Summer in New England - Road Trip 2012 - Day 3

Today was day 3 of our adventure and we started off from East Syracuse, NY and headed up the western-northwestern border of New York on I-81 and then later US hwy 11. Our first stop was Watertown, NY, where we visited the NY State Zoo at Thompson Park. Thompson Park was a fantastic place for families because they had not only the zoo, but a sprawling playground, sports fields, and picnic areas all around. The zoo was small, but had some animals we had never seen live before like wolves, wolverines, and a Canadian lynx. It had a great local flair and lots of programs to educate kids and adults alike on the animals, especially the ones native to New York. We stopped for lunch at a Subway in Potsdam, NY. After we left Potsdam, our next stop was Malone, New York, to see the Wilder homestead (actually located a little outside of Malone in Burke, NY) which was the boyhood home of Almanzo Wilder, made famous in the "Little House on the Prairie" series. We took a tour of the homestead and then loaded up to go camping in the Adirondacks! The highway down to Fish Creek Pond where we camped was full of everything you picture when you think of upstate New York; rounded top mountains, hidden lakes, and wetlands filled with trees that look like a moose might jump out any second. Our scenic drive led us to Fish Creek Pond, which was obviously a lake by almost anyone's standards of size, where we set up camp right by the pond (lake) and had a nice relaxing evening reading, knitting, and watching the wildlife. One creature in particular wasn't as wild as his outside let on, namely a little chipmunk friend we named Oliver, who was almost totally unafraid of us and knew that where humans were food was soon to follow. At one point he ran right over my foot looking for a dropped piece of cereal and consistently ran directly underneath our camp chairs while we sat in them. We had a wonderful day and are looking forward to getting into Vermont tomorrow! Here are some pictures from today!

Summer in New England- Road Trip 2012- Day 2

This morning we left from a very nice Comfort Inn in Obetz, OH and met Dean's friend Drew at a local Starbucks. We had a lovely visit and then off to Canton, OH to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We enjoyed some beautiful farmland scenery as we drove through rural Ohio. I dropped off Dean at the Hall of Fame and I visited a local yarn shop (The Artists' Gallery Yarns) while Dean explored the museum. For lunch we ate at a hole in the wall recommended from the yarn shop called Kennedy's BBQ. It was fantastic! We loved the food and the quaint setting. After eating and then mailing a few things at the post office, we headed north toward Cleveland and then finally east on I 90 for a long, long, long time. We saw glimpses of Lake Erie on the horizon and came very close to Canada and Niagara Falls. We have finally arrived in Syracuse, NY more than 1300 miles from home and tomorrow we are ready to explore Upstate New York up close (with much less driving) :-)

Here are some pictures from day 2 of our awesome adventure!

Summer in New England - Road trip 2012- Day 1

We left bright and early this morning to head out on our adventure to the northeast!  After a quick trip to Starbucks for Katy we were off like a shot!
We decided to go a different route than usual to avoid I-40 and see some different scenery, so we went the round-a-bout way through NE AR and the "boothill" of Missouri before heading up through Illinois and turning eastward through Indiana and Ohio.
We saw a very nice Missouri welcome center in Hayti, MO and decided to stop because even though we have both been to the state numerous times we had never been to a welcome center there before. 
We ate at a super-mega-deluxe IHOP in Cincinnati at one of the nicest malls we have ever seen with sprawling mega-versions of normal mall stores.  Overall it was a very nice day because we were expecting the day to feel longer because of the 750 mile distance we traveled. 
Looking forward to tomorrows travels through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York!
Here are some pictures of our first day!

New England Adventure!

Tomorrow we are leaving on an adventure to the Northeastern US including New England and visiting some friends in Brooklyn.  We are planning to see lots of things in upstate NY, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  We're looking forward to some classic New England sights and some authentic Northeastern seafood!  Lots of pictures and stories of our adventures to come!

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Road Trip 2011 Day 6 - Brooklyn, New York and Manhattan

First thing we went to the BBQ festival at Madison Square Park (next to the Flat Iron- Cool Subway station with the hats). Then it was off downtown to catch the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty up close and personal. After the ferry rides it was an adventure in SoHo to find Purl SoHo and The Lion Brand Studio (amazing yarn stores).We had a fantastic day!

WTC memorial at Battery Park before Statue of Liberty adventure

The lovely Amanda

Awesome yarn store: The Lion Brand Studio window

The World BBQ Champ! Yum Yum

Tucker at the Flat Iron

Road Trip 2011 Day 5 - Washington D.C. to Brooklyn, New York

Here is a picture of a bay we drove over on the way to NYC from DC. It felt good to finally get some decent views of the Atlantic.

Po and Tucker visit Delaware, where it is apparently against all that is good and holy to make a U-turn. And where places called "Postcards from Delaware"...do not sell postcards.

This is the way that Chibit, our new Monster's Inc. intern has ridden throughout the trip so far.

Po and Tucker visit New Jersey, where postcards are also very hard to find, and you pay lots of money in tolls to drive on the NJ turnpike.

This is the sign for the exit we took onto US 278. We crossed over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on the way into NYC, which we found out is the longest suspension bridge in the Americas.

Road Trip 2011- Day 4- Washington, D.C.

I saw this old chemistry set in the National Museum of American History. All I could think about was how much fun something like this would have been as a kid. Although it would have probably been very dangerous, so it was most likely for the better that I didn't have one.

Look! It's two science nerds at the National Museum of Natural History.

Raaaawwwrrrr!!! T-Rex dominates the dinosaur exhibit!

Kyle got to see lots of insects at the insect exhibit and zoo of the Natural History Museum.

After the Natural History Museum, we headed out to the National Gallery of art. They had lots of cool sculptures, including this study for "The Thinker."

Here are Kyle and Savannah in front of the US Capitol. This is right after they got mistaken for DC locals and asked for directions by another tourist.

This was in an exhibit about bones, DNA, and forensics. It is a surgeon's kit from the 1700s.

Katy really enjoyed seeing the Ice Age exhibit at the Natural History Museum, including this Mastodon.

Our final stop of the day was to take pictures in front of the White House. Well, in front of the gate that guards the White House anyway.

The whole travel party got a picture in front of the gate. My head is pretty much blocking out the White House, but you can kind of see it.

Road Trip 2011- Day 3- Smith Mtn Lake, VA to Takoma Park, MD and Washington, D.C.

Tucker really needed his Starbucks as we headed off for day three of our adventure. We packed up our stuff and set out for Washington D.C.!

Tucker got to visit Maryland for the first time!

Savannah really liked the amount of greenery that we saw when we got into Maryland. There were actually quite a few cool old buildings and structures and ivy-like plants growing on them.

This was at the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health. Katy really liked this quilt and it was hanging in the lobby when we got there.

Here is the sign for the Children's Inn. It was really cool and it had random rooms with playhouses and toys for the children to play in. It also had kitchens to help feed the families there and the staff members were very nice.

Our first stop at the National Mall was the Washington Monument. Kyle said it didn't even look real because it was so big. At 555 feet tall, the Washington Monument actually held the title of world's tallest structure for one year in 1888 until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889.

Here we are at the WWII memorial with the Washington Monument in the background. The WWII memorial looks great, but it looks even better at night.

Here are Kyle and Savannah at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The Memorial depicts a troop of soldiers, a fountain pool, and a sculpted mirror-like wall, shown in the background here.

Tucker and Po visited the Lincoln Memorial at dusk and got their picture in front of the 44 foot tall columns that line the front of the building.

Here is the statue of Abraham Lincoln itself, which was actually completed in 1920, forty years before the building it is housed in was completed.

Here are Katy and I with the 16th President of the United States himself.

This is the view back across the reflecting pool (minus the water at the moment) from the Lincoln Memorial back towards the Washington Monument.

This is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that depicts the names of all those killed in the war or MIA.

Our last stop was back at the Washington Monument to take a long lens photo of the White House. Later on we went and took the pictures from closer.

Road Trip 2011- Day 2- Crosseville, TN to Smith Mtn Lake, VA

Here is the sign when we came into Virginia. This was Tucker's first trip into Virginia and he really liked the woods and mountains because they reminded him of his natural habitat.

Virginia looked like a really nice place to live and Savannah was ready to take up residence and get a teaching job there.

Savannah is our resident movie buff and her favorite is Dirty Dancing. She wanted to visit the Mountain Lake Resort Hotel where much of the movie was filmed. We took a self guided tour around the grounds and got to see the places where many of the scenes were filmed.

Kyle and Savannah danced on the dance floor out at the activities barn. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

This was a view of an overlook as we were coming down the mountain from the Mountain Lake Hotel. Tucker and Po were having lots of fun out in the wilderness.

We camped at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. We managed to get another corner campsite next to the woods.

This is the log that Kyle and I split. We cut it from a downed tree, lumberjack style, brought it back up to the camp and split it into smaller pieces. It took a lot of work and we were really tired, but....

Kyle got his s'mores and it was all worth it. Mmmmmmm, s'mores!