Spent two wonderful weeks traveling the east coast. My mom and I flew out to visit my sister Tamsin, her husband Sam, and their daughter Emma. Before I start talking about the trip, I wanted to talk a little bit about Emma. She knows how to try anyone's patience, is a bossy-pants, hates not getting her way and lets you know how she feels about it (very loudly), yet despite all that, she is still the cutest little girl EVER!!! Love you Em! Now scroll down, check out these adorable pics of my niece, and I will get on with telling you about my adventures in the east.
The first few days of our vacation, we stuck around the state of Virginia(that's where Tamsin lives). Right near where Tamsin lives, is the Manassas Battlefield. It is a Civil War battlefield where the Battle of Bull Run took place. You can drive around the different sites of the battlefield and see all kinds of old houses and other buildings and landmarks that survived the battle. While there, we learned that during the battle, the women who lived there in Manassas took picnic lunches out and watched the battle while they ate! Can you imagine doing that?
Me and Emma on a hike in the battlefield
We found this gorgeous butterfly on our hike
Statue of Stonewall Jackson(one of the Generals in the war)
While doing our own re-enactment of the war, Tamsin was shot down
We also went to Jamestown. If you remember your history or have seen the movie "Pocahontas", you'll know that this was the first English settlement in the United States. It was fun to go there and see ships they sailed on, the fort where they built the colony to stay protected, and even the village of the Powhatan Indians.
After a very hot visit to Jamestown, we drove to Colonial Williamsburg where we stayed the night. The next day we were able to spend the day in the 1700s and see how the Colonists lived. Colonial Williamsburg is such a beautiful place to visit. The weather was perfect that day(MUCH better than at Jamestown) so we were able to spend the entire day outside walking around and checking everything out. Here's a little sample of what we saw.
This is the Governors Palace. It was a beautiful house! Like a mini castle
While on a tour of the Palace, we learned the proper way to pose for a picture so I tried my hand at it when we left the tour. I don't really know how often I am going to pose like this...
I had to put this on here because I have never seen a cuter bathroom sign.
After we got back to the present, we prepared ourselves for the next part of the trip. We packed our bags, boarded a train, and spent the weekend in....
NEW YORK CITY
This sign conveys exactly how I feel about New York! I loved every minute of it! It is such a busy city and you are always going going going. I loved the diversity of the city and how even after three days of traveling and seeing things there, I could still be so in awe of it all.
We made it!
Once we got to the city and dropped our luggage off at the hotel, we took a taxi to my good friend Monica's apartment and spent the afternoon with her. It was SO good to see her(they just moved to NYC) and we had a fun afternoon together. Monica and her husband Garrett ate lunch with us at the Shake Shack(they had really good food), then Monica took us to Central Park where we went in search of a Carousal for Emma to ride.
Luckily we found it. Emma was reluctant to get on a horse at first, but with Monica's help, she finally decided to do it and she had a blast(I think all of us did)!
Emma adores Monica if you can't tell from the picture below.
After a long walk in the park, we took a taxi back to our hotel to cool off and just chat for awhile. I am so glad we were able to meet up with Monica. Thanks for spending the afternoon with us Monica and being our tour guide!
So, you can't go to NYC without going to a Broadway show right? Wrong! Between all the sightseeing and other things we wanted to do there, we just didn't have enough time to fit that it. So, next time I go there I have decided that I am just going to spend all my time eating, shopping, and going to shows such as this:
And this. So start saving your chavos so you can come with me.
Manhattan Temple. It also houses a ward building so this is where we went to church on Sunday
We found this baby right in the middle of times square! Go Church!
Times square was probably my favorite part of New York, especially at night.
But I like it during the day too
Our transportation in the city was mostly buses like the one below. We paid to do a bus tour and it was SO worth the money! Thank you blonde lady for blocking Daniel Radcliffes face
On our way to Ground Zero, we found this really cool sculpture. I love all the color!
This flag hangs in the 9/11 Memorial Preview building. That was such an emotional place to be in, but so neat to see this flag on your way out the door.
This is one of the new towers they are building at ground zero. It is going to be a really beautiful building.
You are going to be able to figure out where the rest of these pictures are so I am going to stop commenting for awhile and just let you enjoy these.
Once we got home from NYC, we spent the remainder of our last week going back and forth from DC. We got really good at taking the Metro there and despite the heat, we had a lot of fun seeing just a bit of what DC has to offer. Like this amazing view from the top of the Washington Monument
The US capitol
The Zoo
In the metro station after a long day of sight-seeing
I love all the old buildings in DC
Pics from the Museum of American History and Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Castle
Carousel in DC
Julia Child's kitchen
The White House. Since the President lives in the White House this will be a good time to tell you all a little story. We were taking a little rest in the shade of some trees near the Washington Monument when we started to see this band of Motorcycle Police coming down the street in front of us. Why else would there be that many police coming unless someone important was riding in car behind them? Sure enough, it was President Obama's motorcade! That was pretty cool.
The Washington Monument
Another highlight of the trip was going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in Imax 3-D. OH MY! It was SO good!!! I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried during the movie and felt a little depressed knowing it is the very last Harry Potter movie that will ever be released. Ok, back to the vacation...
One of our last days of the trip, we took a drive to Virginia Beach. It is supposed to only be a little over three hours to get there, but due to heavy traffic that day, it took us SEVEN hours! Such a long drive, and when we finally got there and stepped onto the beach a storm moved in and they cleared the beach due to lightning. Luckily the storm didn't last too long and we were able to have some time in the water.
One more story for you. The pictures will tell it, but I will do some narrating as well. It started out when Emma and I posed for this lovely picture here(don't mind the tan lines. I know they are awesome). She decided to come sit in the water with me.
We walked out to the sitting spot,
took a seat and were enjoying ourselves,
When a wave came in and knocked Emma under the water. She was SO scared! I probably scarred her for life and she will never want to get in the water again! After that, the only way she got in was if somebody held her. I felt SO bad!
So, we had a fabulous time on our vacation as you can see. Thank you Tamsin and Sam for letting us stay at your house.
