Bridge Day!- Henry.

On Saturday, it was time for the big event.

Last year, it rained and was only 45 degrees. This year was sunny and mid-60s. Perfect weather!

Here's the view from 876 feet up. Like we said, one time a year, they block traffic across the longest single span bridge on the western hemisphere and the third highest bridge in America (ousted from 2nd place by the new Pat Tillman Bridge over Hoover Dam). That little white dot to the right of the river is a parachute.

And a view of the bridge itself. Mama wasn't nearly as uptight as she normally is. Normally she hugs the barrier in the middle and hyperventilates for most of the 970 meters of the bridge.

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We got across the bridge and set up a camp so everyone could go get there favorite fair food.

I wanted a funnel cake, so mama and I set out to find one. That is, until I saw this bounce house. I told mama I wanted to use my funnel cake money to jump instead. I didn't try any big jumps, just steady little jumps the whole five minutes. When I got out, I told mama it wasn't any fun. Sigh. Lucky for me, mama was in a good mood and got me a funnel cake anyway. (I didn't even ask for one! Maybe that's why she got it for me...) Karma must have rewarded mama because somehow Aunt Girl ended up with a free plate of ribbon fries and gave them to mama! Hooray!

I think we might be outgrowing Bridge Day. There are just too many kids to keep track of and the event itself is really getting to be too big. Georgie cried the whole way across the bridge so mama didn't get to see anything. So she dumped everyone and walked back over early by herself (well she did have a baby). With no kids to keep from falling over the side, it was pretty fun!

Mama waited and got a pretty good spot close to the platform to watch people jump. That groan toward the end of the video is the jumper missing the circle that everyone aims for (but few actually hit).

Look close at the right side of the picture and you can see a zipliner descending from the bridge.

A shot from the side. There's tentative talk of skipping Bridge Day next year. The new talk is of taking a Catwalk tour on the tressels under the bridge. Attached only by a rope. Mama's feet get sweaty and her head gets light every time she thinks about it.

Safe on land again, Georgie was allowed out of the pouch.

Aunt Girl lined up for a photo op.

Then mama let me carry the camera on the mile walk back to the car. Mama asked Aunt Girl how she got the beads and Aunt Girl replied "You know how girls get beads."

Wait a minute...

There are about 200 pictures of all the motorcycles we walked by. This trike is the best.

And many self portraits.

When we got in the van, I turned it over to the video setting and took some good videos of myself making funny faces.

What a goofball.

Taste of Bridge Day- Mama.

If you've been with us for a while, you know the main reason for our West Virginia trip is to go to Bridge Day- the annual festival wear they shut down the New River Gorge Bridge so people can walk across it and the braver ones can jump off it.

But there's another tradition we're coming to love just as much- the Taste of Bridge Day event held the night before. All of the fancy restaurants bring in their best and we do our best to drown ourselves in delicious food. I personally had chocolate chipotle cheesecake, spicy ribs, an espresso mousse and the very best seafood chowder I've ever eaten. It was full of crab, scallops, and big mussel shells. I don't even like scallops and mussels and I almost went back for more.

Georgie was a little cold until we strapped her in the pouch and put an adult hat on her. I thought we packed hers, but we must have left it at the cabin.

For the most part, there aren't many kids at this event. So we found a deck looking over the gorge and tried to keep the kids out of everyone's way.

They did a good job keeping themselves happy. Papa and Uncle Adam took the kids home early to watch "How to Train your Dragon" while the rest of us got to stay and continue eating.