Summer Vacation 2016~ Part I of Too Many

What a wonderful and blessed trip this was, from start to finish! This was our first real summer vacation that didn't involve the beach, so I was curious to see how it would turn out. 

Pat did the research and planned the trip, which is good as he is very detail oriented and I am not. We left by 7 am, which felt like a feat in itself! 

We stopped in Lexington, as there were many historical sights that Pat has always wanted to see.

The kids were enamored of this horse drawn tour, which made me determined to bring them down to Charleston, SC or Savannah.

We then headed to Lee Chapel. There are tour guides inside who were very good and shared many interesting stories and facts. The Lee Chapel was never dedicated as a chapel so that it could be used both for prayer and for general assembly's.

This is at the front right side of the chapel, where General Lee prayed morning prayer each morning. 

Downstairs was a museum, Lee's office (which has been left untouched since the moment he died), a little gift shop, and the families crypt. There are still a few open spots for direct descendants to be buried!

Pat in front of Lee's office

 Just outside the downstairs door, is Traveller's resting place (Lee's beloved horse). The tour guide downstairs hands out pennies, with the careful instruction to place them tails up on Traveller's grave. Can you think of why?

Pat immediately knew why!

This is the outside view of the chapel, which remains as the building with the largest capacity on the Washington-Lee university grounds (and it can only seat 350 comfortably with 400 as it's absolute max! Very different from Mason!).

The episcopal Church is also beautiful!

After spending well over an hour at the Lee chapel and other grounds, we didn't have time to see any of Stonewall Jackson's stomping grounds~ we will have to plan another trip soon! We headed on out to Tennessee.

This was the first time any of us had EVER been to TN, can you believe it? So we had to memorialize this moment :)

We drove on to the Smokie Mountains, where we checked in to our hotel. There was an angry thunder storm sending down spears of rain, which caused a rain delay at the Smokies stadium (AA team for the Cubs). So we decided to head over to the game around 7. It is billed as the "friendliest stadium" and it was~ everyone was nice, welcoming (even when Sebastian decided to singlehandedly destroy half of the displays in the gift shop, frantically running about releasing all the two year old boy energy that had been pent up inside after 8 hours in the car!). There was a wonderful play ground, multiple moon bounces, and a grass area to run around in. PERFECT recipe after a days drive!

Terrible car-picture, but this gives you an idea of the stadium.*taken the next day*

I have already told almost everyone this story, so forgive me for repeating myself! BUT I want to write it down so that I don't forget! While we walked in to the stadium that evening, it was raining and there was close lightning and the subsequent rolling thunder.  I prayed to the Divine Mercy for protection, and reviewed in my head what to do if our hair starts sticking straight up.

Pat asked for seats that were protected from the rain, and the ticket-lady thoughtfully gave us two handicapped seats (two seats that are together surrounded by lots of space~ perfect for little kids!). When we got closer to the seats, we were looking at our tickets to figure out which seats they were, and a staff member ran up to help us. She pointed at a couple in their 80's, the gentleman was sitting in one seat next to his wife who was wheel-chair bound, and said, "those are your seats." We didn't want to ask them to move (she told us she had already moved them multiple times!), and so she told us we could sit in some other seats that were also quite good, across the aisle from the older couple!

We settled in to watch the game as we munched on Kettle-corn and wrangled a 2 year old, a 3 year old, and an infant. Pat was thrilled to see one of his favorite Cubs who had been injured come up to bat! Eventually, the big kids were getting restless, so I handed Chiara to Pat, and took them on a little walk.

While we were gone, the player at bat swung and the bat shattered sending a huge chunk into the crowds. It flew back straight towards Pat's direction (the protective net is very small). There was no time to react, and it crashed straight into the elderly gentleman's arm. Everyone rushed over to see if he was alright, he was evaluated by medical personnel, and everything calmed down. Pat realized that if we had been sitting there, the bad would have hit directly where Chiara's head was. I am so certain that our Lord was protecting her in that moment, and I shudder to think what would have happened had we been sitting in that seat!