Category: EasternLoop2016

The Easternmost Point in the US!

The Easternmost Point in the US!

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We only spent one weekend in Lubec, Maine, but we wish we’d spent a couple of weeks.

Lubec was founded in 1811 and was once the home of fishing fleets and smugglers, but is now known for being the easternmost point in the US. The area has 20 foot tides and has 96 miles of coastline…so it should come as no surprise that there were quite a few lighthouses.

Right across the International Bridge is Campobello Island, New Brunswick where you can spend time exploring Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up spending summers on Campobello Island and later when he had a family of his own, he took them to spend summers there. You can wander through the 34 room Roosevelt summer home. There are interpreters there to answer any questions. The boys were curious about the huge megaphone you can see in the photo on the right. When the Roosevelt’s were staying at the cottage, the megaphone would be hanging up on the porch right outside the door in the photo on the left. Eleanor would use it to call the children home. We were told her voice could be heard over a mile away.

The first thing we did when we got to Lubec was find a place to eat. We ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was fantastic! The food was amazing and the service was spot on! They talked us into trying some periwinkles. We tried them and guess what…we liked them! Except Nicholas. He stalwartly refused to try one. In his defense, they do look gross.

You can’t come to Maine and not get some lobster…or lobstah!

The RV park we stayed at told us where we could go get some lobstah right from the boat! We drove half an hour to get to Little River Lobster Co in Cutler, ME and let me tell you…it was soooo worth it! We walked right out onto the dock and had our pick of lobsters that had just come in that morning. Talk about fresh seafood! We loaded our cooler up with almost 15 pounds of lobster and then put some seaweed on top of them to get them home. Did you know you can pack lobsters in seaweed? It worked beautifully! And because I know you’re curious…we got all of that lobster for around $80. Lobstah for days!!! Remember that lobster roll in one of the pics above? That one lobster roll cost around $16. We found that price to be pretty consistent throughout the area.

The lobsters were all alive and well when we made it back home and were talking to each other when we opened the cooler. Magnus was not amused. He didn’t like the noises they were making and he wasn’t fond of the smell either. He sat guarding the cooler until we took it outside. Magnus is always certain that his death is imminent. He’s also afraid of his own shadow.

Sunset RV Park has lobster gear to loan out to anyone who stays there. For free. They even came down and told us how long the lobsters needed to cook! We cooked our lobster in sea water. Jerl braved the cold weather and cold water to wade out and fill the pot. He made a few hoops and hollers while doing it. I might have had a good laugh at his expense… The day we did this it was a balmy 57° outside so you know the water was cold.

Let’s talk lobstah. Did you know that lobster used to be so plentiful that they would wash up on the shores of Maine? They could be plucked up right of the shores. In the mid-1800s lobster was selling for 8¢ apiece. The big boy you see in the photo above is on a 16 inch tray. He’s what they call a Select. He was hard shelled while the rest of the ones we got were called Chixs and they were all soft shell.

Vocabulary time!

A Chix lobster is the yougest and weigh 1 pound.

A Quarter lobster weighs 1¼ pounds.

A Select lobster is a choice lobster and weighs at least 1½ pounds.

The one we got was close to 4 pounds! What’s the difference between hard shell and soft shell? A lobster will molt about 14 times before it reaches maturity. Every time it molts it sheds its hard shell and is left with a softer shell until the shell has time to harden.

While lobster was a definite highlight of our time spent in Lubec, we also did a couple of awesome hikes!

Thanks to an Instagram friend we found out about the Bold Coast Trail. I highly recommend it! The trail wasn’t difficult and it spits you out with the view in the left photo above. We had the place to ourselves so we spent quite a bit of time taking in the scenery.

On the way to Eastport, Maine we made a little side trip to a place called Reversing Falls. There’s not a waterfall. It’s called that because you can stand there and watch the current reverse its direction with the tide. Remember those 20 foot tides I told you about? We didn’t get to see it reverse, but we did enjoy another small hike and had the place to ourselves!

Eastport, Maine is the easternmost town in the United States. We spent an afternoon there where we found another lobster roll to try. I mean…we were in Maine…we had to eat lobster, right?

We stopped by Raye’s Mustard Mill. You could try all 20 or so flavors of mustard. I think we tried them all. And then we bought more mustard than one family really needs. Looks like we’re set for a while!

The only thing we didn’t love about the Lubec, Maine area was the road getting there. It was sooo bad. It might have bumped the ALCAN out of our worst road ever spot. It was that bad! Now, having said that…we made it there fine. And we would travel that road again to go back.

There were a few flowers. The wild roses were everywhere and smelled so good! And Guys….we found fireweed!! In Maine! It’s official…Maine is a mini-Alaska!!!

We loved the Lubec area so much we’ve decided that once we’re done with the fifty state tour we could easily spend one or two months there…someday!

#easterloop2016

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

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I’m combining the New Hampshire and Maine State Capitol Building posts.

We only spent a night in New Hampshire on our way through to Maine, but don’t worry…we’re going to be doing some more things in New Hampshire on our way back down the coast.

The New Hampshire SCB was under some construction so the dome was covered. Dang. I’m sure it’s a lovely dome. I heard that it’s covered in gold leaf.

The inside was very utilitarian, but everything that was there had a meaning or purpose. There were over 200 paintings throughout the building. We didn’t take the tour at the Concord, New Hampshire State Capitol Building so unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of information on it. The door to the Senate Gallery was open so we went in to have a look. You can take a look at it in the bottom left photo. The New Hampshire Senate is the fourth smallest state Senate with only 24 members. So far, each of the New England states has had a Hall of Flags in their State Capitol Buildings. You can see some of the flags in the bottom right photo above. The flags were all in a display case.

I spotted these flowers on the corner across from the State Capitol Building and had to snap a picture. We did manage to squeeze in a pizza place in New Hampshire before we headed on down the road. I’ll let Nicholas give you all the details about that though!

 Next stop was the Maine State Capitol Building! The Maine State House was in line with the other New England Houses. Very basic, clean lines, utilitarian. We saw another Hall of Flags, but all of these flags were replicas. The real ones were at a museum.

This was the first time we saw a porch at a State Capitol Building. According to the tour guide, it’s used often when the Senate and House are in session.

There was a dome and we actually got to see it! It’s…cream colored. As the guide was walking us to the Senate Gallery, she warned us that we couldn’t touch the Senate chairs. That even the Senators weren’t allowed to touch another Senator’s chair. And she watched us like a hawk while we were in there. Jerl dared me to touch one on our way out. I may or may not have accidentally brushed against one of them. Maybe. Maybe not…

The RV park we stayed at while we were visiting Augusta, ME was right by the Kennebec River. It was beautiful and calm while we were there!

Charles had been looking forward to the seafood offered in the North Eastern states. We stopped in at a local favorite called The Red Barn where your meal comes out and is all one color. Ha! You get the three Fs at The Red Barn…fried, fresh and fast! Guys…it was so good! We got the Mixed Seafood Baskets to share. Except Nicholas who opted for a burger. And then Jerl and I got a cup of the Seafood Stew to share. Oh! And I had to try the onion rings! We thoroughly enjoyed everything we got!

We’ll be in Maine for about a month so we’ll definitely get a chance to experience more of what Maine has to offer.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Montpelier, VT

Montpelier, VT

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Remember back in the Albany post how I told you I had several State Capitol Building posts to do? Montpelier is number two of four.

Vermont has the smallest State Capitol City. It’s tiny. The dome you see on the building is covered with 23.7 carat gold leaf. I had high hopes for this building. It looked so promising from the outside.

I’ve got three pictures to show you of the Vermont State Capitol Building and one of them is a picture of the floor. In the lobby, the floor is made of marble. The white tiles are from Danby, Vt and the black tiles are from Isle La Motte on Lake Champlain. All throughout the building you can see fossils from the Chazy Fossil Reef. We loved that! The boys kept watch for more fossils while we took the tour.

We took the guided tour and saw the Senate Chamber, Representatives’ Hall, and even the Governor’s Office. It was all nice and tidy…and needing some work. There wasn’t anything opulent. It was, in fact, all very modest. In the Reception Room we saw two stained glass skylights. They were both lovely.

I’m afraid that’s all I have to tell you about the Vermont State Capitol Building. After seeing the grandeur of the New York State Capitol Building…the Vermont SCB was a little disappointing. I was looking forward to the dome, but we didn’t get to see it because it’s been deemed unsafe. What a bummer.

When you think of Vermont, what comes to mind? Maple syrup and dairy, right? We found a place called Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks to explore the maple syrup making process.

You can walk around and look at where they get their maple. It all starts with the trees. They call early spring “sugarin’ time”. One tap hole can produce up to fifteen gallons of sap each season. Since it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, it takes up to three trees to make a gallon of finished syrup. Once they’ve collected the sap they run it through a reverse osmosis then it goes into the machine you see above. The whole point is to get as much of the water out of the syrup as possible and bring it to a specific temperature. Interesting fact…way back when Vermonters started working with maple, they actually cooked it longer and made a sugar out of it. When the white cane sugar we all know became popular, the people of Vermont decided to start making maple syrup instead of maple sugar.

Think that stuff you pour over your pancakes every morning is maple syrup? You should check the ingredients. More often than not it’s actually corn syrup flavored to taste like maple syrup.

It’s known as creemee in Vermont, but the rest of the country knows it as soft serve ice cream. At Morse Farm they add maple syrup to their creemee and it is magical! We all got treats. Nicholas had the Maple Popcorn Sundae. He wasn’t mad about it. *wink wink*

We found the Ben & Jerry’s Factory to take care of the dairy part of what Vermont is known for. There’s a guided tour that takes you right by the factory where they’re making the ice cream. Be prepared…I snuck a shot just for y’all…

Oh dang…you can’t really see anything. *giggle* We weren’t supposed to take photos of the factory. The guide said something about corporate secrets…honestly, you can see everything you would want to see in the right picture above. I’m not sure what secrets they were worried about leaking. It looked amazingly like any other food factory floor.

They took us down to the original flavor lab. You can see it in the left photo above. This is the place where Ben & Jerry used to make all of their flavors. And yes, they said it was ok for me to grab photo of it.

At the end of the tour they give you a free scoop of the flavor of the day. For us it was Triple Caramel Chunk. Yummo! And…of course, we had to visit the scoop shop on our way out even though we’d just had some free ice cream!

I forgot to tell you about the Flavor Graveyard where you can stroll through the “graves” of the flavors that have been discontinued. It was a fun tour with a tasty ending!

We only spent a week in Vermont, but we will definitely go back! Vermont turned out to have a beautiful countryside, and is definitely a foodie’s paradise…we found some not so hidden treasures.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Montreal, Quebec

Montreal, Quebec

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While we are on our eastern state loop this year, we are taking the opportunity to explore a little bit of Canada. We took a day trip to Montreal. We’ve been in and out of Canada for the last year as we made our way to and from Alaska. This time we were nervous because we don’t speak French. Not even a little bit. Charles is taking French and he can recognize some of the words, but overall, he’s still pretty useless as a translator. We armed ourselves with a map (the only one we could find was in…French) and we programmed our car’s GPS for all of our destinations (in order) the night before. We rely on our phones for information and directions more than we probably should so it was definitely a learning experience heading to a place where we wouldn’t have our security blanket.

Our goal was to find and visit seven places. We managed to see them all! And we only got lost once…well, not really lost. We knew where we were, we just had to find our way through the maze of one way streets.

Our first stop was the Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. I’m not going to be able to tell you much about these places…again, the info we found was mostly in French. I can tell you that this cathedral was inspired by the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral was built at the end of the 19th century.

Since we’re talking about churches…I have a confession…my camera isn’t the quietest camera. The shutter is annoyingly loud. I could have happily shot tons of pictures in this cathedral, but it’s a working cathedral. There were people actively praying and I didn’t want to intrude. So, I got a few OK shots and just walked around soaking in the beauty. I did get a dome shot. Y’all know my love of domes.

Our second stop was Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. The sun was not my friend here. So, you’ll have to suffer with a shoddy picture.

We almost skipped going inside because you have to pay to get in. We walked in and our mouths dropped open. Pictures don’t even begin to do it justice. There are guided tours here. We didn’t do one since we were on a schedule. We overheard a tour guide tell her group that there are so many churches in Montreal that one closes almost weekly so the churches are now run like a business to stay open. Which is why we had to pay just to go inside. Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal was built between 1824 and 1829.

Our next stop was the Old Montreal neighborhood where the streets are still cobblestone and some the buildings date back to the 17th through 19th centuries. We had a good time wandering around and people watching.

Right next to Old Montreal is Old Port. I also have a thing for harbors. I don’t get to see as many, but I always snap a few pictures when I find one.

Stop four was the Square Saint Louis. The whole neighborhood is in this same style of Victorian row houses.

Stop five was the Montreal Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden was founded in 1931 and today is known as one of the largest in the world. It’s huge! There are around thirty thematic gardens. We walked through several of them. It took longer than I thought it would…probably because I kept stopping to take pictures of the flowers.  There were flowers of every color, shape, and size imaginable! I could have spent the entire day exploring the gardens. The day we went was a wonderfully warm, sunny day. And guys…it smelled soooo good here! I walked around just sniffing everything. I’m sure I had a stupidly ridiculous grin on my face…but how can you be anything but happy when you’re surrounded by flowers?!

One of the thematic gardens was a Chinese garden. It was under construction so the only shot I got was the one above.

By this time, we had three boys that thought they were going to wither away if we didn’t feed them soon. So, we cut our garden visit short and went in search of food. I had already picked a place to eat. You won’t be surprised to learn it was a pizza place so Nicholas could check Montreal off of his pizza list. I’ll let him fill you in on where we ate. I will say this about it…the guys working there were the nicest! Seriously, they were super nice.

Our last stop of the day was Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

The crutches and canes hanging between the pillars were left by pilgrims near the shrine of Saint Joseph. I didn’t take too many pics here. It’s a huge place with so many different levels and rooms. Some of the rooms felt very sacred (like the votive room in the right picture above), but others felt more like a tourist trap. It was odd. They even had a guide book in English you could buy. We did. It was interesting, but a little confusing as it led us all over the place. We’d never seen escalators in a church before so that was new for us.

We were tired and ready to go home. We had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Montreal!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Albany, NY

Albany, NY

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Hey Guys! I’m behind on getting posts ready for you. I prefer to write the posts right after we have the experience so everything is fresh in my mind. Especially when it’s a State Capitol Building. We try to take the guided tours because they’re so interesting and informative…the problem with that is…well, right now I am four State Capitol Buildings behind. SO…bear with me while I try to keep my facts straight.

We’ve been struggling with decent cell service/wifi at the RV parks we’re staying at. Right now, we’re actually in Main and while I have zero cell service (Come on Sprint! What’s up with the shoddy service up here?!) the park we’re staying at has excellent wifi! Thank goodness!

The New York State Capitol Building is in a tie for our top State Capitol Building! We loved it! Right off the bat you can see that it’s going to be different. It looks more like a big estate home or maybe a small castle. I love all of the different angles and lines here. There’s so much attention to detail in every aspect of this building.

Five floors and five architects. They kept firing their architect which drew out the construction. There are so many things I love about this building, but come on…pick a style and stick with it. I feel like someone should have told the architects to stay with the style that was already started. Since we had a small tour group (us and another couple) the guide took us all the way up to the 5th floor! You can see our view in the photo above. The Assembly Staircase (fifth floor) is done in Moorish and Gothic styles and was finished in 1879.

The skylight you can see in the right photo was removed in 1949 and restored in 2011. Construction lasted for more than a quarter of a century. In 1899 Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared the building done. It wasn’t actually done but, the cost had exceeded twenty-five million dollars which made the New York State Capitol Building more expensive than the U.S. Capitol. When construction halted, there was still carving that needed to be finished. So, when you walk through the building, you can see where they stopped. In the picture on the left, you can see the line of edging left unfinished.

It’s officially called the Great Western Staircase, but everyone knows it as the Million Dollar Staircase. And yes, it really did cost a million dollars to build it. This staircase is made of sandstone and was carved after it was built. There were hundreds of carvers employed, working ten hour days carving the inside of the building. Not just this particular staircase, but all over the building.

Corsehill sandstone was imported from Scotland because of the specific qualities it has which make it excellent for carving. In 1911 a huge fire discolored the sandstone. You can see the difference in colors in the photo above. In 2000 they started restoration work on the building. Because most of the interior is made from sandstone it took a long time getting it clean. I don’t remember what year they finally finished it, but it wasn’t too long ago.

The Capitol stone carvers created hundreds maybe even thousands of faces all throughout the building. There are famous faces like Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Susan B. Anthony, but there are also many unidentified faces. Our guide told us they believe the carvers used everyone and anyone in their daily lives as a model for a face.

Look closely to the photo on the right! Can you see it? If you look close enough, you’ll see the smallest carving in the entire building. It took them years to find it. Apparently, one of the carvers was fired and snuck back into the building one night and carved this little devil.

So, what do you think? It’s a gorgeous building. We could have wandered around for hours looking at everything. Are you wondering where the dome picture is? There’s not one. There’s not a rotunda either. And it’s still sitting firmly in a top slot on our list. They were actually going to have a rotunda and a “dome”, but they ran out of time or maybe I should say, they ran out of money. I’m not going to tell you how many pictures I took of this building. Don’t even ask. If you ever get a chance to visit the New York State Capitol Building, do it. You won’t regret it.

We didn’t really do anything else at this stop.

We did find a Five Guys that offers shakes! Mind…blown… That was a new thing for us. I guess this particular location has had shakes for a year or so.

The boys took over our room and played some board games. I just realized, y’all haven’t seen our home…I should do a photo tour for you.

And…we made some new friends. We’ll be stopping in Alabama to visit our new friends toward the end of this loop. *waves at the Level Family*

See y’all down the road!!

#easternloop2016

The Niagara Falls Area

The Niagara Falls Area

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We spent a week in the Niagara Falls area of New York. The weather was hit and miss…a few days it was more like summer, but mostly it was cool, windy, and rainy.

Our RV park was only half an hour away from Buffalo…and since Jerl and the boys love Buffalo wings so much…we had to have some Buffalo Wings in Buffalo. We found Anchor Bar which claims to be the creator of the Buffalo chicken wings and we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the originals. I kind of wish we’d passed. The place was a dive and was super expensive. Our waitress…I’m pretty sure she was high on life (or something). My friend (hey Dawn!) suggested Duff’s Famous Wings. We gave them a try the next night. I didn’t get any photos…but it was a much better experience! The wings were great, the service was great and best of all…the place was clean!!

While we were in Buffalo, we took a small side trip to the Erie Basin Marina and Gardens so we could poke Erie Lake. We have to touch the water or I can’t put the sticker on our map. 

I’m conflicted about the Junior Ranger book here. It’s the Niagara State Park, but there’s a National Park Junior Ranger booklet…but it’s for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. This is the first time in almost fifty badges that we’ve encounter a Junior Ranger booklet that required us to travel so far from the park and pay admission to several different places in order to complete the booklet. Sure, they give you the nifty lanyard…and they’re supposed to give you the pins as you visit the places (not every place gave us one)…but, this was the hardest, most involved booklet the boys have done so far. Now, having said my piece about all of that…the booklet pointed us to a few places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Hence, the conflicted feelings…

Old Fort Niagara is a place you could easily spend an entire day exploring. We got there right before a storm blew in across Lake Ontario and toward the end of the day so we rushed our visit. The building above is the French Castle built in 1726.

Old Fort Niagara has a history that spans more than 300 years. The area was originally used by Native Americans. Most of the buildings are open and you can freely explore the grounds. The site has been occupied by the French, British, and American forces through the years.

Old Fort Niagara was restored between 1926 and 1934. The rooms have been made to look like they might have during the time when Old Fort Niagara was in use. They fire off the canons and guns at certain times throughout the day. Unfortunately, because due to the downpours of rain and the timing we missed seeing all of the firing times. We did hear it though. The boys just about came unglued the first time. Ha! They’d been chattering and joking around and when the canon fired they stopped and looked around. We chuckled. They chuckled…but continued to look around for threats. I wish I’d gotten a shot of all of their faces that first time. Jerl and I will never forget it!

We made our way to Lockport where the Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35 are. We shimmied in to the Erie Canal Discovery Center about half an hour before they closed. There was a great little museum that explained the history, the building, and the local life of the Erie Canal. Right across the street from the Discovery Center is the actual Erie Canal. We were able to walk up and down some of the locks and really get a good look at them.

We would have completely missed the New York Power Vista if it hadn’t been in the Junior Ranger booklet. Which would have been a huge bummer…it was such a cool place! When you walk in they issue you a Power Portal ID. You have to register it in their computer and then you head to the museum to earn points by completing tasks. When you’re done with everything you can print out your avatar and the amount of points (watts) you earned (generated). Not everything earned you points. Some things were just for exploration and learning. We were geeking out hard here. We love experiments and places that let our inner nerd shine through.

 Some of the displays were more high tech. The one above really made the boys problem solve and think outside the box while they put together everything they’d learned about electricity and circuits. I want to point out the adult lady watching Charles in the left photo. This wasn’t an easy activity. Several of the adults couldn’t figure it out. The object of this exercise was to make a stable electrical grid. There were different pieces you could put on the digital table that would react with the other pieces as well as the environmental elements represented. Get it wrong and your grid blows up. Get it right and you get your points for this activity! We played with this one for a while. One of the coolest things about our nomadic lifestyle is the hands on learning. We don’t have to just read about things in books…and the boys learn so much better by seeing and doing these things.

 The New York Vista isn’t just a museum, it’s a working facility that produces clean energy.

On our first night in the Niagara Falls area we went to see the falls all lit up on the American side. It was our first time seeing the falls and we were all extremely underwhelmed by the view. There were a few hundred people there all trying to cram into the one small area where you could actually see anything of the falls.

On our last day in the area we crossed the border into Ontario. We, of course, had to find a burger place. And I wanted to try poutine. We found a place called The Works where we were able to get both burgers and poutine! We were able to walk there from the American side of Niagara. Guys, this place…it’s officially on our top ten. Everything we had was amazing. Everyone there was super nice. We’re already wanting to go back!!

I told you how underwhelmed we were with the view from the American side of Niagara…well, the view got incredibly better as we were walking across the bridge to the Canadian side of Niagara. The shot above is from the bridge.

All of my Canadian friends told me the view of the falls is better from the Canadian side. They were right. We’d walked over to Luna Island a few days before to try and get a better look at things. It was something altogether different seeing the falls from the other side of the river. There’s a wonderful park with nice walkways all along the river on the Canadian side of Niagara. This was our first good view of Horseshoe Falls. Each side of the river has their own touristy things. On the American side you’ve got The Maid of the Mist boats and while on the Canadian side you’ve got The Hornblower boats. In the bottom left pic above you can see one of the Hornblower boats as it got close to the falls. The Maid of the Mist boats stop giving rides by 5PM but the Hornblower boats continue to give rides well after dark. The rainbows changed shape, size, and number depending on where you were standing.

I know, I know…I usually save the flowers for the end…but I wanted to end with a surprise. These purple flowers were on both sides of the Niagara River. I couldn’t get enough of them! There were some wildflowers here and there too on both sides of Niagara.

On the Canadian side you can walk right up to the side of Horseshoe Falls. The American side was under construction so we couldn’t get close at all. We got a slight sense of vertigo as we stood and watched the water pour over the edge. It was trippy.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s while we waited for the sun to completely set. The temps dropped quickly outside so we welcomed the opportunity to get out of the cold breeze and mist from the falls.

When it got closer to 10PM we made our way back to the Rainbow Bridge to watch the fireworks. We wanted to get out of the press of people and wanted to be a little farther away from the show so we could get some better pics. There weren’t very many people on the bridge. We had our choice of places to stand…and the view was gorgeous! We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed along with everyone else on the bridge.

Because, who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup New York City

Pizza Roundup New York City

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For my fellow pizza lovers I give to you a double pizza post for New York City!!

The first pizza place is Bleecker Street pizza in Little Italy section of New York City. My mom was told that we had to have pizza from Bleecker Street if we wanted a true NYC pizza experience.

Bleecker Street pizza is pretty tasty, but you would expect that in the Little Italy section of New York City.  We did not sit down at Bleecker Street pizza so I can’t tell you how the staff is but the bathrooms are nice.

Now I will review Famous Original Ray’s pizza!

Ray’s has super big slices of pizza that are really good. I do not remember if their bathrooms were clean or not so this review is based just on pizza and décor. The décor was sparse but the pizza was excellent so that is good.

I give both Bleecker Street and Ray’s 5 star reviews.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

NYC Times Two

NYC Times Two

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It took us two full days and walking over twenty miles to see what we wanted to see in New York City. And…as you might guess…we still didn’t see it all, but I wasn’t going to talk Jerl into going back any time soon. Big cities aren’t really our thing and New York City is about as big as they come. I’m not into big cities either, but I do enjoy NYC so I could have easily gone back for a third or fourth day to do some more exploring, but I think I would’ve had to go it alone.

On day one we spent over half the day at Ellis Island and Liberty Island so we didn’t even reach NYC until around one in the afternoon. We used the Statue Cruises ferry to hop from the New Jersey side to the NYC side so we wouldn’t have to drive in NYC at all. We landed in NYC in Battery Park and started our trek north through the city.

The 9/11 Memorial was our first stop.  A few things about NYC stood out for me. One of them was the sheer number of NYPD Officers out and about at certain locations. At the 9/11 Memorial, there were quite a few officers keeping watch. Staying vigilant. The 9/11 Memorial was beautiful. Simple and clean.

Our next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge…along with about a million other people. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and was the first bridge to link Manhattan and Brooklyn. We walked part way across the bridge, but we were pressed for time and watching the weather which was calling for rain. I would love to go back and go to DUMBO to get a good shot of the whole bridge. I’m hoping that one of these days…in a far off future…I’ll be able to talk Jerl into going back to NYC.

Our next stop was Chinatown. The boys were starving so we grabbed some dumplings from Fried Dumpling to eat on our way to our next destination. I’d been to Chinatown before when I took a trip to NYC with a bestie of mine way back when I was in Junior High…so I knew what we were in for. The boys…I think they had a bit of culture shock. One of the reasons I wanted us all to go to the big cities and explore them was to expand the boys’ bubble. Traveling changes your view on things…what you see…who you meat… I wanted the boys to step (safely) outside their comfort zone and expand their views.

I saw several people taking selfies with the wall above. It’s pretty and I probably would have had one of the boys take a pic of me and Jerl there…but we couldn’t make it across the street and we didn’t want to walk all the way back to it. I know…sounds lazy…but our feet were starting to scream at us… so we walked on. We made it all the way up to Washington Square (which was packed with people) where we grabbed a slice of pizza on Bleecker Street and some tacos from Otto’s.

It was close to five-ish at this point and we were all tired so we called it a day and made our way back to our ferry to head home.

Day two was actually a couple of weeks later. The plan was to ferry up to the 39th street pier. When I glanced online it looked like the ferry we were using went there. It doesn’t. So, we walked. We headed back up to Washington Square.

We were in the city by 9AM this time and the walk wasn’t too bad. We also went during the week which, I think, helped. Washington Square wasn’t nearly as crowded this time and I got a decent shot of the fountain and the arch without a thousand people milling around it.

On the north side of Washington Square is “The Row”. Greek Revival homes where some of the elite in New York City of the 19th century lived. Looks so pretty! You’d never know that right next to where I snapped this shot was a huge smelly pile of trash.

We didn’t go up into the Empire State Building. I’m sure the panoramas are enviable. But the line was insane and the price was worse. I refuse to pay that much just for a view. We did walk right by it and look waaayyy up…it is a long way up there. And I did snap this great shot on the way to our next stop!

The Flatiron Building is a 1902 skyscraper. The 22 story triangular building is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper.

We wanted the full NYC experience so, obviously, we had to try a hotdog from a food cart!

We were walking along to the next spot on our list when I noticed a few people taking pics of something behind us. I turned around to see a great shot of the Chrysler Building! When it was completed in 1931 it held the title of “world’s tallest building”.

I didn’t take the picture at the top above because it’s a digital American flag. I took it because of all of the police officers guarding it. It saddens me that they have to guard it. I don’t know if you can see it, but one of the guards is heavily armed. Don’t ask me what kind of gun it was…I don’t know guns…it was really big and looked like it would shoot a missile. Can’t we just get along?

We crossed Broadway (bottom left photo) on our way to somewhere and I had to snap a quick pic as we passed by. Rockefeller Center can be seen in the bottom right photo. We’re fans of Jimmy Fallon so we stood there for a few moments hoping to have a chance sighting. It didn’t happen, but it was fun to see the building!

We made it all the way to the famous Times Square! It was packed with people and the all of the signs were flashing up ads non-stop. We stuck around just long enough to snap some pictures and then we were off again. Times Square was…a lot…of everything.

We grabbed a slice from Ray’s Original as we made our way up to Central Park. I think this is the biggest slice of pizza I’ve seen. Nicholas didn’t mind having another slice of NYC pizza!

Junior’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake was definitley on our list of NYC foodies we had on our must try list. I mean, we had to have some New York Cheesecake while we were in NYC! Right?! We spotted the Junior’s Bakery and grabbed a slice to share. Junior’s has been around since 1950 and apparently, it’s the place to go for great cheesecake. It really was fabulous. It was so good that when we saw a frozen Junior’s at the grocery store, we bought it!

You see it in movies, you hear about it on shows, but the number of yellow taxis was astounding! They really were everywhere!! It was kind of neat to see them all lined up and waiting like that.

I didn’t know this was here. We were walking by and I spotted it so…I had to have a picture of the boys with it. I’m not sure how many LOVE statues this one makes…I should count those up.

I don’t know why…but for some reason my goal was to reach Central Park. I needed to see it. It was so odd to walk out of this huge urban setting and into a forest like setting. It was even weirder to look up and see all of the skyscrapers through the trees! I also really wanted to find the bridge you can see in the top picture. This particular bridge was on an episode of Doctor Who. If you’re a true Whovian then you’ll recognize it. If not…well, you can still appreciate the beauty in the picture. It was a really wonderful place in the park. check out all of the row boats in the bottom right photo! There were tons of people out and about enjoying the green spaces! By this point our feet were absolutely screaming at us. And they weren’t screaming nice things. So, we headed back toward the ferry terminal. It was about a four and a half mile walk from Central Park to the ferry terminal we needed.

There’s a great park all along the NYC side of the Hudson so we headed to the river and then started the walk south. The Intrepid was on our way. We were way too tired to go explore it, but we did sit on some benches and admire it for a bit. We met a guy at the RV park we were staying at during this time who served on the Intrepid. He told us a few stories so we thought about what it was like for him on that big ship while we sat there listening to our feet scream some very unflattering things at us.

One World Trade Center is presently America’s tallest building coming in at 1,792′ to the tip.

Don’t worry…I’m not leaving out the flowers! Yes! There were tons of flowers in New York City! I was pleasantly surprised by all of the gardens and flowers throughout the city. The park along the Hudson had a skate park, playgrounds for kids, playgrounds for furry four-legged kids, basketball courts, tennis courts, splash pads…and it had open green spaces for people to hang out in. We saw people doing anything and everything you would normally do in your backyard…I guess because they were in their backyard.

It was somewhere around 6PM when we finally dragged ourselves onto the World Financial Ferry Terminal. Some of us (Alex) didn’t even wait to get back to the car before they fell asleep. I think we wore them out!

And there you have it. Our NYC times two experience. I loved it! All of it! The rest of us…well, they liked the ferry ride and the food. 😉 I might need to find someone else to go back to NYC with. Any volunteers?

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses…

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses…

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When we started seriously thinking about living the nomad life we came up with a list of places we thought were a high priority to go and experience with our boys. One of the first places we added to that list was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We think history is important. We need to know what happened so we can avoid making the same mistakes we made before. We need to know where we came from so we can know how far we’ve come. 
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.”

The only way you can get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is by boat…and to be honest…it’s not cheap or super easy. The tickets sell out fast and in some cases months in advance. We were lucky enough to grab five tickets one day while we were in the area.

Before Lady Liberty stood proudly on it, Liberty Island was a star-shaped Fort Wood. You can see Alex standing by a replica of Lady Liberty’s face in the left photo. Charlie is standing with one big foot in the right photo! Lady Liberty has a copper shell about the same thickness as a penny and is 151 feet tall.

There’s a great museum that details how, when, where and who built the Statue of Liberty. We didn’t make it all the way up to the crown. There are only a certain number of people allowed in the crown per day and I didn’t get our tickets reserved in time so we missed that part.

I checked about mid April for tickets and they were already sold out until mid August. Such a bummer. We did get to go up into the pedestal! It was crowded and the view wasn’t much different than the view you get on the ground.

We also stopped at Ellis Island. The boys did the Junior Ranger booklets at both Ellis Island and Liberty Island. The books were different, but the badges were the same. That’s ok…we always learn so much more when the boys go through the Junior Ranger booklets! The NPS does a good job at making sure the kiddos get to specific parts and places while doing the JR booklets that most people just pass by.

In the right photo you can see The Registry Room around 1912. Millions of Americans can claim ancestors who came through the doors of Ellis Island. In the left photo is The Registry Room present day. For over two decades thousands of immigrants (sometimes over 5,ooo in one day) went through The Registry Room.

There’s a really great museum that details not only the buildings on Ellis Island, but also the struggles the immigrants had to go through just to get to Ellis Island and then their struggles once they reached America. The museum had a good selection of America propaganda and some personal items from immigrants. Some of the displays even have actual items that immigrants brought with them on their journey to the U.S. We found it all to be very interesting and the boys found the differences in life then to life now fascinating. I think it was the personal accounts you can read from real people that drew them in.

We found this sign in the Ellis Island museum and I wanted to share it. Our favorite things at the museum were all of the stories. The quotes of what the immigrants thought and/or felt made the history feel more real and not just like words on a page.

I didn’t realize how big Ellis Island is. You’re only allowed to roam around half the island. You have to be on a special tour to see the hospital side. I did get a picture of the Hospital side of Ellis Island as we went by it on the boat. I would love to do the tour and have already started working on talking Jerl into going back some day to see the rest of Ellis Island.

You can see the view of Ellis Island and Liberty Island from the ferry in the photo above. Of the two islands…Ellis was my favorite to explore. It had more of the history and there was a fraction of the people.

So…my only gripe about this is the price of the ferry. There’s only one way to get to the islands and it’s Statue Island Cruises. Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty are both National Parks…they belong to the people…the price of the ferry to see them shouldn’t cost a family of five almost $100. At first I thought maybe that’s just how much ferry rides cost there, but we took a different ferry while we were in NYC and it only cost us $30 to basically go the same distance. It’s sad how some companies take advantage of people.

All in all, we had a great day! We learned so much and the boys earned another badge!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

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We spent several weeks in Pennsylvania near Jerl’s office. It was weird staying in one spot for so long.

We finally saw some amazing weather! I took full advantage of the sun and spent some mornings reading outside.

Yup, that’s a horse! The place next to the RV park had several horses that they rode every day. Watching the horses was one of my favorite things about this park.

We found a great farm that sold raw milk! They had several different animals that we could walk around and see. Look how big those dairy cows are!! They sold milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese, sweets (we bought a couple) and ice cream!

We also found a great meat market. They raise everything they sell. You could get pretty much anything pickled. Our favorite thing there was the bacon!

 We also got to spend time with some of our friends and their families at an office get together! It was so great seeing everyone!

Over the past year we’ve learned that different states have their foodie thing. In Alaska it was coffee…there were coffee shops everywhere! In New Mexico it was chilies…they even put them in their desserts. Well, in Pennsylvania it’s pizza! Guys…we ate soooo much pizza!!! And it was all from mom and pop places! I’ll leave it up to Nicholas to give you all of the tasty details!

We were only about an hour away from Trenton, NJ so we stopped by the New Jersey State Capitol Building on our way to Philly one morning. Check out that dome!

We didn’t get to look around the inside of the building. You have to be on a guided tour in order to gain access to any of the State Capitol Building rooms, but there were a couple of super nice security guards that walked us to the dome so I could get a picture of it. That was seriously nice of them.

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers! How gorgeous is the white vine?!

We get it Pennsylvania…you’re kind of awesome…we’ll be back!

#easternloop2016