Maryland and Virgina: Talk about true hospitality

We left New Jersey and headed south through Delaware (our most expensive toll day, as Matt wrote about) and then into Maryland.  We only stayed one night in a quiet park there before heading west into Virginia. 

The Robot slide in Maryland

Catching up with Miss E

 In Virginia, we found a goldmine of a park using our Passport America site.  It is in the beautiful hills near Shenandoah National Park.  It has a saline pool that hasn't been closed for the season, but our kids are the only ones to dare enter it.  It's COLD!  I just tell everyone that they are tough Idaho kids.  We planned to only stay two days, but it's so great that we are planning to stay a week.  Our neighbor is one of the most generous and thoughtful people I've ever met.  Her dog wandered into our camp and sparked a conversation.  She soon asked if we blogged.  I replied yes, and she said, "I thought so.  I've read your blog!!"  Since then, she has figured out our ancestry line way back to the Civil War time era, and has even found some relatives that fought in Gettysburg!  All on ancestry.com.  She is retired Navy, having worked for the Pentagon on 9/11.  She has convinced us that we need to see Gettysburg, which is in Pennsylvania about 2 hours from our camp.  She is renting a suburban for all of us to travel together, so that she can be our tour guide for the trip and show us the real deal.  She says she loves history and is happy to do it.  We just can't turn that offer down and will head out to do that tomorrow. 

Skyline Resort, cool pool in all aspects

Alex in his element

We have our White House tour booked through our Idaho Congressman, Mike Simpson, on Oct. 4th.  With the recent security breech, we are wondering how it'll affect that tour.  Hopefully, not too much, as we've planned our whole DC stay around that date now.  By the way, Debbie, our neighbor and possible living angel, says she will help us tour DC as well, if we'd like as she's lived in DC for the past decade.  She reminds me, once again, to be overly generous and thoughtful to others.  Living out the idea that serving others is what we are supposed to do.   

Experience NYC with kids

Ironically, I got to spend two birthdays in a row in the Big Apple.  Matt took me there for our first experience as I turned 40 last year and we would have never guessed we'd return one year later with our kids in tow.  We were excited to watch their reactions to the big city, Times Square and Lady Liberty.  Just getting into the city is quite a process, however, and we experienced some true New Jersey hospitality along the way.  We stayed in a park that looked like Disney Land, online, but turned out to be Disney Slums.  It did have wild turkey/geese/peacock looking birds that roamed free (we were told to eat bugs and tics), which the kids liked.  Other than that, it was full of iffy looking characters smoking a lung out every day.  There are a LOT of people who smoke in the East.  I wonder what the statistics really are, but it seems like everyone has a cigarette in hand.  The NJ beach was so much fun and so much warmer than the northern coast of NH, so we luckily were able to leave our RV park to spend a few good days there.   Funny, I didn't even take one picture of the RV park...that's how stellar it was. 

Small sand crabs or sand fleas

Pointing out the first sights of the NYC and Freedom Tower

Freedom Tower overlooking Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan. All of these buildings had windows blown out and major damage after 9/11

The Sphere is a sculpture that once sat between the twin towers but was relocated and kept in original form with dents and all from the debris that rained down on that day. Quite a sight.

I love that siblings hang onto each other in the big city.  We rarely see moments like this.....Alex willingly holding hands with Elise.

A special birthday dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. 

On the escalator in the worlds biggest ToysRUs in Times Square (4 stories tall).  A full sized Ferris wheel sits in the middle.

New subway right down to the World Trade Center where the kids had the whole place to themselves.  Quickly became a jungle gym.

I love this photo of everyone looking up at the Freedom Tower.  We sat in front of the church that was the ONLY building that didn't have any windows blown out or structural damage.  It's a somber and sobering feeling to know what happened there.

On the free Staten Island ferry ride into NYC.  Lady Liberty is quite a sight. 

Our last glance at her as the sun was going down heading back to Staten Island.

 

I was telling my Dad about how feeding the pigeons was what the kids all say they loved about being in NYC.  Not the WTC, not Times Square, not Battery Park, not even ToysRUS.  Feeding the pigeons.  He wisely responded, "from a child's point of view...kind of like keeping your eye on the sparrow".  I love my dad.  I have to remember even the littlest things are important.

 

Fun with Parkways and Turnpikes

We spent the last 4 days on the Jersey shore just south of NYC.  On our way through the NYC area we got our first lesson on Parkways.  As we followed our GPS directions onto a "cars only" parkway we quickly got some education by a passing motorist who rolled his window down and told us we were not suppose to be there. Google needs to have an "RV" setting on there mapping software I think.  We also had some close calls on some bridge underpasses. They were of the curved kind where the right lane clearance is only 10' 6".  Luckily there wasn't heavy traffic and we could change lanes to aim more toward the middle of the bridge where we could pass safely.  Big Mama (that's our RV) almost got a buzz cut that day. All-in-all we made it without a catastrophe to our next parking spot on the Jersey Shore. We parked Big Mama and took Curvy to Staten Island so we could take the Ferry into NYC. We learned that getting off of the Parkway to make an emergency bathroom stop (Leesy), costs exactly $1.50 in toll fees.  Speaking of toll fees, it sure is expensive to drive anywhere in these states. For 4 days I felt like we just kept having to get our wallets out and pull out cash.  This was especially true when we left NJ in Big Mama.  It cost us $20 to cross a bridge on the NJ turnpike and about another $12 in toll roads. However, the alternative is a regular highway with traffic lights (Big Mama hates traffic lights) so I was happy to shell out the cash for smooth sailing.

Despite these inconveniences we had a great time in NYC and the beach as depicted in the photos that I had taken here.  And now on to Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Heading into NYC via Staten Island Ferry

Isn't she awesome

Our first venture into NYC with the kids

Times Square

Taking a break at Bryant Park. Alex found a lone chair.

Lady Liberty pose one more time on Staten Island on our way out.

Kids enjoying the big waves on the Jersey shore. Water was so much warmer than in New Hampshire.

Tanner jumps a wave.

Leesy screaming at the top of her lungs in pure joy.

Alex after getting pummeled by another wave.

New England Mtn Bikers are Better

I wanted to quickly make a note [for myself I suppose] about my experience mountain biking in the New England states. I think I have concluded that New England mtn bikers are better than Idaho mtn bikers.  The terrain that they have to work with is very challenging to navigate on a bicycle. Where trails like these in Idaho would be closed to bicycles, they are not in this part of the country.  I suppose its because they wouldn't have anything to ride on otherwise.  Most of the terrain is rocky and where there isn't rocks you will ride on top of a network of mostly tree roots.

In Idaho we are used to climbing up mountains with very little obstacles and then bombing down fast and mostly smooth surface trails.  Therefore, your workout portion of the ride is within the vertical climb.  Here, what they lack in vertical challenge they make up for in technical challenge.  

Can you find the trail? Surprisingly you do get used to just peddling through these. Oh, throw away your clip in shoes. You don't need them here. [The trail veers right. Over the "mostly" flat rocks. ]

Where there are trees to cross, throw some rocks down to get over.

Many parts of the trail contain rocks

I don't think most people ride these but it wouldn't surprise me if they did

The Lakes up here are pretty fantastic

Plymouth and Boston, oh, how we love you.....well, I love you........ Matt?

I've been trying really hard to help my kids prepare for the American history I knew we'd be able to experience being on the East coast.  When researching the best, kid friendly books for accurate and interesting history, we came across Rush Limbaugh's new books, "Brave Pilgrims" and "The First Patriots" which have been award winning.  As much as Rush drives me crazy sometimes, I went ahead and bought the books. We read them as we drove across the northern states in preparation for the East. The kids loved both of them, and for the first time, I began to see history as more than dull facts, dates and events that I couldn't put in order.  All of the events and historical figures came alive to us and entering, Plymouth, Massachusetts, we HAD to visit the first known landing place of those courageous colonists.  The first big statue we saw was of Massasoit, the Native American who befriended the colonists. 

 

Down the road, we approached the Plimouth (this how they spelled it) Rock. I had pictured it large, regal and jetting out in the ocean.

 

Beautiful enclosure for "the rock".



Peeking over and "huh, really?  That's Plimouth Rock?"






I wasn't the only one thinking it, as I looked around.  We learned that no one really knows for sure if this is the actual rock. It was identified 120 years after the first colonist by a gentleman who knew some of the original pilgrims.  "Yes, yes, this is the rock....I'm sure of it". 

 

What was really cool was seeing some of the original houses of William Bradford and Miles Standish.  Bigger than I'd pictured them building in that day and age, but very English looking.  The Mayflower II was also docked and neat to see. 



A beautiful monument that we found with a list of people on the Mayflower.

 

The kids are making some Youtube videos for their classrooms from last year, so this was our first attempt.  They will be posting those as they learn how to combine several videos into one (from Dad). 

 

Semi exciting, but I knew Boston would be packed full of magic.  It has the Freedom Trail, which is a must thing "to do" for any kid or adult.  Sixteen places that document major historical events which span about 2.5 walking miles of the city.  We started at the end, Bunker Hill Monument and ended up spending 4 hours between walking up the monument and then discovering the amazing USS Constitution and Navy Yard and museums. 

 

See the red brick line?  Easy trail throughout the city to follow

Owies for Elise at the base of Bunker Hill. She still beat all of us up the 294 steps to the top.



A zoomed in photo from the top of the decks on top of buildings

Battle time.  Amazing, fun, interactive learning museum



The USS Constitution, "Ironsides".



Touring the ship was incredible.  Heavy cannons and all.



Down to the lower decks.  Watch yer head.

An amazing view of what the navy sailors endured on those ships.  Sleeping on hammocks, "poop decks", keeping order with painful discipline methods and battle! They were so much harder workers than we are in modern day. What hard lives they lead, and what they did in sacrifice for America....it was humbling over and over again.  In the museum, which was the best I've ever seen for teaching methods, even the bathroom stalls educated you on how the sailors dealt with bathroom issues.  Matt found that particularly interesting.

On to the galley.....


Thought especially of my Grandad Taylor, who served as a cook in the Navy.



One hands on exhibit on how they built the ships



Just one activity the sailors did daily, sanding the decks




Love this flag.  States, "Don't tread on me"



Believe it or not, it was now dinner time and the kids feet were exhausted, so we took a pizza break in the Italian district of Boston and then we took the subway into downtown.  It was a fantastic downtown with street performers and a glimpse of the old and new architecture.  We were able to see many more of the sites, following our red brick road. 


The famous Faneuil Hall



Cool American Patriot, Samuel Adams!



Small red house on the right is the Old State House where the constitution was read (right next to the high rise)



Paul Revere! 

 We kept seeing this Mike's Pastry box passing us....over and over.  Matt googled it and discovered it followed the "trail".  We found a crowd outside clamoring for the pastries.  I have to say, as excited as we were, they were NOT even close to the .75 cent Amish donuts! Quite a disappointing $21 spent.  The better experience was anxiously searching out a public bathroom for miss Elise.  The nearest one was a downtown Boston Fire Department No. 1.  Wide open department with the guys just hanging out on this busy, busy small street.   

 

 

With our first big city day down, we happily boarded the subway and headed back to our state park site in Hingham, MA about 15 miles out of the city.  What a GREAT day!  It was the first time the RV really felt like "home".  I guess it's officially our sanctuary.