distance and no wind so the only thing we were worried about was leaks. But at this point we were all so tired we just went back to sleep. The

We headed over the Chesapeake Bridge/Tunnel and hit the $12 toll! It was a really, really long way across the bay so we felt it was well worth the $12 instead of the hours of driving around the bay. Then...

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. We stopped into Virginia Beach for Kinko's (much better than bringing a printer on vacation!) and Wal-Mart for a sheet to cover the back seat for the dogs.

It was a fight not to reset the alarm but we got out to pack up our filthy wet stuff because although the rain had stopped the radar showed that it was going to start again within an hour. Now

4am came pretty early. That's when the wind shifted and the storm started coming from the West which is where our tent was facing. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal but the soft sand made

Once again we were cruising the seas, this time for a 40 min. tour. We noticed that there were people driving on the beach. We decided to get to our campsite, setup our tent and go drive on the beach

The rain eventually let up and we ran out to a completely vacated and freshly cleaned private beach. We let Duke and Goblin run free and had a great time racing along the beach. We also

The ride on the ferry was 2.5 hours and the breeze was great. Sandra was antsy and walked all around the ship. I was considering taking a nap but was curiously watching some morons feeding seagulls

We got up again at 6 am, the reason I keep pointing this out is that we never get up at 6 am at home, EVER, or any time close to it for that matter. The room felt a little more musty than it did

We found two hotels in the area that took dogs, Atlantis in Atlantic Beach and Holiday Inn Express in Morehead City. Atlantis was $235/night and $30 for the dogs. When we pulled into Atlantic Beach we

We stopped for a break in a vacant area across from a Wal-Mart parking lot. The dogs got a walk and we learned that the vacant lot had nearly the traffic of the road itself! I don't know how to explain

We woke up at 6 with only a little sleep and found the entire tent soaked with dew and condensation. There's nothing quite like waking up early and folding up a soaking wet tent. But we made it work and

After all of the passport hysteria settled down and we made it to James Island County Park (campsite map) we set up our tent and fed the dogs and dug all of the stuff out of the car that we needed to cook

We met Sandra's Dad around noon in Jacksonville and traded stuff. Layla and Blair were with him and made sure the dogs got some love. So back on the road, we had about 4 hours to go and since we will

I think we were both so excited we didn't sleep well at all but 6 am came and without protest we got up and began loading the car. Our goal was to leave at 8 am. The biggest problem I had loading the

OK, I'm lying... the road trip began July 20th but instead of posting the trip live I wrote it all down in a book (ie. Offline Blogging) so I could post every detail once we got home. Other than this

John Hughes will be missed. His movies are some of my all time favorites. What a great YouTube tribute: A few John Hughes faves in order: Pretty in Pink National Lampoon's Vacation Ferris Bueller's