So today I'm kinda going to do what Triniti did in her post three weeks ago. A basic summary of our trip.
We woke up at three in the morning to catch our flight, which was at five. We flew out to Chicago, a four hour flight, and then drove (in a rental car) five more hours to the outskirts of Cleveland. That was a very busy, very tiring day. One ray of light was eating with Triniti and her family at a local diner! Something I had secretly known about since VBS, but I didn't know when. That was fun.
Day two we got a late start, because we were so tired from the day before. That day we made a short stop at Lake Erie, then continued to drive through Pennsylvania. We visited Penn State that day. Penn State is my dad's favorite college football team. I could care less, but we did get ice cream there, and that was yummy.
Day three was the Fourth of July! After driving through parts of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut (The states sure are smaller out there!) we spent the remainder of the day with some of Mom and Dad's friends from before I was born. It was pretty fun doing fireworks that night. Something you really don't get to do in CA.
We visited the ESPN broadcasting center (another of Dad's choices) on day four. We also visited Boston that day, which was a highlight. (The picture is me in front of Paul Revere's house. SO COOL!) We spent that night with some friends who recently moved near Boston, and it was nice to see them again.
We saw the American Doll Store - my request, because I've been to the other two major ones, Chicago and LA, so I wanted to complete the trifecta - St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trump Tower (ugh), Times Square, Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building.
The next day we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the morning. One thing stuck out to me about the Statue - it's smaller than I imagined it. But that was still really cool. To round out day six, we drove to Philadelphia, where we saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and looked around the Independence Visitors Center. Funny thing - the bell was also smaller than I'd thought it would be.
We spent that night with one of Mom's friends from college, and day seven was mostly driving. We did visit New Castle, Delaware, which was Delaware's original capital, and Gettysburg. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time at Gettysburg, though, and I hope to come back and see the battlefield better. And to visit Eisenhower's house, which is nearby.
Day eight we visited some guy who lived around the Revolutionary time period and was in the government for a while. I can't remember his name - goes to show my memory is unbeatable. :) We also visited Blennerhasset Island, which is in the middle of the Ohio river. There was a lot of interesting history there, and beautiful scenery.
Day nine was Sunday, and we got to visit Pastor Matt Shackleford's new church in Ohio. That was really nice, and the message he preached was amazing. We spent that afternoon and evening with some friends who recently moved out to Ohio. We went to the National Air Force Museum, which was pretty interesting. I'm usually not into that kind of stuff, but some of the planes were pretty cool. They also had the Boxcar there, which was the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
Day ten was Amish country. We spent some time there, bought a few things, and did our own bit of watching the buggies and horses going up and down the road. Our rental was a giant, white, twelve passenger van, and when we were getting out of it at one point, a buggy came by with a whole Amish family in it, and almost all of them kinda turned in their seats as they passed us, watching us. Mom said: "You know you're an oddity when the Amish stare at you." That cracked me up.
The next seven days we spent with my grandma, my uncle and aunt, and their two kids, and then with my grandma's extended family in Michigan. Then we drove back to Chicago, and Dad flew out. Mom's parents came and picked Mom and us kids up.
We spent the next five days with Mom's family in Wisconsin. We surprised our grandparents (mainly Grandpa) by having the other two sisters who weren't already in Wisconsin (my Mom and Aunt Laura, who lives in WI) fly out. And they surprised us by having Aunt Julie bring her kids (one of whom is one of my best friends) with her, and we got to stay a day and a half longer than we thought we were staying. It was awesome!
We flew back on day twenty-two after a really fun, long trip.
Hope you enjoyed my post for this week. Be sure to come back next week for a post by Jessica!! And stay tuned - I may be posting pictures and more details at a later date. :)
~Anna
Sounds like a fun trip!
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