Disclaimer: Due to lack of time/internet access, we decided to compress the final week of our trip into one post. Here goes: Going from the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon to the unnatural craziness of The Strip was a jarring and intense change for one day of travel. We got in just in time to check in to our hotel on The Strip: The Monte Carlo. We showered and got ready for the night and then headed out to check out the sights. We spent the evening walking around the Strip and enjoying the madness around us. Our first stop was into the Paris because it is just so cool looking! Then we went across to the Bellagio and checked out the Bottanical Gardens (where we found two giant snails made out of flowers!). We had dinner at the buffet at the Bellagio and spent our full two allotted buffet-eating hours enjoying a ton of food and time to sit and chat. After dinner, we went outside to see the Bellagio fountain show, which was quite beautiful. One memorable moment was when Mandy got her dress caught in an escalator and was afraid she would be stuck on the Strip forever! Luckily, Aaron's manly strength was able to save her and the dress only cost $12 anyway :) The next morning, we got up and went down to enjoy our second Vegas buffet: Breakfast at the Monte Carlo: yum! After that we had our first gambling experience...Aaron gave himself and Mandy 10 bucks each. Aaron came out with $0 and Mandy came out with $18. Aaron was so distraught that he had "lost all his dollars." He complained that the machine had asked him if he wanted to press the "give the casino your money" button and he fell for it. We left the casino/our hotel and headed to Ashlyn's house where we would be staying the next night. Ashlyn took us back out to the Strip and we explored the Linq and walked by some cool shops. After that we had lunch and Aaron got to enjoy his first ever In'N'Out burger! We rested for a little in the afternoon and then went back out when it was getting dark. There was an awesome garden inside of the Flamingo where we saw cool birds and Koi fish. Then we went to the Mirage to see the Volcano show which was awesome! Next, Ashlyn took us to Fremont street which was even crazier than the Strip. We hung out for a bit under the illuminated roof that covers the street and enjoyed some music and madness. We finished the night with some delicious smoothies and then headed back home. Thanks to Ashlyn for showing us a great time in Vegas! The next day, we got up in the morning and headed (finally!) for Anaheim! Even though we were pretty sick of driving by this point, the thought of Disneyland was exciting enough to keep us going. When we got to Anaheim, we checked in to our hotel and then walked over to explore Downtown Disney for the evening. We enjoyed some great shopping (Mandy got a new phone case!) and hilarious people-watching before sitting down for dinner/to watch the Mariners game. After a relaxed and happy evening, we headed back to rest up for the long day ahead of us. In the morning, we woke up early and headed over to the Esplanade where we met Jane who took us into the park (thanks a ton Jane!) just in time for park opening. Our first stop was to get fast passes for the evening show World of Color, then we crossed parks to go into Disneyland at long last. We decided to go on Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters (Aaron's favorite ride) to start the day. After that we walked towards the castle to take some PhotoPass pictures. When the photographer told us "One more picture" and snapped a pic, Aaron asked if he could take one more, and to Mandy's delight, her got on one knee and proposed! It was the most magical proposal ever and made the Happiest Place on Earth even happier!!! Finally engaged and energized for a fun day, we headed out to enjoy the park and each other's company. Our highlights from the park include:
It was a totally magical day and a definite dream come true! After waking up feeling so happy that we are actually engaged, we left Anaheim to head north to Palo Alto. We spent an awesome evening just catching up and playing fun games with Benj and Maya. Thanks so much to Benj and Maya for letting us stay for a night and for all the fun games they sent us on the road with!! After Palo Alto, we drove north up the 101 so we could stop at the Tour Thru Tree and the giant Paul Bunyan Statue! Mostly this part of the trip was really just a race to the finish, so there's not much to report...We were lucky enough to stop in for a quick evening with Kim and Paulla in Eugene, but we barely had enough time to chat before we fell asleep and then got ready for our last leg of the trip. Thanks Kim and Paulla for the comfy couch and a night's rest! We left Eugene and drove two of our remaining five hours until we got to Portland. We were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Mandy's first cousins Annie and Dan (and Annie's daughter Eliza) for a delicious lunch. So glad they could make time to meet up with us!! We left Portland with the exciting (and almost sad) realization that there were only three hours left of our epic summer road trip. We powered through those final 180 minutes until we were, at last, back at home! We unpacked as little as possible and called our adventure finished. We had an amazing time and know that we will look back on this blog (and your comments) for years to come! Thanks for reading!
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We woke up in Austin, packed up, stopped for breakfast tacos, and hit the road. The drive into Carlsbad, NM was long and boring. In fact, we made minimal stops so that we could take full advantage of the air conditioned car. When we finally arrived at our campsite, we got out to check out the surroundings. Not only was it hot, but one of the KOA workers told us that it was tarantula mating season...luckily we only saw bunnies. Due to the sweltering heat, we spent as much of the night inside the kampground's recreation hall as we could. Then we set up camp and tried to go to sleep. Sleeping in that tent was the most difficult sleep of the whole trip; for the first few hours it was so hot that our skin stuck to the air mattresses and THEN it got so windy and rainy and loud that we were kept up for hours. It was a memorable (and miserable) day and night. The next day we got up as early as we could and hit the road toward the Caverns. We quickly learned that all the previous day's woes were well worth it one we started exploring the caverns. We decided to take the Natural Entrance hike (instead of the elevator entrance), which was a great choice. Mandy was a little bit scared on as we began hiking down into the mouth of the cavern, but soon both of us were enjoying the views and having a great time. After the mile-and-a-quarter descent through the limestone formations, we made it to the Big Room, where we took the mostly flat, paved path through the room. Mandy's favorite formations were the "curtains," which draped from the ceiling. Aaron's favorite was the Bottomless Pit, a pit so deep and dark that you can't see the bottom. We took the elevator back out of the caverns and made another long, boring drive to new kampground in Albuquerque. There wasn't much to do that evening except go out for dinner (to our Road Eats Book's suggestion: Frontier) and then hole up in our air-conditioned cabin for some reading and catching up on our blog. The next morning we woke up and steeled ourselves for another 8 hour drive. Luckily the mid-point of this drive was the Four Corners Monument that Mandy had been wanting to go to for years! The landscape was beautiful and the drive wasn't too bad. Eventually, we made it to the Four Corners and paid $5 each to visit the coolest plus sign on the ground in the world!! The pictures really speak for themselves, but it was pretty cool to travel between states in less than one second each, and to finally be able to be in four states at once! It was a worthwhile 2 hour detour! After that awesome stop that both of us totally enjoyed (read: Mandy loved and Aaron didn't understand why we even stopped there...), we continued on our way to the Grand Canyon. We made the most ridiculous stop of the entire trip so far on that drive. There were several homemade signs advertising Dinosaur Tracks so after initially driving past the site, we doubled back for a tour of the dinosaur tracks. A woman flagged us down and led us on a 15-or-so minute walk through the desert, stopping every 30 seconds to spray water on some dinosaur tracks and tell us stories about the animals that made them. Some of the tracks were probably real, but some (like the T-Rex) were probably not...it was a silly stop that we wont soon forget! After the dino-stop, a lunch stop, and an oil change, we finished the drive and made it to our campsite at the Grand Canyon. We checked in and then set out to hike below the Rim. Aaron (who harbors a surprisingly strong fear of heights) enjoyed clinging to the wall as we descended, while Mandy peered over the edge as much as possible. Unfortunately, Mandy has some clumsiness and balance issues, so Aaron wouldn't let her do anything totally dangerous. We made it down to the first tunnel and then continued a little bit farther down just for good measure. We hiked back up the trail, found ourselves some dinner, and made camp for the night. Luckily, there were no wind or rain storms that night, so we slept soundly. At 4:45am, we got up, put on our tennis shoes, and went for a walk along the Rim so that we could watch the sun rise over the canyon. We took a beautiful morning walk while we watched the sunrise, and then we went back to our site, packed up the tent, and hit the road. We decided not to take the interstate the whole way, mostly because of this conversation from one of our favorite movies, Cars: Sally: Forty years ago, that interstate down there didn't exist. Lightning McQueen: Really? Sally: Yeah. Back then, cars came across the country a whole different way. Lightning McQueen: How do you mean? Sally: Well, the road didn't cut through the land like that interstate. It moved with the land, it rose, it fell, it curved. Cars didn't drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time. So we drove with the land and got to drive through some cute little towns, including one that was clearly trying to capitalize on the Pixar classic due to the fake "Cars" outside. The best part of that town, however, was the delicious malt that we used as a pick-me-up to get us through the drive. Next stop: Vegas! We absolutely loved our brief time in Austin, TX. A lot of that is thanks to our awesome tour-guide/city-promoter/host, Dan. Thanks a ton to Dan for showing us around this fantastic (and weird) city and for making our time in Austin so great! When we got in to Austin, we met up with Dan at his place. After settling in a bit and catching up, Dan took us out to a funky part of town called Rainey Street which was a residential area that got turned into a bunch of super cute restaurants. Our eatery of choice for the evening was Bangers, a sausage joint/beer garden with a special dog area so furry friends could hang out (we learned that Austin is super dog-friendly and if you don't like dogs, it's not the city for you). The next morning, on Dan's suggestion, we went out for breakfast tacos. Apparently that's a thing in Austin and it should be a thing everywhere. Afterwards, we headed to University of Texas campus and visited the turtle pond and the iconic/infamous tower. Then, because it was rather hot outside, Dan took us to Zilker Park to go to Barton Springs. We opted for the cheapskates' section of the park, where we didn't have to pay to cool our feet and legs in the nice, cool water. As with the previous night, there were tons of dogs hanging out with their owners at the park and in the spring. Next we headed to watch the World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina and enjoyed our relaxing hours listening to Dan shouting at the TV and getting increasingly frantic as the game ticked away. Finally the Germans scored in extra time and the match was concluded. Dan insisted that we celebrate with Sake Social hour at Uchiko, a super-super-super-fancy restaurant owned by Tyson Cole, who you may know from his battle against Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America. Anyway, we just got a small selection of dishes to try, and the wait staff wasn't happy with us for spending so little at their restaurant. But the food was phenomenal, especially the brussels sprouts! After our snack, we headed to Dan's self-proclaimed favorite store: Uncommon Objects on a cute strip of stores across town. We stayed in the store until closing just looking at the crazy objects they had for sale. We headed back to Dan's apartment to rest for a little while, and then he had to go to the airport to pick up his girlfriend, so we went to Congress Street Bridge to go watch the largest collection of bats in North America. Every evening (supposedly), the bats emerge from under the bridge and go off in search of their evening meal. However, our viewing experience was a tad disappointing. We arrived before sunset and waited long enough to witness an uncountable number of bats fly in tornado-like circles under the bridge. But after an hour of this activity, we left the bridge. Since we had spent so much time at the bridge, we were ravenous by the time we left. We headed back towards the street where Uncommon Objects is and stopped at a walk up pizza window for a couple of fresh and tasty slices for the road. We at our pizza in the parking lot and then went back to Dan's to rest up! Overall, we found Austin to be a super hip city full of unique and delicious food (and beer) joints and a place where dogs are just as easily spotted as people. If it were 20 degrees cooler, it would've been perfect! Thanks again Dan for showing us around! We will save our next post for when we get back to a real city so be on the lookout for our adventures at Carlsbad Caverns, the Four Corners Monument, and the Grand Canyon. Thanks for reading :) We arrived in N'awlins in the evening and headed out immediately to explore the French Quarter. Luckily it was early, so the craziness on Bourbon Street hadn't started, and we could walk relatively unimpeded. So we made our way to St Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square and just enjoyed being in the city -- seeing the balconies and hearing the streetcorner jazz and witnessing an unexpected parade. Our first food stop was, of course, at Cafe Du Monde for their world famous beignets. We got three beignets (and 12 pounds of powdered sugar) for less than three bucks! Then we wandered our way back towards our hotel via Bourbon Street and stopped in for a quick respite from the humidity. When we were ready to face the heat again, we headed back out for dinner at an awesome little place called The Gumbo Shop. The food there was so delicious and it was the perfect first real meal to get a taste of New Orleans cuisine. The best part of dinner, however, wasn't Mandy's Gumbo or Aaron's Jambalaya. It was when our waiter asked Mandy to pick up her empty gumbo bowl at the end of the meal (or so we thought) and replaced it with a second fresh bowl of piping hot gumbo. We were so full by that point that Mandy exclaimed: "Why did this wonderful and terrible thing happen to us??" After dinner, we contented ourselves walking through Bourbon Street and marveling at the drunk idiots. Quite a spectacle! The next day, we continued our exploration:
The beignets of our first day were so amazing that Aaron decided to go on a morning run through the streets to nab some beignets to eat for breakfast on the road. Fueled by powdered sugar, we made our way towards Austin. About a year ago, we got to go on a trip to Birmingham for the wedding of our friends Julia and Kelby, and now we made it back to stay with them and hangout for one day in Birmingham. Thanks a bunch to Julia and Kelby for hosting us and taking us out for gourmet popsicles, dinner, and breakfast!! We got in at about 3 in the afternoon (we went back one time-zone!) and hung out with Julia at their cozy apartment. After catching up and taking a break from the car, she took us out so Aaron could buy a new pair of shoes (one pair died from overuse and his flip flops got eaten by a dog). After the shoe-adventure, we got a tour of the area and saw extremely cheap gas stations, Julia's childhood neighborhood/home, and the dog boarding place Kelby works at. Once we had seen a large part of the city, we regrouped at the apartment and then headed out for food. Kelby and Julia are definitely the #1 food experts of all of Alabama if not the world. They took us out for gourmet popsicles and Street City Pops and then for a super delicious and filling dinner at Chuy's. After dinner, Julia and Kelby drove us to a cool park called Railroad Park. The park was surrounded by tunnels that get light up with color-changing lights that were absolutely beautiful!! We enjoyed the lights and the park and then headed back to the apartment where we inflated an enormous air mattress and fell asleep! After a woobly evening on the air mattress, we woke up and relaxed. Julia and Kelby surprised us with a surprisingly delicious breakfast: Chick Fil A chicken biscuits and sweet tea. It was as southern as it gets and SO yummy!! We finished breakfast and said our goodbyes! On our drive, we stopped at the University of Alabama to check out the Walk of Champions down by their stadium. All we have to say about that is Roll Tide! We left campus and powered through the rest of our drive to New Orleans. Leaving D.C. was a little bittersweet because of how much fun we had had there. That being said, we were super excited about the next leg of our journey: driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and emjoying the luxury of 2 B&Bs. The parkway is a long winding road that goes through the mountains and provides many scenic lookout points and great views. We drove along it for miles and miles until we got too hungry to continue and then made our way off the parkway in search of lunch. After a mildly satisfying Applebee's lunch (the best part was that our waitress's accent let us know that we had finally made it to the south), we found our way to our first B&B, the Rosehill Bed and Breakfast of Roanoke, VA. Our host, Wendy, was super nice and treated us to an afternoon tea with yummy ice tea and delicious snacks. We enjoyed some time reading in the parlor and on the porch (Aaron feel to sleep in the relaxing summer sun) and then went out into town for dinner. We came back to the house just in time to watch the drama filled episode of The Bachelorette and then went right to sleep! In the morning we had the most amazing breakfast ever! It was three courses of yum!!! Then, we checked out and made our way back to the parkway for another 5 hour drive south. We stayed on the parkway for about 100 miles until we found the Blue Ridge Parkway Music Center. Luck for us, there was a duo playing live bluegrass music! We stopped and listened for a while and then headed back to the main roads to find lunch and finish the drive to Waynesville, NC. Our second B&B, Andon Reid Inn and Bed and Breakfast, was even grander than Rosehill. We enjoyed the comfy couches, the delicious lemon pie, and our private balcony for a while. When it got later, we took our host's recommendation and went out for dinner at a cute restaurant called the Sweet Onion. It was sooo delicious!! We had blackberry bbq short ribs and some delicious brussel sprouts! Then we headed back to the B&B where we played some shuffleboard and billiards (Aaron won both games) before bed! The next mornings breakfast was homemade crepes and was delightful. The best part of breakfast though, was the company! We sat with two couples, one from New York and one from Florida and chatted throughout the meal. It sort of made us feel like a little kid at the adults table because they were clearly fancier people than us, but we loved it all the same! We finished our meal, said goodbye to our new friends, and hit the road towards Birmingham, AL! It was a great trip through the Appalachians and we will definitely be going to a Bed and Breakfast again in the future. tWe had an amazing time in DC!!! A big part of that is thanks to our amazing host, Juli, who we can't thank enough! Thanks Juli!! We left Philadelphia minutes before check-out time had ended (a late morning for once!) and began the drive to our nation's capitol. Unfortunately, we were unable to do the coastal drive we had planned because we wanted to steer clear of Hurricane Arthur. We pulled up to Juli's place in the afternoon, and brought all of our stuff inside the apartment. After an awesome, home-cooked dinner, we headed out to "The Mall" to check out the Fourth of July festivities. It was so cool to finally see the Washington Monument, or, as Mandy likes to call it, the Sword in the Ground. The entire mall was flooded with people but we made our way through the mob and found a nice place to sit and watch the Navy Band - they were amazing!!!! They played Happy by Pharrell Williams and the singers were so good. It was a really fun way to celebrate America. After watching the band and singers for a while, we met up with Juli and watched the Fireworks. It was a great Fourth of July! The next morning we made our way to the Mall again and stood in line to get tickets to go up the Washington Monument. Luckily we showed up just barely in time to pick up one of the last remaining tickets for the day, for 9PM. From there, we headed west, appreciating the WWII and Vietnam War Memorials on our way to visit Abe. The Lincoln Memorial was one of the coolest places on our entire trip so far. We enjoyed marveling at the statue and reading the Gettysburg Address that was on the wall ("Four score and seven years ago..."). From there we kept walking (we had gone at least 2 miles by this point) past the Korean War memorial with its amazing statues until we got to the MLK memorial. We sat there for a rest and then were lucky enough to meet up with some friends from home for lunch! Cora and Haley took us to a place called Roti (basically a Chipotle of Mediterranean food) which we desperately want to have in Seattle! After that we trekked back to Juli's place for some relaxation time (Mandy promptly fell asleep!). When we were well rested, Juli fed us another amazing meal and then we headed back out towards the Mall. Lucky for us, we got to meet up with yet another friend from home: Michele! Michele met us on our walk and joined us up the Washington Monument (luckily we had snagged an extra ticket!). Going to the top of the Sword in the Ground was so fun! Mandy had been hoping to go up something tall the whole trip (since we didn't make it up the Sears tower, the Empire State Building, or to the top of the Statue of Liberty). At the top we marveled at the views of this amazing city. One of the coolest parts of the tour, however, was the elevator ride back down. They lit the elevator shaft so we could see the different bricks inside the Monument. Apparently lots of cool places donated special bricks for the construction of the Monument, like the Library of Alexandria, and the State of New York (which we got a picture of). On the way back home, we stopped at a bench and spent a while watching the Fireflies light up the grass. Exhausted from our great day, we went back to Juli's and fell right to sleep! The next morning we woke up with a plan: get tickets to the Holocaust museum...so we dragged Juli out of the house far earlier than necessary and walked all the way down to the museum. We got there early enough to get prime tickets for when the museum opened. Michele met us at the museum and we spent about 3 hours walking through the harrowing history of the Holocaust. It was a powerful experience. When we left the museum, we grabbed some food from a food truck and bee lined it to the National Archives Museum so we could see the actual Declaration of Independence (like from National Treasure!). After a short wait in the sunshine, we got into the Archives and headed straight for the Rotunda (the home of the documents). The Declaration had aged so much that the words were no longer legible. The Constitution and Bill of Rights, however, have aged pretty well and we could clearly see the words written on them. Mandy couldn't help but to wonder if there really was a treasure map on the back of the Declaration...we may never know... We left the Archives and had decided that we were totally done with museums. Nevertheless, we found ourselves in the Smithsonian where we saw the Hope Diamond, the giant blue whale, and watched a video about deep sea diving (it was a great break for our tired feet). Finally, we caught a cab (our first cab of the trip!) back to Juli's where we hung out for the rest of the night. We had so much fun that night reminiscing about elementary-high school and eating a Gittelman delicacy: ice cubes. We truly loved our time in D.C. and it wouldn't have been the same without all of our friends who made our time so special, particularly our wonderful hostess, Juli! Next stop: Blue Ridge Parkway and our first ever B&B. Our last post was written amidst a thunderstorm that kept us inside for our first night in the greater Philadelphia area. What we didn't mention was that our drive to Pennsylvania marked the first major disappointment of the trip: the Crayola not-a-factory. Apparently, in the last year or so the Crayola factory (with the awesome vats of spinning hot colored wax) got turned into a children's exploration/amusement zone. Since we wouldn't have been able to see crayons being made, we decided to give up on that dream and just go straight to our hotel :( Anyways, when we got up the next morning, the weather had calmed (and the Crayola debacle was behind us) and we headed out to explore the historic sector of Philadelphia. After some first-hand experience with Philly's notoriously difficult parking situation, we made our way to the visitor center and picked up tickets to go see Independence Hall, where the founders debated and signed the Declaration of Independence. Our tickets were for later in the day, so we instead made our way to the Liberty Bell. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely hot and the line wasn't under any shade...but eventually we made it into Liberty Hall! To be completely honest, our patience for exhibits was low and we headed straight to see the bell. So cool! Security was tight, though, and our attempts to lick the bell were thwarted by the guard. In true Snails Across America spirit, we took a #selfiewiththebell, which was almost as good. Our next stop was at the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. After seeing the graves of many well-known revolutionary figures, we really appreciated the monument to the hardworking, often unrecognized individuals who created the foundation for the lives we live today. The inscription read "Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington's army who died to give you liberty." Then we made our way to Independence Hall. We got a guided tour from one of the park rangers, who showed us both the courtroom and the assembly room (where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed)! A real highlight of the assembly room was George Washington's antique chair, named the "Rising Sun Chair" by Benjamin Franklin during his address at the conclusion of the Continental Congress. Next we went into the building next door: Congress Hall. There, we got to sit in the room where Congress met in the brief time when Philadelphia was the interim-capitol city (as Washington D.C. was still being built). The chairs we sat in were replicas of the exact chairs used back then! The coolest thing about Congress Hall is that it is the site of where John Adams was sworn into his presidency. There had been concern at the time that the people would have trouble with the change of leadership, but Adams's successful inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of power from one leader to another, eliminating many of those concerns and paving the way for the effectiveness of American democracy. When we left Congress Hall, Aaron super excitedly dragged Mandy to the Philadelphia Mint in hopes of seeing how our money is made! Since we weren't able to see a crayon factory, seeing a money factory showed promise for an exciting sight. We got to see the whole process of minting coins, and were able to look down into the factory below. Although the machines weren't on that day, we saw all of the different tools and materials used in the process, and enjoyed seeing all of the coins that had fallen onto the factory floor. One of the coolest thing we learned was that coins that fail inspection get sent to The Waffler where they get smushed in a waffle pattern and then recycled. We left The Mint satisfied and trekked through the muggy heat to our car. We stopped at Geno's and ordered two Philly Cheesesteaks (when in Philly...) and ate them on the road back to our hotel. We were trying to make it back before the weather started acting up again! After a quick grocery stop for that evening's meal, we holed up for the night. Next stop: DC! Our few days in New York were amazing! We want to start this post by saying a huge thank you to our hosts Levana and Aaron who made our time in New York truly magical and who we can't thank enough! The first night we got in, we enjoyed an awesome home-cooked meal at Levana and Aaron's house and got a ton of recommendations on good places to go and see (and which smartphone apps to use to get the best map of the subway system). Monday morning started with breakfast and story time. Our hosts' son Jack loved listening to Mandy read books -- the best was a Thomas the tank engine story with Bash, Dash, and Ferdinand (the Logging Locos)! When story time was done we took the Long Island Railroad into the city. Getting off the train at Penn Station during rush hour was about as good of an introduction to NYC as any. Down in the hot, sticky, smelly station everybody seemed to be running this way and that. It was like somebody had pressed the fast forward button on all the commuters. We left the train station and headed for Times Square! In the beautifully poetic words of Ted's friend Punchy from HIMYM, "Times Square is the bomb!" So many billboards, so much energy, so many pedestrians, so much honking. We made our way to the quietest spot we could find and sat and watched the general pandemonium play out for a while. An observation: it's just astounding the number of selfies people take. It would be interesting to know the daily count of #selfieintimessquare. Before we left Times Square, we both willingly and excitedly went into the Disney store (the biggest one we had seen!) because...Disney! Then we walked north to Central Park, bought lunch from a street vendor, and ate on the grass. Before we got the the park, we stopped in the famous FAO Schwartz and saw the Big Piano and the Zoltar from Big. As we meandered through the park, the sun got hotter and hotter, so we dunked our heads in a fountain in one of the playgrounds to cool off. While in Central Park, we checked out an awesome statue of Alice and friends from Alice in Wonderland and found a Geocache nearby! We left Central Park and headed over to The Met. It was so huge and incredible overwhelming so we decided to just check out two of the exhibits: Musical Instruments and Photography by . It was also cool to be able to hang out on the front steps of The Met (like Blair from Gossip Girl!). After that, Mandy dragged Aaron over to a restaurant called Serendipity 3 in order to try their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate - SO YUMMY!!! By the time we finished dinner (and dessert!) we were exhausted! We made our way back to Penn Station and actually became two hustling New Yorkers for about 10 blocks as we ran to catch the train. Exhausted and with tired feet, we feel right to sleep. The next morning we woke up for more story time and a delicious Tuna Salad Bagel breakfast. Then we headed back on the LIRR to Penn Station and then took the subway down to Downtown (which had a much different meaning than how we use it in Seattle!). First thing when we got up from the subway we went to get our tickets for Liberty Island/Ellis Island. We went straight through security and got on the boat to Liberty Island! Seeing the Statue of Liberty in person was a pretty awesome sight. We spent quite a while exploring the island and looking at Lady Liberty from all angles. Next we boated over to Ellis Island where we saw where a lot of immigration took place and found names of our ancestors on the walls. After boating back to Battery Park, we walked over to Ground Zero (the 9/11 memorial and the sight of where the twin towers were). It was a moving monument and a worthwhile sight. We left the memorial and got on the subway once again to get over to the Lower East Side where we finally got to taste delicious Pastrami and Corned Beef at Katz's delicatessen. We were stuffed and satisfied when we left to find a subway back to Midtown. Once there we hung out in the original Macy's and in Herald Square and then boarded the LIRR back to Long Island for one last night in New York. This morning we had one last delicious breakfast with our amazing hosts, one last story time with Jack, and then packed up and hit the road for our hotel just outside of Philadelphia. We are currently sitting in our hotel room as a thunderstorm rages on outside. More adventures tomorrow! The drive from Niagara Falls to our hotel just outside of Boston took us through upstate New York and all of Western Massachusetts. Because of Aaron's stinginess and desire to not pay tolls on the Mass Pike, we meandered our way through the state and ran across a delightful little town called Shelburne Falls (we stopped because we saw a sign for a farmer's market that we never ended up finding). We took a walk through Shelburne Falls and across the Bridge of Flowers. It was delightful! De...wait for it...lightful! Delightful! We made it to our hotel with just enough energy to unpack and fall right asleep. In the morning, we took the train into the city and popped out of the underground at Government Center. From there, we spent the day following the Freedom Trail and exploring the history of Boston, from numerous graveyards and churches to the site of the Boston Massacre to Paul Revere's house to Harvard University. We were absolutely amazed at the amount of history packed into such a small space. Definitely fans of Boston. The next morning we got a late start because for the first time in forever we had a drive that was less than 5 hours! When we finally got all packed up, we drove straight to Rhode Island where we tried to go to a beach (it was annoyingly closed to non-residents), ate some delicious/famous ice cream at Gray's Ice Cream, stopped in Providence for a loaded weiner at Olneyville New York System (featured on some Food Network shows!), and then finally made it into New York to stay with our amazing hosts, Levana and Aaron! We can't wait to see what Manhattan has in store for us tomorrow! |