NEW YORK CITY

So the first few minutes in New York were not the greatest. I'm pretty sure I said I hated the place before we even got out of the car. Our GPS took us through New York to get to our apartments and the traffic there is even worse than in the movies! There are packs of pedestrians that just walk out in front of you and cabs swerving into whatever lane they want. And then there is John fitting in with the rest of the New York drivers, a couple times refusing to stop for pedestrians. I seriously think I almost had a heart attack. Thank heavens I'm still alive! Once we parked our car permanently for the next few days I was able to relax. Well sort of. The subway was our source of transportation...people stare at you like they know you are not from New York.

Here we are at Times Square. This was a lot of fun! There are a lot of cool shops and lots of entertainment.
Hard Rock Cafe was a cool experience since we had never been there before but we came to realize that we aren't big fans of rock music. I probably recognized 3 or 4 songs the whole time we were there. It really is a fun environment and we enjoyed ourselves.


John and I had a blast at Toys R Us! It is 3 stories and there is a huge faris wheel in the middle for kids to ride on. It is a huge store.



Statue of Liberty made out of Legos

David Letterman...

The M&M Factory! It was 2 stories and they had every color of M&M imagineable!

John wanted me to do the disco move like the M&M but I got embarrassed with all the people around and just smiled. I know, I'm boring.

This store was just wonderful! Endless candy.

Yes this is a real candy bar and I think it costs $30.00!!

This is in the Rockefeller Center. I love The Office.

I just wanted to tell everyone that we even drove through Scranton! We even stopped there for gas and it was one of the cheapest places that we saw our whole trip.
Who can honestly say they've been to Scranton? We have! Well to the gas station right off the freeway anyway!

Here are some of the pictures we took from our bus tour.

Empire State Building

This is the Brooklyn Bridge and a man made waterfall underneath it.

They call this building the iron building because of it's shape. I thought it was pretty cool.

This is Madison Square Garden and as you can see it is completely round. Go figure!


We went to the Sports Museum of America. It was pretty cool. It showed all the players over the year that had won the Heisman.

This is the bull off of the movie Hitch. John is reinacting the scene!

Ground Zero: Even though it just looked like a construction site, it was still a very humbling place. We had to go to the second floor of a building near by to even get a good picture.

This is a tribute to those people that died on 9/11.

Statue of Liberty:


Ellis Island:

Here is a computer where you can look up your ancestors and see when they arrived to Ellis Island.


This was right outside our apartments that we stayed in. We had a great view!

John and I had a blast in NYC! It was a busy life style that we would never want to live but it was so much fun to visit.

PHILADELPHIA

Our first and most important stop...the Rocky Statue!! So we were walking up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and were gettting a little worried because we couldn't see the Rocky Statue at the top of the steps. The statue is actually at the bottom and to the right. Some guy offered to take our picture before we even asked and it was like a photo shoot. He was telling us how to pose and then afterwards told us that's what he does all day and that tips are appreciated. He got us. He was cool though so we gave him a couple of bucks. Here are just a few pics from our photo shoot...




Here is John walking up the steps. We were going to run up them on video so you all could get the full effect but I guess we were too cool for that. Just as well, I probably would have gotten a muscle cramp a third of the way up.

Here is the view from the top...

Here is the Liberty Bell

Here is the City Hall

And our last stop was Benjamin Franklins grave

WASHINGTON DC

Washington DC was awesome. We were there August 8-12. This was probably both of our favorite stops although all of our stops were very different. DC is a beautiful and clean city. There is so much to see! The first day we walked around the Washington Monument.


Here was our view from the top of the Washington Monument:


Here we are at the new World War II Memorial...




Here we are at the Lincoln Memorial. It was so crowded which made it impossible to get a picture with Lincoln up close. We thought it was packed because it was Saturday but it was just as bad on Monday and Tuesday!



Next we went to the VietNam Veterans Memorial...

Then the Korean War Veterans Memorial...

Next we went to the National Museum of Natural History which was as boring as it sounds. It is just a bunch of animals so I will only post one picture. John and I got bored of it really fast, can you tell?

Arlington National Cemetary: This was a really neat experience. This cemetery is 624 acres! There are graves as far as you can see in every direction. They said there are over 320,000 servicemen and their family members buried here. First we walked through a small portion of the cemetery and headed towards the Tomb of the Unknown. This represents the unknown servicemen from World War I, World War II, and Korea that died in the war. We watched the ritual of honor and the changing of the guards which takes place every half hour. It is dead silent, everyone stands and you could just feel the respect that our country has for these soldiers. I don't know if you will be able to read the tomb behind the soldier but it says, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."


This is The Memorial Amphitheater that is just west of the Tomb of the Unknown. It is all made out of marble including the benches and is decorated with flags and wreaths on special occasions like Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

The last thing we saw on our way out was President John F. Kennedy's grave.

Here is a great view from the cemetery. It was a really beautiful place! You can see the Washington Monument in the background along with everything else.

The Iwo Jima was incredible! John and I were both amazed at the detail of the statue. Some things are just way better in person and this was amazing!


The White House...here we are in front of the White House. They no loger allow cars to drive in front of it so we walked from about a block away. It is all gated in and there is security everywhere just like in the movies. I made sure I behaved myself so I didn't make any wrong moves! A helicopter flew over us and we wanted to believe it was the President of the United States but we got home that night and turned on the news, and apparently he was in Beijing for the Olympics...Oh well.

The Capitol! We overheard a tour guide telling his group that the Statue of Liberty can fit in the dome of the Capitol. It is a huge building.



Thomas Jefferson Memorial: It was really funny, while we were here we asked a guy to take a picture of us and he took a close up of John and I with maybe one step in the background. We looked at the picture and just thanked him. We didn't think it was necessary to explain that we wanted the Jefferson Memorial in the back ground. I guess he just figured John and I wanted a nice picture of ourselves. So then we had to wait for him to leave before we asked someone else so we didn't feel rude. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking!



Smithsonian: There are so many amazing buildings in DC but this was one of my favorites. I just think it is so pretty. It was a museum which John and I have a mutual agreement that we hurry through. It had a lot of random things but it did show all the different Olympic medals over the years so that was pretty cool.


Hirshhorn Museum: This place was weird! That's all I can say about it. We didn't even finish looking at the first floor before we bailed. One of the exhibits was a tiny bed made with white sheets??? What the heck?! We saw someone try to sit on the bed and an alarm sounded. That was pretty funny. But anyway, they had this cool fountain out front...

National Air and Space Museum: This museum was actually pretty cool. There were just a bunch of huge airplanes hanging from the ceiling. And yes, these are missiles! Yikes!


Here I am stretching out my calves. John thought it would be funny to finally get a picture of it since this is what I did the whole trip. Anything I could find to stretch them I did. If any of you have been to DC you know that all the attractions are right there within walking distance. I felt like I had run a marathon, and I am not kidding when I say this. We were stopping every block or so, so I could stretch out and take a break. Every muscle in my legs were cramping, my belly was cramping, my feet and hands were swelling, and it seemed like I was out of breath from doing nothing. Sounds pathetic I know. John even offered to carry me a few times but the piggy back ride with my huge belly in the way (that everyone keeps telling me is not that big) was pretty awkward! You would think I was nine months pregnant.

The House Abraham Lincoln Died In:


ESPN Zone: This was one of our favorite stops! We had never been to one before! After a long days walk with my aching feet, we came here and had a blast! It was an hour wait so we went down to the arcade. This place is 3 stories.

Here is John playing a football game where the receivers move and you have to throw it threw a hole. I must say he did really well. He was throwing it so hard I really thought he was going to break one of the guys! He loved this game.

This was my favorite. It's a miniture bowling game. The ball fits right in the palm of your hand and you bowl down a mini lane. It was so fun!

But here's the best part about it...we ate in recliners in front of a huge screen with 6 flat screens on the sides of that. There was a different sport on every screen with a baseball game on the big screen. I almost fell asleep before my food came because I was so relaxed! It was awesome!
The Washington DC temple is gorgious. It is in a perfect location. It is directly in front of you when you drive down the free way. We took a night to go there and I'm glad we did. The visitors center was right next to it so we went in and looked around. The feeling there was incredible and the sister missionaries there were so friendly and fun to talk to. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so important to us and I feel very blessed that there are places world wide where I can go and feel the peace I felt here.


John took some really great pictures in DC that show how pretty it is...