Sam finally gets in his first dive of the year – after 6 failed attempts due to weather.  The weather was perfect for the day, light breeze and low 90’s.  Sam had a great time on the dive and got to see a different shipwreck this time.  This boat was recently sunk as part of a program to rebuild the sea life in the area… they plan on sinking a couple of more boats by the end of the year.  The only downfall to the day was that Sam did throw up getting back into the boat after his dive.  Carolyn the instructor said he did it so quietly that nobody really noticed and then he went back up on deck and fell asleep.  She suggested that Sam take two sea sick pills – one in the morning and then one about an hour before the trip.  Hopefully that will work as we plan to get in at least one more dive this year (our original plan was 4-5 dives so he would be ready to take the next certification next year when he turns 15).  Sam’s dive was only about 40 minutes long, but the trip took over 3 hours by the time they made it out to the site and everyone had a chance to dive (there were 26 people diving from Rum Runner’s that day).  Mom and Dad didn’t want to waste the day, so they spent part of the 3 hours on the beach enjoying the day.

King Neptune at the Olympus Dive shop… we think he probably had a trident is his hand at some point.

Sam prepping equipment on the boat before departure.

Carolyn took this photo and the next two photos.  As you can see Sam is wearing his Go Pro camera on his arm, but unfortunately he couldn’t get it to work – hopefully this next dive he can get his own video.

Sam carrying all his gear off the boat.

A little late but it took us a while to get all the photos together.  This was our morning trip to Baltimore and the National Aquarium – same day as the DC United Soccer Game.  Obviously the aquarium was more Sam’s thing and the soccer game was for Alex but everyone had a good time at both events.  Baltimore and DC were a lot of fun – it’s nice to be in a real city for a change.  🙂

We drove down to Morehead City to take Sam to dive at Olympus Dive but right before we got there the Captain called in and said the weather was deteriating too fast and they canceled the afternoon dive for today.  Sam was pretty disappointed as this is the 3rd one he has missed this year due to weather.  He has another one scheduled next weekend so let’s keep our fingers crossed.  We did spend a few minutes on the beach but we heard it thundering and thought it might be a good time to head home.

We took another hike to Rose River Falls and this time we also went to Deep Hollow Falls.  As it turns out it might not have been a great idea to do both on the same day – at least not from the direction we hiked.  Our first hike was down to Rose River Falls, which we went to a couple of years ago.  This is a fairly easy 2.5 – 3 mile hike down to the falls and back from Skyline drive.  If you take the whole loop it will go by Deep Hollow Falls along the bottom of the canyon (this is about 5-6 mile for the whole loop).  We decided due to time and the possibility of bad weather we would just hike down Rose River and then drive to the parking area for Deep Hollow and drive from there – probably only a 2 mile hike down.  Unfortunately for us, the loop would have been much easier as the shorter hike from the Skyline drive to Deep Hollow was in fact quite deep and not for the faint of heart or knees.  Everyone was quite tired by the end of the day and some of us were complaining more than others but all in all everyone had a great time.

So Sam met a new friend today… Octavius has officially joined the family.  Octavius is a young Leopard Gecko.  We picked him up at PetCo today and he seems to have settled in to his 85 degree 10 gallon tank.  Octavius has a life expectancy of 20 years….. seriously.

One last stop on the way home… probably the last time this summer that they will be together on the mountain.  Alex has been invited to go to the beach with friends in July and Sam has a Scuba dive coming up in July as well.  After that it’s back to school and soccer for Sam, while Alex starts college.

We stopped by to spend just a few minutes with Lillian on Friday after our hiking trip and we drove by the office and the farm and took a couple of quick photos.   Lis and Sam will make a return trip in July to see everyone then too – can’t wait!

Part of our mini-vacation was a trip to RFK stadium to see DC United play the New England Revolution in a football match.  We had a great time and DC United won 2-0.  Sam got a couple of photos with the players after the game and Alex picked up a jersey to wear during the game.

On the last day of our mini-vacation we went down to the park in Waynesboro and saw the annual Military Event…  Everyone had quite a bit of fun, Alex met a few ‘Whovians’ (Dr.Who fans), Sam got to play in the tank and hold a Bazooka and we all learned a little bit of history.  🙂

Sam took the GoPro camera with us on the trip and he got in some practice time with it at the beach.  We bought him a strap so he could wear it on his wrist to take the photos or videos.  The straps that came with it were for his head and chest which wouldn’t have worked so well with all of his scuba gear.  Apparently a couple of other people that go diving with Sam have the wrist strap too.  Sam just needs a little more practice getting his hand out of the photo and aiming the camera in the right direction – there is no viewfinder so you can’t see what you are shooting.  Here are some of the better shots, but for his first try these looked pretty good.

Catching the curl…

There is that big hand… 🙂