We started the day with Luke’s usual 6AM trip to Grandma’s house for breakfast. Then once Claire woke up around 7:20 we all gathered at the house to pack the final items before the trip. We said our goodbye’s to Remi and were on our way by 8:30 AM.

Claire needed all of her animals for the trip, which was now up to 8, and she was happy as we were on our way while Luke to his morning nap.

Claire enjoyed her songs on her headphones and watched the lion king while we made our way to Luray Caverns. We had one pit stop once we got past the city for coffee and a potty break early on 66 in Louden county at a nice small country gas station.

We made it to Luray Caverns around 12:30 PM and Claire had just fallen asleep 30 minutes before so she rested in the car while we got tickets and a snack. Once Claire started moving we all loaded up and enjoyed a walk through the caverns.

Starting out Claire was having fun pushing Raul and Spotted Dog through the caverns in the stroller, while Luke was having fun alternating from pointing out all the rocks while being held and walking along.

About half way through Claire was starting to tire of pushing the stroller so we swapped around and Luke rode in the stroller while Claire got a carry. This worked out well for everyone, but we had to keep things moving along. The Cavern’s are a beautiful spot to walk through and it is about a mile and a quarter walk, both babies enjoyed the sites.

We were still trying to get everyone to stretch there legs a bit before the rest of the trip so we also enjoyed the toy museum and the carriage museum which were free with our Luray tickets. Both tours were quick but enjoyable. I especially enjoyed seeing all the old cars in the carriage museum and wouldn’t have minded spending some more time there and reading more about the history of the cars there. There was a lot of history packed in a small spot.

We were back on our way around 2:30 PM for our final 2 hour and 45 minute stretch. About half way into the trip both babies started getting antsy and we had to put on some kids music which put everyone to sleep. We grabbed some Dairy Queen right outside of Claytor Lakes State Park for some much needed food before we headed into the park and found our cabin. Everyone woke up right before we got to the park and was ready to get to the cabin. We ended up getting to the park at the same time as Renee and we all got settled into the cabins while all the kids enjoyed playing together for an hour or so.

While everyone got settled into the bedtime routines we got all our hiking gear prepped for the next day.

We swapped out car seats so Renee and the kids had a car ready to go and we were planning on leaving at 6:30 AM to get to the Channels hike around 8:30AM. There are only 10 spots at the trailhead, but in wintertime we don’t anticipate this being an issue. We also want to get an early start on the day so we can get back to the cabin before too late in the day.