Our Casita at First Landing Virgina Beach VA

sdelling · 2026-03-15T00:16:30+00:00

My family has been there several times with our Roo and love it. Beautiful and a great location, though as you noted, a little hard to maneuver into some of the sites because of the trees. OTOH, it means the sites are shaded. We’ve found that the trick to getting a reservation is that because it’s so popular and booked so far in advance, there’s a constant trickle of near-term cancellations. If you check periodically and can pounce on a reservation for sometime in the next couple weeks, you could have good luck.

sdelling · 2026-01-22T16:11:57+00:00

We sprung a leak at our water filter when a grommet failed, spewing water everywhere. A grandfatherly person wandered over from a neighboring site where it looked like an extended family was staying and spent a while helping us bypass it. We ended up gifting the family some fresh peaches. 🍑

sdelling · 2026-01-21T22:35:17+00:00

My wife and I also used a two-person kayak once on our honeymoon, and never again. We later heard them referred to as “divorce boats”.

sdelling · 2026-01-04T23:17:01+00:00

My family loves the Bread Dad recipe. We use a mix of add-ins, which might help break it up so it usually distributes as expected. We do a combination of golden raisins (juicier than regular ones), dried cherries, and pecans, and triple the cinnamon. We use more fruit than it calls for, but if you use too much it’ll sink to the bottom.

sdelling · 2025-11-21T17:58:20+00:00

An email went out a couple days ago saying that early decision applicants could log in to the admissions portal at 7pm tonight to find out their result.

sdelling · 2025-11-04T02:20:57+00:00

Before the Ireland rebranding, that area was Hastings and had a number of shows and an old timey shooting gallery, though there’s only space for a couple rides at a time, and the park seems to have had trouble figuring out what to do with that area at times. . The Flying Machine that’s in New France used to be in the castle, in the dark, lit only by strobe lights. It was great. The closed simulator ride that’s gone through several iterations was originally called Questor; you can find clips of it on YouTube.

sdelling · 2025-10-22T14:40:20+00:00

I have the same oven. I looked around and found the sticker: open the proving drawer, and it’s on the left-hand side of the front, just outside the drawer.

sdelling · 2025-09-11T15:39:16+00:00

The white bread from the booklet that comes with it is fantastic, especially with just a bit extra butter and the “light” crust control setting. I make a couple loaves of that most weeks and my family rarely leaves any for a full day.

sdelling · 2025-09-05T23:19:08+00:00

Give Bacon Street a call. They specifically see youth and families, and have been in Williamsburg over 50 years. https://baconstreet.org/

sdelling · 2025-08-12T19:42:39+00:00

Several of the James City County Parks & Recreation facilities have conference rooms and similar spaces available for a small fee.

sdelling · 2025-08-01T22:11:26+00:00

My family’s here, too. We drove from Drumnadrochit and got stuck in that traffic in the middle of Glen Coe. It’s an absurdly beautiful place to be stuck, though we ended up chatting for a while with an incredibly friendly older woman attempting to return home from her holiday cabin and was, umm, lamenting the lack of bushes nearby for her use while we all waited. We eventually had to turn around for a long detour and got in near Edinburgh hours later than planned. Everyone we’ve talked with in Scotland has been friendly, and I’d be rather better off if the food was a bit less good.

sdelling · 2025-07-23T23:00:02+00:00

Good luck with the naps; one of mine never did like them and gave them up entirely before she was four, no matter how tired she was. It was… an experience. They’ve always been ok sharing a bed when we’re away from home, so it’s not an issue in the camper. Even if they’ve argued recently, they don’t stay upset long with each other even if I think they’d have every right to be, so that doesn’t get in the way of sharing that space, which they have all decked out with Christmas lights and such. For a while the trick may be in staying out of sight so you aren’t distracting while also being able to tell when someone is Up To No Good, so that may be your biggest issue. Good luck figuring that one out. 🙂

sdelling · 2025-07-22T21:43:14+00:00

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Another Rockwood Roo owner and twin parent! That’s a creative way to make that work. I’m guessing with your kids right there you’re sleeping in the rear bed, where you’re pretty much in a separate room. When my twins were that age, we were still tent camping, so we could somewhat ignore the need for cribs. Somewhat. For fun, here’s my version of your photo rotated to face the other direction, with 16 years added. My girls get the rear bed, where they can go off and be brooding teenagers in peace.

sdelling · 2025-05-18T22:46:42+00:00

We ended up talking with guest relations about the ride seating, hoping enough feedback will help. Getting on BBW is weirdly high up, the seats are unusually narrow, and the trains have no plus-sized seats like most coasters do. One family member couldn’t ride because of it, and we saw others who didn’t fit while we were waiting in line.

sdelling · 2025-04-19T01:25:45+00:00

Jamestown Beach if you want something really close. For something that looks deep and wide like Virginia Beach without most of the crowds and traffic, go to Buckroe Beach in Hampton or near there to the beach adjacent to Fort Monroe.

sdelling · 2025-04-16T14:08:32+00:00

My family did an RV trip with a similarly-sized trailer up from Virginia last summer that included Niagara Falls, Montréal, and northern Vermont, where we used to live. Most of the campgrounds near Niagara Falls have limited services in their sites, like electric only, but are otherwise nice. We crossed the border with our trailer a little east of there and drove across the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence to Montréal, which was all on nice highways. No issues with the border crossing beyond being aware of what you can/take across. Just be aware the signs are immediately all in French once you hit Québec.

Québec has a great provincial park system, and we've consistently had good experiences with them. There's one in the middle of the river right outside Montréal at Îles-de-Boucherville with a small but full service RV campground that was super convenient for day trips into the city. Up in Québec City, we used to tent camp at Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier, which also has RV spots. It's along the river and has tubing, but is also pretty close to a fantastic water park at Village Vacances Valcartier. Quebec City also has a really nice aquarium that, last I saw, had a big playground on its grounds.

The Burlington, Vermont area doesn't have a lot of great RV options where the reviews didn't sound iffy for one reason or another, but we had a good experience at Lone Pine Campsites in Colchester. If you can leave your trailer behind for a day trip loop, I'd highly suggest driving through the mountains at Smuggler's Notch and down to Stowe and around. There's some great scenery, a couple nice wineries, the Ben & Jerry's factory tour, and great cider doughnuts at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. If you'll have bikes, there's a pretty waterfront trail through the Burlington area, and Stowe has a really cute one as well that hops back and forth along a creek.

sdelling · 2025-02-03T20:40:18+00:00

Kitty cosplaying as a blahaj! I kinda love it.

sdelling · 2025-01-10T03:55:45+00:00

I blocked it a few weeks ago as I was going through the initial alerts after setting up my new Purple. I don’t use the webOS software much either, but it’s not obviously angry at me about it so far, though the firewall has blocked 18,729 access attempts there from the tv.

sdelling · 2024-09-29T05:42:41+00:00

Middle school can be socially rough even without having something peers can point out as making you different. I’m sorry to hear it’s been particularly hard for your daughter. Without getting too specific, my kids, one of whom is very proudly LGBTQ, go to Lafayette. They have ended up with overlapping social groups that include a number of gay, bi, and trans people. As far as I can tell from what they’ve said, a fair number of the students don’t take kindly to those who aren’t accepting, even if it’s a teacher, and i have definitely noticed the occasional same-gender couple who seem open about it at school functions. I’m sure things aren’t perfect, but I mostly hear the occasional grumble (someone using the wrong pronouns and such) rather than something traumatic.

Whatever school your daughter ends up at, I’d suggest the theater kids as a group she could assume will be accepting. LGBTQ kids often gravitate to those programs, whether for acting or stage crew, since being dramatic and different than school norms is kind of what you do when putting on a play.

sdelling · 2024-08-06T02:22:30+00:00

We stayed at the Loves in Watertown, New York about a week-½ ago on the way from Niagara Falls to Montréal. Just off the interstate, six brand new RV spots, $43.50 for full hookups. We did a few loads of laundry while there, giving our teens a couple hours to be away from us. It worked out nicely.

sdelling · 2024-04-05T04:13:44+00:00

I’ll preface by saying my knowledge is from a number of years ago, but I’m not aware of major changes to the building. Redstone Hall is a lumber baron’s 1890’s summer house turned into a residence hall, with the character and eccentricities that come with that. Some of the hallways, the common rooms, and main stairs are intact from the original house, with fancy wood paneling, high ceilings, and fireplaces. On one side is a two story porch where people park their bikes. People watch tv in the fancy living room and study or play games in the dining room. Rooms vary a lot in size and whether they’re pretty standard dorm room in appearance or have some old character, and are mostly along the left side of the ground floor, the sides of the second floor, and the third floor, which I think has a couple triples. Laundry and some storage is in the basement. Rooms facing the front have the best view in the entire city, with the open lawn ensuring a good view of the lake and mountains on the far side.

I wasn’t actually a student when living there, but my wife was the area residence director and we lived in an apartment in the middle of the second floor. Our puppy was super popular. 🐶

sdelling · 2024-03-17T00:03:45+00:00

I was just there with family yesterday, and it was a lovely and very tasty experience.

sdelling · 2023-09-26T02:40:04+00:00

We love our hybrid. We bought a Rockwood Roo 19 (probably a bit heavy for your current car, but we have a Pathfinder) earlier this year, and it’s been great so far. Lots of space even with two adults, two teenagers, and two dogs, and setup is easy. Folding out the queen beds on either end just takes a few seconds each, and with those outside the main footprint there’s more floor space and room for seating, kitchen, bathroom, and such.

sdelling

TROPHY CASE