East Coast Pics

Lucy at Independence Hall

Classic- hot dog and pretzel in New York

Manhattan Temple

Washington Monument, D.C.

First Real Post: East Coast!

Well, here it is. I thought the first post should be very interesting, so I have decided to write about our trip to the East coast that we took at the beginning of August. We flew into Philadelphia on a Monday afternoon and out on a Saturday morning, but still had time to see Washington D.C., downtown Philly, New York, and even do some shopping. :) It was kind of a whirlwind.

My brother Thom picked us up in Philly (he and his family moved there recently) and, with great generosity that is very characteristic of he and his wife, let us borrow one of their cars to drive down to D.C. We met my cousin Janene and her ward FHE group on the mall, where we watched "Wait Until Dark" on a big screen with the Nation's capitol building lit up in the background. What a sight! We stayed the night with Aunt Linda and Uncle Kurt (Janene's parents), who live in northern D.C. They have had a lot of family visitors since they moved there...this was my second time staying with them. Aunt Linda was a trooper and came with us to the Smithsonian Museums we visited on Tuesday. We tried to cram everything into one day, and we really did manage to see a lot, including the Washington D.C. temple, which we stopped by on our way back to Philly on Tuesday night.

Long story short, we got slightly lost on the way back to Thom an Sarah's, and wandered in at 2 am. They were very generous, again, and let us occupy their bedroom while we stayed with them.

The next day we visited downtown Philly, where we saw the Liberty Bell and went on a tour of Independence Hall. It's pretty great to be in a room where great men did great things. On Thursday, we went to Valley Forge (it really is amazing that we won the Revolutionary Ward) and the largest mall on the East Coast (no sales tax on clothes or shoes!). Thom and Sarah fed us really well, and Lucy (their adorable daughter) entertained us by making us "cookies" and putting stickers all over herself.

Our final destination (and the one I was most excited about) was New York! Thom, Trevor, and I left on Friday morning. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to our destination, but one hour of that was the six blocks from the Lincoln tunnel to our parking garage. Thom was really a champion at driving in the Big Apple! Those cab drivers are ruthless... We spent most of the day on 5th avenue and saw some amazing specialty stores: the NBA store (giant Lego version of Kevin Garnett!), the Disney store, the M&M store, Toys R Us (giant Ferris Wheel INSIDE the store), Saks ($500 for a tie on clearance), Tiffany's (doormen for the elevators, $11,000 engagement rings, etc.). We saw a few of the classics, too- Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Plaza, Statue of Liberty, etc. We even managed a glimpse at the temple. I sure wish we had time to see Wicked, but our flight left at 6 am on Saturday. I will see Wicked someday!

If you read this whole thing, way to endure. Enjoy the pictures!