All that sparkles...Gem Mining near Spruce Pine, NC

An older blog that I never published...

So spring track out was upon us...(for those of you that don't know we are in year-round schools so we get 4 longer breaks throughout the year instead of just the summer).  My husband and I had been tossing around different ideas for a quick getaway.  We thought about Great Wolf Lodge, Stone Mtn GA,Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Williamsburg and the beach.  Ahh...but how to choose?  Ask the little people!  They are the driving force in all that we do anyway!!!  I made the question open ended to start...What do you want to do over track out???  Camping!  Okay, that's cool.  Takes out the Great Wolf Lodge option (which truly doesn't belong in a frugal blog anyway!!!) but all the other options can be done in conjuction with camping.  So, where I asked the little munchkins.  A unanimous "We want to go gem mining again" (we had a camping trip last spring to Asheville area).  I thought huh?  maybe they just don't know what the options are...  so I said we can go camping, sure!  but we can go to lots of places.  Do you want to go to an amusement park with rides and shows and roller coasters???  Can you guess what Mom's first choice was??  :)   Nope, no go!  They wanted to go camping and gem mining again.  It was a great choice!  Plus, we could take our dogs.  This is important to us because we have our 12.5 yr old border collie and a new 2.5 yr old shih tzu.  Not so worried about the little dog but my BC needs TLC.

I went off into cyberspace in search of a new and different place to mine for gems.  This was made more challenging by the fact that the girls wanted to go to a "real" mine this time. So I found the town of Spruce Pine and there were a number of mines in the area including 2 that looked like they would have some sort of real mining.  Found a campground that looked reputable without creepy banjo music (important as we have stayed in some that were really creepy before kids!) and set up our trip!  woo hoo!

The Campground

our campsite and the pups

We stayed a Bear Den campground.  It is a great campground right off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Surprisingly easy to find since there is no sign at the entrance road due to rules on the parkway.  The sites were spacious, level and seperated by trees for some privacy.  They spaced us out though so we didn't have any direct neighbors.  They also have a broad selection of different cabins to stay in if you aren't really the campy type.  The bath house was clean and well maintained even though it is an older place (50 years).  There were playgrounds, a game room, paddleboats and fishing in a pond/lake and swimming in the pond/lake but not for us (too cold).  I honestly don't know if I would swim there or not though...we saw hundreds if not thousands of tadpoles on the edge of the water.  That is a lot of frogs!!!  The best part of the campground for the girls was the game room but for the adults it was the hiking trail(s).  The campground borders a National Park area and there is a trail that takes you to either a waterfall or a pretty overlook.

the overlook

pretty waterfall

There are other trails too but they were too challenging for the little legs (possibly too much for the big ones too!)  Hiking right at camp!  How great is that!  The hike is hilly (we're in the mountains) but worth it and fun!  Even the dogs managed which is saying a lot for the old BC and his bad back.

That's ME!  Digging for emeralds.

As for the mining...  We started with a typical day at a flume mine.  We ended up at Gem Mountain Mine.  It was easy to find, well maintained and had a really friendly staff.  I think the mining in some ways was better last year at Elijah Mountain Gem Mine but the winning detail at this mine was after you finished mining, you take you gems into the store and they will go through your gems, tell you what you have found and you can even hove them cut you an actual stone!!!  Yup, for a fee you can get real jewelry.  I though it was really neat that you can actually find jewelry quality gems!  That said we passed on the cutting but we do know which stones are the best quality if we ever want to make them into jewelry.  We have a rock tumbler and hope to tumble dome of the gems as well.

Spring is always chilly in the mountains, but we had a good trip even with some sporadic rain showers.

So I haven't blogged for a while and I have no followers so no one is going to see this post anyway but I am going to write.  This will be an update post.  I clearly haven't written about any of our recent and not so recent travel.

That is going to change!!!  Our daughters are now 10 and 12 and twice a week I have to sit at the gymnastics school for 2.5 hours.  I could go shopping at the Kohls, Target, Walmart, Michaels etc that are all nearby but then we would be broke and our house would be incredibly cluttered with all my purchases.  So here I am with a lot of extra time on my hands.  This site is way more fun than just sitting here all the time.

So here is the list of trips I will be sharing:
Myrtle Beach
Carolina Beach
Mediterranean cruise
MSC Carribean cruise
Southwest National Park trip
Grandfather mountain
Monticello/apple picking

I will continue to focus on the affordable aspects of travel but will also generally try to address some of the off the beaten path family fun we have had.

Dining at Disney vs cooking on a campstove!

So we have taken our kids to disney 3 times now and we have gotten the dining plan every time that we have gone.  Again...I am not sure that this is the most frugal option and if you REALLY are pinching pennies than you can certainly stay at the campground and cook your own food.  So why didn't we cook our own food?
The first time we went to Disney we had a 3 month old baby that didn't sleep through the night and a preschooler that was up at 6:30am every morning!  My sweet husband suggested that we get the dining plan so I could have a vacation too!  Love him! 
The next time we went we got the dining plan because we wanted to go to sooo many character meals.  The dining plan includes those meals so it was actually more economical to get the plan than to pay the prices (they are $$$$$$$) to go to those meals.
The most recent trip to Disney included free dining at a value resort.  Staying there with free dining was cheaper than buying the dining plan and staying with the camper so that was a no-brainer for us.
So now you knw why we pick the dining plan when we go to Disney.  The standard Disney dining plan includes 1 sit down meal, 1 qiuck service meal (think fast food) and 1 snack per day per person.  The children are suposed to order from the children's menu when available.  We have talked about going to Disney without the plan but we will have to wait and see on that.  If the girls outgrow the character meals it may be worth it to pack our food in and buy 1 meal at the parks but you just can't do the character meals as affordably without the plan.  We also really enjoy being able to indulge on some snacks.  Being frugal, without the dining plan we would probably avoid the in park treats.  $5 for an ice cream sundae is pretty steep but when you have already paid on the dining plan you just get to be cool parents!  To get the most bang for our buck, we also try to have as many character dinners as possible because they are more money/value than breakfast or lunch.  That said, we have had breakfast at the castle and we had breakfast in the animal kingdom once too.  We enjoyed the animal kingdom meal as there were some different foods that aren't standard as well as the usual breakfast fare.
I think if you are just looking to eat to be full the dining plan may not be the best choice.  If you want to go to a number of character meals and sit down dinners this is a great plan.  We have never looked at the quick service plan (no character meals) or full sit down plans (too much food).  Disney dining is, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy the food at Disney!

Magic Kingdom

So now that you have read about Fort Wilderness campground on Disney's property I will start talking about the parks.  After all, that is really why we go...because really, a 12 hour drive, 7 days of walking for miles and staying up past bedtime with 2 small chidren probably wouldn't be fun anywhere else!

For the uninitiated parents, this is where it starts!  The Magic Kingdom!!!  The place where dreams come true and everybody is happy (even my hubby I think, although he is not a disney lover...weird).  There are so many different views on how to visit the parks so I am going to happily give you mine!  I might even manage to pepper in some other less worthy (just kidding) ideas. 

First of all you need to figure out how you are getting to the magic kingdom.  If you stay at the campground you need to take the boat.  It is by far the best way to go.  There are actually 2 boats, one that goes to the contemporary resort and then you walk to the gates and another that drops you right at the gates.  The contemporary boat leaves earlier so is a great bet if you have an early breakfast.  Either way I recommend getting to the park before the rope drop to avoid some of the crowds.  If you are on property, Disney provides transportation.  I recommend you use it!  If you choose to drive yourself you have to go to the Transportation Center (TTC) and take Disney transportation anyway!  We made this mistake one time.  We drive ourselves to all the other parks though.  If you are off-site I know some people go to downtown Disney and park for free and take Disney transportation from there.  A frugal option but it is slightly more time consuming.

The Attack!
So you may have different priorities depending on the ages of you family members.  As a family of younger children, we head immediately to Fantasyland and ride the popular rides there first.  One of the best things about the Magic Kingdom is that most kids can ride most rides.  There are very few height requirements so you can even take infants on many rides.  Check the height requirements here (www.heightrequirements.com)  We make a point of grabbing a fastpass to something on the way tp our first ride.  Sometimes my hubby will take our tickets and run to a ride we know we want to fastpass and then he will meet us back at an agreed upon ride.  We only have one cellphone (frugal) so we can't call.  Isn't it quaint?  We're old-fashioned!  If you have older kids you probably want to hit the "thrill" rides first and pick up a fastpass too. 

The Fastpass!
You MUST use this!  Disney does it right!  So there is no fee for a disney fastpass.   You go to the kiosk, put in your disney ticket and it will spit out a fastpass.  On the pass is a 1 hour time frame.  When the noted hour arrives, you can go to the ride and get on the fastpass line for a shorter wait.  So if your fastpass starts at 1:00pm you can go to the ride starting at 1:00pm.  Now, if you look at your fastpass it looks like you can only go from 1:00pm - 2:00pm.  That is not the case!  You can go ANYTIME after 1:00pm.  In addition to that, once the first time passes you can now get out another fastpass.  So even if you haven't used your 1:00pm fastpass, after 1:00pm you can go to another ride and get another fastpass.  You cannot get another fastpass until the start time of your current fastpass passes!  That's a lot of passing!  If you do this from the start of the day you will have a pocketful of fast passes at the end of the day when the lines are long and you can just hit the rides in whatever order works for your family.

Eating!
So there are a couple options here.  I can really only speak to the dining plan because we have always bought into it.  I mean, if you are going to Disney in a pop-up and you cook your own food you are really taking some of the vacation out of the vacation.  We don't have a fridge or an oven and our 3 burner gas stove mounts outside.  We also have no hot water to wash dishes.  My saint of a husband suggested the dining plan the first time we went to disney and we are sold on it!  Go read my post on Dining at Disney for all the details.  As for other options, you can pack food into Disney (love this!!!)  So if your family is happy with sandwiches you are good to go!  You can also take in juice boxes, sodas, snacks etc.  You can not take in rolling bags and coolers so it has to all fit in a backpack.  We still take along the stroller even though the girls don't spend that much time in it just to help cart our stuff around.  We do take in some drinks and snacks too.  The final option is to buy food at Disney.  I generally like the options for food at Disney.  Our favorite quick service place is the Cosmic Cafe in tomorrowland.  They offer FOOD.  Half a chicken, ribs, green beans mashed potatoes.  I can't however speak to the affordability of this option.  I think you probably can eat on a budget but we have always been on the dining plan because if you want to do the character meals it really is your best bet.  It will be interesting to see if we still want the dining plan if the girls outgrow the character meals.  I would also recommend shifting your meal times some.  Eat lunch early or late to avoid the crowds and then snack it up to hold you over as best you can.  Don't forget to splurge somewhere, somehow. 

I think the best part of going to the Magic Kingdom is seeing your kids faces.  They are so happy to be in a place where the stories and fantasy come to life.  Plus they get to be there with their parents who amazingly enough are two of the coolest people in their lives.  As parents we get to say YES a whole lot more on vacation than any other time.  There is no laundry to do, no errands to run, no bills to pay (they come shortly after the trip!  Ha!!) just us and them and TIME!  We push our kids to go as long as they can and because of that they have impressive stamina but we also try to remember that if we need a break there are ways to do that.  You can go back to where you are staying but we tend to pick something laid back to do, like the people mover.  Nursed my itty bitty a bunch on that ride.  It is never busy and you can just sit and chill.  I love Disney and if you have young children it still doesn't get better than the Magic Kingdom.

Disney Fort Wilderness Campground

So traveling to Disney world rarely seems like a proposition in frugality, especially if you are going to stay on property to reap the Disney guest benefits.  One way to do it is to stay at the campground and CAMP!  I know some of you just stopped reading or maybe you will keep reading to see just how crazy I get.  Brace yourselves.  On our first trip to Disney after children we camped in a pop-up, without a bathroom or hot water.  We took this trip with an almost 3 year old and a 3 month old.  Yes we did! 

For frugal Disney trips, I highly recommend that families with young children take the kids before they turn 3 because they are FREE!  We repeated the trip to Disney Fort Wilderness Campground when our youngest was almost 3 as well.

Now for you non-campers, let me tell you about camping.  You have a choice about how you camp.  Nowadays, many people consider camping taking the HUGE RV to where ever they want to go and hooking up to all the creature comforts of home.  They have a full bathrooms and corian counters in some of these behemoths!  Some people like the smaller travel trailers with much of the home comforts on a smaller scale.  We, as a family, use a pop-up.  When I was pregnant with baby number two I put my foot down and said that I would no longer camp in a tent with two small children and two dogs!  A pop-up for the uninitiated is a tent on wheels!  There is a small table inside and foam mattresses.  We even have a sink with cold water.  Plus a small awning off the front which is just big enough to give you a dry place to stand if it is raining. Your final option is a tent and it can be a very viable and frugal option.  I do think I would avaoid the tent in July and August though...HOT.  We do have a AC unit on our pop-up!  I don't think the RV is a viable or frugal option!  When you factor in the price of gas and the initial outlay for the RV, plus the higher cost of a site with sewer and internet you really aren't saving any money.  Plus...where is the "camping" with all that!



Home sweet home

With a pop-up, we were able to stay on a "tent" site at Disney.  These sites have electric and water but no sewer and are limited to just tents and pop-ups so no generator noise either which makes it more campy.  The down side to these sites is that they are not very close to the activities, amenities and transportation at the campground.  The upside is that they are CHEAP!  Our first time staying at Fort Wilderness we stayed in loop 200 and we were right across from the bath house which was great with a child that still wasn't always 100% on potty training.  The next time we stayed at FW we asked on check in if they had any sites available closer to the boat launch.  We scored an fabulous site right next to everything!  Plus, they didn't charge us any extra so we still got the "tent" site price but we also got location, location, location!

We have also stayed at the Pop Century value resort at Disney (because it was cheaper!!! but that is another post) and we really prefer the resort of Fort Wilderness.  Why you ask?

Here are some of the great amenities that the campground offers:


View of the beach area from walkway

two pools  - one themed with waterslide and spash area plus snack bar
boat launch to the magic kingdom - yup, a ride to the rides!
full sit-down restauran that is on the dining plan.
hoop dee doo review
mickey's BBQ party
pony rides
fishing
playgrounds

Beach (to the right out of pic is the boat lanch to the Magic Kingdom)

pets allowed
walking trails
hayrides
carriage rides
paddle boats


Walkway from our loop to the trading post

beach front
outdoor movies
marshmallow roasting (at the movies)
archery
two trading posts (stores)
and so on and so on and so on...

In our opinion there is just sooo much to do here at the campground that is fun for the kids.  On one of our trips we even spent the day just wandering around exploring and playing.  I imagine the moderate and deluxe resorts have an equivalent number of amenities but they do not have an equivalent price!

Canoeing The Neuse River

So for years whenever we would drive along Falls of Neuse Rd in Raleigh, NC we would cross the bridge and see the signs for canoe launch near the dam and think we should do that.  That would be so much fun with the girls...  So last year a friend of ours bought a groupon for a canoe or kayak trip down the river and we thought... huh...  they did it...  What are we waiting for???   So we worked out the logistics and took a trip down the river!

Logistics:  What cars do we take?  Where do we park?  What should we pack? 
The first issue was which cars to take.  We have a relatively new toyota minivan, and older Jeep Wrangler and a Dodge Dakota pick up truck.  First we thought we would take the truck...so we got the canoe (a beast and relic back from the 70s) and tried to put it in the truck.  It was too long, the canoe, not the truck, unfortunately! So now we had to cover the roof rack of the minivan with towels and padding to protect it.  Once that was completed we needed to put the canoe on the van roof.  A tricky proposition as the canoe is a beast and a relic and aluminium (read heavy).  In fact, this canoe was the cause of my very first mammogram after I kind of dropped it on my boob when we canoed on Falls Lake.  The bruise left a "lump".  That incident did not leave me eager to try again...  But the children were excited and really, I go to the gym now, I should be able to pick up this silly canoe!  Yeah!  Success!  We also tested it out on top of the jeep, easy peasy!

So now we were all loaded up with canoes.  I packed a cooler with lunch, drinks, snacks etc.  We double ziplocked our electronics (camera and phone) and then packed the usual towels, lifejackets, cushions, fishing poles etc.  We put on our bathing suits and we were ready to go!

Now we needed to park on car at the take out location.  There is a company (Paddlecreek) here in Raleigh that controls the pull out location on Capital Blvd.  All you need to do is go into the PaddleCreek store and ask for a permit to park at the take out and there you go!  The take out is just up the road from the store.  We went to the store, bought our pass and then parked the Jeep.  Now off we went to the put in.  You put in at the dam on Falls of Neuse Rd.  The put in used to be right near the dam but with the new greenway path they moved it up the road maybe 100ft.  That was a tad confusing but a quick call to paddle creek and all was cleared up.

There were a bunch of fishermen in the river as we put in.  Ashley got a kick out of that as she LOVES to fish...go figure!  I think they got a kick out of us as I still lack a certain amount of balance and everyone was laughing, myself included, as I attempted to get into the front of the canoe without tipping it and falling in the drink.  Once in the trip down the river was fantastic.  There was not a whole lot of paddling as the current pushed us at a nice leisurely pace.  The girls tried to do some paddling too and we will be getting some smaller paddles before we go again but we didn't want to paddle too much or the trip would have been over too fast.  There were a good number of sandy spots that we could pull our canoe out on.  We stopped for lunch and a couple more times for snacks as well.  The girls had a blast splashing around in the water and riding the current with their life jackets as tubes.

Lunch stop

The strangest part of the trip was knowing that we were in the middle of town!  Sometimes you can see the houses right off the river and the greenway but much of the time you could almost forget that you were still in civilization.  That feeling was helped along by the fact that we saw both woodchucks and a deer.  Our trip took a wonderful 3 hours.  Our friends that went on the paddle creek trip said theirs took 1.5 hours but they were instructed not to stop.  I do not think our family would have had as good a time if we couldn't stop and explore.

Riding the currents

So get going people! The weather is getting better, start planning your family trips outside!  Invite us to come.  Life is always more fun when you spend it with friends and family going on adventures!  Get outside, be active, be fit, be a better you. 

Closer to home - Eno River

So, in my Geocaching post, I mentioned snake identification...  Yes, I did.  Stop and go back, you should read that!  You didn't?  Really???  Well, at least promise you will read it when you are done here.  Geocahing if fun...  But those of you that did read that...this is where we got to have not one not two not three etc etc but 7 opportunities to identify snakes!  Woo hoo lucky us!  Not only that but six of them were copperheads.  Going hiking?  Take us along!  We will identify the heck out of those poisonous, oops, venomous snakes!  So where you ask, did we have such a fabulous opportunity to commune with nature???  The Eno River State Park.

The Eno River State park is located in northern Durham county in NC.  It is a small but sprawling park that protects much of the land around the Eno River which in my opinion is one of the prettiest ones in the area.  you can take a look at all the offerings here: http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/enri/main.php  Our favorite hiking area right now is the Cole Mill trail and the Bobbit's hole.  Although both hikes are loops we prefer to hike out and back because we really enjoy being on the river.  There are plenty of spots along the trail to climb on rocks and teeter out into the river.  There are also a number of good little swimming holes so in the summer wear a bathing suit and bring a towel. 

You would think after that particular visit back in July of last year that we would never want to go there again.  In actuallity, this is one of our favorite parks in the area.  The hiking is well marked and offers a variety of difficulty.  Most of the trails are along the river and for those of you that haven't done much hiking, there is something really soothing about hiking along the water.  The day of our 7 snake sightings was unusual and even a ranger mentioned that there were an uncommon number of snakes out that day.  That said we did hike the full trail and we were just much more careful than usual about where we stepped and sat.  Eeek! 

We also had the opportunity to look up copperhead snakes when we got home from the park and discovered that NC has the most copperhead bites in the country and that these bites are rarely fatal.  We will be heading back out to the Eno when the weathr warms up some more!