vacation 2009

So vacation is over and we are ready to settle back into normality. This may sound like a bunch of complaining but it was all the hardships that made this vacation such an adventure.

Day 1:

5:45 am leave for airport. smooth flight to our layover. (except that I got soooo air sick that I almost lost my lunch) next flight delayed due to bad weather. Finally got there, loaded and ready to fly and we had a small back up on the runway before take off. Landed. Then we had to sit on the runway for 1 1/4 hours because there was no place to let us out all the docking stations were full. Finally we were close enough that they let us out on the pavement and we walked over to other stairs to enter the airport. Rental car picked up and we were off. Then we get to the hotel just in time for bed. The kids were restless, no time to get wiggles out from being cooped up all day. We should have reached the hotel by 5 pm but it was 9 pm. The hotel was horribly miserable. Terrible staff, just a yucky place, and terrible beds. They were so hard and the pillows were so hard too that sleeping on the ground with a rock pillow would almost have been more comfortable. --No exaggeration-- my ear and cheek went all tingly from the hard pressure.















Day 2:
Philadelphia here we come. It was slightly raining when we went to the zoo. The oldest zoo in the USA. We loved the swimming otters and the most active monkeys we have ever seen we could have stayed and watched the gorillas forever!!!! We were looking at the lions we thought 1 lioness and a young lion and an old lion but we found out that the "young lion" was really an old lioness that after she went through menopause grew a mane. hahahaha. That afternoon we toured IIndependence hall and saw some of the documents that were signed there or at least almost firsts. We also went to the liberty bell and the constitution Center. We tried to go to Betsy Ross' house and the Ben Franklin post office but we ran out of time before they all closed.
We then treated ourselves to a real Philly deli to get great Philly cheese steak sandwiches. then back to our hotel for a quick swim which ended up not being a great idea. this is our challenge for the day. The water was super cold teeth chattering cold the water was VERY GROSS! murky and dirty and I can't describe how gross after a few minutes they cam out and shooed us from the pool to find out that it was Closed. Not just after hours closed but closed closed. We wonder if this is what maybe led to our demise of super sickness later.


the bird was carrying a small stuffed animal around on its beak








the "old Lioness"







the kids with Ben Frankilin at the constitution center










obvious --liberty bell









independence hall







Day 3:
Up super early-- long drive to New Jersey. We were lucky we made record time but when we had to get off the interstate to find our new hotel we got lost. Found it. Barely caught the bus to get us into New York. Loved New York. But the bus didn't get us very close to the harbor where we had to sprint to catch the ferry for our tour of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Phew made it just in time. next yummy lunch at New York deli. Afternoon spent at the Museum of natural history. This was to be the highlight of the day. boys very disappointed that it was nothing like the movie. We tried to warn them. Next dinner in Times Square. Next stop Empire State Building. 3 1/2 hours later of waiting in line to ride some elevators up look at some tall buildings in the dark and elevator back down I wonder if it was worth it. All of us were soo tired. sick of standing and running to catch everything in one day. Surprisingly enough the highlight was that 10 pm we go to catch the bus, we get on and the driver says his bus doesn't go where we needed to go. So we go back to the ticket office and they find us a bus that should take us back to our stop. We get on bus number 2 at 10:45 they also say that they don't go to our stop either. We learn that buses don't run their normal routes from 10 pm - 1 am. UUHHGG! So while we are waiting to see if another bus will really take us to our stop with crying TIRED children we wonder what to do Dallin prays we find a lady who is waiting for a bus not even on our list of buses to try and find out that her bus is going Close to our area and we take the bus at 11:30 pm and arrive at our hotel after a big hike up a hill to our hotel. midnight a bed a last. J. LOVED the subway!

Ferry ride around harbor
















Again obvious.






Natural history Museum
kids with "Rexy"












playing in Central Park










Manhattan Temple











Empire St. Bldg

















Day 4:
Early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise-- not really just tired. So weary and a long drive ahead of us. Baltimore Maryland. Should have taken 3 hours and been there by noon - but it ended up more like 3pm. So many things we wanted to see but had to cut out a lot because of time lost. Train museum. Was fun we took a ride on a steam train and saw a round house and a lot of great original trains. It was fun seeing trains evolution and real things in real places. not replicas or transported to somewhere else. Drove by the Harbor the best we could to see the "Constitution" ship and other cool old sailing ships. Next stop Fort Mc Henry where we saw a very cool fort and learned more about the Star spangle Banner. Dinner and a trip to the store for food the next day. after circling over and over trying to find our way out of town we are on our way to finish driving to Washington DC. We thought that it wouldn't be that long but we spent lots of time driving around Arlington finding a hotel that was not at the address it said it was. Realized that we passed by it quite awhile earlier.


train museum



















Fort Mc Henry




















Day 5:
Our Best day yet! Seriously! Only a small set back of getting lost on our way to church. Not too bad we were still on time =) Relief Society was a wonderful experience. I loved how welcoming they were. Before RS started I felt like I made friends and received hugs and was shown into some lives of some of the wonderful women of the area. In the RS room I had 2 lovely ladies "fighting" to sit by me! The lady that "won" was so genuine and friendly I was smiling the whole time. By the time church was over the she had emailed me some local secrets of fun things to do besides the normal tourist things. Dallin had a wonderful time in primary. He said that he had forgotten what a nice and reverent Primary was like. Next on the list is walking through the whole mall seeing all the monuments. Long walk in Sunday shoes 102 degrees with extreme humidity. Miserable, miserable time. But cool stuff! Dinner a wholesome meal of wheat thin crackers and off to the Washington DC temple visitors center. WOW cool stuff it had an actual exhibit. There were giant pictures from the Hubble telescope. then we walked around the beautiful temple grounds in the dark. AWESOME. Only bad thing here is that our hotel room had a ton of ants! Yes ants my worst rival seriously yuck!

Washington DC temple












































Day 6:
Started the morning with a fun tour of the Ford Theater and the house that Pres. Lincoln died in across the street. Awesome fun fact that I didn't know --Booth the assassin was actually a very famous actor. On to the archives to see more old paper under glass. I shouldn't put it so lightly, B. really liked this part and hoped it to be the highlight of the trip. Then the Smithsonian marathon. Air and space first on the agenda, followed by the national American history. Sore feet, tired legs and swollen knee put the remainder of the night to a vote. I was good to word it in a way the kids were sure to side with me and it worked we skipped the last museum and headed to the hotel for dinner and a night of "clean" good swimming. finally a night to relax.






Ford Theater


















Day 7:
White House tour! Beautiful! Little disappointed. wished to see more but thankful for what we got to see. Then a huge long hike (with kids not liking to walk anymore and no stoller) on to the zoo. We were excited to see the pandas but they were asleep and hiding. The elephants put on a fun show and the Gorillas here were active and fun too. We got a close up of a new baby. after the zoo we were off to Mount Vernon where we were able to see Washington's home and Dallin was able to earn a cub scout patch. I never realized what an environmentalist Washington was and he loved inventions. everything there was cool. Then on to Gettysburg. we got there late at night and went to bed.





Mount Vernon



Day 8:
The visitors center at Gettysburg had a really cool circular painting that went around the whole room it was interactive and displayed the battle wonderfully. The tour around that battle field was not super exciting but it was in the car and the weather was very nice. Next stop Valley Forge. didn't have much time there because again -naturally- we got way lost. We only had less than an hour to visit the whole place. then we got REALLY lost trying to find a place to eat and leave to head back to Philadelphia. Didn't stay in same gross hotel to say the least. this was when the sickness really started to take over the family. 2 kids were sick the day before and now B. and I were getting sick. In the end I got the sickest of all.





Gettysburg















Day 9:
Another fast a a furious day. Get up early check out on to the aquarium. Fun place!!!! We got to touch sharks and sting rays and star fish. they had a shark tunnel where sharks were everywhere but under your feet. They had a huge tank with hammer head sharks and HUGE sea turtles and many other fun creatures-- we got to see and talk to divers in the tank. We saw active fun swimming penguins and a seal show. and that was about all we had time for. Next stop the Franklin a huge 3 story hands on science museum for kids --we could have spent all day there. but unfortunately we only had 2 hours before it we had to return the rental car and get back to the air port. Again flight did not go according to plan. If I could have spent the 2 hours that we were delayed in the airport and on the plane in the museum I would have been a happier camper. We had a big rain storm that afternoon and it caused our plane to be delayed. Then once we finally were on and ready to go there were 25 airplanes ahead of us on the run way waiting to take off. We were So ready to come home. Thought we would get home so the kids could get a good night sleep and head off to school for their last day before going off track but we didn't get home and them to bed until after 10pm. Good to be home in a familiar house/bed/ neighborhood where I won't get lost =)



aquarium








Then the battery was low so no pics of the rest of our trip







It is wonderful to be home we missed everyone so much. Even our dog. Thanks to all the friends and neighbors who pitched in and helped with her. Our dog still hasn't recovered from missing us. Hopefully the clingingness will die down soon. Did I mention it is great to be home?!!!!!?!!

Items lost 1 cell phone recharger chord. 1 pair of shorts and 1 beloved train engineer hat.