Hart's Go East!

Where has the month gone? At my last post we were planning our trip east. Every spare moment I had on the computer was used up in finding great hotel and car rental deals. What we should see in each city, and procure tickets if needed. I planned, but not over planned what we would do each of the days. Did it work??? I think so, we saw quite a lot in the time that we had, but we were exhausted at the end of each day. I will give a brief photo diary of everything that we did for my reading audience (family).

May 29, 2008 We woke up before the sun to drive to DIA. We caught our flight to Philadelphia after just a little stress about checking Mikaela's bag all the way to SLC on our return flight.

We got to Philadelphia actually 25 minutes early and got to our rental car by 3:00. They tried to give us a smaller car which would seat 6, but not carry any of our luggage. We finally got on the road with our dear friend "Tom" our navigational system that would get us on the right road every time... or would he? We drove into the city wow! It's crowded! Wow- They honk a LOT here. I jump out and go to see if any tours are still available for this day. David finds parking. Wow! There are a lot of school groups touring too! No more tours for today, but come back bright and early in the morning. We do walk around some and see the Liberty Bell, and some old buildings, and find lunch at Subway (not great). We go back to our 1st stay in a hotel. As Anna put it "our hotel was small... but at least it had a bathroom" What can you expect from a Motel 6- I wouldn't say this it was a Clean, comfortable room. That night we had a pizza "Pie". Different from any pizza we had ever had. This one had the cheese, pepperoni, and then the sauce on top... Why? Why do they make pizza with sauce on top? It must be a Philly thing.

The next morning we were up early to go get tickets to Independence Hall, and we had to beat all of those school tour groups. We did, and we saw it. Quite extaordinary to see the room where the 1st and 2nd Continental Congress met, and argued, and signed the Declaration of Independence. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison had all been there before us. Other things we saw that day were Franklin's foundation where his house once stood, and the printing office he owned. We saw Betsy Ross's house, and the Philadelphia Mint. Our memorable food stop this day was to Sully's Restaurant for some Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. And they were much better than Subways! By noon we were done with Philly and on our way north with "Tom" guiding the way.

Night #2 was better than the first as we made it to a Holiday Inn Express with a pool and everything. Beds for everyone on this night. We slept in a little the next day too.

May 31st we went to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Cumorah. It was a lot steeper than I thought it would be. Then we went to Joseph Smith's Farm and toured the log home, and the frame home, and then walked through the Sacred Grove. I got sweet pictures of the kids walking out hand in hand from the grove. They actually got along once in a while on the trip.

Then we had pizza again, only normal this time with the sauce on the bottom. Then we went across the street to the Printing Store that printed the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon. We saw people who we knew their son in High School (Marchants) They were in our tour. The printing office was very well restored, and we spent so much time there, unfortunately we didn't get to the Peter Whitmer farm. Then we went to Rochester a 1/2 hour away to see a college friend, Deborah and her family, the kids all took a dip in the pool even though it was very chilly that night.

June 1st was a Sunday so we slept a little later and went to the Sacred Grove again for our Sunday Meeting, and then went to see the Palmyra Temple. From there we started driving to New York City. We were glad we came into the city on a Sunday afternoon so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic. Even with our friend "Tom" it was very nerve racking and he led us astray a few times. Oh well what's a few extra dollars to support the nice toll people of New Jersey.

We got to our hotel in the heart of the theater district, but the cheapest I could find. The kids were excited because it had a curved staircase, and bell boys everywhere, and they valet parked our car, but when we got to our room.... it was even smaller than the 1st night.... but at least it had a bathroom... and it was clean this time (I forgot to mention Kamryn's small tantrum about the scratchy small towels, and dirty floor at the Motel 6). Milford Plaza was nice enough and they never realized we were sneaking 2 extra people into our room for 4.

After we got settled we ventured out into the city. We checked for cheap tickets to the theater, but found none to any shows we wanted to see, so we set out for Time Square. Then we walked, and walked and walked to find Lincoln Center and the Manhattan Temple. The kids did not have their walking shoes on (we were still dressed up for Sunday) and we didn't realize how far we would walk. David finally spotted the angel Moroni on the temple and we took our picture. Then we went back to Central Park and walked around and watched people. We turned down many a bicyclist wanting to drive our family around in a cart... did they really think about that? Since we missed our theater opportunity we went to a diner called "Ellen's Stardust Diner" on Broadway. They had "wannabe Broadway actors" as their waiters, and we were very entertained. We only ordered 3 orders of meatloaf to be split 6 ways, and then everyone ordered a dessert, because that is what vacation is all about. Malts were their specialty. Even though it was one of our pricier meals it was worth it because of the entertainment. The kids really enjoyed all of the show tunes they sang. Then we walked home through Time Square again, and saw all of the billboards. We went in the M& M Store, the Hershey Store, and the 3 story Toys R Us Store with a ferris wheel inside. After a very long day we went back to the Milford Plaza and crammed 6 people into our small room for a noisy night sleep. Our air conditioner was not working properly so it made a lot of noise, but they fixed it the next day.

June 2nd was another early day so we could find our way on the Subway to downtown Manhattan. We made our way to the ferry to Liberty Island and took it a little early to the Statue of Liberty. I had gotten passes online to take the monument tour which is as far as they let you go in the statue since 9/11. We had our 1st of many security checks. This time it involved a "Puffer" which blew puffs of air at your. We weren't sure what that was about, checking for explosives I guess. We waited for about 1 hour to get through this tight security. I guess the tour was worth that. We saw how big the statue is, and a model of what it looks like inside. Then we took the ferry back and skipped Ellis Island. We got a New York hot dog at a stand and ate as we walked to find Ground Zero. Our map reading skills were still being fine tuned, but we did get there. We saw a wall plaque on the side of a fire station dedicated to the fireman and policeman who died. We saw the big hole in the ground for the next buildings that will go up there. We listened briefly over the noise of construction to a tour guide tell about it. As we were leaving I snapped a picture of a fire truck leaving the station right in front of Ground Zero. Then we walked on to find Wall Street. We had watched National Treasure before this trip and we liked finding all of the impossibilities of the movie. We found Trinity church at the end of Wall Street, and we found the building where George Washington was 1st inaugurated in 1789. The building was nice and cool so we went in for a while and cooled off. Then we walked on to find the Brooklyn Bridge. They were already tired at this point, but how long can a bridge be? If I bribe them with ice cream on the other side they will go. So we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. It would have been really fun, if we hadn't been so tired. The ice cream store on the other side was a little hard to find, but we did find it, and it was worth it. Outside was a promenade area and people were posing for wedding pictures in front of the bridge. There was also a cool thing called a "telectroscope" we could look in it and see people in London in front of the Tower of London looking back at us in real time. We held up white boards to communicate, no voice. There was no more bribery so we found a subway entrance eventually that took us back across the river (2 changes in subways that were extremely confusing) to China Town and we had dinner at Green Bo's Chinese restaurant. It was early so no one else was there so we weren't so embarrassed that we couldn't eat with our chop sticks though we tried. The kids all played it safe and ordered sweet and sour, and orange chicken. I tried pork dumplings, and crab dumplings. They liked my pork dumplings, but I got all of the crab ones to myself.

By now it was close to rush hour so we walked around China Town a little and then found our way home on the subway again. Later that night we walked around Time Square again, and bought souveniers.

June 3rd we had New York bagels with schmeer for breakfast and walked to Rockafeller center. Derek found his heros from "The Office" at the NBC store, and Kamryn and Anna went to the American Girl Store. It was 4 stories of doll heaven. Then we walked down 5th Ave. to see the Empire State Building. Then David took the kids back to get checked out of our hotel and Mikaela and I walked quickly down 34th street to find "American Eagle", Forever 21, and others. Then we left NYC around noon. We all decided that Manhattan is a fun place, but we would NEVER live there. A funny sign that we saw said "Fine for honking $350" HA! Everyone honks at the slightest pause in traffic. There is so many pedestrians, and so many cars on very narrow streets. Another funny thing was all of the trash. Every night the businesses put all of their trash out on the street to be picked up during the night. Ever heard of dumpsters?

We drove the New Jersey Turnpike down New Jersey, across the Delaware River and into Delaware. We saw a town called NewCastle on our route so we decided to stop there and see what it looked like. It was a cute OLD town on the river. It was settled by William Penn Himself in the 1600's. We found a tavern and went in for lunch. Still trying the native cuisine. We had pastrami on a pretzel roll and sweet potatoe fries. The others had other New Englan dishes. Wild rice soup, pot roast, but the sweet potatoe fries came with everything. They were different, and delicious. The walls of the tavern were decorated with various old maritime decorations, and outside an old "Betsy Ross" style flag hung, as well as a swedish flag, because Newcastle was settled by swedes I guess. We enjoyed this slower town very much after leaving the hustle and bustle of New York.

We drove another hour and a half across Maryland, and we came to Kensington, MD where the Washington DC temple is located. We went to the visitor center first and saw the movie "Joseph" which was about to start, and we had never seen it. It was cool to see that after visiting his home in Palmyra. When we came out of the visitor center it was raining, so we didn't get to walk around on the temple grounds. We took a picture of the temple under the visitor center awning, then left for our friends' the Roper's home in Vienna, Virginia. We got there around 9 p.m. because of bad traffic. We stayed with them for 4 nights, they were amazing hosts. We had air mattresses and more room than any of our hotels.

June 4th we headed into Washington DC fairly early to get passes to the Washington Monument. I got them for later in the day and we walked to the White House. Glenn Roper who we stayed with works on the legal staff for the Bush Administration. He got us cleared to take a tour of the White House which is hard to do unless you contact a congressman. We saw the East Wing with the Red Room, Blue Room, Parlor, and a Ball Room, and the Entrance of the White House. Because there were 2 suspicious vehicles in the area and the President was inside, we had to wait for an hour for our tour, but it was worth it. After we had to book it to the Washington Monument for our 11:45 tour of the Washington Monument. This was the first of many "just in the nick of time" moments in DC. We walked up to our tour just as he was taking the tickets. We went up to the top of the monument and looked around DC from little windows. It also had a history of this most revered President. After the tour we took some pictures by the monument, and started walking down the mall. It was getting warm and very muggy by that time. We saw WW2 memorial, Viet Nam Memorial, Korea memorial, and then we went in Lincoln's Monument. It was cool in there and we took a break. While I was looking in the gift store a huge storm blew in. The rain was blowing side ways. I was SO glad we weren't out walking in the mall still because there would have been no shelter. Obviously Lincoln Monument became a shelter to a lot of tourists. We stayed in the monument for about an hour. It was still drizzling when we ventured out again. We decided against visiting any more memorials since it still looked like it could rain again, and we headed to the Holocaust Museum. David, Mikaela, and Derek did a tour of the exhibit while Kamryn, Anna, and Michelle went to an exhibit for children. It was a hands on exhibit of the life of a Jewish boy before, during when he went to a ghetto in Berlin, and eventually a concentration camp. Because his father was a world war 1 hero he was spared along with the boy, but his mother and sister died. It was a good way to explain the Holocaust to Kamryn & Anna. Unlike New York City everything in Washington DC closes at 5:00. Even the restaurants were very empty for the evening meal. We went to a food court and then went home pretty early.

June 5th we didn't go into the city as early, but we were still able to get passes to see the Capitol building. Since we had some time we decided to walk to the National Archives. It seemed a lot closer on the map than it actually was. When the kids would see a tour bus full of people they would say "Wimps!" because we were walking. When we go to the Archive building there was a line around the block because of all of the school tour groups visiting, so we decided to wait until later and we went to the National Art Museum. I liked it... the kids just thought there were too many naked people. Then we walked back to the capitol. We made it just in time for our tour again. We really liked the tour of the capitol. The statues, the paintings, the cool architecture. Security here was tight again, and this time they wouldn't let us take water bottles. It was mid-80's so I didn't think that was very nice of them. We had to go buy more water at $2 a bottle when we got out. We ate at a popular DC retaurant called "Potbelly's". We had some really good sandwiches. I guess that is about as DC cuisine as you can get. After lunch we went back to the National Archives. It was still busy, but we waited this time and got a chance to view the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The parchments were very faded, and you could hardly read the Declaration of Independence in the dim light. Then we headed out of DC, but not before driving all over town to find a gas station (no one must get gas in the city, because there were none) While David did that I went in search of a dress to wear to the National Symphony. Glenn had gotten 4 tickets for that night's performance of Peer Geht (???) I can't remember how it was spelled. We almost didn't make it back to Vienna in time to drop of the kids to babysit and pick up Julie to take her back into town. We barely made it once again. We got to sit in the President's box when he attends the symphony, and we got to eat the presidential M&M's. It was really cool! The symphony had a choir and soloists that sang also to tell the story. It was very good, although a little crude. I recognized some of the pieces they played. The kids all really had a good time playing with Derek & Evan the Roper's kids while we were gone, and it was good to relax a bit.

June 6th we were really slow getting into DC. We went to the zoo to see the famous pandas. The zoo was full of school groups too, but smaller kids. We found the pandas, and got to see them up close even. They have 3 now. We also enjoyed the oran gutan's that would swing on ropes over our heads on the side walk. We made sure not to be directly under them. Then we found a McDonalds that Michelle jumped out and went in to order food, but because there is no parking, and no drive through David had to drive around and pick me up. We found a place on the street to park and we ate in our car... Crazy! Then we went back into the city (the zoo was on the outskirts of the city) we went to the Air & Space museum. The museum was very cool with so much to see, but we were getting really tired of museums at this point. We still had another museum to see though, the Nature and Science Museum that held the Hope Diamond and other large jewels. Michell & Kamryn really enjoyed seeing these giant jewels. Then we walked on to find a food court in the Reagan Building where Homeland Security is. We had to go through security again to go to the food court. This time we had to show ID. Every security place was a little different. Security people were VERY bossy. I thought in general everyone in DC was on a power trip, right down to the food court people. Everyone liked to feel like they had power over someone, especially the tourists.

All the times we went to DC we drove in and parked our car. It wasn't as crowded as Manhattan was, and parking was more reasonable. By the way to valet park our car in NYC it was $50 a day! and gas priced averaged about $4. It was less in upstate NY & PA, but the most in DC at about $4.30.

Finally, on the evening of our last day was the grand finale of our trip. Glenn was able to get us a tour of the West Wing. We saw the oval office, the rose garden, and the press room. We had to tour this at night after all of the employees are gone, and only when the President is out of the White House. He left on a helicopter on Friday afternoon. We loved the White House tour. I took a picture of a photo in the White House on accident before I knew I wasn't supposed to take photos in the building -only outside. It was a picture of George W. Bush looking up at his father George Bush. Then Glenn took us to see his building where he works in the Eisenhower Building. Mark Twain called it the ugliest building in DC, but it had character.

Saturday morning the 7th we decided to go into DC one last time to go to Arlington Cemetary and see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Even for early in the day, it was VERY humid, and HOT! We were lucky that we weren't there a few days later because the temperatures got much hotter after we left. Anyway we walked quite aways into the cemetary to find the tomb. It was very moving to see it. We all felt very sorry for the soldiers in their black coats standing outside in that heat.

Then we drove back to Philadelphia in what we thought would be plenty of time to get to the airport, but "Tom" had had a very long week too, and he was slacking on the job. We got to the airport, but realized we had to fill our gas tank, so we went in search of gas, and then Tom led us the wrong way to get back to the airport. Then he told us to "bear right" when we should have stayed left and we ended up paying another toll cross a bridge into New Jersey again. We were so lost, I thought we were going to miss our plane home, but "Tom" redeemed himself and found our way back to the airport again. We found the car rental place, and caught our shuttle to the airport. Again everything was "just in time". We made it back to Denver by dinner time.

Whew! What a week it was. It was a lot of fun, we have more family jokes, and the kids got closer, so I would say it was a success, but an exhausting success. It has taken me a week to put all of this on my blog because it took that long to recuperate.