We were off on vacation bright eye'd (coffee iv drip) at 6am this past Sunday - ready to get Rachel in Blacksburg... look out all those who live north of the Mason-Dixon we were coming!
First stop on our if it's Tuesday this must be Belgium trip, was Baltimore. We headed up I81 and then off into the back roads of West Virginia and some of the prettiest country especially when we traveled along the Potomac River - who knew it was there. We arrived in the big city - found our way to the Inner Harbour and parked and headed out to wander on foot and by water taxi ( how cool is a water taxi?) for 5 hours somehow. We ate some great crabcake sandwiches and had some homemade Maggie Moo's ice cream. One of our stops was the Trade Center of Baltimore -- it was a 27 story building with panoramic windows at the top, Rachel and I kept waking around looking at how far it was to Japan, Syndey Australia and the farthest spot was Johannesburg, South Africa... something like 8,000 miles away.
Day 2, we headed into New York City - the drive in was not too bad - the tolls to get to NY was enough to warrant getting a second job - good grief... $5 per pop and then the Holland Tunnel...$8! We actually found a parking garage just off the tunnel and near the Twin Towers area. It was weird trying to explain to the kids what we were looking at and what was going on when it happened. Rachel was in elementary school, I was expecting Emma and it's still errie just looking at it. We checked out the Wall Street buildings and where the Dow is housed, then walked along battery park and checked out the Statue of Liberty, we also saw a lot of jelly fish in the Hudson, eww. It was time to head over to see our friend Kent and meet the rest of his family Clint and their dog, Kate ( after Kate Hepburn, not me ). They actually live in Manhattan, and after a stressful drive uptown? in the big minivan... poor david, a mini van with out of state tags... basically had a bullseye on the back of the car, at least it was dent free somehow, we double parked and unloaded. Gotta love double parking -- that would give someone from Abingdon a corenary. After checking out the apartment we went to a local favorite, Carmine's for dinner. Authentic italian dining and just about the loudest place I have ever been in my life. Emma's eyes were huge and you really had to shout to each other to be heard. Food - good // atmosphere - not so good. We caught a cab after and went to Times Square and walked around checking out the lights and the hot items on the sidewalk carts. Clint wrapped up work at Dreamworks... and caught up with us to get dessert. Nothing like some mint chocolate chip ice cream or a eclair at 9pm. Kent and Clint and Kate were nice to let us stay with them, another 5 people in their NYC apartment...yikes, House Hunters at least prepared me for the size of apartments in NY.
After we got back we remembered a few things that were needed in the car so David and Rachel went across the street to the parking garage to get them out and they were allowed to just go down and have at it themselves, apparently there were about 100 cars parked in the basement with about 6 inches between each car - they had left the windows open so Rachel was able to crawl in thru the window to get the lap top out of the car - guess they figure who would go down there to steal anything it would not be worth the effort and if you took too long you would cook yourself to well done as it was a million degrees in the garage as well in the middle of June.
Day 3 led us into Central Park ... that is the coolest place, it had lots of little kid playgrounds, water, horse paths, running paths, ball fields - we watched the little leaguers playing - had an ice cream and headed back to have some lunch before going to see CT Grammy. Gotta love taking the 3 kids to eat at a place called, "Dive Bar"... it had really good food and sports on all the tv's.
With directions in hand we said a prayer and headed out of Manhattan heading north to CT. We made it with less stress than driving to Kent's place and made good time to Enfield. Grammy was very excited to see all the "S-Troops" and lots of love was given her way. We all let our hair down and played outside - Grammy always finds cool stuff and we were playing ring toss and horse shoes... we had great luck in our weather this week - right around 80 - 85 instead of the normal 90 +.... a great family dinner and then did I mention Grammy made HOMEMADE chocolate chip and strawberry ice cream.....go Grammy.
Day 4 - mum had 1lb of bacon, sausage, eggs ready for us to start the day ... mmm. The little kiddo's were having a bit of trouble with lack of nap and we figured to just have an easy day so we headed to the mall! Nothing like a trip to Claire's to make a girls day. We needed nail polish so Emma picked orange, Hope hot pink/purplish, and Rach green. We checked out payless shoes for the bogo sales and took a ride on a huge indoor carosel. It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner so we all pigged out on cokes and giant pretzels... ah vacation. We sat outside Barnes and Noble and were watching the locals walking around when David spotted a pregnant woman walking by with a cropped top and a mini skirt... and she must of been every bit of 8 mos pregnant... what a sight to see - especially all the tatoos too, makes you proud. We stopped to pick up Mum's picture she had framed... a print called "the new school" in NY - and it was of the tinman, scarcrow and lion and was in regards to Courage. Back home and another great meal cooked by mother and more playing outside and downstairs with all the goodies she supplied the girls. Coolest was the pre-used playing cards from casino's... after they use them they put them in the box and label them with the table number and date used and then they sell them. So we had tournaments of War, Speed, Spit, Gin and we taught Rachel some 21 and 5 card poker.
Day 5 - mum strikes again, homemade blueberry muffins... we needed the energy as we headed over to the school playground. they have done a lot of work on it since our last trip and we all were running around checking it out - Grammy looked stylish on the rocking bouncing horse, Rachel did great on the moving/spinning monkey bars, Emma was climbing on everything and sliding down the firemans pole - and Hope liked the swings and the drawbridge. Grammy even climbed up and was doing everything the kids were! When it started to rain we headed back for a quick bite and the kiddo's for a nap and Grammy, Rach and myself for another trip to the mall. Can't have too much mall time. We tried on lots of shoes, looked at lotions, checked out what Rachels new phone looks like and took a break for some coffee and oreo cookie frozen drink. Jackpot at the Dollar Store, Rachel found new cool stuff for her school locker this year and then hit a sale at Aeropostal.... can't have too many Aeropostale shirts. On the way home I was lured by a radio ad to stop at Ocean State's Job Lot's -- man, that place was full of cool junk and good deals on selzer water and dried mushrooms and spices, what can I say I'm easily amused by good food prices.
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