Summer In New England - Roadtrip 2012 - Day 14

Today we were back down in Kroger country so we stopped at a Kroger near our hotel to get gas using our reward points from before we left. We got gas for an amazingly low $2.53/gallon and headed down to North Carolina. We made a stop at the Circle of Friends Yarn store in Elkin, NC which turned out to be a very cozy place with an owner that handspun and dyed a lot of her work. Katy really enjoyed the shop, and when she was done we went down the road to have lunch at Moe's Southwestern Grill. Just an hour down the road in Charlotte, NC, we went to the last yarn store on the trip at Charlotte Yarn. The owner of that store had gotten out of a fast paced life in finance and opened her own yarn store. Katy bought her last bit of yarn for the trip and we struck out for South Carolina. We drove thorugh the "upstate" part of South Carolina and then entered Georgia. The hotel we stayed at was in Tucker, GA, just outside of Atlanta (where, again, Tucker the bear had to get a picture). The hot tub at the previous night's hotel inspired us to get a hotel with an in-room whirlpool tub (which was free because we used our accumulated hotel points to book it) and lots of cool amenities. We ordered in Chinese and got rested up because we were gearing up to head back to Arkansas the next morning! Here's the pictures!

Summer In New England - Roadtrip 2012 - Day 13

This morning we said goodbye to our friends in Brooklyn and started the drive back home. Unfortunately when we left, the views of the New York skyline were obscured by a pouring rain. The rain also made the drive out of Brooklyn a little more tense. We made it through the traffic, over the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, and eventually into New Jersey, where we stopped in Piscattaway and got some Starbucks and filled up on gas. We continued our journey into Pennsylvania where we went through Allentown and stopped at Tucker Yarn Company (where Tucker the bear had to get a picture with the sign). Just down the road in Hershey, PA, we took a long lunch break at Chocolate Avenue Grille, which turned out to be one of the best meals we had on the trip. It was a little pricy, but the food and the service were awesome, and we were right next to the Hersheypark theme park. After a very nice break, we got back on the road and went all the way to our hotel in Salem, VA, just outside of Roanoke. When we arrived, we dropped our bags and went out for some IHOP for supper. When we got back to the hotel, we spent about half an hour in the hotel hot-tub to get some relaxation time in before bed. We went quite a way down the road today and we will be doing about the same tomorrow. Looking forward to getting back down south! Here are our pictures from today!

Summer in New England- Road Trip 2012- Day 10, Day 11, Day 12

Day 10- This morning we woke up and it was still hot! 84 degrees in fact when we rolled out of Chicopee, Mass at 8 am. After a few stops to fuel up (both gas for Eva and coffee for me) we were Brooklyn bound! We were very excited to see gas prices dropping as we headed west and south toward home. It was my first experience driving in NY. We crossed the Bronx Whitestone Bridge and sat in tons of traffic. It took almost an hour to travel 16 miles from the bridge to our friends' apartment. We had a great 4 hour drive and had a fantastic evening with our friends (A and M) and their wonderful babies. We ordered in pizza for dinner and enjoyed an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation while snuggling babies for the evening entertainment.

Day 11- We went for a lengthy outing around Brooklyn today. First we walked to Catskill Bagel Co. and had a fantastic breakfast. I can definitely say that the cinnamon raisin bagel is amazing. Then we walked through to Prospect Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day with temps in the high 70's and low 80's. In the park we chilled under a gorgeous tree and I did a little photo session for our friends. It was a wonderful day that ended at Ample Hills Creamery for Ice Cream and then a short subway ride and walk back to the apartment. Dinner was ordered in sushi. I had a Snowcrab Avocado roll in addition to my usual Philly roll and was super satisfied.

Day 12- Today was also pretty low key. We walked to the Farmer's Market on Cortelyou Street. We celebrated A's birthday with a pie after dinner and then I took a few more pictures for A and M of their precious girls. One of the highlights of the day was when Dean and I walked around the block and got some ice cream from the Mister Softee truck. Yum Yum! Dean used the down time during the days to finish up reading the Hunger Games Trilogy that he got for his birthday and I was able to talk knitting (and touch all my pretty new yarn with my friend A). Our time in Brooklyn was some of the best memories from the whole trip so far as we were able to share these days with friends. Out of respect for those friends pictures of their children are not included in the album for these days. Thanks again to A and M (and PB and J) for sharing their home with us for a few days. We had a wonderful time just hanging out and enjoying your company! 

We didn't take too many pictures during these days (except for baby pictures), but here are the ones we did take!

Summer in New England - Roadtrip 2012 - Day 9

This morning when we left from the hotel it was 84 degrees at 8:15 in the morning! We went over quite a few toll roads as we head south out of Maine and into New Hampshire and then Massachusetts. We made it into Rhode Island, which offered up some beautiful coastal views. Before we went to the beach we first stopped by a shopping center in Newport with the Knitting Corner, a yarn shop where Katy bought some new yarn, and Island Books, where I bought a book about the periodic table of the elements that I wanted. Our next stop was the Newport beach, where we parked for a little while, built a sandcastle, played in the surf, and walked along the beach. After the beach we headed to western Massachusetts toward Northampton, where a huge yarn store, Webs, is located. Webs had a giant store with every kind of yarn imaginable, but in addition, they had a warehouse in the back with bags of discounted bulk yarn that you could buy by the bag-full. Katy bought some yarn for herself and for a friend and we went to settle in for the night at a hotel in nearby Chicopee, Massachusetts. Tomorrow we get to go see our Brooklyn friends and their new babies! Here are some of today's pictures (mostly road signs because we took a lot of phone pictures today)!