Deep Creek Lake - Day 8 +

We woke up that last morning in the beautiful vacation house pretty early to an alarm.
I was tired.
My back hurt from sleeping on a bad bed all week.
I was sunburned.
My neck, back, and shoulders were sore from holding on to the raft.  (Did I mention I had my own turn and my instructions to Michael were, "see if you can flip me over."  He couldn't.)  ;-)
I had a very large, very painful bruise on my bottom.
My elbow was killing me and looked like I dipped it in purple paint.
My chin had a nasty rash from some sort of reaction to the chin strap from my helmet from white water rafting.
I was a mess.
I looked awful and felt awful.
I just wanted to go home.  Home was less than 3 hours away.  I wanted my own bed.  I had suitcases and suitcases and tubs and tubs full of stuff to unpack and clean.

Instead, we traveled 8 hours to North Carolina.  I was nervous about traffic since it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, but not anxious.  I decided to take the day one traffic jam at a time.  And if my anxiety flared, I'd make Michael drive.  But, traffic was steadily moving, the roads from Deep Creek Lake to Charlotte were amazingly beautiful, and I drove the whole way.

The second we saw Michael's family, I was so glad we didn't go home.  Kara ran away with Hannah, and Michael and I were left to sit and relax and visit with everyone else.  Since we didn't come from home, no one assigned me a single thing to bring, so we came, we ate, we left.  Super rude, but it's all we could manage.  I'm sure we'll make up for it one day!  And I'm looking forward to that day!  :-)

We headed back to the hotel with Hannah and Kara, just to sleep terribly in a queen sized bed.  We sleep on a king at home and a queen doesn't work for us.  I woke up several times through the night, especially when Kara kept talking in her sleep!  At one point, Hannah shushed her in the gentlest, sweetest, most motherly shush I have ever heard a 10 year old say in the middle of the night.  It worked too because Kara stopped talking and we all went back to sleep.

We woke up early to an alarm, and we all looked forward to Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls.  :-) We got ready for church and checked out.

We attended Michael's parents' church, which I love.  It is very small, so everyone remembers us each time we visit.  It's so nice.  Everyone is very, very kind to us and seems genuinely so happy to see us. After a nice Bible study, we got to listen to Tim preach.  I love hearing him preach.  Kara sits in with us at this church, and last time she was riveted by his sermon and can still say what it was about to this day.  Unfortunately, this time she was tired and didn't pay much attention, so she drew with Hannah.

After church, we went over to the Fellowship hall for an amazing lunch.  Vicky had an incredible amount of food on many tables, one dish more delicious than the next.  It was amazing.  We all enjoyed the meal and visit and the kids all played together, and it was perfect.  We posed for this family picture before everyone headed home:

Since we arrived late-ish on Saturday, we stayed a little late on Sunday to visit with Tim and Vicky alone after everyone else left.  That extra time was so great.  Kara got to catch up with them and so did we.

We left at 4pm and I pulled onto rt. 52 thinking, "that was the best visit we've ever had!"  Which is what I think after every visit.  :-)

Traffic was decent, except when it wasn't, and I kept thinking it had to be lighter Sunday evening than the next day, Labor Day.

We got home around 10 and slept like the dead in our own beds.  :-)