Our second half of family vacation this summer was at Bear Creek Lake State Park in central Virginia.  We rented a cabin for four nights to enjoy the park.  The first night when we checked in it was raining so we enjoyed making dinner and relaxed in the rocking chairs on the covered porch.  The next day we explored the lake and hiked Channel Cat Loop trail over by the lake.  The swim beach and camping was on one side of the lake and the cabins were on another about 1.5 miles away.  After lunch at the cabin we geared up to kayak across the lake to the swimming beach from a launch by our cabin.  Brooke and Alex enjoyed playing on the lily pads and turtle slipping and sliding and having a water fight.  AJ grilled our dinner and made a fire afterwards for s’mores!  After great thunderstorms overnight it was little rainy the next morning.  So after breakfast we enjoyed a family round of Trouble and then headed for a little hike on Lost Barr Loop.  We had lunch and geared up again to cross the lake.  Unfortunately, right as we got to the swim area thunder struck and even though it never rained the lifeguards closed the beach.  Though we couldn’t swim while the sky was clear and the thunder was distant we kayaked around as a family letting each child have a turn to paddle. We waited it out for a few hours we headed back to the cabin for dinner and relaxing.  The following morning we headed to the beach first thing.  The kids and AJ had a lot of fun splashing in the lake.  After several hours we cleaned up and had a late lunch and headed to High Bridge in nearby Farmville.  It was a old railroad bridge that crossed the Appomattox River.  It has since been made into a 31 mile pedestrian/bike/equine trail.  We parked and walked a 3 mile loop of it that took us over the bridge and back.  It was warm and humid but the kids were amazing and we all really enjoyed ourselves.  The final morning I woke up early to take a quick 3 mile run and came back to pack up all of our fun vacation gear before heading home.  We really had a great time at the cabin!